Some peripheral thoughts on The Peripheral
We’ve finished watching The Peripheral, and I’ve been thinking about how amazing and hopeful it is that this wildly successful mainstream hit is entirely...
Fascism is a fandom, and people leave fandoms all the time.
I mentioned parasocial relationships a post or so ago, and that got me thinking about what those relationships provide and how they function and that led me...
Kirstie Alley died last week, and I am having some feelings about it.
I've never been somebody to pretend that the connection we feel in a parasocial relationship isn't real: of course it is, and in some ways it's both the...
Jenny Casey, Audiobook Edition
Well look at this. I'm thrilled to announce that all three Jenny Casey books are available for purchase or pre-order as audiobooks in the US... finally. :D...
Behind the times on the book club again
But I did actually manage to read a few things this month. One was How to Keep House While Drowning by K.C. Davis, which I recommend to everybody feeling...
I have a new hobby
It's stealing "No Geese Allowed" signs. Sometimes, the best way to deal with overwhelm is to be goose, do crimes. The sign beside the sidewalk sale is too...
Cancer is the gift that keeps on giving (no terrible news, don't worry.)
Well, I think I mentioned here that my last mammogram came back clear. However, I had a real fucking adventure on the way to Viable Paradise, which was that...
Book club! I got NOTHING read in October.
Nothing I can talk about anyway, it was all student manuscripts for Viable Paradise. What did you read that was amazing? I have about seven books I’m halfway...
I'm not leaving twitter just yet but I am branching out. Also, anthology!
Hey folks, just wanted to stick a flag in the fact that I have resurrected my camped but ignored counter.social account (it’s @matociquala, surprising...
New Story Day!
Not only is Tasting Light, edited by A.R. Capetta and Wade Roush, out today, featuring ten new hard SF stories for teen readers (and adult readers too!)...
Horse updates: all is chaos!
Ormr is fine, first off—but everything has been a lot lately. We’ve managed to find a new farrier, but Ormr, after 15 years barefoot, is not on board with...
An actual book club post despite my abject failure to read almost anything lately
So I have managed to finish three whole books in the last two months, which may be an all-time low. (I’ve been reading a lot of articles and news coverage,...
There's no such thing as a free lunch, and other bullshit lies we tell each other.
Trust me, I'm 9/10ths of an anthropologist
A poignant anniversary
It’s one of my personal holidays today. Long-time readers of my old livejournal and even occasionally Twitter willl have heard me speak of this before, but...
Virtuosity
How does a best-seller happen, anyway? This post is brought to you by several overlapping sets of ripples in the Discourse, obviously, but it’s not a...
OCCUPY GONDOR: A Virtual Panel with Katherine Addison, Scott Lynch, C.L. Polk, Arkady Martine, Max Gladstone, and me!
Join me and five of the smartest, funniest people I know on September 30th at 9 pm Eastern/6 pm Pacific to talk about all the different ways speculative...
The unbearable everywhereness of hustle culture
I’m writing this to you from the sunny (for now) patio of a rental cottage as far from civilization as it’s possible to get, and still be in Ireland. My...
Obligatory Tom Waits Reference Here!
Somehow it seems like Sunstack never sent this out? Sorry, folks, it was meant to go out Sunday the 4th, and I didn’t notice because I was at Worldcon! I...
A view from a high place
We're in Dublin briefly before heading off on a writing retreat in an undisclosed location (It’s Kerry) for a few days, where we plan to do nearly nothing...
Sort of an everything update
Hey, folks, It’s been kind of a zoo around here lately, and the only reason I’m finding the time to actually update this newsletter is because I hurt my...
I seem to have a WorldCon Schedule.
How weird is that? ?
Signed book sale!
Signed copies of my work (and anything in the store that's not already on sale!) are available through V. J. Books at a 50% discount for the month of August...
June and July Book Club! And horse update!
Whew, I have not done as much reading as I wanted to do, either on our travels or since I got home. I’m starting to get a little unstuck from fiction, at...
Author points
One of the most useful analogies I’ve come up with over the course of my career is something that arose out of an epiphany I had approximately 20 years ago,...
Booksigning at Odyssey Books Thursday July 21!
7 pm! South Hadley! Does what it says on the tin! Sign up here! https://www.odysseybks.com/event/elizabeth-bear-person
Fashion changes the way we see.
I am an 80s kid through and through. I mean, I was born in the 70s, but all of my awareness that there is a larger world out there basically starts with the...
The reader doesn't owe me anything.
I’ve been seeing opinions in the social medias lately from certain writers that I find a little puzzling and entitled. To wit, the idea that readers owe the...
Make room, make room
As some of you have doubtless noticed, I spent Pride month building a rec list of books containing LGBTQA rep on twitter. I’ve been using a specific set of...
My Favorite Bit and I will be at Pandemonium tomorrow!
Hey folks! Here’s the essay I wrote for Mary Robinette Kowal’s MY FAVORITE BIT feature on friendship and The Origin of Storms. Also, I will be doing my first...
The system is broken because it was built that way.
First off: Book Club will return next month, because I am traveling! Second, a little rant about civics: If it seems like it’s really hard to get anything...
THE ORIGIN OF STORMS! It's new book day! Here's a link!
Hey, folks! THE ORIGIN OF STORMS is out today. I’m sure by now everybody knows how vital first week sales are to a book’s prospects, so if you think you want...
T-1
THE ORIGIN OF STORMS comes out tomorrow! snarky talking pen big fight on a volcano walking cities wizards sciencing the shit out of things giant gentle metal...
We're calling it a "curated" book tour...
Hey everybody! In something that feels VERY weird, I will actually be doing a couple of in-person appearances next month to launch THE ORIGIN OF STORMS. (On-...
Being snobby about rice might make you a bad artist
Hey, folks, So as those of you who have been around for a while know, one of my hobbies is watching cooking videos on youtube. I’m kind of picky about it,...
THE ORIGIN OF STORMS ONE WEEK FROM TODAY
ONE WEEK FROM TODAY! The shattering conclusion to The Lotus Kingdoms trilogy, the culmination of the series begun with The Eternal Sky trilogy, THE ORIGIN OF...
A rising tide lifts all boats, but not everybody sees it that way.
I’m a little late to the party here (been traveling, helping run a convention, plague year, you know) but the recent flap about that one guy and his Hot Take...
What if there were enough for everybody?
Sounds like communism.
Hard-traveling heroes
Positive reinforcement, social media, and animal training.
Gamification might be bad, actually?
Hey, folks, So something I’ve been thinking about lately is gamification, and whether it’s actually a good idea. Streaks and Daily Habits and the habit...
Book Club, May 2022
Hey folks, Tomorrow we’re taking the horses to summer camp, where they will spend two months learning to tolt better and avoiding the heat in the mountains...
Content Warning: Gun Stuff (also I am mad, just like everybody else)
(This started life as a twitter thread; also putting it here for easier reading) You would think that if the gun lobby were arguing in good faith, the fact...
Salty Cocktail Blogging
Scott and I have been watching this youtube channel called How To Drink, which is a lovely unintentional companion to one of my other favorite channels, How...
Twitch Interview on Saturday at 10 am EDT!
Does what it says on the tin! I'll be over here with Edward! https://www.twitch.tv/gryftkin
None dare call it fuckery.
In which America once again gaslights itself.
Discord reminder
Just a reminder that the discord server is live, and if you’re a subscriber you can access it here: https://discord.gg/mZM5c3FM (Please don’t forward this...
Grit appropriation
There’s an old song that goes, “I’m tired and I wanna go home. I’m tired and a I wanna go home.” Good gravy, I’m tired. I’m tired of the world, I’m tired of...
Don't need a book club to know which way the wind blows
Hey folks, What have you been reading in April? As for me, well, I read Homo Deus: A History Of Tomorrow by Yuval Noah Harari, which has probably irritated...
It's me on a podcast, having too much fun!
Hey, please come join me with the great crew over at SOMEBODY WRITE THIS, where we will build a ghost story from a kit... with procedurally generated plot...
PTSD and a hairy dog belly.
Hey everybody, What with the twitter nonsense, and the way that algorithms bury everything I want to see (and make it nearly impossible for me to keep folks...
So I fell off a horse. Again. :D
We’re all fine, we’ve just been having many adventures in Horseland the past week or so. Trail riding season is upon us, and my piriformis isn’t used to this...