What do you get when you take strong women, crime bosses, and bootleggers, and throw them into a novel set in 1927 Ohio? You get Jess Montgomery’s newest addition to her series, The Stills. P… | Continue reading
She’s pretty great. And a pretty good writer, too. I am biased, mind you. But it’s still true. — JS | Continue reading
Author Marie Vibbert knows all too well the feeling of wanting to escape. In her Big Idea, she dives into how escapism played a role in writing what would one day become Galactic Hellcats. MARIE VI… | Continue reading
Like the sheep I am, it is easy to persuade me to try something, especially if it has to do with food. So when I suddenly started getting (and still am getting) nonstop ads for a smoothie brand cal… | Continue reading
Presented here for archival purposes, and also because I know not all of you go to the Twitters. Background: Writer Matthew Yglesias, who should have known better but I guess needed the clicks, off… | Continue reading
As I’m deep in the throes of novel writing at the moment, I’ve been pretty scarce here and on other social media, so I thought I’d give you a quick update on me, you know, just in… | Continue reading
Sugar wants you to know she is offering up the highest quality of mlem’s, just for you! So you should feel special. And give her catnip. In other non-mlem related news, I was going to write a… | Continue reading
In my professional writing career, I’ve had over 30 books published. That seems a reasonably impressive number — until you compare it to Jane Yolen’s output. In a decades-long pub… | Continue reading
My mother-in-law’s pups come over to the house on a regular basis to run around in our yard, and to poop on it, hopefully not exactly at the same time. Here, Roxy is running only. Just though… | Continue reading
First drafts are made to be edited. Author Jillian Boehme talks about the process of rewriting in her Big Idea for The Stolen Kingdom. Read on to see how a fresh take on an old work could end up be… | Continue reading
Science fiction often holds up a mirror to the present day when it imagines what happens in the future. For Deep Space, author Kali Wallace has imagined a scenario that, while specifically impossib… | Continue reading
Like most twenty-somethings (if not all), I’m trying to figure out what to do with my life. And it’s hard as shit. I was supposed to do this when I was eighteen, but I’m a bit of … | Continue reading
The pen is mightier than the sword. At least it is in E. J. Beaton’s newest fantasy novel, The Councillor, where one clever girl is capable of changing society entirely. That is, if she even … | Continue reading
Sometimes you boop the cat’s nose, sometimes the cat boops your nose. That’s it, that’s the post. Enjoy the boopage. — JS | Continue reading
Many of us grew up with the stories and myths of ancient Greece, but as Emily R. King muses in this Big Idea, there are the stories and myths we’ve been told… and the ones that have bee… | Continue reading
A week ago we had several inches of snow on the ground, the product of a winter storm, and now, thanks to higher temperatures and rain, it’s all gone. But it has to go somewhere. Fortunately … | Continue reading
Of course she’s going to ask you to do crimes! And you’re going to. Because you just can’t help yourself. She promises to write when you’re doing time in the stony lonesome,… | Continue reading
I am not someone who has ever thought of anything as “too mainstream.” I am not someone who has ascribed to the stereotype of a hipster by refusing the things in life that other people … | Continue reading
Another February is almost in the books — but not before we have time for another stack of new books and ARCs! What here is calling to you? Share in the comments. | Continue reading
(NOTICE: This post assumes that you have played Super Smash Bros Ultimate or are at least up on the gameplay and characters.) I used to hate Super Smash Bros Ultimate. In fact, I used to hate all S… | Continue reading
Polling company Gallup reports that the number of Americans identifying as LGBT is up to an all-time high, at 5.6%, and that this identification is especially high amongst the younger generations. … | Continue reading
I was thumbing through the pages of the newest Bon Appetit magazine, when I saw the most intriguing recipe. I stared in awe at the Chocolate-Biscoff Banoffee Pie and knew immediately I had to make … | Continue reading
Pretty much on a daily basis, I get asked on social media whether there will ever be a sequel to [insert one of my books/series here]. To reduce the amount of typing that I have to do each time thi… | Continue reading
Sometimes, life can feel like a maze. This may be especially true for the characters in author Juliette Wade’s newest novel, Mazes of Power, who find themselves having to navigate more than o… | Continue reading
Welcome, everyone, to this sticker-tastic post! Today I will be showing y’all a little bit of something I recently started collecting, that being stickers (if you hadn’t already guessed… | Continue reading
I know there is a thing! I know some of you want me to engage with the thing! I know this because you’ve sent me emails about the thing and I see the subject headers! I then delete the emails… | Continue reading
Original Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz. It’s been a month and a day since Joe Biden became president, and I think the greatest endorsement I can make of the man in that role is t… | Continue reading
There are worse ways to start a day, and a week. Have a fabulous Sunday, folks. — JS | Continue reading
And winter, it seems, contemplates her back. Hope you are safe and warm wherever you are today, folks. — JS | Continue reading
Online dating has never been more popular — Especially since COVID hit, and dating in person is now kind of… dangerous. So how do you fall in love during a pandemic? Author Mindy Klasky… | Continue reading
Our house, October, 2020 On February 10, 2001, I was allowed to sleep in, which meant that when I woke up, there was no one in the house. This was a problem, because I wasn’t in my house; I w… | Continue reading
Today I’m back with another edition of “Learn More About Me”. This riveting series of posts is just meant to get all you lovely readers more familiar with me: the person you’… | Continue reading
The truth hurts. And sometimes, you’re not the only one hurt by it. Author Stephen Deas explores the consequences of telling the truth in the Big Idea for his newest novel, The Moonsteel Crow… | Continue reading
The band, The Linda Lindas, are all currently between the ages of nine and fifteen, and I feel myself withering away into dust just typing those words. Anyway, here’s their Bandcamp page. Enj… | Continue reading
Hello, everyone, I hope you’re all having a splendid Monday. This Monday, I find myself feeling kind of down and angry at the world. I want to remedy that, and one thing that helped me feel a… | Continue reading
Earlier this week, one of my favorite food bloggers, Dessert For Two, posted a homemade black licorice recipe. I don’t particularly like black licorice, but I was intrigued by the recipe none… | Continue reading
It’s been an eventful week here at the Scalzi Compound, mostly for good reasons, although some reasons were unexpected, and others deeply annoying. Be that as it may, I’ve been getting … | Continue reading
Normally, I wouldn’t post two cookbook posts so close together, seeing as my last one was just posted a month ago, but this cookbook I’m showing y’all today is very special. Partl… | Continue reading
Because it’s pretty, that’s why. — JS | Continue reading
It’s America’s most adorable crime fighter! If by “fighting crime” one means “trying to sneak bacon from the humans.” Any other sort of crime fighting, he’… | Continue reading
The other day, I went to Culver’s with my friend, and there I saw it: The Crinkle Cut fry, the second worst kind of french fry in existence. This disgustingly-cut french fry gave me the grand… | Continue reading
Google’s latest iteration of the Chrome browser now has a feature that creates QR codes for Web pages, so if for some reason it’s your idea of fun to navigate the Web via your phone cam… | Continue reading
They say our experiences in life shape us, make us into who we are. Author Sylvain Neuvel seems to agree that it isn’t just what’s in our DNA that makes us unique. Read on to see how hi… | Continue reading
When I say, “animated movie about Celtic folklore”, what’s the first movie that comes to your mind? Can’t think of one? Well, today I’m here to tell you about one that… | Continue reading
Clearly Sugar and Spice know how to greet a snowy new month. Also, as an FYI, I have a novel-writing goal of at least three thousand words a day, every day, for February, so don’t expect huuu… | Continue reading
Two pictures, from just about the same viewpoint on my porch, 24 hours apart. Can you spot the differences? What you don’t see in this photo is that my driveway is already ploughed; sometime … | Continue reading
Hello everyone and welcome to another Small Business Saturday! In case you haven’t seen my other Small Business Saturday posts, this is where I promote a small business/artist that I like and… | Continue reading