John Scalzi’s “Fuzzy Nation”
John Scalzi is definitely one of my favorite sci-fi authors. While I enjoy books that leaving me thinking, head-scratching, pondering serious questions and sometimes collapsing all of those mental states around a quantum mechanics problem centered in the harder sci-fi, Scalzi’s books are uniquely hopeful. I wouldn’t go so far as to call his writing [...]
Scalzi/Wheaton Book Of Awesomeness
One of my summer projects was to spend more time writing, and I used a variety of writing contests (Erika Napoletano, ESPN/Stymie and Scalzi/Wheaton) to force action on that thought. I think I had the most fun working on the Scalzi/Wheaton fanfic contest, mostly because it was the first time I’d written science fiction, fan [...]
Robert Heinlein Had His Bad Days, Too
Robert Heinlein was the first science fiction author that I read. Not read as in one book or one story, but read as in going to the library (pre-Amazon days), finding every single piece of his work, and checking them all out early in the summer and using those long, hot days by the YMCA [...]
Wheaton Unicorn Kitty Versus John Scalzi Orc
My wonderful wife and I often conclude a rather improbable, highly entertaining or four sigma to the right of center story with “You just can’t make this shit up.” For instance: What if Wil Wheaton, recently joining the ranks of my favorite authors, was riding a unicorn kitten (not a unicorn chaser, mind you, but [...]
Foreground Process, Reading Input
I basically did a control-Z on blogging about a month ago. It was completely unintentional, a combination of too much travel, holidays, a short family vacation, a lot of work, and quite honestly, the NJ Devils going on an 8-game winning streak that had me devote significant time to coaching from in front of the [...]
Someone Comes To Town
If you’ve ever heard me talk, in conference or via conference call, you know that I’m a huge, huge fan of Cory Doctorow. In addition to being one of the editors of boingboing, he’s a world-class, new-breed sci-fi writer, more focused on social issues and the socialization of technology (gotta love it) than on inventing [...]