It's my wedding anniversary today, so I'm zooming through this one. I'm sure you'll understand. Here's today's five! Aunt Jemima and Uncle Ben head toward retirement: Because 2020 is the year when companies finally realized brands explicitly referencing slavery times and/or peddl … | Continue reading
I don't want to say that it doesn't feel that long ago, because, well, it does feel like a while ago now -- in the course of twenty five years for ourselves, our friends and families, children were born and grew, loved ones passed and were mourned, careers were made and sometimes … | Continue reading
I've been out running errands! Fully masked and observing social distancing! Here are five things anyway. Date-a-versary! 27 years ago today, Krissy and I went on our first official date, at the El Presidente restaurant in Visalia, followed by dancing, which is kind of our thing. … | Continue reading
Doug Engstrom is thinking about today's troubles and woes, and how some of them rely on people one thing and corporations... doing another. From there it's just a hop, skip and jump to the world of his new novel, Corporate Gunslinger. DOUG ENGSTROM: One of the things that’s appal … | Continue reading
Slow news day today, amirite? Here are five things. 26 years ago today I proposed to Krissy. Now, maybe this is not the top news story of the day for the rest of you, but for me, you know, it's pretty significant. Also, in case it's not evident and you've not heard this story bef … | Continue reading
When thinking about epic fantasy, how epic is epic enough? And at what point might things become too epic for a single band of heroes? Author Ryk Spoor has opinions on these questions, and how they helped to inform his latest (epic!) novel, The Mask of Ares. RYK SPOOR: Epic fanta … | Continue reading
Easyrihiner asks, in the comment thread from yesterday's Five Things post: What’s your take on authors/artists that aren’t talking about current events right now? I don't attach a value judgment to it. There are any number of reasons why a creative person isn't commenting on curr … | Continue reading
I've been busy moderating comment threads today, but let's see if there are five things in the world I want to talk about: Tucker Carlson losing advertisers for being a blatant racist, again. Because, I mean, this isn't exactly the first time, is it? Which does leave hanging just … | Continue reading
So, I'm going to preface this thing I'm about to write by being as clear as I can be about this, so there's no confusion or ambiguity on this score: Trans women are women, trans men are men, trans non-binary folks are non-binary folks, and trans rights are human rights. I'm non-s … | Continue reading
Here's today's big news! In five convenient bits! I got a haircut: Which I recognize is not big news for everyone else, but which feel significant for me, since it's the first one I've gotten since the quarantine started. I went to my usual person, whose salon was recently re-ope … | Continue reading
The creative advantages to anger: Are there any at all, ever? John P. Murphy says... perhaps! And explains how they were put to work in his novel Red Noise. JOHN P. MURPHY: Red Noise is about anger. I wrote it in 2017, at a time when a lot of us were angry for good reasons.… | Continue reading
Annnnd here we go for today: Trump wants CNN to apologize for a poll that has Biden ahead: Oh, bless his sad little heart. I do understand it's been a bad couple of weeks for the president, what with botched photo ops and hiding in bunkers and behind gates and his open racism not … | Continue reading
In today's Big Idea for their novel No Man's Land, author A.J. Fitzwater gives a good example why it's a good idea to support local businesses: because you may find something there that opens a lost world to you. A.J. FITZWATER: Books talk. Within a moment, across the years, deca … | Continue reading
Okay, let's see what's up in the world and with me today: He pushed himself! A study in contrasts between the two men vying to be the president for the next term: Trump is suggesting the 75-year-old man who was injured whilst being abused by the Buffalo Police sorta, you know, ma … | Continue reading
This Big Idea post for the collection A Sinister Quartet represents an actual record: The largest number of authors co-writing a single Big Idea piece. I'm going to get out of the way here and let them do their thing. CSE COONEY, JESSICA P. WICK, AMANDA J. McGEE, MIKE ALLEN: A Si … | Continue reading
Well. Quiet weekend, huh? Here's today's five: Defunding the police: It's a catchy phrase, all right, and one designed to provoke outsized responses on the right and the left, and at least mild consternation for the people who don't think they're either on the right or the left. … | Continue reading
When you have kids, it can really mess with your focus and ability to do things. But can it also be an inspiration? Ask Tim Major, who in this Big Idea for his novel Hope Island, has some thoughts on this very subject. TIM MAJOR: Probably, all new parents are entirely preoccupied … | Continue reading
Over on Twitter right now, there's an active hashtag called #PublishingPaidMe, in which writers are divulging their book advances, in part to see if there are systematic biases against writers of color and other marginalized groups. Well, my last major book deal is literally publ … | Continue reading
In the last couple of days I've been getting emails from folks asking if I'm moderating people more than usual and/or have revoked people's posting status. The answer: Nope -- but it does appear the site's spam filter is being unusually aggressive recently, and comments have been … | Continue reading
Right on time for the first weekend in June, a brand new stack of new books and ARCs for your perusal. What here is calling to be added to your "to be read" pile? Share your thoughts in the comments. | Continue reading
Here's today's five for you: It's a police riot: Or so Jamelle Bouie says in the New York Times, and there's certainly been enough evidence in the last week to show that the police working the protests aren't exactly treating the folks protesting the death of George Floyd with th … | Continue reading
A couple of days ago I posted about the fundraiser for Uncle Hugo's, the science fiction bookstore that was razed to the ground last week during the protests in Minneapolis. At the same time, another science fiction bookstore, DreamHaven Books & Comics, took damage as well, altho … | Continue reading
A dash of history, a pinch of literary invention, and a soupçon of imagination -- all of these combine in The Court of Miracles to create author Kester Grant's new novel. She's here now to tell you how all these ingredients came together. KESTER GRANT: As I left the cinema after … | Continue reading
It's only June 4, y'all. Here's today's five: James Mattis stabs Trump in the eye: And courageously says what everyone already knows, which is that Trump is awful and divisive and wants to use the military on American civilians so he can feel big and tough. And yes, I'm giving M … | Continue reading
War changes people, and in Stormblood, some wars change people more. Author Jeremy Szal is here today to explain how, and why. JEREMY SZAL: Blood is thicker than water. Does that still apply when your blood is infused with alien DNA? Let me explain. The central idea for Stormbloo … | Continue reading
Let's get to today's five, shall we? Hey, did you remember that there's a presidential campaign going on? Well there is, and seven states and the District of Columbia even had primaries yesterday. Not that you would know it from the front pages of the news sites, I had to dig dee … | Continue reading
Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author Robert J. Sawyer has gone "back to the future" with his newest novel The Oppenheimer Alternative. But why does he go back at all -- and back to this particular Great Man of History? Sawyer is here to explain it all. ROBERT J. SAWYER: It’s been … | Continue reading
First things first: Uncle Hugo's, the venerable Minneapolis science fiction bookstore, was burned down last week (along with Uncle Edgar's, the next-door mystery bookstore). Almost immediately a GoFundMe was set up, but it wasn't endorsed by Don Blyly, the owner of the bookstores … | Continue reading
Oh, not much going on in the world at the moment, is there? Here are today's five things: Trump gassing peaceful protestors to walk to a photo op: I think we're all used to the president being appallingly tone deaf, but this one seems destined for the top ten collection (I'm hesi … | Continue reading
Author Drew Murray knew he wanted to write a technothriller with his novel Broken Genius -- but how to do it in a way that reader would not get lost in the technological weeds? Murray explains his solution for you now. DREW MURRAY: Very close on the heels of every technology huma … | Continue reading
For the month of June I thought I would try something sort of new, sort of not: A brief daily write-up of five things I'm thinking about in one way or another for that day -- could be news, could be personal things, could be a piece of entertainment, whatever (there's that word). … | Continue reading
I actually had to count it out at this point. We went into quarantine after coming back from the JoCo Cruise, and that was on Sunday, March 15. That was eleven weeks ago, which feels both a long time ago and also not that long ago now, because time is funny that way. I also… | Continue reading
https://twitter.com/sfwa/status/1266542362777595904 Last night I DJed a dance party for SFWA's Nebula Weekend -- and because it's the world we currently live in now, it was done all online. How do you do an online dance party? Well, you spin the tunes over Zoom and then a bunch o … | Continue reading
First, for no good reason whatsoever, here's a picture of Spice, turned into a faux-pastel drawing through the magic of Photoshop filters. I think it looks pretty good, actually. Second, June starts on Monday and I'm going to use the switchover in months as an excuse to get back … | Continue reading
Go on, take a break for a couple of days. You've earned it. Probably. | Continue reading
In the dream I and Krissy and (a slightly younger) Athena are on vacation, in Denver of all places, when it's suddenly the end of the world -- we're talking mudslides and mushroom clouds. And as we watch this from the hall leading to our hotel room, I hand Athena the ice cream co … | Continue reading
In her latest novel, The Distance From Four Points, author Margo Orlando Littell tests the proposition of whether one can indeed come back home -- and whether her protagonist's experience of doing so can and will differ from her own. MARGO ORLANDO LITTELL: Like most novelists, I … | Continue reading
So this morning I went and took pictures of the flowers in the front yard, and I posted the pictures on Twitter and Facebook and misidentified the flowers, so of course every single comment was correcting me on the flower identification. So I thought, well, fuck you all, you don' … | Continue reading
She's not feeling very argumentative herself at the moment. And that's okay. | Continue reading
It's said that revenge is sweet -- but in this Big Idea for The Archer at Dawn, author Swati Teerdhala argues that the taste may be something else entirely. SWATI TEERDHALA: Revenge fantasies are powerful. We’ve all had one, whether it’s as petty as dripping oil on your annoying … | Continue reading
From around the Scalzi Compound. I hope today has been a fine and reflective Memorial Day for you and yours. | Continue reading
Some good drama in this one. Have an excellent rest of your Sunday, folks. | Continue reading
Today is a red-letter day in my personal history, because five years ago (and also on a Sunday, calendars are weird), the New York Times announced that I had signed a 13-book deal with Tor books for $3.4 million, a deal notable for its length (we expected it to run for roughly a … | Continue reading
As we begin the Memorial Day weekend, here's a stack of the new books and ARCs that have come to the Scalzi Compound. Anything here that speaks to you as we head into the long weekend? Share in the comments! | Continue reading
In today's Big Idea, Hugo and Nebula Award winner Nancy Kress takes a look at controversy, science, and change -- Sea Change, as a matter of fact. NANCY KRESS: At parties in my city—environmentally conscious, crunchy-granola, high-tech and socially activist Seattle—it is easy to … | Continue reading
So, Ohio is on its way to opening up entirely -- restaurants can open their inside dining areas today, and by June first places like banquet halls and bowling alleys can be back in business. This is all presuming social distancing, etc, inside those halls and alleys. A lot of peo … | Continue reading
I got myself some stupidly expensive caramels. Why? Because I wanted them, and this is week (mumble mumble) of quarantine, and fuck it, I'm getting myself some stupidly expensive caramels to see if they'll break up the slog. Did they? Yup! I'm not going to buy stupidly expensive … | Continue reading
People have dreams -- and then they have the dreams that come after that first set of dreams came true. For Jennifer Brody, who created Spectre Deep 6 with Jules Rivera, her new graphic novel is about the latter. JENNIFER BRODY: I always wanted to work in Hollywood. Growing up in … | Continue reading