http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/29/introducing-redshirt-the-theme-to-the-novel-redshirts-by-jonathan-coulton/

http://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=18721

Yes, Jonathan Coulton wrote me a song to go with my book. Here’s all you have to do:

1. Listen to the song (because it’s awesome).

2. Go to Tor.com’s final Journey to Planet JoCo installment to read and/or hear me and Jonathan Coulton talk about the genesis of the song, and how it relates to the book. Stay tuned for a very special video near the end of the talk, featuring me.

3. Share the song with folks (because it’s awesome).

Also, let me take a moment here to thank Jonathan for a truly fantastic song. I literally could not be happier with it. Although I admit to bias here, I think it’s one of his best. I hope you think so, too.

Update: Jonathan updates his page to talk a little about the song. If you love the song, you’ll soon be able to buy a copy from JoCo himself.

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/2012/05/29/how-to-host-a-yard-sale/

http://www.getrichslowly.org/blog/?p=134152

Summer is coming, and the weather is warming around much of the United States. You know what that means: Yard sale season is upon us! Hosting a yard sale — or garage sale or tag sale or whatever you want to call it — can be a great way to clear out clutter and generate a bit of quick cash.

In fact, Kris and I joined some of our friends last weekend to clear out some of the Stuff we’ve collected since our last sale in 2006 — and some of the Stuff that neither of us wants since the divorce. We had a good time sitting around a driveway in southeast Portland, joking, eating donuts, and trying to convince people to buy our (former) treasures.

As a veteran of many profitable yard sales, here are some of my top tips:

• Be clear on the purpose of your sale. Are you selling things to make money or to get rid of them? This question affects everything you do, from how you price things to how willing you are to negotiate. (If your goal is to get top dollar, you should really be selling on eBay or Craigslist.) Last weekend, for instance, I just wanted to get rid of stuff. I was willing to take almost any offer.
• A group sale is better than selling alone. If you can coordinate a weekend sale with your neighbors, you’ll draw more traffic. Here in Portland, the Eastmoreland Garage Sale — which includes nearly 150 households — brings in thousands of people every June.
• Advertise effectively. Stick an ad in the newspaper. Put up a notice on Craigslist. Post clear, simple signs around the neighborhood. Make sure your signs are readable. It’s best to use big bold text like “HUGE SALE” with an arrow pointing the right direction. (The Yard Sale Queen has a great page highlighting the difference between good and bad yard sale signs.)
• Be prepared. Wear comfortable clothing. Have water and snacks at hand. Get plenty of one-dollar bills and a roll of quarters the day before. Move things out early. Good preparation will help things run smoothly. I’ll admit that I was unprepared for our sale this weekend, so I missed the first few hours (the hours when the most serious buyers arrive) because I was still getting my things ready to sell.
• Display items to their advantage. People will be more inclined to stop if you set up shop in your yard or driveway. Some folks are reluctant to enter a dark and dreary garage. Make your sale inviting and easy to browse. You can lure customers by placing highly desirable items near the road.
• Think like a customer. As soon as you’ve opened and fielded the initial flood of shoppers, walk through your sale as if you were there to buy something. How does it feel? Are things clearly marked? Is it easy to move around? Are your books on the ground in boxes? Or are they placed neatly on shelves or tables? Would you pay $10 for that porcelain cat?
• Do not bad-mouth your stuff. At one group garage sale, a friend consistently told customers what was wrong with the items they were buying. “Oh, that book is awful. That’s a terrible movie. That skillet doesn’t heat very well. That game is boring.” We sent this friend inside to drink beer ASAP. This year, Kris and her friends did the opposite. It was hilarious to watch them say things like, “Wow, that sweater looks great on you!”
• Be willing to bargain, but be less flexible at the start. On the first day, you want to get as much as you can for each item. Most people will still buy Aunt Lucy’s soup tureen at $5 even after asking you to sell it for $3. If they’re bargaining, it’s because they want the item. Don’t be completely rigid, but don’t give your stuff away at the start.
• Do not use a cash box. Carry your money with you at all times. Casual thieves and professional swindlers can both make off with cash boxes in an instant. We use a cheap cloth apron/utility belt from the local hardware store to carry our money. Some people use a fanny pack or a zippered bank deposit pouch. (Here are more tips for avoiding garage sale scams.)
• Have a plan for what you’ll do with your unsold merchandise. Some non-profits will pick up unsold stuff, so research this ahead of time. On Saturday, we loaded all of our unsold stuff into a Honda Element and hauled it to a local thrift store.

Running a yard sale isn’t rocket science. But if you put a little effort into creating an environment where it’s pleasant to browse and easy to find junk treasures, you’ll make a lot more money. Or some money, anyhow.

Last weekend, I was able to purge tons of old record albums, as well as some paperbound comic book compilations. These are things I needed to get rid of anyway because they were a mental and physical burden on my life. In exchange, I earned $105. Not bad.

First off, happy book day to my friend Lisa Shearin, whose book All Spell Breaks Loose [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy] is out today. And last week marked the release of Mira Grant’s Blackout [Amazon | B&N | Mysterious Galaxy].

#

This year will be my first Worldcon, and the first time I’ve voted in the Hugos. I’ve been diligently downloading and devouring the Hugo Voters Packet, starting with the short stories, because … well, they’re short!

Shadow War of the Night Dragons: Book One: The Dead City: Prologue, by John Scalzi. I wonder how I’d feel if a story I wrote for an April Fool’s Day joke made the Hugo ballot. On one hand, it’s delightfully random and unexpected. At the same time, I think I’d have this nagging sense of, “Wait, what about all the stuff I wrote that wasn’t a joke?”

As a joke, this was marvelous. Tor and Scalzi went all out, including cover art, and the story was an amusing read. It’s nice to see humor on the ballot. And there’s an actual story here amidst the jokes and the over-the-top fantasy tropes. I can honestly say that when I finished reading, I wanted to know what happened next.

You could tell Scalzi was having a good old time with this one. That said, some of the humor felt a little forced. While it’s a fun read and you should check it out, I don’t see this one taking home a rocketship.

Movement by Nancy Fulda. This is a first-person SF story set in the near future about a girl named Hannah with temporal autism. Hannah’s parents are trying to decide whether to pursue a new technology which could help her integrate into society, but becoming more “normal” isn’t always a good thing. This made me think of Elizabeth Moon’s award-winning novel The Speed of Dark, which I reviewed here. Like Moon, Fulda does a very good job of capturing her protagonist’s voice, showing us the world through Hannah’s eyes. As the father of an autistic child, it’s hard for me to be entirely objective about this story, but I really appreciated it, and I thought the ending worked well.

Also, even though Hannah doesn’t think it’s terribly effective, I totally want to invest in shoulder-mounted mosquito-killing laser technology!

The Homecoming by Mike Resnick. Resnick is one of the most prolific writers in our field, and “The Homecoming” has a lot going for it. It’s an emotional story of an estranged son (Philip) coming home to visit the father who wants nothing to do with him. His mother has Alzheimer’s, and has only a few lucid minutes each day. Philip left Earth years ago, after radically redesigning his body into an alien form, in order to explore another world. His father took it as a rejection of family and humanity.

To me, it felt like a metaphor for a father unable to accept his son’s sexuality. I could be reading into it, but this is how the story resonated for me — the father mourning his lost grandchildren, hating the life his son has chosen, while the mother takes on the role of peacemaker, bringing them together despite her infirmity.

While the SFnal elements were wonderful, the ending felt too quick and easy, and didn’t really work for me. It didn’t feel true.

The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu. This is, in my mind, a good example of that sense of truth I’m talking about. Jack’s mother was a mail-order bride from China. When he’s young, she makes origami animals and infuses them with life: a paper tiger purrs and prances, the tinfoil shark swims, and so on. It’s amazing and beautiful. But as Jack grows older, he rejects his Chinese heritage, wanting to fit in with his “American” peers. In doing so, he rejects his mother as well. Only after she’s gone does he learn the rest of her story.

There is no neat ending here, but there is … understanding. Movement. Regret and loss, but with a thread of connection through the story’s magical element.

One of the things I admire about this one is that it’s not overstated. Jack has little understanding or compassion for a mother who sold herself in a catalog, but there’s a line later on where he’s prepping resumes and says, “I schemed about how to lie to the corporate recruiters most effectively so that they’d offer to buy me.” It’s just one line, and Jack doesn’t see the connection, but the reader does. One line is all it takes.

This story has already won the Nebula award, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it take the Hugo as well. Yeah, it’s really good.

The Cartographer Wasps and the Anarchist Bees by E. Lily Yu. Let me put it this way: this is a story that made wasp nests beautiful and magical in a mere two paragraphs. It’s a story of clashing civilizations, in which the wasps colonize the less powerful bees, a situation with many real-world parallels. The wasps take tribute from the bees, but offer them “the honor of watching us elevate [you] to moral and technological heights you could never imagine.”

This kind of story could become preachy, but it never does. It is what it is, unapologetic and disturbing. Yu takes advantage of the shorter insect lifespan to show the evolution of a new line of bees: anarchists who set out to create a new future.

Like Liu’s story, the ending isn’t neat or happy, but it feels right. There’s a sense of movement that feels circular even as it moves forward. There’s a lot going on in this one, and I may have to reread it to catch things I missed my first time through.

#

Discussion is welcome, and since the stories are all online, you don’t even have to be registered for Worldcon to read them.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

May is "Short Story Month."

Saints and Sinners is over for another year, and as always, I loved it.

The first year there was a Saints and Sinners Short Fiction Contest, I sent in a short story called "Last Call." It was an urban paranormal story with a magic-wielding detective trying to figure out who was trying to kill an incubus - the trouble being, of course, that everyone who'd ever met the incubus would pretty much have a reason to do so. It was well received, but didn't win or place in the anthology, and I didn't mind a bit. The money for the entry fee went to Saints and Sinners itself (a worthy cause) and I got a chance to polish up the story.

"Last Call" eventually found a home, and will be appearing in MORTIS OPERANDI in the future. I got my contract just this week.

The second year, I sent a more contemporary story instead. "Hometown Boy" was about a young man returning to his hometown after becoming a success, and trying to make sure the past held no sway over him. It was a labour of love, that story, and an ode to my high school friend Rachel, who died of brain cancer and with whom I shared a very strong "we survived high school" bond. It was a finalist in the contest, and was placed in that year's anthology. I'm man enough to admit it made me cry that it saw print for such a great cause, and in the name of such a wonderful woman.

This year, I didn't send in a story. I just didn't quite pull together my idea fast enough, though I got one the day after the deadline, which I've noted and will definitely submit for next year's contest.

The winner of this year's short fiction contest was "Wasted Courage" by Jerry Rabushka. Set in New Orleans, it's a the bittersweet tale of a colliding of two men. I don't even want to tell your their names, as there's a wonderful scene where even names are a revelation. The language is beautiful - and so perfectly New Orleans - as is the weight that presses on the chest of the reader.

I haven't finished the rest of the stories in the anthology yet, but I got to listen to the finalists read from their stories when I was at the festival, and each and every story whet my appetite for the rest of the tale. No doubt the whole anthology is solid, as it has been every year. Big thanks to Queermojo for printing these anthologies, and to Saints and Sinners itself for having the contest and doing that one more thing for the authors that love it so much.

(You can get the anthology here.

This video has been cheering me up at difficult moments. I linked to it in comments the other day, but want to embed it for interested parties who didn't see it there.





Just listed several new eBay auctions: the chapbooks Would You?, Used Stories, Stay Awake, Crown of Thorns, and The Feast of St. Rosalie (a hardcover); also a hardcover copy of Antediluvian Tales. My blank journals and other handmade objects are also still available until Wednesday evening.

Also, Grey has listed a one-of-a-kind photograph for sale, and a very beautiful one, too. Angel that he is, he has earmarked his profit from the sale of this piece as my testosterone fund.

One of the cool things our local Boy Scout troops do is offer flag service. This is one of their fundraisers, so it costs money, but I think it's worth it. On the patriotic holidays, like Memorial Day, they come and plant a flag on your lawn for the day. Since many people in the neighborhood have the service, there are flags all over the place today. Here is mine:



For years, I couldn't get the local troop to offer me this service. I used to joke that they skipped Democrats' houses, figuring we weren't patriotic. (The idea that Democrats aren't patriotic is actually extremely offensive to me and completely untrue.) And it may be just coincidence, that when they did their fundraising drives I was always away from the house or something. By the way, it is not my son's own troop that offers this service, but a different one.

But this year I actually talked to the mother of one of the scouts in the troop and told her that if the boys came to my house, they would get a guaranteed sale. So they came to my house, and they got a sale. And I have a flag on my lawn! Yay!

So, after my incredibly lazy do-nothing Saturday, I realized today that I've knocked out about 28000 words in the last four days or so--Friday morning before work, yesterday, and today. Hell, if I can manage that by taking a day off every once in a while, maybe I should take a day off more often, right?

The book is coming together nicely as well, I might add. I think I have a minimum of about 25,000 more to go, possibly more. And yes, I am thinking it just might be late. The most important thing about this book isn't so much the story and the characters (not that they aren't important), it's the mood and atmosphere that's really important. I think I am getting that right...at least, I hope I am, otherwise the book isn't going to work.

Sigh, I worry about this shit all the time, don't I?

And seriously, sometimes even I think I am a machine.

I might even do some more writing, once I finish the entry and put the laundry away.

Pretty damned cool, methinks.

As you were.

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/28/redshirts-at-wireds-geekdad-and-geekmom/

http://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=18718

Today Redshirts gets a double dosage of geek parental attention at Wired.com: GeekDad runs an interview with me about the book, in which I talk about writing about red shirts and the role of humor in science fiction, while GeekMom notes Redshirts in an article about what the site’s contributors are reading. The takeaway from the brief review:

Laugh out loud funny, this book is a must read once it is released June 5, 2012, especially if you are a true fan of science fiction television.

Excellent.

Hope your Memorial Day is going well.