Hazy enough that my camera was able to record sunspots without the benefit of a filter. That’s… pretty hazy, folks. I hope those in Canada affected by the fires are staying safe, and those in Canada and elsewhere affected by the smoke are doing what they can to avoid the worst ef … | Continue reading
When a story reaches the end, the lives of the characters in it often don’t… so what then? Jason Fischer had to tackle this question for The Jawbone & The Junkman. In this Big Idea, Fischer unveils a few conclusions. JASON FISCHER: When the big bad falls, what happens next? Do th … | Continue reading
Many of you told me that Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was a better movie than its predecessors (especially Temple of Doom), and you were right! I liked this third installment much more than I did the first two. That doesn’t mean I loved it or anything, just that it’s a lot … | Continue reading
Today’s the day! My new story “Slow Time Between the Stars” is out on Amazon and Audible, as part of the Far Reaches collection, in Kindle and audio versions. If you buy the text version, you get the audio version, narrated by Kay Eluvian, as well; they’re bundled together. If yo … | Continue reading
Hello, everyone! I am back in Santa Monica once again, this time for eighteen days. I would really appreciate some recommendations of what to do in the area, just some places you’ve been and love or places you think I should check out. If you recommend a restaurant, tell me what … | Continue reading
When one is a writer, laziness can be a virtue. Skeptical? Here’s author Brenda W. Clough to explain how laziness was key to creating the story of A Door in His Head. BRENDA W. CLOUGH: The wise writer is efficient because she’s lazy. She puts a lot of work into cooking up a unive … | Continue reading
Because I think it will come in handy for some folks, a quick primer about literary awards (this may or may not have relevance outside the realm of literary awards, but I’m going with what I know, here): 1. If an author/book has won an award, and you are unhappy with that, for wh … | Continue reading
I am genuinely surprised and thrilled and, as I was not able to attend the awards ceremony myself, very happy I remembered in send in a video acceptance speech for if I won. It is above. It is very serious. Thank you to: Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Molly McGee, Rachel Bass, Peter Lut … | Continue reading
How plausible do you need to be in your speculative fiction? It’s a question that interests Robin C.M. Duncan quite a bit, and this Big Idea for The Carborundum Conundrum, one well worth digging into. ROBIN C. M. DUNCAN: How much does realism matter in Science Fiction stories? My … | Continue reading
Surprise! I have a new EP of electronic music out! As most of you know, a short story of mine, “Slow Time Between the Stars,” will be out next Tuesday as part of the “Far Reaches” collection, along with stories by James SA Corey, Nnedi Okorafor, Veronica Roth, Ann Leckie and Rebe … | Continue reading
Yes, in addition to purchasing an iPad Pro recently, I also picked up the new Pixel Tablet, complete with its recharging speaker stand. In fact, I ordered this thing first, but the iPad Pro, having already been in production, showed up first. I’ve had a couple of days to live wit … | Continue reading
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has been out for a hot minute now, and with it has come a million and one reviews of the film. Originally, I was going to add to this onslaught of reviews, but I don’t think y’all need another person telling you how amazing it is. Though, admit … | Continue reading
The full review is behind a paywall so I won’t link it here, but here’s the kicker line: “Scalzi again examines tropes in a tale of an ordinary individual being cast into an extraordinary situation with his trademark quick pacing, clever banter, and ability to find humor in despe … | Continue reading
It’s my own personal cuneiform tablet! Does it actually say (more or less) “The failure mode of ‘clever’ is ‘asshole'”? I have no way to check! They say it’s a syllabic transliteration into Old Persian, which, okay, I believe them! Is the tablet even correctly oriented in this pi … | Continue reading
Stories are meant to connect those in our lives to us, even if those stories are about death. Author Madison Davis brings us a Big Idea about connection, community, and grief. Follow along as she tells us what led to the creation of The Loved Ones. MADISON DAVIS: I’ve written abo … | Continue reading
Or, if you like, any other book short-listed for this year’s Ohioana Book Awards that catches your fancy, although be aware you can choose only one. And if you do decide to choose Kaiju, well. Then you are my new favorite person in the whole wide world. Yes! You! Voting is extrem … | Continue reading
How much does real life inform a book about dark, magical creatures? As Liz Kerin explains in this Big Idea for her novel Night’s Edge, sometimes, a lot more than you might expect. LIZ KERIN: Full disclosure: I never set out to write a vampire book. But here we are, and it feels … | Continue reading
I went on vacation with Krissy for the last several days (to celebrate our anniversary), and rather than to take either my Pixelbook or my Dell XPS 13 with me, I took my new M2 iPad Pro with its Magic Keyboard to see if it was a suitable laptop replacement for a short trip. I […] | Continue reading
We’re on vacation and have fun things to do, so I will be brief and note that 28 years is not nearly enough time to be married to such a spectacular person such as Krissy. I want another 28! At least! And will work every day to be worthy of the days I get with […] | Continue reading
I have never been a fan of concerts. Usually, I find them to be too loud and too crowded. If we’re being totally honest, I just don’t care for live music as a whole. It never seems to sound as good, and I never got the appeal of paying money to see what I can […] | Continue reading
Home is where the heart is. Author J. R. Dawson is going through some big changes, and shares in their Big Idea how the new novel, The First Bright Thing, ties in to what they (and perhaps you) is going through. J. R. DAWSON: A Spark is a very big idea in a very small […] | Continue reading
After so many people had commented on my post that I would dislike this Indiana Jones movie even more than Raiders, I had very low expectations for The Temple of Doom. Somehow, it was even worse than I was expecting. The Temple of Doom was one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, … | Continue reading
The things we love inspire us. Such is the case in author Nicole Kornher-Stace’s Big Idea, where they talk about a classic childhood favorite that set the groundwork for the idea behind her newest novel, Flight & Anchor. NICOLE KORNHER-STACE: So when I was little, I had this vint … | Continue reading
And just what is “Slow Time Between the Stars?” Well, it’s a short story I wrote as part of a collection that Amazon Stories is putting out called “Far Reaches.” My story will be joining stories by James SA Corey, Nnedi Okorafor, Rebecca Roanhorse, Veronica Roth and Ann Leckie, a … | Continue reading
It’s up on the Tor/Forge blog! That’s it, that’s the whole post. Go! — JS | Continue reading
Author Pierce Freelon shares with us his new children’s book, which sheds some light on going through tough changes in life. Read through his Big Idea to see the inspiration behind Daddy & Me, Side by Side. PIERCE FREELON: My father has a cosmic presence. He passed away after a s … | Continue reading
Why, yes, I have been busy in my music basement this weekend. For this one, I took NASA audio of a Juno flyby of the Jovian moon Ganymede, and used both the raw audio (“raw” here used advisedly, as the NASA audio is in itself processed), and loops created by making MIDI files fro … | Continue reading
BE WARNED: This track starts with quite a clatter and then continues to clatter as it goes along; maybe turn it down a bit at first, especially if you’re listening with headphones. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. With that handled, I’m actually personally rather taken with this piec … | Continue reading
Be the change you want to see in the world. For author CJ Leede, that means creating a villainous, monstrous female character because she didn’t see enough of them in the world. Dive into her Big Idea and see how she crafted a truly bad bitch in her novel Maeve Fly. CJ LEEDE: Can … | Continue reading
(Photo by Gage Skidmore (see original), used under Creative Commons license (CC BY-SA 2.0). Additional editing and typography by me.) Good news, Pippin! We get second indictment after all! How many specific indictments have yet to be revealed as of me writing this, but it seems t … | Continue reading
I have a second generation iPad Mini, which is, charitably, feeling its age, and have been thinking of upgrading for a while now. Recently, two things happened: Apple announced a full-featured Logic Pro app for the iPad, and I came into some money via surprise royalties. So I dec … | Continue reading
Two years ago, I posted this piece over going through my closet and cleaning out a decade worth of stuff. I talked about my hoarding tendencies, having too much stuff, being stressed out by it all, not being able to part with it, etc. While in the post I mentioned that I managed … | Continue reading
Good day for photos. Bad day for breathing. Everyone be safe out there, especially you folks in Canada. — JS | Continue reading
Labels are a tough thing to navigate. It can be hard to know what fits, or if you even want to apply labels to yourself at all. This is something author James L. Sutter has struggled with, and something he explores in his new novel, Darkhearts. JAMES L. SUTTER: You’ve probably ne … | Continue reading
We were, literally, listening to his music last night. We listen to it a lot, as Krissy finds it helpful to fall asleep to. “Music to fall asleep to” does not usually sound like the category of music one wants to be associated with, but here it is a compliment. Winston’s playing … | Continue reading
So, as you know, I’m fiddling around a lot with music at the moment, because it’s fun and also it’s a hobby I can do in my basement, which is convenient for my purposes. As it’s a hobby, there doesn’t have to be a particular metric for it, nevertheless I find as I go along […] | Continue reading
The “rise of AI” is a growing concern for many creators. Award winning author Alaya Dawn Johnson has some unique ideas on this AI problem we all face, and talks in her Big Idea about how our world’s AI compare to the AI in her newest novel, The Library of Broken Worlds. ALAYA DAW … | Continue reading
In case you didn’t know, there’s a new Indiana Jones movie coming out at the end of this month called The Dial of Destiny. I keep seeing trailers for it, and I expect it to be a big hit summer movie, so I thought I should go see it. But before I do that, I knew […] | Continue reading
I asked Bard, Google’s AI, the name my upcoming novel, and also (as a test, because I haven’t publicly announced the title), the title of the novel after that. Bard correctly noted the name of the next novel (Starter Villain) and correctly noted I hadn’t publicly named the novel … | Continue reading
So named for the illustration I borrowed from NASA/JPL-Caltech for the cover (you can do that, it’s public domain, if you’re a US citizen, your taxes paid for it), and also because the piece is kind of space-y and loopy, in a relentlessly thumpy electronic sort of way. It’s built … | Continue reading
Heading into the first weekend of June and we have a nice stack of new books and ARCs, including a whole bunch of Ann Leckie reissues. What here is going to get you through some lazy June nights? Share in the comments! — JS | Continue reading
In her Big Idea for her new novel A Killer’s Game, author Isabella Maldonado touches on popular party events, adrenaline, and your long-lost ancestor, Grog. How do they all fit together? Like a puzzle. ISABELLA MALDONADO: The big idea behind A Killer’s Game was the explosion in p … | Continue reading
And it’s a pretty damn good one, too. An excerpt: “In this clever, fast-paced thriller, Hugo Award winner Scalzi (The Kaiju Preservation Society) subverts classic supervillain tropes with equal measures of tongue-in-cheek humor and common sense. Scalzi balances all the double-cro … | Continue reading
June 1st is Replace All the Windows Day, in which all our creaky and balky nearly 30-year-old windows are being pulled out and new, much more insulating, efficient and quiet windows are being put in. Here you can see that Charlie is deeply curious as to why there’s a hole in the … | Continue reading
Be warned: In A Thousand Recipes for Revenge, author Beth Cato can get… well, a little cheesy. But, perhaps, not exactly in the way you might expect. BETH CATO: I suppose other people might start work on a novel set in a musketeer-era fantasy world because they want the opportuni … | Continue reading
It is the final day of May, which means I’m posting this May review on time! Woohoo! Anyways, this month’s Universal Yums country was Taiwan, and it was a very colorful spread: I loved these packages’ designs. The cute little cow, the pretty pinks, and the funky little jelly shot … | Continue reading
Me: Dude, you do not need another guitar, especially another tenor guitar, and especially not a hollow body archtop tenor guitar, seriously, who even plays that shit out in the real world Also me: PS: It’s one of these. Also, it’s a fuckin’ delight. — JS | Continue reading
The Scalzi Family Foundation has begun its philanthropical mission (beginning with sponsoring the 2023 Gen Con Writers’ Symposium), and so it behooved us to have an official logo. I commissioned artist Natalie Metzger to create one, and she came up with something I really liked. … | Continue reading