I did actually have a day job in 1998. Well, for about a quarter of it. I worked at America Online as its in-house writer and editor, and got laid off that March. I got laid off not because I was a terrible employee, but because my group was being dissolved and while everyone els … | Continue reading
Let's start this off with a picture I took this morning. I call this one "Worlds on a String." See, there's an upside to spiderwebs everywhere. *** I was in Columbus last night to take part in a panel at the Religion News Association's conference, on science fiction and religion … | Continue reading
First: This banner from the Subterranean Press web site, which I got a giggle over: I love it because I think Nate Taylor, the illustrator, did a perfect job drawing me. I look ridiculous, but in a fun and affectionate way, which I think is perfect, both for me and for the book. … | Continue reading
One, today's entry title is a little reflexive. Two, it doesn't feel like it's been 20 years. But I don't think anything ever does. Time is a funny thing which spans backwards and forwards from you, but at the moment it's only ever now. You keep living right now, and being now, a … | Continue reading
Today, on the 20th anniversary of Whatever, I am absolutely thrilled to announce the upcoming publication of Virtue Signaling and Other Heresies: Selected Writings From Whatever, 2013-2018. This new collection from Subterranean Press collects some of the best writing from Whateve … | Continue reading
I never thought I would travel as much as I do today. This year, as an example, for work: Two book tours, comprising a total of 21 stops and just over three weeks. Conventions in Detroit and Phoenix and San Jose and Albuquerque. Festivals in Los Angeles and Nantes, France (with a … | Continue reading
It's noisy here today. Shall we begin? *** First, I want to say I admire the spider who spun a web directly across the doorway to my patio. I admire the creature's optimism in catching the really large prey. However, I saw the web before I walked into it, so I will not be cocoone … | Continue reading
And if you look closely, you can see the new crescent moon. | Continue reading
In the past twenty years, I'm not sure my personal set of politics have changed all that much. I'm pretty sure what has changed is how people view them. And what would I say my politics are? Well, at the base of everything I believe that the goal of society should be to develop i … | Continue reading
Today's Big Idea is a two-fer: editors Susan Forest and Lucas K. Law bring your their own -- and their highly divergent -- paths to co-editing Shades Within Us, a collection of short stories about migration. SUSAN FOREST: I am a fraud. I've never had the guts to move away from my … | Continue reading
Good morning! I slept in a bit and I feel pretty good about it. Let's get to it. *** I debuted my new author photo on Twitter yesterday and it got the expected responses, including "tell the hairy guy in front to move so we can see the cat." I remember taking the picture and… | Continue reading
If you do, it's here. | Continue reading
So, let's review the presidents we've had since 1998: A sexually harassing policy wonk, a genial imbecile, a malevolent imbecile, and Barack Obama. I don't think we do presidents well. This assessment is bolstered by looking at the other five presidents who have been in office in … | Continue reading
Autho Jaine Fenn starts this Big Idea piece with an admission -- and then explains how she got around it for her new novel, Hidden Sun. JAINE FENN: Don’t tell anyone, but I’m a fraud. Most writers have bouts of imposter syndrome, but when it comes to writing scientifically rigoro … | Continue reading
An overcast morning here, and apparently it's going to rain for (checks weather forecast) the next four days. Whee! Here's what I'm thinking about today. *** That New York Times anonymous op-ed: Oh, you know the one, in which an unnamed senior official at the White House says the … | Continue reading
Was there actually even social media in 1998? Oh, my, yes. There was. And it acted in pretty much the same way as it does now, in all the good and bad ways. The players were different, of course. In 1998, in place of Twitter and Facebook you had USENET and America Online (as two… | Continue reading
In today's Big Idea, Michael J. Martinez reminisces back on his college days, and how an offhand comment back then informs MJ-12: Endgame, the finale of his supernatural spy series. MICHAEL J. MARTINEZ: I went to a university with a heavy fraternity/sorority presence; the Greek h … | Continue reading
Good morning! Let's see what we've got today. That Nike Ad: In which Colin Kaepernick's face gazes out whilst the phrase "Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything" floats right around his nose. It's been eliciting polarized responses, as it was almost certain … | Continue reading
Yeah, okay, Greg Van Eekhout's Big Idea piece for Voyage of the Dogs got me genuinely choked up. Read it and you'll figure out why. GREG VAN EEKHOUT: Spoiler: I don’t kill off any of the dogs in this book. Why not? Because I’m not a monster, that’s why not. Voyage of the Dogs is … | Continue reading
Well, this one is simple. In 1998, I had no published books. In 2018 I have -- (counts fingers) (counts toes) (counts fingtoes) -- thirty, depending on whether you count individually published novellas (I do), and that number will rise by the end of the year. This number doesn't … | Continue reading
Good morning! Let's get to this thing. *** Steve Bannon and the New Yorker -- Well, this was predictable enough, to anyone who wasn't David Remnick: The New Yorker announced that Bannon would be the headliner of its upcoming "festival," in conversation with Remnick, who is the ma … | Continue reading
First, the kitten in the trashcan, because you always lead with the "A" material: Why is the kitten in the trashcan? IT KNOWS WHY. (And also, because kittens are kitten-y, and Smudge is more kitten-y than most, and jumping heedlessly into trashcans is just a thing kittens do.) Se … | Continue reading
In the last twenty years I've called two places "home": The first house I ever owned, and (I suspect) the last house I'll ever own. The first house I ever owned -- and by "I" it should be understood that I am a part of a "we" as Krissy and I were both on the… | Continue reading
Over the last twenty years I've had an interesting relationship with money. It's been mostly positive, to be sure (spoiler: these last twenty years I've been generally financially secure), but I've had a lot of time to think about money and what it means to me and my life. So let … | Continue reading
Over the course of 20 years, I've had seven cats, roughly grouped into three generations. The first generation of cats was a single cat: Rex, who I acquired in 1991 from my sister Heather. Heather and her children came to live with me for about a year when she was getting a divor … | Continue reading
As most of you probably know by now, September 2018 will mark the 20th anniversary of Whatever, the blog you are reading right at this very moment. Twenty years is a very long time to be writing anything; it's a long time to be doing anything at all, to be honest. I wanted to com … | Continue reading
We're heading into Labor Day weekend, and closing out August and the summer. Here's a stack of new books and ARCs for you to contemplate for the ending of this month and season. Is there anything here you'd like to put in your September "to be read" list? Tell us in the comments. | Continue reading
Someone asked me if the other cats are jealous of the attention that Smudge is getting as the new kitten. Well, in terms of the attention on the Internet, the answer is that I'm pretty sure they are not, inasmuch as none of our cats, no matter how clever they are as cats, underst … | Continue reading
Today we're catching up on the new books and ARCs that arrived at the Scalzi Compound while I was traveling. There are some pretty excellent works in today's stack -- what here is intriguing you? Tell us all in the comments! | Continue reading
He's still a kitten but he's definitely not as small as he was two months ago, which of course makes perfect sense if you think about it. We're letting him out on short, supervised trips since like the other cats he'll be an indoor/outdoor working cat as well as a pet. He's enjoy … | Continue reading
https://youtu.be/nhZdL4JlnxI?t=52s I was talking yesterday on Twitter about my writing when I was much much younger (i.e., in the years between 18 and 21) and how the world is much better not seeing that writing, which of course some folks took as a challenge. So fine, as a repre … | Continue reading
I was away from the house for two weeks, and in that time here are the books that arrived in my absence. There's several dozen books here, some of them even ones I've written: two of the boxes here are author copies. But a significant number are from other authors. I'll be postin … | Continue reading
On my way home after two weeks away. I expect Smudge to be twice the size he was when I left. See you all on the other side. | Continue reading
Hello, everyone! Welcome to my final post. Today, I'm just here to say what a pleasure it has been, and close the curtain. I moved into my dorm at Miami today, and me being back here means summer is officially over for me, and that means after I post this, I am no longer a… | Continue reading
I've actually been in this hotel room since yesterday at around midnight, but I also stayed in bed all day yesterday which was delicious, so this is the first time I managed to haul myself over to the window and snap a shot. Hello Albuquerque! I'm here for Bubonicon 50, at which … | Continue reading
Hey, everyone, hope you're having an awesome Friday! One thing some of you might possibly know about me is that my dad is a writer. A successful one, at that! And as such, he knows a lot of other successful writers. Because of that, I've had the amazing chance to meet so many sup … | Continue reading
Now that I am comfortably ensconced in the hotel for Bubonicon 50 and will not be required to drive or appear anywhere else for a few days, it's time for my Worldcon 76 recap. Here are some thoughts, in no particular order: * It was good! I enjoyed myself tremendously over the co … | Continue reading
Yes! I am going on tour! Again! Twice in the same year (2.5 times, actually, since I am currently on tour with Mary Robinette Kowal)! This time I'll be touring for The Consuming Fire, the sequel to the The Collapsing Empire. Tor.com has all details, but if you're too lazy to link … | Continue reading
It's a very mid-century hotel, and I'm here for it. Tonight: Mary Robinette Kowal and I are at the Poisoned Pen bookstore at 7pm. Mary's terrific new book The Fated Sky is out today, and we'll be celebrating that and chatting about writing and doing other fun stuff. Please come o … | Continue reading
Hello, everyone! Today I'm here to share with you some awesome music from a very talented friend of mine, Jon R. Mohr. He's a composer/musician, plays piano and writes music, all that jazz, and he has some pretty awesome sounding stuff I thought was worth sharing. He's got slow, … | Continue reading
Last night I did a thing that no one else in the entire history of the Hugo Awards has ever done, an achievement so singular, so unique, that no one could have possibly have imagined it for me or for anyone else: I came in second in the Best Novel category to someone who has… | Continue reading
Howdy, everyone! How's your weekend going? Hopefully, it's going well, but if it's not, I'd like to offer you a Smupdate in this trying time. Smudge is getting bigger and becoming even more of an asshole than before, but I'll be darned if he ain't the cutest thing I ever did see. … | Continue reading
Hey, everyone! As I've been packing and sorting clothes and junk, I've been listening to a lot of music, and I stumbled upon a song I think is really interesting. It's got that old sound to it, like it's from another era of music, but I think it's really good and I like the lyric … | Continue reading
Hello, everyone! Summer is coming to a close, which means I only have one week left of posting on here. It also means that I move into my dorm next week, and will be starting classes soon after. Last year, I definitely went overboard on back-to-school clothes and supplies shoppin … | Continue reading
It's a lovely day in San Jose, despite a certain amount of particulate matter in the air, cause by parts of California being deeply aflame. Here you can see the convention center in which we'll have Worldcon 76, which starts tomorrow and runs through Monday. It's nice to be in Ca … | Continue reading
Hey, everyone! Today I thought I'd share something important to me, that being my all-time favorite movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas. Though it is technically Disney, anytime someone asks me what my favorite Disney movie is, I always forget to say The Nightmare Before Christ … | Continue reading
Tomorrow I head out to San Jose and Worldcon 76, and before I go let me address some questions about it and related things that I've been asked online and in real life, through the use of my fictional interlocutor. That's me! Yes, it is. Let's begin, shall we? Okay! So, are you n … | Continue reading
I think we can all agree that this has been a vital and necessary update. For those of you asking how well Smudge is being assimilated into the Scalzi clowder of cats, the answer is: reasonably well, but not without its problems. Smudge basically has two personality settings at t … | Continue reading