As someone who doesn’t know much about science, had never heard the name Oppenheimer before, and has nightmares about nukes frequently, Oppenheimer might not really seem like a movie I would watch. Honestly, I’m not sure I would’ve watched it if it wasn’t for the whole “Barbenhei … | Continue reading
History is often an inspiration for fantasy, but as Howard Andrew Jones explains in this Big Idea for Lord of a Shattered Land, how that inspiration hits can be a surprise, even for the author himself. HOWARD ANDREW JONES: It seemed like such an obvious what-if question I couldn’ … | Continue reading
Welcome to Wednesday. Here are some things I’m thinking about today. The Absolutely Unsurprising Freak-Out Of The Right at the New Trump Indictments: Jack Smith, knowing what was coming, clearly delineated between Donald Trump lying out of his ass about having won the last electi … | Continue reading
With all due respect to the indictments from New York and Florida, which are serious enough in themselves, and particularly in the latter case could end up with Trump doing some time in the Stony Lonesome, today’s indictments get to the heart of the matter for Trump: He (allegedl … | Continue reading
Barbie was a movie that I saw a lot of marketing for, but despite all its marketing, I wasn’t really sure what it was going to be about. I didn’t know what to expect when I went to see it opening night, but I figured it would at least be a light, fun, colorful, and decently […] | Continue reading
Author Jacqueline Carey is no stranger to the sort of fandom that thrives on fringes, but in this Big idea for her latest novel, Cassiel’s Servant, Carey explains how that fame and fandom exists for reasons that many might not expect. JACQUELINE CAREY: Kushiel’s Legacy is a cult … | Continue reading
Some thoughts on things on this last day of July, 2023: RIP, Paul Reubens: Better known to at least a couple of generations of Americans as Pee-wee Herman, Reubens had apparently been contending with cancer over the last several years. In his final statement on his Facebook page, … | Continue reading
There are things in the world we wish we had the power to change, but as J.D. Blackrose explains in this Big Idea for Wish Magic, wishing for that power, and having it, are two different things entirely. J.D. BLACKROSE: What’s it like to be powerless when you’re used to being in … | Continue reading
Why? Because everyone else is out of the house for the day and this particular song has been earworming me for a couple of days now, so why not. It’s glitchy and noisy and messy, apparently, just the way I like ’em. Enjoy. — JS | Continue reading
As we ease into the dog days of summer, here’s a stack of new books and ARCs to keep you company. What here would you like to take into a cool reading nook? Share in the comments! — JS | Continue reading
I woke up at 10am today, and no matter what time I went to sleep, waking up at 10 means my brain is loopy for the rest of the day. Fair warning! That said: Oh Look, More Trump Indictments: Not the ones about January 6, which could be coming real soon now, but new ones […] | Continue reading
I know people are excited about yesterday’s Congressional testimony about UFOs (these days called UAP, for “unidentified aerial phenomena”), but simply as a matter of prudence I would warn against taking the sensational testimony about “non-human biologics” as evidence of actual … | Continue reading
You read that right, folks, I’ve got ten different flavors of pretzels and I’m here to put these bad boys in order. First things first, let’s talk about the brand of these pretzels. I got them from pretzels.com. Yep, just good ol’ pretzels.com. I started getting ads on Instagram … | Continue reading
Well, this hurts a lot. She was troubled and erratic and brilliant and one of the indelible voices of my generation, and she was fucking right about the Catholic Church, for all the good it did her in this life. Genius doesn’t make for an easy life, but genius she was, and I’m gl … | Continue reading
Inasmuch as I’ve committed to cutting waaaay back on my participation at the Site Formerly Known as Twitter, I find that there are things I might have otherwise tweeted (i.e., too short for a full post here) that I still want to talk about somewhere. Then I remembered, hey, you c … | Continue reading
How about that! The Ohioana Award is the state literature award of Ohio, given out by the Ohioana Library, which is sort of like the Ohio version of the Library of Congress. The Kaiju Preservation Society won in the “Reader’s Choice” category, which means that it came out on top … | Continue reading
What is the legend in The Legend of Charlie Fish? Is it about a man? Is it about a myth? Is it about something in-between? Author Josh Rountree is here to answer everything about this tale of the old west, with a twist in its tail. JOSH ROUNTREE: Here’s my dark secret about The … | Continue reading
Overnight, not unlike an NFL owner silently absconding with a whole football team to move it to a new town, Elon Musk decided to change the name of Twitter to “X,” which, for those of you not in the know, is a long-dormant domain name Musk had in his early days when he was busy [ … | Continue reading
Authors often use the past for inspiration. But what point does the inspiration of earlier days become a problem for the setting our author wants to write for? It’s a question Sheila Jenne confronts in this Big Idea for Black Sails to Sunward. SHELIA JENNE: My dad has two major o … | Continue reading
I just looked up on the way down the road to do some errands, and there it was: the Goodyear blimp. Why is it there? I surmise because this weekend is the Dayton Air Show, which is actually a pretty big deal as these things go; it was off to do a circuit or two […] | Continue reading
Author Jennifer Estep is back with another Big Idea for the second installment in her Galactic Bonds series. Come along to see how writing the second book of a series is actually preferable for her, and how much she enjoyed the process of bringing us Only Good Enemies. JENNIFER E … | Continue reading
Issue 1 being the rather brazen attempt by a bunch of jerks to change the Ohio constitution to make it more difficult to change the Ohio constitution by voter initiative. It’s so blatantly anti-democratic at there’s an actual coalition of Democrats and Republicans arrayed against … | Continue reading
If we don’t remember history, we are doomed to repeat it. But what happens when the past comes crashing into the present? Author Stephen Blackmoore plays with this idea in the ninth novel of his Eric Carter series, Cult Classic. Follow along in his Big Idea to see how he picked w … | Continue reading
I was scrolling on Tik Tok when I saw a pickle review video over various items from The Pickle Guys. I thought to myself, I sure would like to do a pickle review. So I am! After perusing all the different types of pickles and pickled vegetables (and fruits!) they offer on their w … | Continue reading
There is profit to be made off of violence. What if there was a way to profit off of preventing violence, as well? Author Jayne Cowie takes us into the world of her new novel, One of the Boys, to show us how violence is a treatable, fixable thing there. Read on to see the detail … | Continue reading
Yes, that’s Hokusai’s The Great Wave Off Kanagawa, and yes, those are Doc Martens. I will be spending the next couple of months wearing them in so they are ready for when cold weather actually hits and I will need a pair of boots. Because, yes, I did actually buy them to be pract … | Continue reading
I figure you’ll be okay with that. Also, hello, I’m back home from a weekend in North Carolina. It was lovely. Also, it’s nice to be home. — JS | Continue reading
Tea is best enjoyed with friends. So is revenge! Author Kemi Ashing-Giwa brings us a tale of tea, friendship, revenge, and so much more in her new novel, The Splinter in the Sky. KEMI ASHING-GIWA: There wasn’t one singular idea that sparked The Splinter in the Sky; it was more of … | Continue reading
I’m in town for the Con-Gregate convention, and after figuring out how much time it would take with connecting flights, etc, I decided it would be easier and slightly faster to drive in. Which I did, and it was fine, except for that one part where I was in a downpour on a twisty … | Continue reading
You start with an old idea, and from this old idea, you can create something new. So Julia Vee and Ken Bebelle learned, as they looked to legends from their heritage for the new novel Ebony Gate. JULIA VEE and KEN BEBELLE: When we started writing what would become Ebony Gate, we … | Continue reading
As a child, author Stephen Aryan wanted to see people like him in fantasy books, but rarely did. Now that he writes books himself, he made sure to represent his roots in his new novel, The Judas Blossom. Follow along in his Big Idea to see how this first installment of the trilog … | Continue reading
Because sometimes it’s just nice to see flowers. — JS | Continue reading
As much as people love the classics, sometimes they need an update. Luckily, author Rachel Cantor is here to bring us a modernized look at a Brontë classic in her new novel, Half-Life of a Stolen Sister. Follow along in her Big Idea to see how she swapped out the 1800s for the no … | Continue reading
Wanna read the first three chapters of my upcoming novel totally for free? Go to your favorite online bookseller and look for “Starter Villain Sneak Peak” and you’ll be on your way. You’re welcome! (PS: Possibly US/Can markets only because it’s Tor US doing it, but I haven’t chec … | Continue reading
Hey, remember when Twitter and Facebook and Instagram (and Tik Tok, if you were under 30) were the only games in town, after having basically destroyed the idea of the independent web? Well, no longer! Thanks to Elon Musk being forced to buy Twitter and then turning it into a res … | Continue reading
The night I got to LA, I decided to look around online and see what kind of interesting and fun events would be happening whilst I was visiting. Almost immediately, I found an event called “Dining In The Dark” being held at a place in downtown LA called Little Llama Peruvian Taco … | Continue reading
Over on the r/fantasy subreddit, there was a post about recent Hugo Award stats (which excerpted this original post at the Mr. Philp’s Library blog), and in the comments people naturally speculated about why the Hugos are the way they are these days: Why Tor seems to get a lot of … | Continue reading
July is sultry, which makes it a fine time to cool off with a fine read. What in this lovely stack of new books and ARCs is your favored read on a summer eve? Share in the comments! — JS | Continue reading
Author Gourhav Mohanty is on a mission, one that takes on the heritage of his nation, and his own ambitions for story telling. In this Big Idea, he tells you how he’s combined both for his novel Sons of Darkness. GOURAV MOHANTY: The idea seems simple enough at first glance. Ask a … | Continue reading
In no particular order: 1. I was — and am! — genuinely surprised by this Hugo nomination. Given that the Worldcon is in China this year, and that the very large majority of attendees will likely be Chinese nationals, I expected that there would be a fair amount of Chinese represe … | Continue reading
The story of The Black Scorpions is a story of wartime and those who served in it, but as co-author Gregory Lynch, Jr. tells us in this Big Idea, it’s also a story of families, of fathers and sons, and of waiting until the right elements have come together to finally tell a tale. … | Continue reading
The official 2023 Hugo Award finalist list is out and I’m delighted to say The Kaiju Preservation Society is on it! I’ll have more to say about this all in a bit, but for now, here’s a link to the entire finalist list on the Chengdu Worldcon site, and, for those who don’t want to … | Continue reading
It was a brutal attack, my friends. Soon nothing was left but the bones. Please be careful out there, the short wolves are everywhere. They will take you down, and then it’s all over. Trust me. I know. — JS | Continue reading
I’d write more but my internet service provider chose a national holiday to have an access incident, and my ability to be online today is intermittent at best. Hopefully you’re enjoying the day away from the Internet anyway. See you tomorrow — — JS | Continue reading
For no good reason other than I took them today, I like them, and having mostly been on airplanes today, my brain is mush, so pictures will be better than anything I could write at the moment. Enjoy. — JS | Continue reading
Something I just posted here was based on incomplete information and rescinded, so I’ve taken it down. Sorry, more information when things are figured out. — JS | Continue reading
The Flash has been out long enough now that I feel anyone who wants to see it has probably already seen it, and those who haven’t probably don’t really care to ever see it. So, I feel justified in talking about it with spoilers! As with any DC film (live action ones, at least), m … | Continue reading
It’s got a parking lot and an airport! Truly, a magnificent view from a hotel window. I will say that getting here was an adventure — My first plane left the gate and sat on the tarmac for close to an hour, blowing past any possibility of getting to my connecting flight, and then … | Continue reading