3500 words on the novel today. I'm so close to being done.

You can search for names in the Epstein Files here: www.justice.gov/epstein You will indeed find Asimov in the files, along with a host of other science fiction notables, living and dead, from Mary Shelley onward. The "files" are millions of emails, and there's a whole lot of random shit in there.

In fact, Isaac Asimov makes several appearances in the Epstein Files

Wisdom. Being upset that people remember your favorite writer/musician/artist as a creep is on the creepy artist, not on the people who note, through voluminous evidence and/or personal experience, that the artist was a creep.

Yup. This is also why I get annoyed when people start suggesting "golden age" science fiction titles to people who are new the genre and are asking for suggestions. You want to turn a modern 15-year-old off science fiction forever, recommend stories that were old when her grandparents were her age.

A lot of "golden age" science fiction has interesting ideas and workman-like-at-best prose, and Asimov was no exception to this. He and many other GA SF writers benefitted from "first-mover" status, and also, editors who preferred neat SF concepts (and men) over exceptional prose (and women).

To everyone just now finding out Isaac Asimov was rather famously a sex pest: He's been gone 34 years now, you can handle this truth, I believe in you

I had a similar recent-ish conversation with an older writer/fan. I assure you people are still flirting and/or hooking up at conventions. Requiring consent is not a problem when all the parties actually, you know, consent. Also, if your flirting looks like harassment, the problem is you.

Clearly some Grand Masters of Science Fiction did not get punched enough

I will happily accept this correction.

People will do what it is allowed to them. For a very long time in SF/F it was allowed. Now it is explicitly forbidden - nearly every convention in SF/F has a harassment policy. Now the question is whether those policies will be enforced and enforced equally.

Folks outside SF/F don't know that Asimov was a sexual harasser because while he was alive fandom thought it was cute (up to and including Asimov being invited to give a lecture on "The Power of Positive Posterior Pinching" at Worldcon, which he, wisely, declined). daily.jstor.org/asimovs-empi...

Thread.

Context: this speech is from SIR THOMAS MORE, a history written, as near as scholars can tell, in the early 1600s by 6 or 7 people including Dekker, Heywood, Chettle, Shakespeare, and Munday. It was never performed, because Jacobean England was a police state and it was banned by the censor.

Absolutely not - we're all different to different people, and even the closest to us get a version of us different than the one we have for ourselves. But it's useful to know who people are when they're interacting with people they think, consciously or not, offer no status or advantage to them.

People in my town are aware of what I do for a living but I have more notability who what we do in town (donating to library/fire dept/etc, buying and refurbishing the former Methodist church building rather than allowing it to be torn down) than what I do outside of it.

Other brands will still exist in the space, and honestly I would be surprised if the Minute Maid machinery to make juice concentrates is entirely shuttered; it'll just go "white label" and be used by store brands and/or other national/regional brands.

Yup. SEVERAL is the time where I met someone as a fan of mine and/or someone with a single professional sale who then became a bestseller/award winner/big deal in a different but related field. Time passes. Everything is fluid. Who you see on the way up is who you'll see on the way down. And so on.

THUS PASSES ANOTHER AGE OF THE EARTH www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...

1. What I'm about to post is going to sound egotistical - because it is - but it has a point, so please go with it for moment: I've learned over time that, at least in my own communities, I can no longer rely on how people approach and treat me as an indicator of their own personality.

Just checked, it's not that (whew!)

Update: guess what happened again today? Not having it, body and brain. I have things to do. Prepare to meet a shitload of caffeine.

Update: I have declared the day a total loss and crawled back into bed. Wednesday, you're fired.

Me: (Wearily resets the "DAYS WITHOUT A SURPRISE VURP" counter back to zero) Krissy: Why do we even have that counter?

Update: Save for a dental appointment I've mostly napped the entire day away, I can't say that I hate it

Well, this sucks. Bezos could fully staff this thing and get it back into profitable fighting trim with what for him would be pocket change. www.npr.org/2026/02/04/n...

Me: Wow I have a lot of stuff to do today! My body: Cool, I'm going to sleep for ten hours and you're going to wake up groggy as fuck My brain: Yay! Groggy means vacation! Me: (sighs)

Turning off the "Rude" filter because the word "fuck" in itself does not rise to the level of "Rude" I want filtered.

Attention Readers! We have a special matching grant for February -- first time donations will be doubled! If you've never supported us before, please consider donating today so we can make the most of this match and keep doing what we do best! locus.betterworld.or...

Re: the discussions up and down my timeline today, let me resurface this essay I wrote up about 18 months ago, about the perils of idolizing creative people, up to and including me. Some of you may remember it, but many of you weren't following me then, so. whatever.scalzi.com/2024/08/15/p...

I won't dispute this as I don't have any data to do so, but I will say this has not been my own path. If anything, my awareness of how much my path out of poverty was as much the result of luck as it was any work I did makes me more sensitive to how hard it is to advance economically in the US.

Almost no one who is not born into money understands what to do with a lot of it, which is why so many who suddenly gain wealth end up losing it. Most major banks, at least, have wealth management divisions. If had millions suddenly drop into my lap and no other clue what to do, I might start there.

I don't know about that, but I will say that great wealth is like the One Ring: Often the person with it thinks they are wielding it, but ultimately it wields them, and for its own ends, not theirs. It takes a strong person to resist its temptations, and that sort of person is not likely to seek it.

There's the line from Citizen Kane: "It's no trick to make a lot of money if all you want is to make a lot of money." The problem is the sort of personality for whom money is the ends rather than the means, is not generally a great personality to be around.

There's a point, well below a billion dollars, where the amount of money you have lets you rid yourself of anyone who can be a check on your worst impulses, and replace them with people who tell you those worst impulses are somehow valorous. Rare is the billionaire with someone to tell them "no."

Thread. Shitty people can make good and even great art. Likewise, dropping a favorite artist after you realize you can no longer support them can feel like a divorce or a friend breakup because they and their work were just that important to you. That shit hurts, even when it's necessary for you.

It’s my book birthday! #Booksky www.starsandsabers.com/books/shoesh...

Cat break! Saja the kitten is watching - appropriately enough - a video of Rei Ami, the singing voice of Zoey in K-Pop Demon Hunters, the movie which inspired his name.

Still one of the most perfect mashups of me. When I first showed it to Krissy, she had no idea why I was showing her a picture of the Three Stooges.

I DON'T LOOK LIKE THIS WHY THE FUCK WOULD ANY ACTUAL COMMERCIAL SITE MAKE AN "AI" PICTURE OF ME WHEN THERE ARE DOZENS OF PICTURES OF ME AVAILABLE ON STOCK ART SITES AND EVEN SOME GODDAMN CREATIVE COMMON PICTURES FOR FUCK'S SAKE THIS PERSON LOOKS LIKE A HUMAN BOOGER DON'T FUCKIN' USE "AI" Y'ALL

Jail! Jail for the creep! Jail for the creep for a thousand years!

I 100% expect him to do this, yes.

My essay on @scalzi.com The Big Idea where I discuss the the inspiration behind The People's Library. Huge thanks to John for providing this space 🙏. #booksky #blackbooksky whatever.scalzi.com/2026/02/02/t...

I mean, why do you think I posted it first, better to point it out myself and give it context (and have something to refer to), then let someone else find it and be caught flat-footed about it when they swing it back and forth

HOLY FUCKING SHIT I AM IN THE FUCKING EPSTEIN FILES Specifically, my essay "Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting" is referenced in a 2013 Rachel Sklar article about Muriel Siebert. Why is it in the Epstein files at all? You got me. What a wild fucking discovery. I am literally agog.

Ah, I understand the racists are upset that one of the most beautiful women in the world was cast in a film as one of the most beautiful women in the world

Some good news for the day (gift article) www.nytimes.com/2026/02/02/u...

Boy I'm glad I got a good chunk of writing done earlier today

Listen to the story that shaped a generation. Decades after starring in Stand By Me, the film adaptation of THE BODY, Wil Wheaton lends his voice to an all new recording of the audiobook. Pre-order your copy and start listening March 24, 2026.

Everything that is done there, can be done here, and could be; this current administration has no love of democracy, free speech, or dissent, and it's already been road testing killing average people who get in their way.