Some might say it's only because her favorite napping spot is next to the Christmas tree. But I think she likes the holidays for themselves, and because the Christmas tree has many compelling ornaments to bat around. Hope your Thursday has been merry and bright, folks. | Continue reading
As you may remember, a week ago I got myself an electronic drum set, set it up and started pounding away on it. Here's what I've learned from a week of getting back into the swing of it: 1. I still suck because I am unfathomably rusty, but after drumming roughly an hour a day… | Continue reading
From a Twitter feed I just posted about this, archiving here: 1. So, a friend on Facebook pinged me with this ad she saw there for a talcum powder lawsuit scheme and said, "isn't that Krissy?" And indeed, it is -- and the picture strongly implies that she's holding a settlement … | Continue reading
As most of you know I fiddle a lot with photos, and then upload them to my Flickr account. Today I uploaded a picture of myself, another picture of Krissy, and a third photo of Athena, and Flickr posted them in a manner that quite unintentionally made what I think is a really com … | Continue reading
The short version is: It was a pretty good decade for my career. Now, let's expand that, in bullet points that are in no particular order. * First, the stats: Eight novels, two novellas, two short story collections, four nonfiction books, six anthology appearances (there may be m … | Continue reading
It's beginning to look a lot like... time for new books and ARCs! What here is jingling your bells? Tell us all in the comments. | Continue reading
"There is nothing new under the sun," as some playwright once said -- but is it possible to put a new and intriguing spin on a old concept and in doing so make a really cracking tale out of it? This is of interest to Charles Soule in his new novel, Anyone. And here, with… | Continue reading
For the last four days, the Whatever Gift Guide 2019 has been about helping you find the perfect gifts for friends and loved ones. But today I’d like to remind folks that the season is also about helping those in need. So this final day is for charities. If you’re looking for a p … | Continue reading
Here's a fun fact that not everyone knows about me: My first musical instrument -- before the ukulele! -- was the drums. I've had a drumset since I was a teenager (a Tama Swingstar with Paiste 2002 cymbals for you drum nerds) and I used to play regularly. But then a while back I … | Continue reading
For the first three days of the Whatever Gift Guide 2019, I’ve let authors and creators tell you about their work. Today is different: Today is Fan Favorites day, in which fans, admirers and satisfied customers share with you a few of their favorite things — and you can share som … | Continue reading
I woke up early this morning -- thank you, cats -- and figured as long as I was up I'd go use the Pixel 4's astrophotography mode, which is somewhat more advanced than the same mode on the Pixel 3, which was already impressive enough. I was not disappointed. This is a little afte … | Continue reading
The first sunset we've had this month -- every other day has been overcast. This one was cloudy, too, but the sun got through anyway. As you can see. | Continue reading
A few months ago, Seamus Blackley (who you might know as an engaging Twitter presence, oh and also the father of the X-Box gaming console) started making bread using 4,500-year-old yeast scraped from ancient Egyptian pottery, and prepared as closely as possible to how it was made … | Continue reading
The Whatever Holiday Gift Guide 2019 continues, and today we move away from books and focus on other gifts and crafts — which you can take to mean just about any other sort of thing a creative person might make: Music, art, knitting, jewelry, artisan foodstuffs and so on. These c … | Continue reading
Today is Day Two of the Whatever Holiday Gift Guide 2019, and today the focus is on Non-Traditionally Published Books: Self-published works, electronically-exclusive books, books from micro presses, books released outside the usual environs of the publishing world, and so on. Hey … | Continue reading
Welcome to the first day of the Whatever Shopping Guide 2019 — My way of helping you folks learn about cool creative gifts for the holidays, straight from the folks who have created them. Today’s featured products are traditionally published books (including graphic novels and au … | Continue reading
Annalee Newitz has written a long, thinky piece for the New York Times about where social media might be headed for its next iteration, and she spoke to me (along with many other opinionated people) about my thoughts on the matter. If that sounds like something you want to stuff … | Continue reading
It's now the last month of the last year in a decade, and I suppose that means it might be a good time to collect up some thoughts on the past ten years, on both a personal and larger level. To that end, from time to time this month, basically when it crosses my mind… | Continue reading
Just in time for the holidays! As a reminder, this collection features fifteen stories about Christmas and the holidays, including three that are exclusive to this collection: "Christmas in July," "Jangle the Elf Grants Wishes" and "Resolutions for the New Year." Plus illustrati … | Continue reading
As November fades into the holiday season, we have one last, tall, stack of new books and ARCs for the month. What here is ringing your bells? Tell us all in the comments! | Continue reading
Every year as the holiday season begins I run a shopping guide for the holidays, and over the years it’s been quite successful: Lots of people have found out about excellent books and crafts and charities and what have you, making for excellent gift-giving opportunities during th … | Continue reading
https://youtu.be/yWSRVYU_JMo I was gonna post an earnest entry on all the things I'm thankful for this year, but then we'd be here for a really long time. This video, on the other hand, is barely 100 seconds long, and is more fun. Enjoy, and enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday. | Continue reading
It's after 5pm on Thanksgiving Eve, so we are officially in Thanksgivingtime, in which the early foodstuffs are being prepared so that there will be room in the oven tomorrow for the turkey and other things that need to be made on the day. So cakes and pies and certain casseroles … | Continue reading
I had pre-ordered a Pixel 4XL earlier this year and when it didn't actually arrive on the day the phone came out (or several days after that), I cancelled the pre-order, on the basis that I was willing to pay the pre-order premium because I would get the phone as soon as possible … | Continue reading
Here's the news from Subterranean Press itself: https://twitter.com/SubPress/status/1198959886094262272 Basically, if you want to be sure you get the signed limited hardcover, order from Subterranean Press directly and do it very very soon. Like, today. Because those 100 copies a … | Continue reading
I haven't upgraded to the Pixel 4 yet, but one of its star attractions for the camera, the "astrophotography mode," debuted on the Pixel 3 last week. I got up at a ridiculously early hour this morning for other reasons (i.e., cat woke me up), and the stars were visible for the fi … | Continue reading
Time to close out this year's Reader Request Week with some short takes on questions I didn't otherwise get to: Dean Laws: Hey Scalzi, can you trust photographs anymore? Could we ever? Photographs were being manipulated and altered basically as soon as they were invented, and whe … | Continue reading
And now, quick(er) answers to some of the questions about writing that popped up this week in this year's reader requests: Kufat: Now that you’ve got a bunch of ongoing series, I was wondering how you feel about reader requests. Specifically open-ended things like “I hope we see … | Continue reading
We're moving in to Thanksgiving week here in the US, which makes it a perfect time to ask which of these new books and ARCs you would be thankful have in your hot little hands in the near future. Tell us in the comments what here is appealing to you. | Continue reading
Family and friends of Gahan Wilson are reporting that the master illustrator passed on yesterday. I can't claim to have known him, but I was a fan of his since I was a child and one of the great highlights of my career was when Subterranean Press hired him to do the cover for the … | Continue reading
Judge Zedd asks: One of my students asked me a question the other day: What would 13 year old you think of your life now? It really got me thinking about the unexpected path my life has taken, and some things that 13 year old me would have been heartbroken about, but adult me is… | Continue reading
There are few words more laden with negative association than "traitor" -- it's an apparent repudiation of country and of honor. Is there ever a time when there could be more to the word than that? Author Colin MacIver muses on this subject in his Big Idea post for his novel Turn … | Continue reading
Wayne Kearney asks: How does your wife stand you? Being a writer/engineer myself, I require a lot of ‘alone time’ to do my thing. My wife tends to alternate between “Why are you bothering me?” and “Why aren’t you paying attention to me?” How do you work out that balance or do you … | Continue reading
Acshenglut asks about: Being entertained as an artist: I’ve often wondered if it is possible for a writer or other artist to look at work in their medium or a related medium (film and plays are still storytelling, for instance) as mere entertainment. Is there such a thing as ente … | Continue reading
In an email, Pablo asks: Civility: A genuine plea for common understanding, or just another tool to oppress? I mean, why not both? Which is to say that one can genuinely wish for "civility" -- a sort of courtly and dignified mode of discourse -- without understanding all the ways … | Continue reading
For this entry, Amysrevenge wants to know about: Things you fall out of love with as you age. Example: Heinlein was super relevant to 22 year old me in 1997. He was enjoyable to 33 year old me in 2008 in a nostalgic sort of way. He basically isn’t relevant to my interests anymore … | Continue reading
David Orr asks: One noteworthy aspect of your blogging style is your extreme confidence. If you have an opinion to offer, you may caveat it in various ways, but usually not in ways that indicate any uncertainty. For instance, you rarely prefix statements with “I think that” or “P … | Continue reading
Cristoph asks: What’s your take on the generational conflicts of our time, currently manifesting in the “Ok Boomer” saying? I think it's par for the course, actually. Generational conflict makes for a good story and for good copy, and for the last 100 years or so in the US, at le … | Continue reading
It's Monday and it's time for this year's Reader Request Week! Let's start this one off on a slightly spooky note, with this question from Mar: I’d be curious to know, if you’re comfortable talking about it, whether you’ve ever had a “strange”, or for lack of a better term, what … | Continue reading
She's pretty great. We like to joke that she doesn't age; well, she does, in fact, age (the gray hair is a giveaway). She just does it gracefully. More gracefully than I do, in any event, which to be fair is a low bar. I don't mind. She digs me anyway. | Continue reading
On Twitter this morning, the following tweet: https://twitter.com/lucyamorris/status/1195651677543550976 I looked at the tweet and realized that, in fact, I am an adult who mostly manages to do all of those thing (that is, when the cats don't wake me up at 3am to show me their bu … | Continue reading
Hey, you look like you could use a nice big stack of new books and ARCs to peruse. So here one is! What here is drawing your eye? Tell us all in the comments. | Continue reading
It’s that time of the year again, and once again I am teaming up with Jay & Mary’s Book Center, my local independent bookseller, to offer signed and personalized books for gift-giving. It’s a great way to get a unique gift for someone you love (even yourself!) while at the same t … | Continue reading
During my sojourn into the South, I spent a couple of days in New Orleans, visiting my pal Monica Byrne, who was there learning guitar, and taking in the sights. Naturally, I took a bunch of pictures. Some of them are now up over on Flickr. Go have a look, if you like! | Continue reading
It's rather later in the year than when I usually do this (I usually get to it in March or April, and I just got busy this year), but nevertheless: It's time for the annual Reader Request Week, in which you pick the topics I write about for the next week here at Whatever. Always… | Continue reading
When I left Ohio for my week-long journey around the American South, my yard was still green and most of the trees in it still had leaves. When I returned, neither of these things were broadly true. What a change a week can make. My trip, incidentally, was really enjoyable. It ha … | Continue reading
This morning I got a nice letter from someone who enjoyed one of my books and wanted to send money to me directly for it rather than to get the book through my publisher, on the idea that I as the author should get most of the money because I wrote the book. This gives… | Continue reading
Another week, another very fine stack of new books and ARCs at the Scalzi Compound. What here is grabbing your attention? Share in the comments! | Continue reading