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Forgot to post a “view from a hotel window” view today, but this interesting contraption was right down the street from me, so I thought you might like it instead. Tonight’s event was lovely and tomorrow I will be in San Diego, at Mysterious Galaxy bookstore at 7pm. You should come by and say hello to me there.
— JS
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What’s scarier, a haunted school or lifelong trauma? Spooky season is upon us and author Dan Rice has brought the ghost stories with his newest book, Phantom Algebra. Follow along in his Big Idea to see how ghastly high school can really be.
DAN RICE:
While writing Phantom Algebra, I encountered a challenge I had never faced before. The setting is a shared universe, specifically the fictitious town of Pinedale, North Carolina, located approximately fifty miles or so from Raleigh. The action needed to center around the berg’s haunted high school, Pinedale High.
I wanted the protagonist, Zuri, to be an outsider —the new kid at school —and not someone who believes in ghosts. But how to get her to Pinedale? I could have had a parent land a job in the city and have the story open with the family moving into a new home or Zuri stepping onto the school grounds for the first time. I don’t know…I felt that had been done before and wanted to do something a little different.
I settled on the horror trope of a traumatic past. Zuri and her mother are on the run, have been for years, from Big Jake: estranged father, abusive husband, former boxer, and full-time gangland enforcer. This leads them to Pinedale after Zuri coldcocks her current high school’s star quarterback, ending his attempt to sexually assault her.
Despite the trauma of watching Big Jake nearly beat her mother to death, Zuri is a fighter like him, dreams of being a world champion, and remembers fondly learning to punch, kick, and grapple under his tutelage. Zuri can’t escape the past because every time she follows her first instinct to solve her problems with her fists, she perpetuates her family’s violent legacy. Isn’t that true of all of us? We can never escape the past because it is carried within us. The best we can do is to learn to cope healthily.
At Pinedale High, Zuri encounters challenging academics, especially mathematics, and a student body that believes the school is haunted. She doesn’t believe this for an instant, only giving credence to what she can beat into submission. When circumstances prove she can no longer deny the ghostly world, Zuri is presented with a problem as gnarly as an algebraic equation. How can she battle bullying poltergeists she can’t see or strike?
Zuri navigates Pinedale with the aid of new friends, fellow outcasts like herself, and eventually bonds with a tween spirit haunted by trauma she cannot escape even in death. Freeing the spirit from her abuser means unearthing Pinedale’s celebrated founding father’s legacy of filicide and satanic magic. Many of the town’s inhabitants haven’t an inkling that Pinedale’s foundation is awash in the blood of an innocent, but they will suffer for their communal past unless Zuri and her friends can face down monsters living and dead.
In the end, I found that Pinedale High being a shared story universe didn’t limit my storytelling. By leveraging the character-centric horror trope of past trauma, I told Zuri’s unique story while remaining within the bounds of Pinedale, the high school, the nearby haunted forest, and the handful of shared characters that give the series continuity.
Phantom Algebra: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|IndieBound|iBooks
Author socials: Website|Bluesky
Read an excerpt.
scalziwhatever_feedI know, I know, you’re probably all terribly sick and tired of seeing our super adorable new kitten Saja, but I’m going to make you look at him again.
This little guy has a vet appointment today; a follow-up to his previous one when I took all three of the kittens in for shots and whatnot. This is just a second round of the necessary shots, and we’re going to see if he’s old enough to get fixed yet! So that may be scheduled, soon, as well.
I’m so thankful that Saja (and the other two kittens) were relatively healthy and that everyone is doing amazing now. It’s truly so lucky that none of them had serious health concerns or feline leukemia or anything like that.
Having Saja around has been absolutely amazing. It’s hard to express how much I love him. I don’t know if it’s because I rescued him off the street or what, but I am so attached to this baby, and I have been since I first saw him. He means so much to me, and my heart feels so full when I look at him. Cuddling him, seeing him play and be a kitten, and just seeing him be alive and well is so incredible.
I’m so excited to know he’ll be in my life for many years to come.
-AMS
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My hotel room in Spokane is in fact really nice. The view? Maybe less so.
Tonight! Spokane! I’ll be at Auntie’s Bookstore at 7pm. I’ll read stuff and answer questions and sign books, mostly in that order!
Tomorrow! I’m at Bookshop Santa Cruz, also at 7pm! More reading! And answers! And signing! Fun!
— JS
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Today is the Day! The Shattering Peace, my 19th novel, the seventh book in the Old Man’s War series, and my second novel of the 2025, is finally out in North America in print, ebook and audio (UK, you have two more days to wait for print/ebook. Be strong). It’s received rave reviews in the trades, including receiving starred reviews from Kirkus and Library Journal, and the general consensus so far is that it’s an excellent return to the Old Man’s War series. This makes me happy.
It’s important for me to note that while this is the seventh book in the series, it’s designed to be one that people who have not read the series before can get into. It’s a standalone book (so far) in the universe, and everything readers need to know to enjoy the story is laid out in the first couple of chapters. Newcomers won’t get lost, I promise. For the people who have read previous books in the series, you’ll find some old friends here, as well making some new ones.
You will find The Shattering Peace in literally every bookstore, online and offline, that carries science fiction. Remember also that for the next two weeks I am also on a book tour here in the US; come see if I’ll be near to where you are. Also! If you desire a signed book but my tour dates are not near you, remember you can call any of the bookstores where I’ll be on tour and ask them to have me sign it and then ship it to you. We’ll both be happy to do that. Subterranean Press also has signed copies available, and if you are outside the US, they ship internationally.
I’m very happy with this book and its story and I’m so thrilled that it’s finally out in the world for you all to enjoy. Welcome back to the Old Man’s War universe, and who knows? If enough of you like this one, maybe I’ll write another.
— JS
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This hotel has given me my own patio, and look! I’ve also updated the operating system on my Mac! Truly, this is book tour is off to an auspicious start. It is also currently 102 degrees, but only 98 degrees in the shade, so that’s something, I suppose.
Tonight! I’m at the Poisoned Pen bookstore here in Scottsdale, and I’ll start doing my thing tonight at 7pm. If you’re in or near Scottsdale and Phoenix, please come say hello to me. I would love to see you.
Tomorrow! I’ll be at Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, Washington (that’s just north of Seattle). That will also be at 7pm! Come on down.
Okay, now I’m going back into the air conditioning .
— JS
scalziwhatever_feedFor about five years now, I have absolutely loved the music of Mystery Skulls. It was only recently that I learned Mystery Skulls is actually just one guy named Luis Dubuc, and he’s the singer, songwriter, and producer behind it all. While I would largely describe the music as EDM, it honestly has such a unique sound to it that’s very unlike a lot of other electronic music I’ve heard before.
To me, Mystery Skulls’ music is more approachable than a lot of electronic music. With plenty of awesome lyrics and vocals, it is something I would show to someone who isn’t super into EDM already.
Back in May, I learned that Mystery Skulls was going on tour, and would be performing in Columbus in September. I immediately bought two VIP tickets, one for me and one for the friend that introduced me to Mystery Skulls in the first place.
I know I’ve mentioned it a ton of times before, but I am really not a concert person. I hate loud noises, don’t really like live music all that much, and I’m not fond of crowds. I’d rather just jam to my music by myself at the volume I prefer and not pay a ton of money for it.
All that being said, I had the most amazing time at the Mystery Skulls concert, and it was pretty much the best concert I’ve ever been to. My friend and I had so much fun!
The concert was held at Skully’s Music Diner in the Short North area of Columbus. I’d never heard of the venue before, but that makes sense considering I literally just said I don’t like live music (generally).
I loved this venue. It’s a bit of a smaller place, with two bars, a standing room area in front of the stage, and a balcony area. It’s got a dive bar vibe but with a stage. The bathroom really sealed the deal for me, with one of the two stalls having a broken lock, and the other one having a shower curtain instead of a door. At least the floor wasn’t sticky! I was very impressed by that.
So, I’m sure you’re all wondering what the VIP tickets included. At $85 dollars a piece, you got early entry for a meet-and-greet, where you got to talk to Luis and get a photo with him. I declined a photo and he asked if I was in witness protection program, which I found very amusing. After that, everyone got in line for a turn to play a round of Street Fighter with him in a one-on-one battle. I also declined this opportunity, as I suck at those type of fighting games and didn’t want to embarrass myself.
Plus, we got merch bags! A reusable bag with a cool lanyard and a VIP card that Luis signed when we met him, and a RFID card that unlocks early access to an album he’s planning to release in 2026.
So, how was the show? Well, there was an opener, and I don’t know about y’all, but I have never liked an opener at any concert I’ve attended. That was NOT the case here. The opener of the evening was NITE, two twin brothers from Texas with some of the coolest, dark-synth dance music. Like a gothic electronic vibe. It reminded me of if you were having a Stranger Things themed dance party.
I seriously loved every song they played, and they were so fun to watch perform. They really got the crowd hype for the main event. I highly recommend checking out some of their music, and I’ll leave two here for you that I particularly enjoyed:
Aside from NITE being a banger opener, Mystery Skulls kept the energy up the whole time, never slowing down or letting the vibes slip away for even a second. It was amazing to hear all my favorites, plus some new stuff that was special to the tour, and everything was seamlessly remixed together into an awesome blend of never-ending dance. Not to mention the light show was killer.
I know you’re probably at the edge of your seat waiting for me to share some of my favorite songs, so I shan’t keep you waiting any longer.
First up, we have my all-time favorite of his: “Ghost.” This is the first song I ever heard from Mystery Skulls, so it’s nearest and dearest to my heart.
A very close second place song would be “Hellbent.”
For a more funky fresh vibe, I recommend “Freaking Out.”
And for a more clubby, EDM vibe, I recommend “Losing My Mind.”
There’s so many songs of his that are great but I won’t spam you with all of the ones I like.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you about the very interesting and surprisingly in-depth animations that feature Mystery Skulls’ songs, and are the very thing that my friend sent me to begin with.
While these animations don’t actually have anything to do with the music or Luis himself, the series features several of his songs and is inspired by the music.
The series, called Mystery Skulls Animated, starts with “Ghost,” and introduces us to a Scooby-Doo-esque crew who come across a haunted mansion. But things aren’t quite as they first appear.
There were tons of people at the concert in Columbus wearing merch of this animated series, and pretty much everyone I talked to at the concert had seen the animations, too. So while they’re not canon in any capacity, they are huge in the Mystery Skulls fandom itself.
I won’t link all the videos in this post since I’m mainly just here to tell you about the concert, Mystery Skulls, and NITE, but if you want to see the rest of them, here’s an in-order playlist for you.
These animations are absolutely wild and it’s so cool to see the skill and talent progress over the several years they’ve been released. Honestly I loved revisiting these for this post.
So, there you have it! My adventure to Columbus for the Mystery Skulls concert was a huge success, and I’m so happy my friend and I got to see a musician we love perform. I think I’m starting to realize I don’t hate concerts as much as I thought I did, and am mainly not a big fan of huge arena type concerts with 50,000 people and mega-screens you watch the performers on because you’re so far back that they look like a speck on the stage.
What’d you think of the songs? Are you an avid concert-goer? Let me know in the comments, be sure to follow Mystery Skulls and NITE on Instagram, and have a great day!
-AMS
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To Oxford comma, or to not Oxford comma? That is the question. Thankfully, author Ian Randal Strock is here with some answers. Or, at the very least, plenty of research about punctuation throughout history that he’s organized into his new book, Punctilious Punctuation.
IAN RANDAL STROCK:
As all the best arguments do, it started with something very, very small. In this case, it was a comma.
Specifically, I wrote an article for the Mensa Bulletin marking the centennial of Isaac Asimov’s birth. [Footnote 1] My first job in science fiction was as the editorial assistant at Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine (and also Analog), so I met Isaac my second day on the job. Of the day we met, I wrote an amusing anecdote, and noted that “We laughed, and were friends for three years” (that is, the last three years of his life).
The editor removed the comma, and when I questioned that decision, he said, “Two dependent clauses/compound predicate so no comma is needed.” I disagreed… emphatically. To my mind, the use of the comma means: “we laughed briefly, and after that incident, we were friends for the next three years.” Without the comma, to me, it means: “we laughed for three years and we were friends for three years.” We did not laugh for three years.
The editor, however, was operating under the strict interpretation of the Associated Press Stylebook, which seems to be waging its battle against punctuation (a carry-over, perhaps, from its use for newspapers, in which saving typographical space is of paramount importance). That, too, is why the serial (or Oxford) comma has all but disappeared from news reporting.
The article in question, however, was not a newspaper report in which saving column inches was a desperate need. And I still feel the loss of that comma (but he’s the editor, so what he says goes [just wait until he writes something that I publish <insert evil grin here>]).
That interaction got me thinking about punctuation in general, and about the need for punctuation, and the wonderful things writers can do with punctuation when using it properly, and the horrible things e e cummings did to us with his minimal use of punctuation and majuscules. Punctuation, in written language, serves the same purpose as vocal inflection and body language in spoken language. Without it, we’re communicating on a flat plane. With it, we’re communicating in three dimensions.
As a science fiction writer, it may be ironic to note that I’m not an early adopter of every new thing that comes along: I still listen to CDs in my car; I maintain my unshakeable faith in the primacy of WordPerfect; and I won’t eat red or blue M&Ms. With a similar tenacity, I couldn’t let that comma go.
I researched the history of commas, and punctuation in general, and found Florence Hazrat (a Fellow at the University of Sheffield), and her article “A History of Punctuation” [Footnote 2], in which she writes, “In the broad sense, punctuation is any glyph or sign in a text that isn’t an alphabet letter. This includes spaces, whose inclusion wasn’t always a given: in classical times stone inscriptions as well as handwritten texts WOULDLOOKLIKETHIS—written on scrolls, potentially unrolling forever.” Continuous script seems to arise from the use of writing merely as record of speech, rather than a practice in itself. And since we’re hardly aware of the infinitesimal pauses we make between words when speaking—other than William Shatner [Footnote 3] and certain other enunciators—it isn’t obvious to register something we do and perceive unconsciously with a designated sign that is a non-sign: blank space.
Perhaps the main use of writing in Ancient Greece and Rome was for people giving lectures and political speeches, not publishing books. Before making their speeches, orators would work on their texts, using whatever symbols and marks would remind them which were long and short syllables, where to pause for rhetorical effect and breathing, and so on. There was as yet no such thing as reading at first sight.
This personal writing without punctuation lasted for hundreds of years, before writing slowly became standardized as a form of communication unto itself. And with that growth came the need to punctuate.
And as many science fiction writers do, I quickly fell down that research rabbit hole. Before I knew it, I had enough information to give an hour-long lecture on the subject, tinged with my own brand of humor. And then, because I’d put so much effort into it, I did even more research, theorizing, and writing, and turned it into a book. So yes, this entire book exists because I had an argument over a comma.
And by the way: serial commas rule!
***
Footnotes:
Footnote 1: “Isaac Asimov: Remembering the Literary Icon I Worked With” by Ian Randal Strock. Published in the November/December 2019 issue of the Mensa Bulletin. Available at https://www.us.mensa.org/read/bulletin/features/isaac-asimov-writer-polymath-chemist-mensan/
Footnote 2: “A History of Punctuation,” by Florence Hazrat, Aeon, Septmber 3, 2020. https://aeon.co/essays/beside-the-point-punctuation-is-dead-long-live-punctuation
Footnote 3: See, for example, “Is William Shatner’s Signature Speech Style Fake?” by Robin Zabiegalski, published February 1, 2021, on Heavy.com. In the article, Shatner is quoted as saying that “each person’s speech style [is] their own personal ‘music’.” https://heavy.com/entertainment/star-trek/william-shatner-signature-speech-style-fake/
—-
Punctilious Punctuation: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Powell’s
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Why? Well, one, my book tour starts tomorrow and that’s two weeks straight out on the road, and after that I have events basically every other weekend through November, so better to prepare than not (I got a flu shot a couple months back, so I’m good there, too), and two, our dimwit-not-even-qualified-enough-to-call-himself-a-quack Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., may be about to try to make it more difficult for everyone under the age of 75 to get a COVID vaccine, based on absolute bullshit that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, so fuck him, I got mine. I booked my appointment at CVS, went in, got shot up and was on my merry way in less than ten minutes. Simple! Easy! Smart!
Naturally, I strongly encourage all y’all to get your own shots in as soon as you can (allowing for previous vaccine schedules and/or previous infections). Take care of yourself out there, because at this particular moment, the US federal government isn’t gonna do you much good.
— JS
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It’s come ’round again, the anniversary of the first day I sat down and wrote something here intended for daily(ish) updating, twenty-seven years ago, long ago enough that AOL was still a viable and ongoing concern and that blogs weren’t called “blogs,” they were called “online diaries” or “online journals.” Because I was a former journalist and also a bit of an ass, I spurned both those titles (as I would the word “blog” a little later), preferring to say that I wrote an “online column.” Over time, I have become rather less precious about this, especially now that “blog” is a concept that now hearkens back to a cretaceous era of the Internet, before social media and algorithms and the concept of being “terminally online.” If only we knew then what we know now. We might all go running into the night, never to return.
Be that as it may, Whatever continues, and I still post here regularly, along with my daughter Athena, who was a couple months from being born when I started this whole thing. At this point in time, she actually does more here than I do; she posts almost all the Big Ideas, and writes as many of the longer pieces here these days than I manage. This partly because so much more of my professional life happens offline these days — in the last week or so, as an example, I wrote a short story, a script treatment and some of my novel, and then traveled to Portland for a convention, and starting Monday I embark on a two-week book tour — and partly because Athena is writing cool and interesting stuff and I’m really happy about that. The Whatever is better for having her as part of it, and it’s been fun watching this place grow from my personal soapbox into a two-person shop. I like that 27 years on, this site is still evolving.
I am very really happy with what’s going on in my professional writing life at the moment (I have some very cool stuff going on right now I absolutely cannot tell you about yet, but when I can tell you, I think you’ll be excited), and one side effect of that is that at the end of the day I often don’t have it together to post more than something short here. I don’t think this is a tragedy, but I would like to write slightly longer here than I have recently. I have some ideas how to do this, but a lot of that will have to wait after the book promo season I am about to find myself in. In the meantime, there will be views out of a hotel window, posts about cats, and more cool stuff from Athena.
And so, onward — for Whatever and for me and Athena. I like where everything is with Whatever, and I look forward to where we go from here. Another year awaits.
— JS
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Our newest addition to the Scamperbeast clan continues to be friggin’ adorable, and also his personality is beginning to show more. He is rambunctious, which is to be expected in a kitten, and also a bit of menace, since he discovered that he enjoys both the stairs and being underfoot, which is a dangerous combination with one is trying to navigate the stairs at night and suddenly there is a kitten. There are reasons why, when I turned forty, I trained myself to start reaching for the railing on the stairs, and this kitten is definitely one of those reasons.
In terms of the other cats, Saja continues to be an annoyance to Sugar and Spice, the former of whom still wants nothing to do with him, and the latter of which has come to grudgingly accept that he might be on the bed at the same time she is. Smudge is more congenial to him and the two of them tussle on a regular basis now:
This is lovely for us, as it reminds us of when Smudge was the kitten a Zeus was the one tusslin’ with him. It’s nice to know the tussle reaches over generations. Charlie and Saja also continue to get along famously. It’s as good an integration at this point that one could hope for.
The one real annoying thing Saja will do is try to eat my face, which he does every night between three and five am. He’s probably not actually trying to eat my face, he’s probably trying to nurse, which will not avail him of anything, alas for him. This will continue until I grab him, take him downstairs and then plop him in front of a cat food bowl, at which point he goes, oh, right, that’s where the food is. I’m hoping he grows out of this; I would really prefer to sleep through the night. We’ll see.
— JS
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We’ve made it to another Friday, and here is a new set of books and ARCs that have come to the Scalzi Compound. What here is piquing your interest? Share in the comments!
— JS
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The word “sonder” refers to the realization that every other person is living their own, whole life outside of what you see. For author Ren Hutchings, she has experienced this with side characters in media, wondering about their lives outside of the story. Expanding on this idea, she ended up writing An Unbreakable World. Follow along in her Big Idea to see how this companion novel focuses on characters who are outside of the spotlight.
REN HUTCHINGS:
I’ve always had an interest in the relationship between history and folklore, a theme which has influenced so much of my speculative writing. I’m most intrigued by a close, individual perspective, viewing the past as a moving tapestry of small lives and stories, rather than a series of big, significant events.
Ever since I was a child, I’ve often found myself invested in a seemingly insignificant side character in a book or movie, that person who only pops up for a brief encounter and says three lines of dialogue. I’d be wondering about where they went next, or if they had a family, or what the rest of their life was like. Because of course they must have had a whole life that existed outside of that one time when they happened to cross paths with the heroes!
And so, when I set out to write a new novel set in the same universe as my debut, Under Fortunate Stars, I found myself pulled toward the stories at the outer edges. The result is a standalone novel that’s in many ways a companion piece to my first book, but in other ways its opposite. Because while Under Fortunate Stars was about a group of unexpected heroes who famously stopped an interstellar war and saved humanity, An Unbreakable World is very much about those folks on the periphery. In a vast galaxy fraught with intrigue and turmoil, this story asks what was going on with the people who didn’t become historical heroes.
The protagonists in this book are people whose names and deeds won’t be remembered in songs or poems. They’re people whose most important choices will never be known to history, whose motivations will never be examined by future biographers. The point-of-view characters are each struggling to find a meaning in their own lives, and looking in all the wrong places for an ever-elusive sense of purpose.
Almost everybody you meet in An Unbreakable World is experiencing deep isolation. Page is a petty thief who woke up from stasis without most of her memories, and while she searches desperately for any shards of her missing past, she closes her mind to the possibilities that the present is offering her. Meanwhile, Maelle has dedicated years of her life to plotting a long-game revenge scheme, and she’s likewise been ignoring every opportunity to take a new path.
On a distant world, Dalya of House Edamaun is an anxious young heiress growing up in a restrictive, sheltered society, on a planet that has intentionally cut itself off from the United Worlds of Humanity. She’s struggling with spiritual and existential questions, crushed by the weight of a responsibility she doesn’t feel ready for… until she comes to realize that she actually has more choices than she thinks. In forging small, intimate connections with others, each character finds the shape of their own story becoming clearer.
Both of the Union Quadrant books touch on themes about storytelling, memory, and the historical record. But the thing I really wanted to explore in An Unbreakable World is the way our search for a bigger meaning often begins with our most personal choices.
Most people will never do any epic deeds, or perform incredible galaxy-changing feats. And some people whose actions do have far-reaching effects won’t even realize it. Indeed, most of us will never know exactly how our lives will affect the fabric of history, or how far the ripples of our decisions travelled. But we can make choices about what’s important to us, about what we want to stand for and believe in. We can choose which things we find meaning in when our future isn’t clear and everything seems hopeless.
Sometimes, the journey to save yourself – and to accept that you’re somebody worth saving – can be just as monumental as a heroic quest to save the galaxy.
An Unbreakable World: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Kobo|Powell’s
scalziwhatever_feedCharlie knows you might be stressed out right now, and would like to offer you her carrot:
It’s dirty and slobbery, but that’s what makes it so special. She hopes you enjoy her gift to you.
-AMS
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All is fair in love and war. But what if instead of a bloody battle, wars were games to be played? Author T. A. Chan brings us a near future world in which violent wars are a thing of the past, and games usher in a new strategy of fighting each other. Follow along in the Big Idea for her newest novel, One Last Game, to see how the cards play out.
T. A. CHAN:
Big Idea: Must there be consequences?
My 21st Century Anxiety-induced Roman Empire has consisted of two things the past couple years: 1) Knowing Earth is a ticking time bomb from irreversible climate disaster at the rate things are going and 2) The ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza and other international conflicts.
One Last Game was my attempt of channeling those dreads into a more hopeful future where the climate disaster has been resolved and international conflicts are settled in a non-violent play-by-the-rulebook sort of way. Despite my attempts of creating a grounded utopia, I have somehow ended up with a world that is both so much better (yay for eco-friendly civilization practices!) and also so much worse (nay for lethal board games!) than today’s state of affairs. And it all started with how “ethical warfare” might look like in the future…So welcome, and enjoy the ride!
Why are we so predictable? And I don’t mean “we” as in you and me and them on an individual level, but rather “we” as a collective human society and our habit of settling major conflict via some sort of warfare, whether that be of the economic, psychological, or conventional variety just to name a few. It’s almost like there has to be consequences for anything to be taken seriously.
For the purpose of this Big Idea, let’s focus on conventional warfare.
What makes war bad?
I mean, obviously the list is loooongggg — from destroyed infrastructure to loss of lives, from environmental damage to the trauma imparted on whole generations. And yet even over the course of thousands of years, we haven’t been able to escape using “war” as a way to resolve conflict between tribes/kingdoms/nations/etc when verbal communication fails.
In a perfect world, all global disagreements could be resolved with talking and votes and things of that nature.
But if history is anything like a crystal ball, a war only ends when the cost to continue the engagement can no longer be afforded and/or justified.
But what if we minimize the cost and harm of war?
Imagine this: The year is 2145. Through the desperate will to survive, humanity has painstakingly implemented eco-conscious measures over the course of decades and restored Earth back to its healthy, environmental glory. Having barely escaped extinction of the human species, there’s a very strong consensus that minimizing environmental damage and protecting existing resources is Good.
Thus, bombs are banned, chemical warfare is banned, scorched-earth policy is banned, hell anything that leaves a scratch on a tree is banned. Human-on-human interactions have been tempered as conventional warfare is done away. Debilitating injuries, famine, home displacement, and painful deaths are relics of a bygone era.
The outcomes of international conflicts are settled simply: with a gameboard and players representing their respective countries.
What’s stopping countries from disregarding the outcome of a silly boardgame?
Yeah, I get it. Letting a game of chess determine who gets territorial claim over a highly contested shipping route does seem rather ludicrous.
Even nowadays, international agreements and treatises are broken with the implication–and occasionally, execution–of consequences ranging from economic sanctions to retaliatory acts. See Exhibit A: Paris Accord and Geneva Convention.
And so, herein lies the heart of the Big Idea: Must there be consequences for anything to matter?
I’m inclined to say yes, particularly with a grounded spec-fic set in the near future. And the consequences must be universal enough that it carries weight, no matter what culture or class you come from. In the particular case of One Last Game, this translates to human lives. After all, human conflicts should only affect humans, right? And death is ubiquitous and serious enough that no entity would want to wage needless war when there are less drastic methods of reaching an agreement between states.
Imagine this: It’s the year 2145 and you’re surveying the aftermath of a battlefield that took place in a city. All the skyscrapers gleam under the sunlight, unscathed and standing proud. Verdant leaves unfurl from oak trees in the parks while squirrels argue with pigeons over a slice of cheesy bread that missed the compost bin. It’s quiet, but you know by the end of the week, the streets will once again be bustling with civilians going about their day. On the news broadcast, a reporter discusses how Country A has formally ceded control over shipping routes to Country B after its latest game loss–along with the lives of citizens unlucky enough to be in the randomly selected city.
Their deaths were quick and painless.
Just like falling asleep.
But is it ethical? Is this the best we can do? Must there be consequences?
In conclusion, I don’t have a conclusion to the question of “is there an ethical way to conduct warfare?” But I know we can do better.
Humans are messy and so the solution will be messy. And I have hope that the collective we will strive to understand and recognize an individual’s humanity in all its messy glory, and find a better way forward.
One Last Game: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Powell’s
scalziwhatever_feedFun fact: John Darnielle, the leader and songwriter of The Mountain Goats, went to high school in the same town I did (different schools, though) and share friends in common with me from that era. However, we did not meet each other in person until about a decade ago, at Nerdcon, run by John and Hank Green. What a strange, small and weird world it is. I am glad to know him now, of course. The above song is from the band’s upcoming album, which you can read about here. Enjoy the song, and I’ll see you all tomorrow.
— JS
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It’s never too late to tell a good story. Author Sharon Shinn has returned years later to her Twelve Houses series to bring you a fresh novel in a familiar world. Follow along in her Big Idea for Shifter and Shadow to see how she’s breathed new life into a finished series.
SHARON SHINN:
Sometimes I write a book with a grand theme in mind. I want to explore issues of racism, maybe, or cultural diversity, or colonialism or religion or grief. But sometimes I just want to follow a couple of characters around. I just want to tell their story.
That’s the case with Shifter and Shadow, a new short novel in my Twelve Houses world. I wanted to explain what happened between two characters, Kirra and Donnal, whose relationship had unfolded off the page between the end of the second book and the beginning of the third. During the seventeen years since I had published the last book in the series, many of my readers had asked for their story, and I finally decided to write it.
But the idea was a little daunting. First, I had to come up with a storyline that would be a bit more interesting than a reconciliation and a declaration of love. There was no real suspense involved, because anyone who had read the whole series already knew that Kirra and Donnal ended up together. So what plot could I devise that would slot neatly in the gap between those previous books? What obstacles could I throw in their path, what surprises could I manufacture, what tension could I generate from surrounding circumstances?
Even more difficult, how could I believably bridge the gulf that had always existed between the titled noblewoman and the peasant’s son? What could possibly move Donnal to openly admit his feelings when he had spent, oh, fifteen years trying to conceal them? How could Kirra convince him she returned his love when she had spent the entire second novel involved with another man?
Finally—seventeen years later—how successfully could I recapture the tone and rhythms of the earlier books and the personalities of the main characters? Kirra is one of my more irrepressible heroines and a lot of fun to write, but Donnal is significantly more reserved. Would I be able to tell a story from his point of view?
The questions about this particular book just added complexity to the task of writing a series, which can be challenging at the best of times. Simply keeping track of characters’ names, ages, heights, eye colors, and random personal details can be a monumental chore. (I keep a running file where I add pertinent details as they come up, but if I forget to update the file during the editing process, I end up doing a lot of searching through works-in-progress. “I thought he had two brothers, not one.” “Did she say she’d never been to the royal city?”) I find myself frequently rereading whole books in existing series every time I want to write a new one, hoping not to make a continuity error.
There’s also the ongoing problem of how much background material from previous installments needs to be reprised in the current manuscript. To some extent, an author writing any science fiction or fantasy book has to balance world-building with plotting, avoiding the infamous “info-dump” while still offering enough detail to bring an imaginary place to life. But in a series, it becomes particularly important to remind readers of pertinent events or relevant magic. One of my fellow authors says that there are always certain touchstones that readers expect to see and that the author has to include because they’re what make the books in a particular series familiar and unique.
I knew writing the book would be tricky. But I had characters I loved and a plot that I found intriguing—one that fit nicely around the romance. And anyway, there were already some built-in grand themes, because the Twelve Houses world always incorporates issues of bigotry, persecution, and fear-based hatred. In Shifter and Shadow, many of the secondary characters are forced to examine their own biases—and maybe overcome them, maybe not. They also have to make hard choices, weighing deep personal risks against powerful rewards. What can they live without? What can they never give up?
I’m not an artist, but I’ve always thought that painting a picture must be similar to writing a novel. I might spend a week on one scene, two days on another, but neither scene is meant to stand alone; each one should merely be part of one seamless narrative. Similarly, I imagine that an artist might spend hours getting the folds of a gown just right or capturing the precise way sunlight illuminates an ocean wave. But that particular section of the canvas will ultimately be viewed as part of the overall picture, something that is taken as a whole.
Ideally, I think, the background effort that goes into a creative endeavor should be largely invisible. The artist might be calculating angles and the implementing the rule of thirds; the writer might be strategizing about plot and pacing and strategic disclosures of information. But the hope is that the audience just enjoys the finished work. At least, that’s what I hope when someone is reading one of my books.
I recently saw a meme that first showed the front of a completed piece of embroidery, a beautiful piece of artwork with clean lines and lovely imagery. The caption reads, “What the reader sees.” Beside it is shown the back of the same piece, with all the threads chaotically crisscrossing and all the knots and trailing ends making a glorious mess. This time the caption says, “What the author knows.”
My goal in writing Shifter and Shadow was to keep track of all those threads and balance all those conflicting imperatives in ways that the reader would never notice. All that’s left, I hope, is the story.
Shifter and Shadow: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Powell’s
scalziwhatever_feedThere are very few sports I like and even fewer physical activities I enjoy partaking in as exercise. Unfortunately, the older and heavier I get, the more I realize that I really should be doing some kind of movement. The movement of choice has been hard to determine, as I hate running, am not fond of going to an actual gym, and don’t feel like joining a recreational sports team of any kind.
Thankfully, pickleball has revealed its beautiful self to me. Pickleball, a sport known for its popularity amongst senior citizens, has turned out to be perfect for an absolute couch potato like me.
Have you ever wanted to play tennis but are definitely not fit enough to do so? Lo and behold pickleball, tennis’s much less intense and inexpensive cousin. With lighter paddles, whiffle balls instead of tennis balls, and smaller courts than tennis, it’s perfect for anyone who is less athletically inclined, such as myself.
I truly never thought I’d find a physical activity that I deemed “fun.” Going to the gym and lifting weights is not exactly fun. Running on a treadmill is not what I’d consider fun. However, pickleball actually is pretty fun! I am excited to say I like it, and I’m really happy I’ve found something that I don’t hate doing that also gets me up and my heart pumpin’.
I think it’s really helped that my pickleball partner is my mom, and playing with her has been pretty great. She helps hold me accountable on days when I don’t feel like getting up and playing, we play music from a speaker when no one else is there (which is 97% of the time), and sometimes we get Subway afterwards. It’s nice to have some dedicated time together doing a decently fun activity, and I feel much less competitive when it’s just against my mom. Like I don’t get miffed when I lose, which I cannot say about most things (like Fortnite).
While I do still hate being in the sun and despise sweating, I have found that I can tolerate the hour of playing that we do. We usually play a best two out of three, and that’s roughly a good enough amount of time for me to feel like I have accomplished “the exercise.” Like, I actually got up and spent an okay amount of time moving my body, and now I want to shower. That counts as being active in my book.
I hate to say it, like really hate to say it, but I do actually tend to feel better after having played pickleball. It’s almost like… exercise is good for you? Crazy, I know. And trust me, I’ve spent a lot of time avoiding it. But dang, getting older does not feel great on my joints, and my weight isn’t helping in that area, either.
I’m not saying pickleball is my new secret to weight loss and the key to unlock health, but I figure it’s better than absolutely nothing, which is what I was previously doing. It’s fun, anyway, and that’s all that really matters, right? Right.
Have you played pickleball before? What do you think of it? What do you like to do to stay active? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day!
-AMS
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This November, you know, after you’ve picked up The Shattering Peace and enjoyed the heck out of it, I’ll have another new thing for you: A short story called “3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years,” which will be part of The Time Traveler’s Passport, an anthology of stories about time and/or travel, edited by John Joseph Adams, which in addition to my story will feature stories by R.F. Kuang, Peng Shepard, Kaliane Bradley, Olivie Blake and P. Djèlí Clark. That is a hell of a line-up, if I do say so myself. These stories will also feature audio narration, and they will be for sale individually, but if you are an Amazon Prime member, you’ll get to read them for free, because Amazon is publishing this anthology, and that’s how Amazon do.
And what is “3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years” about? Here’s the pitch:
Time travel is real—and used for high-end tourism. Every moment of the past is open to visitors, and no matter what they do then, everything now waits for them, thanks to the sure hand of an experienced time travel technician. Come spend a day behind the controls of the time machine, and discover why, this day of all days, it’s time for this technician to make a change. Because sometimes, time travel is more than just an adventure. Sometimes, it’s a moral imperative.
Oooooh! Moral imperatives!
It’s a very good story, if I do say so myself (as are the other stories in this collection, no surprise given the line-up), and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you all in November. That’s not long now, and worth the wait.
— JS
scalziwhatever_feedI have followed CultFlav on Tik Tok for a while now, enjoying their thorough reviews of cooking products as well as cookbooks. For all the reviews of theirs I’ve seen, I’ve never really been tempted to buy anything before. Most of what I have seen are things like pan reviews, a comparison of knives, talking about stand-mixers, basically a bunch of stuff I already have and don’t need to replace any time soon. So while I like their content, I have never felt compelled to buy anything they’ve talked about.
About a month ago, I watched a twenty minute video on Tik Tok where they reviewed Zaynab Issa’s cookbook, Third Culture Cooking. That’s right, I watched an entire twenty minute Tik Tok video. I have never done that before, to be honest. But for this video, I was sat. They had my attention from the start, and kept it all the way through. Here’s the Tik Tok video:
@cultflav 9.2: Third Culture Cooking by @Zaynab Issa cookbook review! This book is special without being fussy. It takes freezer ingredients and takes them from getting food on the table to taking care of yourself. Hope you enjoy the review! Check out our website for Gyoza recipe(s): cultflav.com
CultFlav’s video sold me completely on buying this cookbook. I had to place a special order to get it because I bought it through my local independent bookstore, but it was worth the wait.
I have always had this awful tendency to buy a cookbook and then never cook anything from it. It is a problem that extends into other areas of my life, too, such as buying a ton of video games on Steam and never playing any. I’m sure many of you can relate. Yeah, I see your TBR pile of fantasy novels on your nightstand there, don’t try to hide it, we’re all friends here.
For Third Culture Cooking, I was determined to cook something from it. I had bought it because CultFlav’s video had made me excited about the book, and eager to try the recipes, and by golly I was going to do it.
I decided to follow in CultFlav’s footsteps and sit down and read the whole thing first. I’m glad I did, because Zaynab Issa has some very interesting things to say on “American” food and how being a woman impacts how we view the act of cooking.
All the praise I’m about to give the book are exactly what CultFlav has said in their videos, but I’m going to do it anyway.
I love the look of the book. It’s a really well made, nice looking book that is going to look great on any shelf, or even displayed on a coffee table. It’s well-shot and well-organized. I like the textured lettering on the cover.
I love the accessibility aspect of the ingredients. It can be daunting to try to cook a dish that has ingredients you’ve never used before, or is a very different cuisine than what you’re used to, but Issa makes a point to include tons of substitutions in every single recipe. I find her recipes to be very approachable, and if you read through the recipes as well as her section on “pantry and fridge staples”, you’ll find that once you buy something for one of her recipes, chances are very high that you will use it again in about a dozen others. This is especially true of things like spices. Everyone knows the feeling of buying a whole jar of spice just to use 1/4 tsp of it in a recipe, and then never touch it again. I can guarantee that if you buy a spice she uses in a recipe, you’re going to see it again and again throughout the book.
Issa has a section in the beginning of the book that lists a handful of moods, and then tells you some recipes to cook for that mood. If you’re in the mood for something cozy, she recommends her udon carbonara, or her banana cake with tahini fudge. If you’re in the mood to celebrate, why not try her biryani, or chocolate cake with chai buttercream? I think this is a really unique and fun thing to have in your cookbook.
In the couple weeks of having this book, I’ve made four things from it. French Onion Ramen, Super Savory Chicken Soup, Red Curry Orzotto, and Coffee Cake Muffins. Everything has been really good so far, and has been pretty easy!
For the French Onion Ramen, it mostly consisted of caramelizing onions, adding things like white miso paste and rice vinegar for flavor along with beef broth, and boiling noodles. I loved the inclusion of fresh grated parmesan on top. I even managed to make pretty perfect soft-boiled eggs that were nice and jammy. I couldn’t find ramen noodles at the store, so I used yakisoba noodles instead, and I think it turned out really well. I would like to make it with actual ramen noodles in the future, I think it would be even better that way.
When I made the Super Savory Chicken Soup, it was because my mom was sick, and I wanted to make her a soup that really packed a punch. This soup has tons of garlic and ginger in it that I was sure would help her feel better. The noodles in this dish are also ramen noodles, which I did manage to get ahold of this time. In the recipe, she says to cook the chicken thighs in the broth, but I didn’t have time to actually cook the chicken and shred it and all that, so I used a rotisserie chicken and shredded it up before adding it in, and I think it turned out pretty amazing. It was super flavorful and full of good stuff. I will say, you can’t skimp on the fresh lime juice, it really brightens the soup up and adds some excellent acidity to the hearty broth.
The Red Curry Orzotto is probably my favorite out of all these recipes so far, even though everything else was really good, this dish just turned out so delicious and cozy and I can’t wait to make it a regular in my rotation of dinners. The recipe calls to include mushrooms and peas in it, but also says that if you want to include a protein, she recommends shrimp or chicken. I picked shrimp and I think it was an absolutely amazing addition. I’m kind of biased because shrimp is my favorite protein in general, but honestly the flavors are just perfect together. I used a mild red curry paste for this dish but you could easily use a spicier one for some extra kick.
Lastly, the Coffee Cake Muffins. The dessert section of this book is the one that interests me the most, with recipes like Coconut and Cardamom Cake, Almond Mocha Blondies, Melon Sorbet, and Salted Brown Butter Pecan Shortbread. The Coffee Cake Muffins had a really simple ingredient list and were pretty easy to make, and they tasted really good, but oh my goodness they were so crumbly. The streusel on top was so crumbly you couldn’t eat one of these bad boys without hovering over a plate or the kitchen sink. I felt like I had done something wrong to make them turn out this way, so I actually emailed Issa and asked her if there was something I might’ve done to cause the seemingly-extreme-crumbliness. I was very surprised she actually responded to my email the next day!
Everything I’ve made so far has been pretty great, and nothing yet has been too difficult or daunting! I really like this cookbook, and I like that it has made me genuinely excited to get in the kitchen and cook something yummy. It’s a nice feeling, and I owe it to CultFlav for so very thoroughly reading, testing, and recommending Third Culture Cooking.
If you want to see their full, hour long review over the book, rather than the twenty minute Tik Tok version, here’s the YouTube video:
I will say my one critique of the cookbook is that sometimes (rarely, but honestly once is more than enough) Issa opts to put a photo of an empty plate to accompany the recipe, rather than a photo of the food before it was eaten. The empty plate might have a spoonful or two of remnants of the dish, or smears of sauce here and there, but we don’t get an actual photo of the dish. That is definitely not my favorite, but it happens so sparingly that I can get over it. It was actually that way for the Red Curry Orzotto, where there’s just a little tiny bit of orzo left on a sauce-smeared plate. Wouldn’t be what I do, but, it’s not my cookbook.
Overall, I highly recommend giving this cookbook a shot, it has been so fun to read and look through, and I’m so excited to try more recipes from it. I’m really loving it so far!
Don’t forget to check out Zaynab Issa’s Instagram and Tik Tok, as well as CultFlav’s Instagram and Tik Tok, so you can see tons of awesome cooking-related reviews.
Which dish sounds the most yummy to you? Do you have any cookbooks you’ve been loving lately? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day!
-AMS
scalziwhatever_feed - Hello From Santa Cruzscalziwhatever_feed - The Big Idea: Dan Ricescalziwhatever_feed - A Check-Up For Sajascalziwhatever_feed - View From a Hotel Window, 9/17/25: Spokane, WAscalziwhatever_feed - The Shattering Peace is Out!scalziwhatever_feed - View From a Hotel Chaise Longue, 9/15/25: Scottsdale, AZscalziwhatever_feed - Attending A Mystery Skulls Concert At Skully’s Music Dinerscalziwhatever_feed - The Big Idea: Ian Randal Strockscalziwhatever_feed - Got Myself a COVID Shot Todayscalziwhatever_feed - 27 Years of Whateverscalziwhatever_feed - Catching Up With Sajascalziwhatever_feed - New Books and ARCs, 9/12/25scalziwhatever_feed - The Big Idea: Ren Hutchingsscalziwhatever_feed - Charlie Offers A Carrotscalziwhatever_feed - The Big Idea: T. A. Chanscalziwhatever_feed - I’m Traveling Today, So Here is a New Mountain Goats Song For Youscalziwhatever_feed - The Big Idea: Sharon Shinnscalziwhatever_feed - A New-Found Enjoyment Of Pickleballscalziwhatever_feed - Announcing “3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years”scalziwhatever_feed - Being Introduced To Zaynab Issa’s “Third Culture Cooking” By CultFlav![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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