Do you like puzzles? M V Melcer has puzzles for you – in space, no less – and a reason for the protagonist in Refractions to go literally lightyears from home to figure them out. MV MELCER: I’ve always been drawn to puzzles, to books that keep you guessing what’s really going on, … | Continue reading
I had traveling to do today, which kept me from updating earlier. To make up for it, please accept this really lovely traditional song, sung by boygenius, who are accompanied by Ye Vagabonds, in honor of Sinead O’Connor. It’s a stunner. Good night, and joy be with you all. — JS | Continue reading
Elon Musk, the most unfathomably insecure and pathetic billionaire the world has ever seen, has gone mask-off antisemite, and that means that while I had already reduced my participation on the former Twitter, now I’m off it entirely. I’m keeping the account so that no one can sw … | Continue reading
When history and myth provide you a tale that is… unsatisfying, what is one to do? If one is Marie Brennan, and the story is The Waking of Angantyr, the answer is: reimagine. MARIE BRENNAN: I wanted the story I was promised. When I was a senior in college and working on my thesis … | Continue reading
Usually in the second week of October I make mention that I use WordPress and that I find it extremely simple to use, easy to manage and is a thing that I can endorse for anyone who is looking to have their own space here on the Internet. However, this October I was traveling all … | Continue reading
We sometimes say that someone with a talent has been “blessed,” but what happens when blessings are more real and concrete than just a note of admiration for skills? Sharon Shinn has been thinking about blessing for the world in which her new novel Whispering Wood exists, and is … | Continue reading
Last year, the band Bad Omens came out with an album called The Death of Peace of Mind, and I didn’t discover it until recently. Ever since I found it, I’ve been pretty hooked on them. I thought no song could top the one that the album is named for, “THE DEATH OF PEACE OF […] | Continue reading
In today’s Big Idea, Cory Doctorow talks about his new novel The Lost Cause, but he also talks about why so many of science fiction writers work in the genre at all. Both topics are, unsurprisingly, fascinating. CORY DOCTOROW: Danger is scary, but helplessness is scarier. For the … | Continue reading
I found this rose on the hallway floor of my hotel in Austin, Texas, this weekend, clearly the residue of a wedding that had been at the hotel at the same time I was there. Naturally I had to take a picture of it before disposing it. I hope it is not a metaphor for […] | Continue reading
Last night I went to see Depeche Mode in Cleveland, accompanied by friends of mine with whom I had not-so-coincidentally seen the band with in 1988. One of our number had earlier in the year suggested seeing the band as again as a bit of a mini-reunion, and, well, why not. The sh … | Continue reading
The photo you see above is me in May, 1988, when I and a group of friends went off to go see the band Depeche Mode at the Blossom Music Festival amphitheater outside of Cleveland (here’s the set list, from the Depeche Mode wiki, because of course there’s a Depeche Mode wiki). Ton … | Continue reading
We’ve come to that time of the year again, where folks begin to think about their holiday gift giving, and at least some of you think about books as the perfect gift. Well, they are! But would make them even more perfect is getting those books signed and personalized. Every year … | Continue reading
Nick Bantock’s Big Idea for The Corset and the Jellyfish is intentionally short. NICK BANTOCK: In my ‘umble opinion, we the children of the 21st century, waste words appallingly. We are rarely succinct, and often fail to articulate our true meaning. This leads to confusing emails … | Continue reading
Why? Because they asked me if I would like to, and also, I was a professional film critic and columnist for many years, as some of you know, for various newspapers and magazine and online sites and whatnot. Plus I wrote a couple of books on film back in the day, so there’s that. … | Continue reading
If you’re not up on last night in Ohio, what happened was this: Ohioans voted to enshrine the right to abortion in the state constitution (Issue 1), by a margin that qualifies as “not even close,” and also voted to allow the use of marijuana in the state (Issue 2), by a slightly … | Continue reading
The circle of inspiration: The work of others inspires creators to make work of their own, which in turn inspires another set of creators. David D. Levine is here to talk about a work that inspired his latest, The Kuiper Belt Job, and how it came to make a difference in his own c … | Continue reading
It’s election day in the US, and if you are registered to vote, and have not already availed yourself of early voting, guess what? Today’s the day to do it! All three Scalzis voted early because we believe in taking care of that business as early as possible, but if for some reas … | Continue reading
Turns out it was Neko Case. Here’s a song from that album. The reason that my brain insisted it was Jenny Lewis is that both musicians are redhead solo performers who also performed in bands (The New Pornographers for Case; Rilo Kiley for Lewis). It took me hours of extremely imp … | Continue reading
The clouds were especially pretty tonight. Also, it’s the first night of Daylight Savings Time, so this picture was taken at (checks metadata) 5:49 pm. Which is awful. But this is our lives for the next few months: Early sunsets and the temptation to go to sleep at 7pm. I’m not a … | Continue reading
It’s been a stretch since I’ve posted a picture of her here, which is, frankly, unlike me. Part of the reason is that I was away on book tour, but now I’ve been home for a whole two weeks, so I can only blame touring so much. Whatever the reason, it’s time to rectify this […] | Continue reading
As I noted on Bluesky just after it debuted: It’s a sketch. But a lovely sketch. There’s some discussion of how much this song should be considered an actual Beatles tune, inasmuch as John Lennon and George Harrison are no longer with us, and the originating document of this is a … | Continue reading
Author Ryk Spoor is back on the blog for the debut of his new novel, and first book of The Spirit Warriors trilogy, Choosing the Player. How does this trilogy fit in with and intersect with his other works? Read on to find out. RYK SPOOR: The publication of Choosing the Players – … | Continue reading
For the second month in a row, Starter Villain is on the New York Times Audio Fiction Best Seller list. Last month it arrived at number eleven, which was pretty cool when you note that it had only eleven days to rack up sales to make it onto a monthly chart; this month it’s at [… … | Continue reading
I am lucky enough to have two very kind friends in California that send me the most amazing things, and this week they sent me some seriously awesome stickers and goodies that I simply must share with you! You might have seen my other post from earlier this year where one of them … | Continue reading
And it’s looking rather more clement than October went out as. So far, anyway. We’ll see if it holds. In the meantime, please enjoy this visual slice of rural America. I don’t imagine the corn will be standing for much longer in any event, so enjoy it while you can. And welcome t … | Continue reading
Is death truly the end? Not for the kids in The Ghost Job! Author Greg van Eekhout is bringing you a tale from beyond the grave(s) of his main characters who aren’t letting a little death stop them. Follow along in his Big Idea to see just how this “haunting” idea formed. GREG VA … | Continue reading
Yes, I know, last day of the month and all, and Halloween, but that is no reason to dress up like late November. Simply unacceptable. Stop this. Now. No love, — JS | Continue reading
Sometimes, a good thing takes longer than you might thing. Elly Swartz knows a little about this, and in today’s Big Idea, she explains why Hidden Truths was worth the wait. ELLY SWARTZ: There are moments in life that define us. Moments in life that imprint on our hearts. But wha … | Continue reading
I went on book tour last month, and along the way I was inspired to make a little music to approximate some of the experience of it, and of some of the places I went. And thus, Travelogue, a collection of five (mostly) ambient electronic pieces, recording my state of mind on the … | Continue reading
Author Annie Carl is on a mission to bring the disabled writing community into the spotlight with her newest anthology, Soul Jar, written entirely by disabled authors. Come along in her Big Idea as she tells us how she came up with the idea for this anthology, and what led to her … | Continue reading
I’m at that age where when people my age die it’s not entirely unexpected — Welcome to being No Longer Young, y’all — but it doesn’t make it less of a shock. It’s compounded in my case by the fact that of all the Friends characters, Perry’s Chandler Bing was the one closest to my … | Continue reading
I got the Pixel 8 Pro a couple of weeks ago; it arrived at my house just before I came back from one leg of my book tour. I upgraded and updated everything the one day I was home so I could take it out with me on the last leg of the tour, and […] | Continue reading
Well-worn phrases can still have life in them, as author Greta Kelly discovered in the writing of her latest, The Queen of Days. What maxim has her attention, and will it have yours? Read on to find out. GRETA KELLY: Blood is thicker than water. It’s an idiom so well worn we bare … | Continue reading
I have a strange new interest, and if you couldn’t tell from the title, it’s tinned fish. Trust me when I say I had zero interest in tinned fish until recently, when I somehow stumbled upon TinnedFishTok, which is just like a section of TikTok in which enthusiastic tinned fish en … | Continue reading
Apparently thinking on my recent book tour is giving me feelings, because I’ve made another musical composition, this one relating to my time in Budapest. At one point and I and my Hungarian publisher, with a little bit of time to kill, hiked over the Árpád Bridge, just chatting … | Continue reading
Most great stories revolve around a compelling hero. Author Bethany Jacobs has taken a different approach in her new novel, These Burning Stars. Follow along in her Big Idea to see how she ended up crafting a devious, toxic, and likeable villain. BETHANY JACOBS: The funny thing a … | Continue reading
It’s because I was hacked last week and the hackers set up this nonsense. I have my private account back and am working on getting my public page squared away — they’re locked out now but this stuff was programmed earlier — so in the meantime, one, don’t click any of those links, … | Continue reading
Lots of things happened whilst I was on tour that I didn’t address because a) I was traveling, b) I was doing events, c) I was trying to sleep a bit between a and b. But now that I’m home, let me, as briefly as possible, catch up on some major events and what I […] | Continue reading
After visiting the wonderful Household Books in Cincinnati, I thought I might as well grab some dinner since I had driven two hours to the big city. I wasn’t sure where to eat, so I looked up places around me and finally settled on one called Luca Bistro. It advertised itself as … | Continue reading
Our neighbors have an old TV antenna that, depending on the time of year, gets in the way of the sunset photos. I will often Photoshop it out, but today, for some reason, I kinda like what it’s giving to the photo. It’s staying in. In other news, I am now home from my book […] | Continue reading
People are people and they will do what people will do — but would a change in circumstance and environment change that, for better… or worse? This is the question Michael Mammay confronts in the Big Idea for his novel Generation Ship. MICHAEL MAMMAY: I’ve had the idea for Genera … | Continue reading
Today is the last day of my tour, and I spent it in Madison, Wisconsin, closing out the Wisconsin Book Festival. I had an excellent time. When it was done, felt the need to introvert heavily in my hotel room, and also play a bit with the iPad version of Logic Pro, which I have [… … | Continue reading
If you read my post over an event I went to recently called Plates & Pages at Five on Vine in Cincinnati, you may recall me talking about the bookstore that was the “pages” part of the event. I enjoyed the pop-up shop at the event and conversing with the owner so much that I […] | Continue reading
When opportunity comes knocking, author Alex Shvartsman is quick to answer the call. Follow along in his Big Idea for the second novel in his Conradverse Chronicles, Kakistocracy, to see just how he started crafting this sequel. ALEX SHVARTSMAN: Sometimes you have to work at comi … | Continue reading
There are some quality parking lots in Nashville. It’s also a lovely town, and in that red building that you can see here, there is the Gibson garage, which is a shop featuring lots and lots and lots of Gibson guitars. And was suitably impressed. I did not purchase any guitars. I … | Continue reading
For some, there is magic in the ordinary. For others, magic is the ordinary. Such is the case for the main character of author Dan Moren’s newest novel, All Souls Lost. Follow along in his Big Idea as he expands a bit on the mystical world of magic and technology. DAN MOREN: Ever … | Continue reading
Taken a little later than my hotel room shots usually are, but then, look, you get a nice crescent moon out of it. So you have that going for you, which is nice. And today was me making an appearance at a bookseller’s convention, so I got to meet a lot of lovely people who […] | Continue reading
The power of books is undeniable. But the power of books is also fragile and constantly in danger. These are facts which inform Tobias S. Buckell’s latest work A Stranger in the Citadel — along with his own love of literature and the physical form it takes. TOBIAS S. BUCKELL: It’ … | Continue reading