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What I Did With My Evening, Jan. 22, 2025 Edition

I signed a thousand signature sheets! It’s for a signed, numbered edition of When the Moon Hits Your Eye (this one, in fact), and I signed two sets of number copies, on the principle of redundancy, so that if one set of the number signed sheets is somehow damaged, there’s a second set to fill the gap. So this evening I signed all the sheets, and watch the Dune movies as I did so, since I’ve…

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This Just In: Another Novel Done

The Shattering Peace, the seventh book in the Old Man’s War series, done on January 21, 2025 at 12:34 am. 80,008 words, not counting acknowledgements. It’s late by a couple of months, but (gestures at world). It’ll be out in September(ish). Gonna write some acknowledgements, and then I’m going to sleep for a month. — JS

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New Books and ARCs, 1/17/24

Temperatures are about to drop all across North America, so what better time to peruse a stack of new book and ARCs! What here would you like to snuggle up with on a chilly winter weekend? Share in the comments! — JS

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What I'm Expecting From the New Administration

Nothing great! I was going to write a longer and more serious piece about this, and who knows, later I might, but right now I’m behind on a book deadline and it has priority. Nevertheless, I would feel remiss not at least posting some bit of commentary about this now. So, briefly, here it is: We let back into office a corrupt, rage-filled actual criminal felon and sex offender who cannot be…

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Linda Louis, RIP

One of my favorite stories about Linda, who was Krissy’s aunt and who passed away earlier this month, was how she welcomed me when we moved to Ohio, 24 years ago now. When I arrived at our new house, Linda was there with the rest of the family, and when she saw me, she came over to me with a necklace that consisted of a buckeye on a string. She put the necklace on me and said, “You’re a Buckeye…

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David Lynch, RIP

Director-writer David Lynch, who radicalized American film with with a dark, surrealistic artistic vision in films like “Blue Velvet” and “Mulholland Drive” and network television with “Twin Peaks,” has died. He was 78. bit.ly/40is3yQ— Variety (@variety.bsky.social) 2025-01-16T18:23:12.117Z For fuck’s sake, 2025, ease off the pedal, already. Beyond that, Blue Velvet was one of the very few…

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A Little Lucy Dacus For You

Lucy Dacus is one third of boygenius, whose album The Record is my favorite of the last couple of years, and she has an solo album, Forever is a Feeling, coming in March, of which this song, with its utterly charming video, is the first single. I can’t imagine I won’t be getting the album when it comes out. In the meantime, enjoy this. — JS

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Taking Leave

I hate every single possible thing about this, and I'm heartbroken about all of it. http://www.vulture.com/article/neil…— John Scalzi (@scalzi.com) 2025-01-13T11:35:26.996Z If you want to know when I pretty much drew a line though my friendship with Neil Gaiman, it was when Neil acknowledged that he made moves on his early-20s nanny on her first day of employment. This meant that the…

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New Interview With Me at Strange Horizons Magazine

Strange Horizons, for those of you who don’t know, is the magazine where I had my very first science fiction short story published (well, the very first I ever submitted for publication, and which also turned out to be the last I ever submitted for publication, but I’m getting ahead of myself), way back in 2001. As part of their 25th anniversary celebration, they had me on for a podcast —…

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Winter at the Scalzi Compound, 1/12/25

Overall it feels like we get less snow here in Bradford than we used to when we first moved in, but if the snowfall averages I’m looking at are correct, in the last few days we’ve gotten more snow (6+ inches) than we usually do for the entire month (4.9 inches). So, well done, January 2025, you’re above average. I’m not personally a huge proponent of snow — this is my Southern California heritage…

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On the Depressing Doings of Trillion Dollar Companies, January 2025 Edition

There’s a lot of a to-do about Mark Zuckerberg announcing that moderation teams on Meta’s social media properties are being largely phased out and replaced by a system similar to X’s “community notes,” and that Meta will now basically allow people to be particularly awful to LGBTQ+ folks. As one result, lots of people I know are thinking about leaving Facebook/Threads/Instagram (many of them…

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What I Have Eligible for Award Consideration This Year, 2025 Edition

It’s Constituent Service, which is eligible in the Best Novella category, and, via Amber Benson’s terrific narration performance, in the Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form category as well. Constituent Service is currently still an Audible exclusive, so you will need an Audible account to listen to it, but if you are indeed an Audible subscriber, it’s part of the Audible Plus service, which…

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Today's Expensive Cat

On Saturday Smudge suddenly gave every indication of developing a urinary blockage, and several phone calls and one trip to an emergency vet clinic later, it was confirmed that, indeed, Smudge had gotten himself blocked (he does have a regular vet; they were booked up). Thus began, for him, a weekend of procedures and medication to clear him up and get him ready to come back home, and for me, a…

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Some Announcements about Scalzi Enterprises and Whatever

Tomorrow, January 6, 2025, marks the beginning of the first full business week of the year, and with it, Scalzi Enterprises also begins its public incarnation as a full-time family business. Krissy, as you probably know by now, is the CEO and will handle the financial and executive responsibilities of the company. I am the chairman and Chief Creative Officer, and I will be thinking of interesting…

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The Return of the Prodigal Phone

Someone, and I am not saying who, may have dropped his phone in a manner that rather spectacularly shattered his screen into a jillion pieces (and also apparently jostled the camera module in a ruinous way), necessitating the need to send the phone off to be repaired. Those roughly two-and-half weeks without the phone were a trial, to be sure, ameliorated by the fact that this person didn’t go…

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Catch an Excerpt of "When the Moon Hits Your Eye" on Polygon

You don’t have to, of course; I know some people prefer to go into books without any major hints or spoilers to the plot. But if that’s not you, here’s an excerpt from Chapter Two in the book (why Chapter Two? because it lends itself to excerpt-y-ness more than Chapter One). In other news, 82 days until this book is released into the world! Prepare yourselves accordingly! — JS

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20 Years of Old Man's War

In retrospect, Tor Books officially releasing Old Man’s War on January 1, 2005, doesn’t seem like a huge vote of confidence in the novel. One, the holiday season is over and all the spending has been done save for a stray, occasional gift card. Two, even if one wanted to buy Old Man’s War on its official release date, most bookstores were closed for the national holiday, and this being 2005,…