Tor.com

Daniel:

Actually, I'd love to go all David Weber on you. He's one of the best selling science fiction authors working today (and a lovely fellow to boot). Lots of people positively devour his stories. But he is him and I am me and I think we'll keep writing like ourselves rather than the other. 

The Collapsing Empire is written exactly how I wanted to write it; there's nothing to "fix" because (small copy edits notwithstanding) it's in its intended form. If this particular writing style doesn't work for you, that's okay! There are lots of other fabulous writers to read in the genre. Go read them. 

With that said, I invite you to read the first chapter of The Android's Dream and note the structural similarities between this prologue and that. This is neither a new nor unsuccessful element of my writing (TAD, I'll note, is an award winner and sells perennially well for me, particularly overseas and in audio). When I read the prologue at Worldcon, it had people breaking into applause well before the end of excerpt, which doesn't usually happen. It suggests (to me, anyway), that the prologue is working just fine, and as intended. 

Again: It's okay if it doesn't work for you. It works for me. 

Jon Bromfield:

I did it that way because I wanted to do it that way, and it reads exactly as I intended it to read. You don't have to like it. 

"'Scalzi'" has a first name, too. I AM A MONONYM NOW LIKE CHER OR GODZILLA MOSTLY LIKE GODZILLA (stomps Tokyo)

One small correction: Alexa Faigen is an executive at Stuber Productions, not Paramount (Scott Stuber is the producer; Paramount is the studio the movie will be made by).

HOW ABOUT A SPOILER ALERT THERE, GREG MANCHESS

Dear Tor.com voters: The kittehs thank you. And so do I.

landondyer: "Verhoeven butchered one of the best combat SF books of all time" No, he didn't. The book itself is mysteriously unaffected by the existence of the film. Heinlein's words were not pulped and replaced by a novelization of the Starship Troopers film (Heinlein's book, however, did jump back into the bestseller lists when the film came out, if memory serves). This goes further to the point that the book and the film are not the same thing. A crappy film adaptation of any book does nothing to the book. See: Dune, The Postman, The Puppet Masters (yeeech), etc for further confirmation of this. But even a crappy film adaptation can be a nice advertisement for the book.

"I'm curious, though: why did you choose to talk about Starship Troopers, now?" Because the folks at Tor.com said to me "Hey, we're doing a military science fiction week, wanna write something? We'll give you money."

As much as I would like to take credit for returning the Nebulas to a calendar year system, as well as implementing other rational changes to the awards, it was the SFWA board of directors under former president Russell Davis who did that particular deed. Credit belongs to them and not me.

Irene: I'll do it so long as Tor meets the following demands: 1. Money truck. WITH money. 2. A pony AND a lifetime supply of pony glitter. That's my lifetime, not the pony's. 3. A robot butler that FIGHTS CRIME. 4. Audio book performed by Grover from Sesame Street. 5. Edible ninja stars made from cheese. A couple hundred of them. Have your people call my people. We can make this happen. Just don't skimp on the pony glitter.

I'm totally going to write the "Shadow War of the Night Dragon" trilogy. Please have Tor back up the money truck to my front door. kthxbye.

Hey, I want one! Oh, wait.

Captain Button: As noted in the entry, Heinlein was controversial while still alive, and many of these arguments are of long standing. Be aware that in presenting this argument, I am not saying it's the only cause of the acrimony, but one of the causes.

I can't speak for the other "New Heinleins," JohnArkansawayer, but I know of several of my readers who were introduced to Heinlein through my acknowledgment of him in Old Man's War. I don't think this is entirely surprising; I read Heinlein before I read Wells or Verne.

Foxessa: Wow, that comment would have been awesome had it been even remotely related to the entry to which it was attached.

And, in fact, I own the jar. I own ALL the jars with brains in them. BWA HA HA HA HA HAH HA!

Matt: That's just bad editing on my part. I'll fix it soon.

"If you can figure out that going in one direction and hearing a sound grow louder means you are walking towards the source of the sound... you're doing as much "calculus" as the roundworms are." So that's how it works. Dude, my world has just been totally rocked.

I'll probably tend to lean toward space stuff, on account that's where my own interests are, but I'm going to try to cover a range of things.

DeepThought: Ironically, I think medicinal use of maggots is kind of cool, although it would definitely squick me out to do it. But on the other hand, if I was at the point where medicinal maggots were a viable option for my issues, I've have a whole boatload of problems. The footie fish feed, by contrast, is strictly optional.

Thanks, everyone -- glad you're liking it!

Agent86: NASA is on it.

Apparently someone disapproves of your business thinking, Alison.

There are some things like that (for example, an Earth Science Picture of the Day); I'll look around for more as well.

I love me some Bad Astronomy, definitely. I'll be talking more about my favorite science bloggers as I go along, to be sure.

Irene: No worries. I have no problem having a cool piece of art in front of me to spur my imagination, you know?  Shayera: Well, Harry's a character in two of the OMW books, so I can't claim him as new. But I am glad to get him out as the hero of his own story!

Actually, the illustration, the title of which is "After the Coup." And I went, "hey, I bet I could work with that."