Sunset in the Sea of Cortez.

Just signed a contract via email here, so technically this is now a business trip

For Cosplay Day on @jococruise.bsky.social, Krissy went as the bride in the 2026 film The Bride! directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal. She crushed it.

This is my Rick Nielsen cosplay

Separated at birth

My view for the next week, more or less

This just in: I have found Carmen Sandiego, in, oddly enough, San Diego. A bit in the nose if you ask me.

"Oh, you have a breakfast burrito? You know, I like breakfast burritos."

Happy equinox, by the way

I'm apparently currently flying over the surface of Mars

Somehow, when my editor sent me the questions, my brain didn’t quite connect the dots to “Hey, you have an author interview in the New York Times!” Which is probably why I told them my biggest inspiration is spite.

Whatever, my blog, no advertising, free-for-you writing and other stuff since 1998, yes, that's right, I've blogged across two entirely different millennia Scalzi.com

YAY VACATION YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY (Mind you we have hours of airports and airplanes between us and the vacation in question BUT EVEN SO)

The typo is how you know a human wrote it!

I see the "writer" whose novel just got tanked for being "AI" is blaming it all on an editor who allegedly rewrote substantial portions of the novel using an LLM. So, a) why would you use an "editor" like that, b) I reread reach my novels a dozen times during the pre-pub process, this excuse is bunk

Lobster rolls are massively overrated and I've never had one that I felt I should have paid more than $10 for, no matter how much it actually cost. (Don't come at me with how much for in Ohio sucks either, I'm very open about how Cincinnati "chili" is an affront against God and man)

It's in my contract (and the contracts of nearly all novelists in traditional publishing) that the work we represent as our own actually has to be written by us, not by anyone or anything else. So, yeah. Another reason not to use "AI". (Gift link) www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/b...

So vicious, it's a miracle Charlie survived

Also, I've just turned on my "On Vacation" email autoresponder, if you send me email in the next week, it's going to die alone and in the dark

I'm at the "charging electronics" stage of packing

One of our new initiatives at The Rumpus is a Spanish language section, El Alboroto, where we publish original Spanish prose and poetry. If you write in Spanish or know people who do, please send them here to read our guidelines and submit their work. therumpus.submittable.com/submit/35215...

This is for a dear friend of ours. The goal is incredibly manageable. It will result in this person embarking on a new chapter of their life in a safe and coherent manner in spite of a rapid displacement. I appreciate your eyes and shares and help.

At one point I considered opening up a Tinder account and posting terrifying pictures of myself on it to see who or what might swipe right, but I decided that was unethical for several reasons. I did of course tell Krissy about this concept. She rolled her eyes.

Gonna swipe left on this idea

Dun3, obviously

Why yes, fake spam Nora Roberts, I would like some insights about my niche, I have been historically insightless about it and a perennial failure in it, thank you for your offer of wisdom

My Wikipedia page has not yet been updated to reflect that I have a minor planet named after me, but the list of minor planets in Wikipedia has been updated with that information, so if some Wikipedian wants to make that cross connection, I would not look askance en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

TFW the note you've been trying to hit for the last couple of weeks in finally there, yes, you kinda sound like deranged Muppet when you hit it but that's actually a feature, not a bug

Once again I present you all with this terror from the 80s. Some people like it. I wish them joy. For me, it is the sound of fingernails eternally scraping down chalkboards. youtu.be/tUJQigu0_04

Reasonable

No. I don't tend to do business with shady people. I did have one foreign edition use "AI" for a cover; in that case the stock art used had been labeled ambiguously and its use was unintentional. That was before I made it a hard contract point in any event. "AI" stock art now is better labeled.

That's a lot of books. Two of them were mine! www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

I have it in my contracts that work on my books has to be done by humans, and that includes covers.

I've been practicing a song in my studio, and it upsets the dog greatly. Let's see how long it takes for her to come up looking all concerned.

If I hate the cover it probably won't be the cover. Short of that I let the experts do what they do.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, my bathrobe has green in it, you can't pinch me

There is, however, an AHL team called the Cleveland Monsters clevelandmonsters.com

Yes, the deal with traditional publishing is that the publisher handles editing, copy editing, cover and page design, publicity, distribution, etc. This leaves me free to write, which is my actual skill. This is why I like working with traditional publishers.

Going through the copyedit of Monsters of Ohio and I am once again reminded how much value a truly excellent copy editor offers, particularly in saving sloppy writers like me from ourselves. @deannahoak.bsky.social, you are the actual best. Fellow authors, hire her, she is worth every single penny.

I'm delighted to discover I have reached the 360K follower milestone here on Bluesky. Thank you for following and being part of my Bluesky experience, and letting me be part of yours! To celebrate the occasion, I have made a donation to World Central Kitchen, doing good work in hard places. wck.org

Heads up: the latest variation of writer scam spam is the one asking you to join "a community of writers" (the one I'm being invited to is called "Wordsmith and writers."), with an inevitable ask for cash. Save your money for legit writers orgs like @sfwa.org and @authorsguild.org, folks.

Airplane dusk

My flight is delayed two hours WHICH OF YOU DID THIS TO ME

Update: landed safely in DFW. Take that, sky!

The annual @locusmag.bsky.social fundraiser is live! Support a fantastic publication for another year and grab some excellent swag and unique rewards while you're at it! www.indiegogo.com/en/projects/...

Oh boy! Turbulence!

Well, here is a brand I will never buy anything from

I was utterly unsurprised they cut to orchestra after EJAE said her piece since her story/speech concluded her extremely compelling narrative arc and all the other dudes onstage were, from that point of view, extraneous. Absolutely unfair! But utterly unsurprising.

Missed this when it came about but 100% endorse, I've been telling people this for literal decades now

I saw Salman Rushdie this weekend. He had just finished an event and was eating lunch. I didn't want to bother him, but he looked up at me as I walked by and I took that moment to give him a salute. He smiled.