They blame it on, basically, the Internet saying mean things about "AI," which, uh, you know the Internet doesn't like "AI" any better now, right www.businessinsider.com/anthropic-cl...

Athena's always been interested in writing but she's also had other interests and, importantly, worked other jobs to give her life experience and perspective. Both show up in her writing; she writes extensively about food/cooking, which I think is really cool (and is not a field of writing I do).

Years ago I wrote a piece on my site about how every MFA writing program should have at least elective courses on the business aspects of writing/publishing (how to read contracts, get agents, current state of the industry, etc). I got some pushback on that, which I thought was... odd.

I strongly suspect this is true of every field. There is what people think they know about it, and then there is what the daily experience of it for those who are in it. There is a wide gulf, and every one of those jobs is harder than it looks from the outside.

Yes. Nothing deglamorizes any creative field more than seeing how much uncreative stuff you have to do to support it (and yourself in it).

It's true that the creative fields have some sort of glamor to them, which is amusing considering that I'm typing this, unshaven, in a bathrobe covered in cat hair. But I imagine in any field, having connections through family networks/reputation can be seen as an advantage, unfair or otherwise.

Krissy's genius is financial and organizational rather than creative, and I'm really happy about that because it means we have an extremely smart, detail-oriented person as our company CEO. She does play a bit of bass, however.

There will always be a percentage of the population annoyed at anything any writer does - how and what they write (or don't), how they live (or don't), what they say on social media, what they don't say on social media, etc. Complaints about nepotism would just be another log on that ignorable pile.

Yup. One reason we brought Athena into the business (and it is a literal business: Scalzi Enterprises) is so she could see the business end of the writing gig as much as the creative end. In addition to any stuff she might do herself, she'll inherit my estate, so when she does she'll be up to speed.

I mean, I didn't dig my way out of a slush pile. Old Man's War got sold because an editor made an unsolicited offer for it after reading it off my web site. In a larger sense, having a parent who is well-known in a field will help get you looked at, sure. You still have to bring the goods.

I mean, my kid actually works with me developing ideas and concepts into projects we can sell to film/tv/other media, and is developing stuff on her own, some of which might become novels. It's not nepotism, writing is the family business around here. www.theguardian.com/books/2026/m...

Now for a nice relaxing evening of updating music software

And now: Kitten.

Lol! But even that is not correct, as a matter of grammar, as it implies that I have recently stopped as opposed to never having started (so, "as of May 1969" would be more accurate), but baby steps

I don't even know what an Aeropress is. (goes to look it up) Huh.

It's because Coke Zero is based on the standard Coke flavor profile, while Diet Coke was engineered from the ground up (and shared its flavor profile with the doomed "New Coke" of the 1980s).

I don't generally consider myself a supertaster, no, and there are some bitter tastes I like (I'm a big fan of roasted Brussel Sprouts, for example, although I know that some of their bitterness has been relatively recently bred out of them).

Yeah, Coke Zero is my preferred caffeine intake. I'm not a huge fan of "bitter" in a general sense, and the point where that flavor profile goes bad for me is a lot earlier than in a lot of other folks.

Okay, so, here's what Gemini Thinking said, and it's also wrong, so, no, this is actually an "AI" problem; and while I certainly agree that putting erroneous information at the head of a Google search is a very poor management decision, it would be a bad decision regardless of "AI" model.

Your occasional reminder that "AI" is shit: Every assertion in this "AI Overview" of the question "What coffee does John Scalzi drink" is wrong. I don't regularly drink coffee (and never black) I've never had black sesame jasmine cream tea, and I don't hang in coffee shops. Don't trust "AI" ever!

Reminders: 1. You get no credit from me by praising me while simultaneously running down another author 2. I know rather a lot of authors, particularly in science fiction and fantasy, so there's an excellent chance that when you're dissing that other author you're insulting a friend of mine

What a surprising turn of events provided that you know nothing about humans and the fact that a certain percentage of them are complete shit As a side note I was gifted a pair of these and they immediately went into a drawer and have not come back out again gizmodo.com/extortion-us...

Ooooooooh

Had convos w/ multiple people in the past 4 days who DID NOT KNOW that 1. AI doesn't "think" or know anything; it's a probability machine 2. It was created using massive amounts of work stolen from actual people including me 3. The environmental costs are astronomical Spread the word, every time!

Got it in the first grade. Played it to death. www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

The average American has three friends

Everybody's a critic

Giraffe. No way those fuckers are real, I mean, just look at them

Well, again, in my particular case I have actual legal contracts to fall back on. Breach of those contract points will be expensive and unhappy for the publisher who signed the contract, and they will in turn make it expensive and unhappy for the artist. Everyone is incentivized not to use "AI."

The cover to the Polish-language version of "When the Moon Hits Your Eye," which comes out, I think, in June.

There are several. I myself have a Boox ereader from a couple years back. I like them because they run Android, which means I can run any number of book apps on it, plus other android apps (as long as I'm okay seeing them in e-ink): www.boox.com

Flower break.

Yup. There was a worry a while back that eBooks would eat the entire physical book market. Turns out it only ate the part that it shared the most similarities with: Cheap and portable.

It's not just an issue of publishers deciding not to print mass market paperbacks, it's book distributors deciding not to put them into the retail chain. To be fair mmpb sales have collapsed by 80+% in the last few years. People might be nostalgic about mmpbs, but that's not the same as sales.

Yes, this. You don't even need to buy a dedicated e-reader if you don't want to, there are e-reading apps on phones (as well as audiobook apps).

Bollocks. One, hardcovers are selling great, especially the ones that these days come with sprayed edges and illustrated end pages. Two, ditching hardcovers would absolutely gut author and bookseller incomes. You want to fuck up publishing? Kill the hardcover. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Fucking racist complains people are mean to him for being a fucking racist

It's fine I guess

OMW is just now showing up in Best Series because the book prior to the latest one was published before the Best Series Hugo existed. Which means, thanks to The Shattering Peace, this year was the first time it was eligible. Also, choosing is supposed to be hard. It's no fun if it's a slam dunk.

I'm a big supporter of the Hugo Reader's Packet and I think it's doing what it's supposed to do: Make sure everyone voting has access to the work under consideration so they can make the most informed vote they can (and in the bargain, read a bunch of seriously cool work).

20 years...! American friends, if you haven't seen #Tekkon in a theater, this is your chance. It looks and sounds great (and way better than it ever did on 35mm). #anime #アニメ #鉄コン

Not only is it not a secret that I am attending the LA Worldcon, it is well known that I will be DJing a dance there!

I have said this before and I will say it again, but it is my firm belief that given the blatant and naked corruption exhibited by some members of the Roberts Court, decisions of the Roberts Court should not be treated as precedentially binding on later courts.

It's kind of like a "challenge coin," which I've gotten from military officers (and presidents hand them out, too), but this is a super special variant that signals to anyone who gets it that your director is a drunk. apple.news/Ani3JGNLvQj2...

YOU CAN VOTE FOR ME FOR BEST SERIES Or for the other finalists if you like their stuff better It's cool if you do all of them are pretty great honestly In fact you can vote for us all, it's a ranked vote, isn't that nice

Doing things with Krissy today and one of them is somewhere without a waiting room so I'm waiting in the car, but don't worry, I'm in the shade, the window is cracked and I'm listening to Steely Dan, it's fine

Charlie helpfully tries to break up a tussle and ends up looking like the instigator (It was fine, everyone was fine, and the tussle ended on agreeable terms)

I mean

As far as I know no other organization does it the way Worldcon does because a) Worldcon is fundamentally a fan organization, not a guild or governing body, b) it's a really janky way to run things and no one today would set out to do it this way. This is what organic fandom development looks like.

Incidentally if you'd like to see what I said during my "History of the Hugos" bit at the Glasgow Worldcon, it's here. I put the link timer at the start of my bit but just in case that doesn't work, my part starts at 26:08. www.youtube.com/live/evGAZXd...