As we count down to Festivus, I feel compelled to remind you that the gods of capitalism will know if you've ordered the book and will posthumously judge you. wordfirepress.com/products/a-w...

World Con 2026, Academic Track, Call for Papers is now Live. Please do share. @scalzi.com @davidbrin.bsky.social @robertjsawyer.com @georgetakei.bsky.social @greatdismal.bsky.social @fringedoctor.bsky.social @comrademorden.bsky.social @catrambo.bsky.social@leemurraywriter.bsky.social

wordfirepress.com/products/a-w... It's December in New Zealand, so here is the must have for all your Festivus shopping. Buy one for everyone and bribe your way out of the feats of strength!

Suddenly, this has become my favourite quote from Johnny Dangerously. youtu.be/mEfpwAL9VQw

Episode 4 of the kids' podcast just dropped! I'm writing Ep 7 for them right now linktr.ee/yarkingdawg

My poster at the Penn State SETI symposium

Pics from our first day of #WorldCon! @dougvanbelle.bsky.social and I did some panel pinch-hitting with "Finding Exoplanets and Extreme Solar Systems", and then two interviews for our "Life in a Universe Full of Exoplanets" podcast with Larry Niven and Rebecca Demarest

Worldcon 2025. This is the most magnificent convention space I have ever seen

For those of you with kids at WorldCon, I'll be bringing some copies of my young reader's book, which is almost impossible to get outside of New Zealand, to my Autograph Session on Friday 10:30-11:30. Free for kids.

Everyone needs to look up the symptoms for late-stage congestive heart failure. www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/317...

The best part is that plate tectonics move us farther from the US every day.

I don't just write about serial killers . . . . . . I also write about space ships.

I will be a busy boy at WorldCon #2 Fri 10:30am-11:30am Autographs Fri 1:30pm-2:30pm What A Disaster: Disaster movies in pop culture Fri 6:00pm-8:30pm Life in a Universe Full of Planets Sat 9:00am-10:00am Dystopias: Science Fiction as a Warning Sat 4:30pm-5:30pm The History of the Future

I will be a busy boy at Worldcon this year #1 Wed 12:00pm-1:00pm Table Talks 3 Wed 3:30pm-4:00pm Disentangling the reciprocal information flows between scientist and science fiction authors Thu 9:00am-10:00am Does A Novel Need a Blueprint? Thu 3:00pm-4:00pm What is Science Fiction Good For?

My brother @dougvanbelle.bsky.social just be shipping swords to me in the international post…

Just FYI for anyone wondering if the Exoplanet images being posted are AI. Here are the best, highest-resolution images to date. 9 pixels.

The Dezombinator 750 EH

My office manager

Pretty damn chuffed to announce that I have officially been appointed as the Academic Track Convenor for the 2026 World Science Fiction Convention in LA. www.lacon.org

I sent out emails to all the people on the academic track today. If you were expecting one and didn't receive one, check the good old spam folder and if not there, email me. Doug

Measles is EXTREMELY infectious, so if you have been in these locations of interest I urge you to call healthline NOW. For the rest of us - please update your measles vaccination asap - those who cannot get vaccinated rely on us to keep them safe.

Welcome to Bad Bunny Blue-Bury'um, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Possum Corpse Citrus, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dead Possum Orchards, the world-wide leader in sustainable necro-culture farming.

Been doing my part, neighbors and I have cleared 30 out in the last few months. newsroom.co.nz/2025/05/09/d...

www.stephenrdonaldson.com With the recent kerfuffles adding a little chaos to the run up to WorldCon, I'm happy to share some good news. Stephan R. Donaldson has just let me know that he'll be coming to his first World Con in decades. His schedule will be light, but trying to set up a few things.

The average American has three friends. The above average American has these three friends.

Confirmed this with an old friend who commutes to work on the Bainbridge ferry. One of the busiest ports in the US is empty and from what I understand, it's not just the ships sailing from Chinese ports that have stopped arriving. Singapore, Japan, Indonesia... May has been renamed FAFO.

I would like to thank the Trumpster student who so thoughtfully took the time to send me a lengthy email explaining why and how FDR was a failure as a president. I feel so enlightened and at your insistence, I will surely correct that for the next edition.

www.espn.com/nfl/draft/ro... I have an uber geeky affection for the NFL draft. Not so much the draft itself, but the way the unfolding of the draft reflects all the analyses and prognostication around it. We see chaos theory in action as the picks themselves change the board.

HooDoo Gurus in Wellington last night. Bit of an odd show and not their best performance to be honest. Celebrating the anniversary of their first album, they opened by playing it straight through. From there, a bunch of B sides and rarely played songs, with just a scattering of their hits.

My agent decided that me holding a pair of my Dezombinator 700, 'kitchen knives' was a good cover photo for my info-packet for the post-apocalypse draft. I was leaning toward something trebuchet-themed.

This is why AI cannot be trusted, not even to touch up a photo for a pitch deck. The sunset is all wrong!

If I'm not supposed to post Top Secret war stuff here, that would surely be in the terms of use.

Introducing Possum Cadaver Copse, a wholly owned subsidiary of Possum Corpse Citrus, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Dead Possum Orchards.

With alt txt

Breaking atomization and preference falsification (keeping people separated and afraid to express their beliefs) is critical to an authoritarian regime. So, whenever you get the chance, take photos of protests and post them. Share the photos that others post.

A competent Democratic Party would have this clip all over the airwaves and social media inside of 24 hours.

The professional world of print fiction is dying. Not only have several of the prominent writers I know resorted to self-publishing to keep their catalogue available, every single one of the medium-sized publishers I've worked with in the past, is no longer publishing new work.

Ah, he never disappoints.