This looks like a very fine time to show off this week's stack of new books and ARCs that have come to the Scalzi Compound! What here is getting your blood pumping? Tell us all in the comments, please! | Continue reading
When you have a big idea for a story, the question then often becomes -- what practical things do I need to do to make this big idea work for the story? For The Vanished Birds, author Simon Jimenez had his big idea, and now in the Big Idea piece, he explains how he made… | Continue reading
At first blush, the ability to do anything sounds like a great idea. But there are reasons that it wouldn't be... especially when you're writing a novel. Parker Peevyhouse explains why, and how reining it all in made a difference for Strange Exit. PARKER PEEVYHOUSE: When you live … | Continue reading
Publishers Weekly has dropped their review of The Last Emperox, and, well: Hugo Award–winner Scalzi knocks it out of the park with the tightly plotted, deeply satisfying conclusion to his Interdependency Sequence space opera trilogy... Balancing existing character dynamics and su … | Continue reading
When it came to writing novels, Rod Duncan discovered that it helped for him to get out of his own head, and to take a chance on a character outside of his own personal experience. That character has since taken him places, including to his newest novel, The Fugitive and the Vani … | Continue reading
Spoiler: It's me. I will be going. As its literary guest of honor. https://twitter.com/DragonCon/status/1217164791409713153 I'm very excited and I'm looking forward to seeing folks there in September! More details to come, promise. | Continue reading
For this Big Idea, Kameron Hurley looks at what it takes to get a book right -- and how her latest novel, The Broken Heavens, had to look beyond binary expectations to get there. KAMERON HURLEY: Two choices: Left or right. This or that. Choose one or the other. There's no in-betw … | Continue reading
Apropos of nothing in particular, I have some thoughts about my (hopefully not imminent) death, and the people who will decide to write things about me immediately thereafter. Consider this piece a bit of advance planning. 1. When I die, some people will be moved to write touchin … | Continue reading
You know what? I genuinely can't generate any enthusiasm for thinking about the Oscar slate at all this year, so, yeah, I'm gonna take a pass and maybe come back to it in 2021. I feel pretty good about this decision, honestly. | Continue reading
We'll be announcing my tour dates for The Last Emperox soon, but in the meantime I understand that not everyone can get out to see me when I'm on tour, either because I'm not coming to a town they are near, or because they are pinned by a large automobile and literally can't move … | Continue reading
For those of you who were wondering if there would ever be a sequel to The Dispatcher, the answer is: Yes. I have literally just now finished writing it, and it is good, if I do say so myself. Like the original, it is a novella, and it will be an Audible exclusive audiobook first … | Continue reading
They're good ones, too. Uhhhhh, says the photographer, but anyway. Have a happy Sunday, folks. | Continue reading
To be fair, it's a totally valid question. Don't lie to Smudge. He'll know. | Continue reading
This morning I came across this blog post, by a fellow who read Old Man's War and loved it, which is lovely, and then discovered that it's been optioned as a movie and thinks this is a mistake, that it should be a series instead, which, meh. He also determines that the reason I o … | Continue reading
What a drummer. A dab hand with lyrics, too. He will be missed. In memorial of his passing, my favorite Rush song. Lyrically very appropriate for the day. | Continue reading
A new year and a new stack of books and ARCs that have come to the Scalzi Compound! What here is calling to you? Share in the comments! | Continue reading
If you think you know the horror genre -- or at least, you know the greats of the genre -- then Jess Nevins has news for you: You've probably only scratched the bloody, screaming surface of a genre that goes back literally millennia. He's here now to tell you what he uncovered wh … | Continue reading
Laura Resnick has posted that her father Mike Resnick has died, which means that it's a very sad day for his friends and fans in the science fiction community. Give the length of his remarkable career, and the honors that were given to him (including five Hugo Awards as well as a … | Continue reading
"More and better naps" is, I think, a campaign platform we can all get behind. In other news it's been a little surprising to me how busy my first week of business in 2020 has been. I'm writing, which is to be expected, but I'm doing a bunch of other things too, including setting … | Continue reading
A life of adventure for some often involved pretending to be someone other than you were... but was it possible in some cases that what was being pretended was closer to who that person always was meant to be? It's a thought that Niki Smith has considered for The Deep and Dark Bl … | Continue reading
And what a high-level nap game it is! Also, hello, folks. Today I wrote a chapter and replied to notes on a treatment and now I'm about to go run a bit because I bought new running shoes and I have to justify spending more on them than I think I have for any other… | Continue reading
https://twitter.com/scalzi/status/1213533325496913924 You can't tell me I don't know how to live. How's your Saturday? | Continue reading
And as you can see, Sugar is thrilled. As for me, Krissy and Athena are off on a spa weekend, so I am left to my own devices. It's going to be a wild weekend, and by "wild" I mean I am likely to sleep through most of it. The cats are good role models… | Continue reading
What things of mine are available for award consideration this year? Well, if nominating for awards is your thing, here's what I have available for the 2020 awards season. Best Collection A Very Scalzi Christmas (November 2019; Subterranean Press) Best Short Story "A Model Do … | Continue reading
Fun fact: Today is not only the first day of the '20s, it is also the 15th anniversary of the release of Old Man's War, my first published novel and still the one I'm best known for. Five years ago I wrote a ten year retrospective on the novel, the details of which still stand,… | Continue reading
For the last few years, the subhead for Whatever has remained the same: "This Site Mocks Fascists." I thought it was a good subhead, since it both set the tone for the site, and also, made people aware of the sort of person the proprietor of the site was. But now it's 2020, an el … | Continue reading
A small sampling of photos (and photo manipulations) I took this year but otherwise did not post on Whatever. If you like these, there is a slightly larger collection here. Enjoy. | Continue reading
I think most people are aware that I'll spend much of 2020 writing things -- it's kind of my gig, so it's no surprise that in my work life that's most of what I'll be doing. But outside of writing, what are my hopes and plans for the next year? In no particular order: 1.… | Continue reading
It was an interesting year, and on paper, a good and useful one. I wrote or at least assembled two books in 2019, one of which was published (A Very Scalzi Christmas, which is doing well (thank you!), although naturally I expect the sales to dip soon) and the other of which, The … | Continue reading
Many of them taken around Christmas, because apparently that's when I take pictures of my wife (I mean, aside from all the other times). In mostly chronological order, starting with Christmas 2010. Yes, she can take a good photo. Also, I love her a whole lot. But you all knew tha … | Continue reading
This is it: The final stack of new books and ARCs that have come to the Scalzi Compound in 2019. As the year ends, is there anything here that you would be happy to take into 2020? Share your thoughts in the comments. | Continue reading
Photos of my daughter in the last decade, in roughly chronological order, starting and ending with birthday photos from 2010 and 2019, respectively. It's been a privilege to be here as she's grown up. I wouldn't have missed a moment of it for all the treasures of the world. I can … | Continue reading
It's been a fairly momentous decade for Whatever -- it had some of its highest trafficked years in 2012 and 2013, and while direct daily visitorship to the site has declined as people migrated to Facebook and Twitter took over the Internet, the site still manages to make a splash … | Continue reading
A year ago today, weighing nearly 200 pounds and feeling physically run down, and also feeling somewhat depressed about those facts, I hauled my carcass up on the treadmill we have in our basement and started walking on it. I did about 20 minutes worth of walking that day -- not … | Continue reading
Hope it's been lovely. Mine was. | Continue reading
And here we are again on Christmas Eve, which is my time to take a look back on what I've written on Whatever over the year, and pick out the pieces I think have some special merit -- whether because of the writing, or because they characterize events, or because they note some ( … | Continue reading
The more formal 21st birthday portrait. Also, my kid continues to be pretty great. Thank you, that is all. | Continue reading
Athena wishes to let you know that today she is twenty one years old! But Krissy does not approve of Athena's manner of celebrating her birthday! There, that's better. A very happy birthday to my daughter, who is one of my favorite humans, ever. | Continue reading
THIS MACHINE MOCKS FASCISTS | Continue reading
(This review will be spoiler-free, but the comment thread will be allowed to have spoilers. If you've not seen the movie yet, tread lightly there.) In the digital era of music, there have been complaints about something called "Dynamic Range Compression" -- a production tactic th … | Continue reading
So, in high school I was in a band called DRDF, which was short for Dead Rats Don't Fly, which was formed because our friend Tommy Kim wanted to record some songs he'd written in order to send a cassette of them out with his college applications (spoiler: It worked in at least on … | Continue reading
It's the last stack of new books and ARCs before Christmas (and this year, also Hanukkah). She anything here you'd be happy to unwrap? Share in the comments -- and happy holidays! | Continue reading
Archived here for posterity. 1. Recent events have prompted some folks to ask me to assure them that I will never be problematic, so they can continue to read my work with a clear conscience. Folks, I have some real bad news for you: I can't promise that, and here's a thread on w … | Continue reading
For the record, my thoughts on the president being impeached, because, oh, my, he certainly was: * It was inevitable, not (just) because the Democrats were gunning for the president, but because Donald Trump is a crook and was one even before he came into office. Also he's incomp … | Continue reading
When cultures meet, is there always a "clash" -- or is there a way for disparate peoples to not only get along but thrive? This was a line of inquiry that Matthew Hughes is interested in, and pursues in his new novel What the Wind Brings. MATTHEW HUGHES: Back in 1971, when I was … | Continue reading
And my very last business trip of the year. Downtown NYC is very vertical. I'm here meeting with Tor about The Last Emperox, which comes out in a few months. We have plans. Then back home tomorrow, for the rest of 2019. | Continue reading
What was I listening to during the 10s? Here's a 40-song playlist on Spotify, alphabetical by artist. For this playlist, I used the following rules: 1. Every song was put out in 2010 or later. 2. One song per artist; generally speaking, my favorite song from that artist during th … | Continue reading
Today on Twitter I posted a poll (which incidentally is still active as of this writing): https://twitter.com/scalzi/status/1205592214656765952 Which led to many spirited comments about Baby Yoda's eating habits, the sentience of porgs, and whether Chewbacca should have eaten tha … | Continue reading