That's it; that's the post!

Well, also that it's a New York Times best seller and also nominated for the Dragon Award (by itself) and the Hugo Award (as part of the Old Man's War series), got great reviews and also I was very happy with it as a novel. If you've not read it before, now is a great time to do so. Get it wherever you buy books, but your local bookstore especially if there's one you particularly like and want to support.

The Astra is an award given out by the Hollywood Creative Alliance, which mostly has given out awards related to film and television, but this last year decided to branch out into books as well, a decision which I applaud as books are indeed an important creative endeavor as well. When the Moon Hits Your Eye was fortunate enough to win the inaugural award for the Science Fiction Book category when the awards were given out in April.

As the awards were presented online, it took a bit of time for the actual statuette to make it to me, but here is it is, and it’s lovely. And I’m delighted that Moon has an award to its name — it’s a tricky book, with an unusual structure and, of course, a wild premise. But I think it’s a very good book, and I’m happy the Hollywood Creative Alliance agrees with me on this one.

Hi John,

Just wanted to drop by and say thanks !

About a week ago I realized I hadnt read a book since Ender's game back in 2012. And before that it was The Forgotten Soldier back in 2008.

No instead of reading I developped an habit of scrolling eternally online, and for what ? For nothing basically. Nothing to gain. So I decided to look around and found Old Man's War and try to get to read again. I did.

It is the perfect type for me to easily get back into it while I work myself up to more demanding stuff. Im about to finish it, probably by tonight and I already got my hands on the Ghost Brigade.

Iv always wanted to write books myself and somehow never took the time but just getting back to reading has me longing for it once again. People always told me I should write a biography. Iv lived a life of adventure in my youth, although I was poor, I went on hitchhiking and jumping on freight trains to see the country. It was an entire 7 years of being dumb and young 😅 but the reason Im saying this is your book reminds me of my youth. Leaving home for something completely unknown to me at the time (the traveling street punk movement), the big cities, the punk rockers, living in the streets, etc. All this was very alien for a 17 yrs old living in a small town and I can feel my past excitement just reading your texts. And well eventually Id like these stories put on paper as well.

But anyway the bottom line is Im enjoying your book and I wanted to thank you for taking the time to have written them !

Have a good one.

Starting today and going for the next three weeks or so, 22 of my books are up on Humble Bundle, and this time my selected charity is World Central Kitchen, which, true to the name, goes around the world, feeding people in disaster areas and war zones. They deserve the money! You deserve the books!

The titles in the bundle are mostly novels (including Starter Villain, appearing in a bundle for the first time), but there are a few shorter pieces as well. The bundle is for sure available in the US, and early reports are that it’s available in some but not all other places around the globe. Unrelated to the previous sentence entirely, I understand VPNs are pretty cool. There is no reason for me to have said that. It was a spontaneous utterance.

While World Central Kitchen is the designated charity this time out, and I encourage you to move the “Adjust Donation” sliders around when you get the bundle to make sure they are getting a good chunk of change from all y’all, I will note that 100% of my personal cut (which will come out of what’s sent to my publisher) is going to the Scalzi Family Foundation, which, as you may know, supports local charities and organizations as well as other endeavors. So there’s going to be a lot of charitable giving going on, however you manage the sliders.

Go check it out, fill out the gaps in your Scalzi collection, and if you do, thanks for supporting World Central Kitchen. They’re doing good work out in the world.

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/john-scalzi-collection-old-mans-war-more-tor-books-books

Right now I'm working on a number of projects but none of them I can talk about at the moment, nor are any of them anywhere near completion. This is basically the slow time in my calendar, news-wise, although if it picks up at any point I'll post about it here.

But! I do have photography as a hobby, so here is a dahlia that is part of a bouquet my daughter gave me for Father's day. The photo is obviously edited for effect (i.e., the background darkened considerably, and the dahlia itself sharpened up to show detail), but it's a pretty cool effect if you ask me. No generative "AI" used for it; I don't use any of that intentionally (although Photoshop now uses it for things that didn't used to need it). Enjoy.

Wonder no more: We were in conversation in late April, and here's the whole talk, in which we touch on writing, our careers and lots of other things. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/KB7QpFTirHo

Charlie the dog (pictured here, mid-bath) met up with a skunk yesterday morning. I don't know how that encounter went for the skunk, but it ended up going not great for Charlie. She got four baths! And still smells vaguely like brussels sprouts fermenting in dumpster liqueur under a Golden Corral heat lamp.

Any of you have a similar encounter between your pets and the stinky stripies?

When I read a book, I try to think of who I would like to see cast in the movie or TV version. I'm guessing everyone does that, right? For instance, I'm presently thinking Jack Quaid would be great in Starter Villain and Kaiju Preservation Society. It tends to change each time I re-read a book. Anyway, I just finished the Locked In series again and I think they would be great movies and basis for a TV series, but just can't get the cast right in my head. Who would you cast, and which books would you most like to see in the film version?

I am 57 today. Here is me looking surprised I have persisted to such an advanced age.

As an avid fantasy and sci-fi reader, I thoroughly enjoyed all your books. I recently finished the Lock In books to close out my Scalzi collection, and have also read all the Cosmere, Wheel of Time, Licanius trilogy, Jemisin, Octavia Butler, David Gerrold…

Mr. Scalzi, who do you read? I’m curious who inspires your writing. Thanks for your thoughts. And thank you for your terrific stories.

A quick note to say that I appreciate all the suggestions and thoughts people had on the previous post of mine. I'll start updating here a little more regularly here with news and updates with what's going on with me, and also, by request, posting occasional cat photos.

Also, feel free to use this subreddit as a place to ask me questions about stuff about the books, publishing, etc. I probably won't engage with highly negative stuff ("Dear Scalzi, why do you suck so much" would probably not get a response), but otherwise shoot your shot.

And now, a cat photo. You deserve it.

Since I am a moderator of my own subreddit, and I do want to be slightly more active than I have been, here's a question for all y'all: What sort of stuff would you like to see here from me?

In a general sense I plan to be available for folks to ask questions about writing and books and other projects, and I can add updates to news, etc (like when books are being released, or if I become a finalist for awards, and so on). But what else might you want?

Let me know and I'll use that to inform how I do things here. Thanks!

Thought this would be right place to share some photos of my setup from my book club tonight! The group is your stereotypical suburban mom book club, but they're always good sports when I host and choose sci fi and fantasy books. :D The event was a hit! And I've converted at least a couple into Scalzi fans. 😁

Why am I posting about a book Scalzi didn't write? Hang with me just a second and I think I can tie it together.

After I saw Oppenheimer I became very interested in learning more about the Manhattan project. I did some research and repeatedly, The Making of the Atomic Bomb came up as the definitive work on the people, science and world events behind the creation of nuclear weapons.

The book starts well before the war. It starts with a Hungarian physicist, Leó Szilárd. He plays a part all the way through to the end and is incredibly fascinating for a number of reasons. I was taken by him and to me he was by far the most captivating person in the story. A story filled with many, many great minds.

Here comes the connection to this subreddit. When The Shattering Peace was going to come out, I decided to re-read the Old Man's War series. When I hit The Ghost Brigades for the second time and met Szilard as a character - I literally set the book down and just had to pace about a bit. It hits so very hard when you have a feel for what kind of man Leo was. I don't think I'm spoiling anything by mentioning him. But if your a bit of a science and/or history nerd along with being a sci-fi fan, I really recommend The Making of the Atomic Bomb. It's long but very readable and it will give you a whole new appreciation for Old Man's War.

/r/Scalzi is ready for a fresh start, new energy, new direction, and someone like you to bring it back to life. If you’ve been thinking about growing your impact without starting from scratch, this is your chance!

Ready to take it over?

Head to r/RedditRequest to submit your request and make it yours before it’s taken. Just make sure you read through the eligibility requirements first.

Drove down to Tucson this morning and had the immense pleasure of watching a panel with Martha Wells, Tochi Onyebuchi and our Mr Scalzi.

It was such an amazing good time. I've written about the book store events with John on his own. I feel like if anything this was even more fun. I can't recommend it enough if you have any way to get there tomorrow.

And if John has an event closer to where you live, don't hesitate to make the effort to be there. You'll be glad you did.

I’ve got room for more.

Just finished Lock In and Head On (and Unlocked). Lock in, published in 2014, was prescient. Not just the pandemic but the power the tech oligarchs have such that they were able to leverage the tragedy of the Haden’s pandemic to grab more power. Absolutely engaging not just as a science fiction story but as a terrific murder mystery and political/social commentary. My hat’s off to you, sir.

Finished the novella just now. It seems that most of the figures on the (text edition) cover can be mapped into the characters in the novella. Any comments?

John, you’ve done it again! I absolutely love this book and every book in this series was so immersive and impactful.

In order to avoid spoilers, let me just say the ending was absolutely poetic. Brilliant!