Another year, another JoCo Cruise! I'll be updating the site while I'm on the boat... but not a whole lot. Because I'll be busy, you know, having a vacation. And before you ask, don't worry, I'm washing my hands and the whole ship is sanitized. We'll be fine. It's you all who sho … | Continue reading
There aren't a lot of people who are both a published science fiction author and also a pro-level athlete -- but Chris Kluwe is one of those, and more besides. But in addition to the things he is, there are the things he is not. Both of those matter for his new novel Otaku, how… | Continue reading
I'm learning a song on guitar because I'm going to play it on the JoCo Cruise, and I've been practicing it both on the Acoustasonic I got for Christmas, and on a travel-sized Washburn guitar that costs roughly a tenth of what the Acoustasonic costs. If you think this is going to … | Continue reading
Sometimes the world's not easy, and sometimes the world's imperfect. But uneasy, imperfect worlds can make for good stories, as K.B. Wagers explains in their Big Idea for A Pale Light in the Black. K.B. WAGERS: Like nearly everyone else, I suspect, I’ve weathered the last few yea … | Continue reading
Author Katie M. Flynn took a journey to bring you her new novel The Companions, a journey where so much of it was simply experiencing the town she called home, and how it has changed over time. KATIE M. FLYNN: First the fear: In grad school at UCLA, my advisor was a German ornith … | Continue reading
Because I don't want to let the moment pass without noting it, some thoughts on Super Tuesday. 1. Clearly now it's a two-man race, between the 78-year-old man with a heart problem and the 77-year-old man with some clear memory issues. This is, I will say, not optimal from my poin … | Continue reading
To quote the immortal Freddie Mercury: Who wants to live forever? If you think you do, here's J.T. Nichols with a couple thoughts to consider, via his new novel, Re-Coil. J.T. NICHOLAS: What if we lived forever? Most of us learn early on that we have an expiration date. But medic … | Continue reading
Zeus had heard rumors of rain and wished to go outside to confirm it for himself. Thus confirmed, he wished immediately to come back inside. Cats are like that. Welcome to Tuesday. If you're in a state with a primary today, remember to vote! | Continue reading
You may have heard of the expression "the stink of fear." For The Killing Fog, author Jeff Wheeler is working with an idea that's similar -- and both bigger, and stranger. JEFF WHEELER: Like many authors, travelling to different places has sparked my imagination in surprising way … | Continue reading
As we head out of February and into March, here's a new stack of books and ARCs that have come to the Scalzi Compound. Anything here that is speaking to you? Share your thoughts in the comments! | Continue reading
An okay view if you like skyscrapers. And also, hello, Chicago, I am back after not too long -- I was in fact in town about a month ago or something called ORDCamp, and this time I'm here for C2E2, at which I will be doing panels and interviews and signing books and stuff. It… | Continue reading
Someone, I'm not going to say who except that he has the same hairstyle as me and lives in the same house and also goes by the same name, left his laptop at the Burbank TSA on Sunday -- he forgot he'd taken the laptop out of his backpack, and thus just collected his luggage… | Continue reading
Not entirely sure how she got up there. But she certainly seems to be enjoying herself. | Continue reading
Which is to say, back to Ohio. Admittedly California is just as real as Ohio -- I should know, I spent roughly half my life there -- but these days when I go there I spend my time in places like what's in the picture here, and having meetings with people who may or may… | Continue reading
And now, for your delight and edification: This week's stack of new books and ARCs at the Scalzi Compound! (Yes, I took the photo before I went to LA.) What here is drawing your attention and admiration? Share your feelings in the comments! | Continue reading
The thing with satire is that it has to have a relationship to the world we live in -- and if we're not careful the line between the two becomes blurred. As J.R.H. Lawless notes, in this Big idea for his novel Always Greener. J.R.H. LAWLESS: The Big Idea of this novel is, unsurpr … | Continue reading
This photo is in many ways a perfect encapsulation of LA: A calm, serene pond with landscaping and trees, and directly behind it, as you can see through the aforementioned trees, a freeway, jammed with cars. Which I then had to get on at some point to get to my next meeting. It w … | Continue reading
History doesn't necessarily repeat itself, but it can inspire writing of the future -- as Michael R. Johnston discovered as he started writing the series of which his latest novel, The Blood-Dimmed Tide, is part. MICHAEL R. JOHNSTON: Some years ago, apparently unconvinced that be … | Continue reading
Oh, look, it's the Pacific. They do keep that here, don't they. Part of it, anyway. Yesterday I took a meeting in Beverly Hills, probably walked past Brent Spiner (who was staring intently into his phone) on the street, saw a bit of an upcoming movie in an editing bay (it looked … | Continue reading
Who is the bad person? What makes the bad person bad? And how different are they, really, from you and the people you love? As K.S. Villoso observes in this Big Idea piece for The Wolf of Oren-Yaro, the lines might not be as clearly cut as one might hope. K.S. VILLOSO: Monsters h … | Continue reading
Hey, wanna come see me on tour for The Last Emperox? Sure you do! And now we have dates for all of the events, courtesy of Tor.com, whose listings I am totally cutting and pasting right here and now: April 14 Boston, MA Brookline Booksmith @ The Coolidge Theater April 15 New York … | Continue reading
The second rule of Nap Club is.... zzzzzzzzzzzz. Which is to say it's a slow day around the Scalzi Compound this Monday. | Continue reading
Just in time for Valentine's Day weekend, this stack of new books and ARCs that have come to the Scalzi Compound. What here is putting an arrow through your reading heart? Share in the comments! | Continue reading
On the occasion of The Last Best Hope, the first novel associated with the Star Trek: Picard television series, author Una McCormack muses on Star Trek, the future it imagines, the present we live in today... and how it all comes together. UNA McCORMACK: At the end of last year, … | Continue reading
https://youtu.be/zlU5jsQi25E Which, for the record (heh), I think is a better version than the original, not in the least because the instrumentation is more on point for the song, and also for whatever it is that Miss Sunny Holiday is doing over there in the corner during the so … | Continue reading
So, this story makes me sad: McClatchy Co., one of the nation’s largest newspaper publishers, filed for bankruptcy protection Thursday, another harbinger of America’s deepening local news crisis. The Chapter 11 filing will allow the Sacramento-based company to keep its 30 newspap … | Continue reading
Maybe you should think about your life choices, is all I'm saying. In other news, hi, I just got a haircut. | Continue reading
One of the cliches of the writing life is the writer in their cold garret, scribbling furiously onto pages. As Kelly Braffet tells us in today's Big Idea, in her case this cliche is not entirely wrong, and also, it led her on the long and strange journey that resulted in her late … | Continue reading
Whenever I announce or talk about an upcoming book, I often get asked these following questions. I'm answering them here in one place because I get tired of typing the same answers over and over. Now all I have to do is post the URL to this piece! Everyone wins! When will the boo … | Continue reading
For his Big Idea on the novel The Light Years, author R.W.W. Greene considers what things make the cut, when civilization itself is on the line. R.W.W. GREENE: Moving always sucks. But especially when it’s unexpected. Even someone with Chrisjen Avasarala-level planning skills, wh … | Continue reading
The picture above is not exactly the sexiest photo I've ever taken, but it's notable in that it represents the furthest up I've been able to raise my left arm for several months. That's because at the moment I have a physical condition known as adhesive capsulitis (more commonly … | Continue reading
In No Parking, author Valentine Wheeler imagines a town undergoing change, and what it means for the people who live there. And it all started... with lunch. VALENTINE WHEELER: I started writing No Parking because of a chicken wrap. No, seriously. A new restaurant came to town, a … | Continue reading
"Oh, posh, what could possibly go wrong eating an entire jar of emulsified oil?" | Continue reading
Sometimes storytellers miss out on telling a story. But as Jim Ottaviani and Maris Wicks learned with Astronauts: Women on the Final Frontier, that just means that some stories, you get to come back to. JIM OTTAVIANI: Astronauts started on the cutting room floor of another book. … | Continue reading
Late last month writer Alex Christofi posted a tweet about how he would physically cut long books in half to make them more "portable," thus revealing himself as history's worst monster, and also, starting up an internet conversation about how people treat their books. This has l … | Continue reading
I told him not to stay up for the Iowa results, but would he listen? Noooooo. (I sent this picture to Krissy this morning and she immediately called to see if he was okay. He's fine. I just caught him in an awkward moment.) | Continue reading
The paths we walk in our lives are not necessarily straight and narrow, and in writing her new novel, author Juliette Wade found she needed another metaphor entirely to explain her character's movements. In this Big Idea, Wade explains on why the metaphor she landed on was Mazes … | Continue reading
Look, I know you people adore Smudge, but as a still-young male cat, he's got a lot of "asshole" in him that he hasn't completely got out of his system yet. And the time he likes to burn through some of that is roughly between the hours of 2 am and 5 am. Which means… | Continue reading
As we bid adieu to January of 2020, let's send it off with this hefty stack of new books and ARCs that have arrived at the Scalzi Compound. What here would you like to greet February with? Tell us all in the comments! | Continue reading
She's got a baby and she's a got a cat, and she's clearly pleased about both. Hope your day found you in a happy place as well. | Continue reading
Over the holidays, I saw that people were doing a thing where they left out snacks for the folks delivering their various gifts and packages, on the principle that a) 'twas the season and b) delivery people were working long hours and deserved some appreciation. I thought this wa … | Continue reading
I've not been writing on politics nearly as much as I have in previous times, in part because in this age of obvious corruption and complicity, I find it difficult and wearying, without the motivating prod of actually being paid for it, to write anything that I haven't already sa … | Continue reading
The Warhol portrait is in fact very impressive close up. But it was equally impressive how people seemed to unconsciously place themselves in a tableau around it. I'm back from Chicago, where I hung about with many impressive people talking about many impressive things. This was … | Continue reading
Friday again, and time for another eclectic stack of new book and ARCs that have come to the Scalzi Compound. What here is speaking to you as we head into the weekend? Tell us in the comments? | Continue reading
I'll be in Chicago over the next few days to hang out with friends and do a little business so updates here may be sporadic. Please accept this cat as compensation for my likely mostly absence through Monday. It's a fair trade. | Continue reading
Confronted with the need to write a new book series, author Charlie N. Holmberg took just a minute to figure out what her big idea should be. It turned out to be a very productive minute, not in the least because it led to her latest novel, Smoke and Summons. CHARLIE N. HOLMBERG: … | Continue reading
Over on Twitter this morning I was watching people discuss the pros and cons of various writing tools, which reminds me that it's been a while since I've discussed which tools I use to work, and do work-related things, these days. So in case anyone is interested, here is my list … | Continue reading
He's been contemplating the meaning of existence for a while now. I don't think he's gotten particularly far with it, but to be fair, I don't know that anyone else has really done all that much better than he has. So there's that. I'm back home, after a few days in suburban Detro … | Continue reading