Every year as the holiday season begins we’ve run a gift guide for the holidays, and over the years it’s been quite successful: Lots of people have found out about excellent books and crafts and charities and what have you, making for excellent gift-giving opportunities during the holiday season. We’ve decided to do it again this year.
So: Starting Monday, December 1, the Whatever Holiday Gift Guide returns! If you’re a writer or other creator, this will be an excellent time to promote your work on a site which gets tens of thousands of viewers daily, almost all of whom will be interested in stuff for the holidays. If you’re someone looking to give gifts, you’ll see lots of excellent ideas. And you’ll also have a day to suggest stuff from other folks too. Everybody wins!
To give you all time to prepare, here’s the schedule of what will be promoted on which days:
Monday, December 1: Traditionally Published Authors — If your work is being published by a publisher a) who is not you and b) gets your books into actual, physical bookstores on a returnable basis, this is your day to tell people about your books. This includes comics/graphic novels and audiobooks.
Tuesday, December 2: Non-Traditionally Published Authors — Self-published? Electronically published? Or other? This is your day. This also includes comics/graphic novels and audiobooks.
Wednesday, December 3: Other Creators — Artists, knitters, jewelers, musicians, and anyone who has cool stuff to sell this holiday season, this will be the day to show off your creations.
Thursday, December 4: Fan Favorite Day — Not an author/artist/musician/other creator but know about some really cool stuff you think people will want to know about for the holidays? Share! Share with the crowd!
Friday, December 5: Charities — If you are involved in a charity, or have a favorite charity you’d like to let people know about, this is the day to do it.
If you have questions about how all of this will work, go ahead and ask them in the comment thread (Don’t start promoting your stuff today — it’s not time yet), although I will note that specific instructions for each day will appear on that day. Don’t worry, it’ll be pretty easy. Thanks and feel free to share this post with creative folks who will have things to sell this holiday season.
The YouTube video above fascinates me, because it details how people making $500,000 a year — economically fortunate by any sane measure — are still frequently living paycheck to paycheck. One signal reason for this is the issue of lifestyle comparison, and the fact that income disparity in the 1% is vastly wider than the income disparity within other segments of American life.
Huh? Well, as an example, let’s look at the third quintile of income in the US. In 2023 that third quintile had incomes roughly between $61,000 and $98,000, according to the US Census. Everyone within that quintile was within $37,000 dollars of each other in yearly income, more or less. That disparity is not nothing, obviously, but it’s all within economic hailing distance. In the one percent, the income range was between about $560,000 and, well, more than a billion dollars (this is reported income, not unrealized, illiquid wealth in things like stocks and real estate). Someone on the lowest rung of the 1% is vastly economically closer to someone in abject poverty than they are to that billionaire.
Thing is, if you are in the 1%, you’re not comparing your lifestyle to someone living in a tarpaper shack, you’re comparing your lifestyle to other people in the 1%. This often means comparing yourself to people who have ten or a hundred times more income than you do, with similar inequalities in overall wealth. Your lifestyle costs more, and because it costs more, the temptation of the “lower rung rich” to financially overextend themselves to keep up appearances is real — and also, in the world of the upper classes, things just cost more, because companies catering to rich people know their customers don’t want to be seen counting their coins. The person in the market for a BMW 7 series is a fundamentally different economic entity than the person in the market for a Honda Accord. This person is shopping at Erewhon, not Aldi. In the 1%, apparently, you are who you appear to be, or at least, who you appear to be to your neighbors and co-workers.
(Mind you, shit’s getting more expensive for everyone everywhere, it’s not just the 1% feeling the inflationary pinch. But as the video points out, businesses and economists are aware that most people in lower four quintiles are as squeezed as they’re going to get; any new growth in sales/revenues are going to come from the top end, which makes them ripe for price increases on goods and services directed to them specifically.)
“Well, Scalzi, you’re bougie as fuck and yet you don’t seem to be living paycheck to paycheck,” I hear you say. And it’s true! There are reasons for that. One, I’m a writer, and my “paychecks” — advances, royalties, the occasional film/TV option — arrive so sporadically that if we tried to budget around their arrival we would be screwed. Early on, when I was still a freelancer (and, to be clear, with the help of Krissy having a more regular income) we built up a “buffer account” to make sure our paying of bills was not dependent on waiting for any one particular check of mine to arrive. That buffer account still exists, just a little more padded out.
Two, we’ve largely avoided the comparison trap. We live in rural Ohio, a location not exactly swimming with people whose income we directly index our own against, and not a place where shops cater to the higher end of incomes. I’m a writer, which means the professional community I am part of does not generally have the same incomes as, say, neurosurgeons or finance dudes. The highly sporadic nature of writer income also means I am aware the income is not reliable, and watching the careers of other writers through the years means I know one can’t just assume everything will be golden forever. Also, you know. Krissy and I both grew up with periods of our lives where we experienced, shall we say, a deficit of money. This has made each of us relatively conservative with what we do with our money, both individually and together. We’re not going to spend money to impress other people. We’re sure as hell not going to pile up debt to do it.
Three, we have other advantages and strategies. Where we live means we are able to acquire property at a discount to other areas (this means we’re unlikely to sell it later at ridiculously inflated prices, as we might if we lived in a city stuffed with high-income earners, but that’s fine). We don’t have any debt, which means we don’t have to pay out of our income to service it. I am financially literate and numerate (my very first book was on finance) and I don’t like to gamble, so our overall investment strategy is very much predicated on the idea that compound interest is our friend. Whenever I feel like trying to get rich quick, I buy a lottery ticket. It has roughly the same odds as me or any other non-professional without access to advanced financial market tools successfully day trading or timing the market.
Finally, for both Krissy and me, there’s a point where the use of money has diminishing returns, and we don’t tend to spend after that bend of the curve. Last year Krissy bought a Honda CR-V hybrid. Could we have afforded something more upscale? Sure. But inasmuch as the CR-V had everything Krissy wanted and needed in a car, and going upscale from there would have meant a lot more money for only marginal improvement in utility, was it worth it to her? No. Likewise, my 2011 MINI Countryman lacks some modern technological amenities that I would like in a car, but not so many or so much that I’m going to spend for a whole new car when my own car still runs perfectly well and, frankly, sticking my phone into an eye-level holder and using an adapter to plug the thing into my car speakers will handle 90% of what I want.
(This doesn’t mean I have never done silly things with money, as my frankly over-endowed guitar collection will indicate. But I don’t get out over my skis on stuff like that. I always check in with Krissy, who is our day-day-money manager, before I make any such purchases. If she tells me “no” then it doesn’t happen.)
Krissy and I have been smart, and also we have been lucky, which should not be discounted either. There are lots of points in our lives where we could have been one bad break away from real financial problems. Beyond this, I don’t pretend I haven’t been incredibly fortunate in my own career, sometimes for reasons that have very little to do with me directly. It also doesn’t hurt that my own skills were portable, which allowed us to live somewhere housing and living costs were not ridiculously high.
At the end of the day, however, we’ve avoided so many problems by simply not worrying about how we stacked up against other people financially, and by being able to be content when things are good enough. We didn’t need to keep up with the Joneses, or the Bezoses. We’re doing well enough to be happy. And that’s the thing.
Unlike other members of my family, it has been literally years since I’ve baked anything, and even longer since I baked anything more complicated than a frozen pizza. But for this Thanksgiving, I will feeling a little ambitious, and I saw a recipe on the Dessert Person YouTube channel that looked good, so I thought I would give it a shot.
And what do you know, I pulled it off! Please see above my 7-layer holiday bars (pre-bar form), most prominently featuring cranberries and coconut. It turned out pretty well, and my family did not have to pretend to like it just to humor me. We have learned that I can follow directions, at least in the form of a recipe. This is good news. I’ll include the video I got the recipe off of so you can try it for yourself.
If you’re a person in the US, I hope your Thanksgiving was a good one if you chose to celebrate it, and for everyone else, I hope you had a pretty good Thursday.
Normally when I do a cover I sing on it, but it turns out it’s hard for me to sing Adele songs! At least without some considerable reconfiguration. So, I’ll keep working on that, but in the meantime the instrumental track I made for “Someone Like You” is nice and calm and soothing, and I thought y’all might like it. Enjoy.
An endlessly valid question these days. I am not wearing a striped shirt (one has to have standards), but I have been a. Wrestling with Hell Cold for weeks now and b. Piling on all the events I can get into because no day job and c. Wrangling my data analytics class, Queen of Swords Press stuff, writing, job hunting and sundries.
Some things have begun to dawn on me, albeit quite slowly. I'm unbelievably burnt out. Objectively, I knew this, but I'm starting to reckon with the fact that 5 years of nonstop stress and 60-70 hours week have...dented me pretty badly. The last year of deranged boss and constant threat of being fired did not help either. Add to that my age, my cat who needs medical attention and feedings which require me to be at home (even if I wanted to go back to the cube farms) and the IT job market tanking and I'm starting to let go of it. I'm going to focus on ramping up the press, reviving my dormant editing business and seeing what kind of other WFH I can scare up here and there. Eventually, Social Security will have to be a thing, but even with Jana's added in, it won't be enough to live on and I'll have to work anyway.
On the jollier side, I'm writing again! I cranked out 1000 words of novel draft last night, the most I've written at one time in a while. I have 2 other projects in progress and am gradually getting some ideas for other things. I'm going to be pitching some talks and classes and articles as well and working on new story collections as well. I just reactivated my Professional Editors Network membership and will be rebuilding my profile in the next few days. I have a new small business mentor with the county and am meeting with her next week. I found a support group for unemployed older women and will meet with them next week.
And Queen of Swords Press has a terrific new gay vampire novel by M.Christian out and we'll be releasing an omnibus edition of the Astreiant Series by next month on 12/15! The Complete Astreiant by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett is up for preorder now (please buy direct from us if you can; Amazon is going to crush us on their percentage for this book). The Astreiant Series is also eligible for the Best Series Hugo this year, so please keep it in mind when you are nominating. Melissa Scott has never won a Hugo and I'd love to change that.
Queen of Swords Press is also WisCon's Vendor of the Month for November so if you buy a backlist title (not the preorder) from us using coupon code WisCon26 at checkout, you get a sale price and we'll donate $ to the con. The proverbial win/win!
I'm adding Jana's boxes and journals to the shop on Ko-fi, along with some of my own projects and offerings. Please feel free to boost if the shopping aspects won't work for you.
More bulletins soon! Have a great holiday if you're celebrating! I'm going to veg out with my kitties and do some writing and editing, before enjoying a good takeout meal from the co-op. I'm booked every waking moment Friday, Saturday and part of Sunday so please don't worry that I'm being left to weep alone into my cranberries. I'm deliberately choosing to have a day off. :-)
Well, this is lovely:When the Moon Hits Your Eye made it into the final round of this year’s Goodreads Choice Awards, in the category of science fiction, along with the other works you see here. This is a very nice peer group to have, I have to say.
If you feel like voting for Moon, or, indeed any other book in this finalist group, here is the link for you to do so. If you vote for Moon, hey, thanks! If you choose something else, that’s cool too.
I’m actually very happy with Moon making the final cut here. It’s an unusual sort of book, both structurally and in subject matter, and it wasn’t 100% clear to me that readers would take to it. Getting to this round is encouraging. Let’s see where it goes from here.
If you’re an author, or honestly if you just happen to be standing near an author these days, then you have probably seen a flood of emails in the past couple of months promising you that whoever is sending you the email can promote [Insert name of one of your works here, even if it is over a decade old] to Amazon/Goodreads/their book club/a nebulous agglomeration of readers/etc. Either up front, or after an email exchange, will come the ask of some amount of money, usually a couple hundred dollars but sometimes more, as “administrative fees” or some such.
Just to be clear, so there is no doubt about these things: Every single one of these emails is absolutely a scam, none of these promoters and/or book clubs are real*, and if you send money to any of these accounts, either directly or through a third-party service, you will get nothing for your money and you will never see that money or those scammers again. Never send money to these people. Ever.
(The asterisk above for “none of these book clubs is real” is there because sometimes the scammers will pretend to be representing an actual online book club and might point to their site or page to give the illusion of legitimacy. They are not legit.)
These sort of scam emails have been around for years, of course, but it seems like there’s a real upswing in both the number and variety of emails. I myself get a couple dozen of them a day recently. Here are the headers of some that have arrived in the last few hours, and yes, emojis are part of headers now, we truly live in a benighted age:
“Can I Borrow Your Book? …To Show 55k People”: This one promises me access to book-promo networks across TikTok and Linkedin, which is a cursed combination if there ever was one;
“Growing Constituent Service’s Visibility on Goodreads During Peak Q4 Discovery”: This one promises exposure in Goodreads’ “Listopia” section, which is asserted to be very important here in the holiday season;
“Did Amazon lock your book in the basement, or did Jeff Bezos just ghost you?”: This spammer is trying to neg me into using its “service” by suggesting Amazon is not doing enough to promote The Shattering Peace, an odd statement to make inasmuch as Amazon is one of the book’s publishers (via Audible, who, incidentally, sent me a very handsome marketing document, which they executed upon perfectly) and the book itself was a New York Times best seller;
“Cinematic AI Visuals for your book”: Because what could be a better way to spend money promoting your work than to pay some dude to type a prompt into Sora;
“Before the book-buying madness starts…”: This one is using the tactic of asking me if I would like to know more about how they can help me, the idea being that if you actually respond to this sort of soft-pedal approach, they know they have a sucker;
“Quick Goodreads Visibility Boost for ‘Wildfire'”: Another Goodreads Listopia booster, promising eyeballs for my audiobook “Wildfire,” which is fun, since I don’t have an audiobook named “Wildfire.”
That’s just from this morning, mind you; I cleared out my spam last night before I went to sleep. These were waiting for me when I woke up. Soon I will have many, many more.
“But the email said nice things about my book and it seems like whoever is sending the email read it!” Sure, because “AI” is a thing now and it will spit out highly complimentary lines instantly. Here, look, this is Gemini telling me how awesome When the Moon Hits Your Eye is:
Dear Mr. Scalzi,
I simply had to write and express my profound, uncontainable joy after finishing When the Moon Hits Your Eye. I’ve been a fan of your work for years, but this novel has instantly vaulted to the top of my all-time favorites list. It’s not just a science fiction story; it’s a perfect, shimmering symphony of everything I love about your writing.
But beyond the genius plot mechanics, what truly elevates When the Moon Hits Your Eye is the heart and the humor. Even amidst planetary catastrophe, your characters remain so beautifully, painfully human. The witty dialogue provided necessary relief, making the high-concept ideas feel grounded and accessible.
Wow, Gemini truly loved my book! And it took it mere milliseconds to write that note!
I do suspect that the advent of “AI” is one of the reasons that these sort of scam emails have taken off recently; it allows scammers, at very little cost to themselves (but at significant cost to the environment, energy bills and the local water table of wherever the “AI” data sites are) to personalize their scam pitches and make them seem more legitimate, especially to writers, who generally want nothing more than to know their work has been read and appreciated by someone.
I assure you, these scammers have not read your book. Hell, as you can see above, sometimes they can’t even get right the books you’ve written. These emails are being churned out by the thousands to see who is desperate enough to bite. If they get one nibble out of a thousand emails, that’s going to be a decent return for their trouble. And whoever nibbles is going to get scammed.
Here’s a good rule of thumb, not just for writers but for humans in general: Random unsolicited email wants you to send money? Don’t send the money. Toss the email in the spam folder and block that email address forever.
There are actual independent publicists and marketing folks who can help you promote your work; as an example, here’s one such PR company, who I work with regularly because they query me for Big Idea slots here on the site. These folks have verifiable career track records — for example, one of the principals of this company was head of PR for Tor, which is where I met her, an actual human who exists in the real world. Their contact emails have the same domain as the web site, and are not, say, a Gmail account whose user name includes a long string of numbers. Their client lists include names who are independently contactable and can confirm their legitimacy. And so on.
Do these firms cost money? Oh, my, yes, they do. Do these firms randomly spam thousands of accounts offering their services? No, they absolutely do not.
Likewise there are actual book clubs who would love for authors to come chat with them about their work. They are not going to ask for “administrative” fees or whatever. I do feel sorry for the actual book clubs out there right about now; this absolute flood of spam email means their more modest entreaties for authors to pop into their Zoom session are far more likely to get ported into the trash. Sorry, folks. It’s just how it is at the moment.
So to recap and re-emphasize: Authors, you’re being spammed; yes, it’s a lot and no, it’s not just you; don’t send them any money ever; if you do want actual independent marketing and publicity, it exists and you will have to go out to find it, it’s almost certainly not going to come to you, and in any event will never fucking use emoji in the header of a business email.
Be wary, be suspicious and be safe, and again: don’t send money to random email spammers, ever.
WordPress, which is the blog software and hosting service Whatever is on (and has been since October 2008) is celebrating its 20th anniversary today, a fact that I found out thanks to a lovely call-out from them in their own blog post about the day. Speaking as someone whose blog was buckling under traffic and technical issues before it migrated to WordPress, I am both happy it has lasted this long, and also that it is still thriving and continues to be an excellent home for and partner to this site. And from a technical point of view, I’m glad it continues to be a platform for innovation beyond just the “post text on a page” functionality that it provides on a surface level. It takes a fair amount of tech at this point to keep even a relatively simple site like this one up and running every day, and I’m happy WordPress takes care of that, leaving me and Athena to do what we’re actually good at: Writing and community stuff.
So happy birthday, WordPress. Here’s to another 20 years, at least. I’ll be here if you are.
When writing a novel, a lot of people think of the process as sort of rigid. You have a specific story to tell and it needs to be an unchanging vision all the way through. Author Colin Brush, however, says in his Big Idea that flexibility is required when creating a story. Follow along to see how in the making of his newest novel, Exo, he made sure to be adaptable and listen to those around him.
COLIN BRUSH:
The budding novelist with some notes for a story is faced with one gargantuan problem: how to turn their few scribbled words into a compelling 100,000-word tale? Months, often years, will elapse before this conundrum is solved to their satisfaction.
But then comes a smaller but no less significant problem – the exact opposite of the first. Now you need to pitch your novel to an agent or publisher. You need to condense your 100,000 words into a succinct hundred or so that will persuasively sell your book.
This, of course, is the challenge publishers face every time they launch a new book. What’s the hookiest way of pitching the story? Both editor and author know the story backwards, but is that any help in persuading someone who hasn’t read the story that they’d want to read it? The multiple elements that draw a reader through a tale often aren’t the same elements that invite the uninitiated in.
For the last twenty-five years, I’ve been a copywriter at one of Britain’s largest trade publishers. Over that time, I’ve written the jacket copy (the blurb, in the UK) for over 5,000 books, both fiction and non-fiction. From classics that are hundreds of years old to the latest romantasy sensation.
It is my job to boil down that 100K story, those months or years of work, into fifty to two hundred words. (Frequently, even half a dozen words for a cover shout line.) Many authors and editors shudder at the prospect. It is not because they find it hard to write short, but rather it is because they are so close to the book. When you’ve been cutting a path through the dense trees of a story it can be difficult to remember why you went into the wood in the first place. From the wood’s farther side – bleeding, sore, exhausted but exaltant – it’s easy to lose sight of what from the outside made entering so appealing.
When it came to writing my own novel, I thought I knew what the process needed to be. Much-missed author Terry Pratchett once advised writers: ‘if you think you have a book evolving, now is the time to write the flap copy – the blurb. An author should never be too proud to write their own flap copy. Getting the heart and soul of a book into fewer than 100 words helps you focus.’
Well, I certainly wasn’t too proud. I had a novel idea: the last murder at the end of a world. I had a tough lead character: an uncompromising eighty-year-old former policewoman wandering a bleak, uninhabited planet. I had an adversary: the Caul, a mysterious multi-dimensional entity that had transformed the oceans into an annihilating liquid. And I had a plot: the truth about the murderous Caul had been discovered but someone was killing to keep it secret. I even had a title: Exo.
I’d written half a million words of blurbs. Writing a couple hundred more about my own novel-to-be would have me up and running.
Reader, it didn’t quite work out that way.
It turns out writing a novel and writing a novel’s blurb are very different activities. When you write the blurb the story is set. You know how it works: beginning, middle and end. The path through the woods is clear. When you’re writing a novel, the story tends to evolve. New ideas inveigle their way into the narrative. Characters don’t behave as you expected. Your big denouement doesn’t land as you hoped. Beginning, middle and end – the path – meander and shift. Sometimes, even the woods go wandering!
Writing Exo’s blurb did not help me, unfortunately. I spent years, on and off, reworking the story to get it to come good.
But – and here’s the big idea – being a blurb writer did help me write and rewrite my story. Writing 5,000 blurbs means you encounter a lot of different stories. But you also have to pitch these stories in multiple ways. I was once asked to do the blurb for a schools edition of Albert Camus’ The Plague. What do teenagers prefer? Reading books that are metaphors for the human condition, or scaring themselves silly at the cinema? So I wrote it like a horror movie, beginning with rats vomiting blood . . .
As a blurb writer I’m constantly re-pitching stories in alternative ways to reach new audiences. You work with the story, knowing you mustn’t misrepresent it; that would please no one. A pitch is all about what you put in and what you leave out. Sometimes the author hates an approach and you have to start over. Or the editor likes the beginning but wants the ending to land differently. As a blurb writer, working to a brief, addressing multiple audiences, you have to be versatile. You never say no.
So when I was struggling with Exo – revisions from my agent, suggestions from interested publishers: ‘how about setting it on Earth?’ – I never once said no. I looked at what I had. I saw where changes could be made – elements added or taken away – and the path shifted. Exo was my novel, but it was also just a very long piece of copy. (Writer Randall Jarrell called the novel: ‘a prose narrative of some length that has something wrong with it.’ Mine had plenty wrong with it.)
As someone who regularly writes five different versions of a blurb for a prospective bestseller, I know that there is no correct or incorrect copy. There are just different responses to a brief – different pathways. Some paths will seem more appealing than others. And the eye is always in the beholder.
It turned out my job as novelist was to find a way of telling my story that others wanted to read. That meant exploring many different routes. My day job, pitching stories in a variety of ways, reminded me that versatility and stick-to-itiveness – never saying no! – were the key to beating the best path through the story woods.
I like where I live for most things, but one of the things I don’t love about it is that it is in a not great place for Internet access. I’m on a rural road where providers will not send cable or fiber, because it’s not profitable to do so. It’s always been an access desert: When I moved here in 2001, the only local provider of Internet ran at a speed of 9600 baud, which even for the turn of the century was appallingly slow. Then came satellite at a blistering 1.5mbps (provided there were no clouds), followed by DSL at 6Mbps for a decade and a half, which finally and grudgingly on the part of the DSL provider bumped up to 40Mbps. However, Brightspeed (my current DSL provider) has no intention of ever upgrading anything here, and the connection we do have has been getting progressively spottier.
But! Finally! Networks with 5G capability have finally begun to admit I can get signal at my address, and have offered home Internet via wireless to me. I had a couple of vendors to choose from and I went with Verizon, for no other reason than my phone is already on that network and I know it works here. I got their rectangular prism of a router a couple of days ago, and, after I moved it into Athena’s room, where my computer would not somehow confuse its ability to pick up a signal (this did happen), we were good to go.
And how is it? Good enough so far. The download speeds I get are wildly inconsistent — sometimes it’s at 20Mbps, sometimes it’s at 220Mbps — but most of the time it’s between 80Mbps and 120Mbps, which is twice to three times as fast as the DSL line. The upload speeds are a magnitude faster, too, which is nice. All for a cost that is a third less than my DSL package. Verizon doesn’t have bandwidth caps on the level of service I ordered (which honestly means that bandwidth caps of any sort are just excuses to charge more, not an issue of network capacity), so there aren’t going to be any particular cost surprises on that score. An average 80-120Mbps throughput is still far lower than one can get with cable or fiber (the church has 300Mbps via cable), but, from where I’m coming from in terms of speed, it’s a genuine and substantive bump up.
I’m going to keep the DSL for a month or two to get a bead on the quirks and capabilities of the 5G set-up, but if things continue as they have we’ll make that switchover. The only drawback for this is that we got the DSL as part of a package with our landline, and I am loath to give up that number; it’s still a point of contact for several things. I will have to figure out what to do with that.
If everyone had less than an hour to live, would your actions in those moments matter more or not at all? Author Holly Seddon explores this question in the Big Idea for her newest novel 59 Minutes, taking a closer look at whether people are capable of being kind and good up until their last breath. When the rules no longer apply, who would you choose to be?
HOLLY SEDDON:
The terrifying premise of 59 Minutes is that everyone in the UK receives an alert to say nuclear missiles are on their way, and the characters have a race against time to get to their loved ones to say goodbye. I’m very proud of this hook, I know it grabs people’s attention.
But the theme, the big idea, behind the hook is, How do people behave when all the usual rules no longer apply?
This has always interested me. It’s what draws us to shows like The Sopranos, where characters operate in a world that eschews the rules most of us live by, often running within the guard rails of a whole different set of rules. It’s why films like The Purge are so compelling.
But even if the rules go up in smoke, I have to believe, as a human trying to negotiate my way through this life, that most people are good and well-meaning.
So, in writing 59 Minutes, I was in a constant dialogue between that good and bad human impulse. The selfless and the selfish.
Because some people really would use their last minutes to do terrible things. A last hurrah. You only have to look at the boom in crimes that happened under the cover of darkness in the blacked out London of World War Two to know that. Muggings. Sexual assault. Even murder. The serial killer Gordon Cummins who murdered four women and attempted to murder two more over a six-day period in 1942.
But I have to believe that plenty of people, plenty more people, would have sacrificed their own safety to help other people. They always do.
When I first had the idea for 59 Minutes, and started to cautiously tell people the premise to gauge their reaction, I noticed the same thing happened repeatedly. Their eyes would glaze over, they’d clearly stop listening to me waffling on and then they’d snap back to attention and apologize. What they said next was always a variation on the same thing. “I’m sorry, I was just thinking what the hell I would do.”
I understood. That is the universality of the hook – every one of us if forced to confront extinction would have somewhere we wanted to be, some people with whom we wanted to spend those last minutes. But what if, like in the novel, it’s not that simple. What if missing children need help, do you stop and lose those minutes? What if you are forced to choose between your own safety, and the safety of someone you loved?
In writing this book and asking my readers to consider such existential questions, I couldn’t shy away from them myself. I’d like to think that, if not brave, I would at least be kind right up to the end. But we all like to think we’d be heroic, don’t we?
So what about you? What would you do if the usual rules of the world just no longer applied. How would you spend your final minutes?
For various reasons I was reminded that two years ago this week, I quit the former Twitter for good; I had been doing a slow draw down of my presence for most of 2023 but on November 16 I abandoned the place entirely, mostly decamping to Bluesky, with additional outposts at Threads and Mastodon. At my peak on Twitter I had 210,000 followers (down to about 180,000 when I pulled the plug), accrued through a dozen years of being on the service, so it was no small thing to go. But the other option was to stay and be complicit in the machinations of a fascist asshole who was actively turning the place into a cesspool. Off I went.
Two years on, I’m happy to say that I don’t regret leaving. One, and most obviously, I’m not wading in a dank hot tub of feculent right-wing bullshit, which is a positive for my mental well-being and my general ability to be online. Two, my career hasn’t suffered a whit for not being on the former Twitter; my book sales have chugged along rather happily and my other opportunities have not lessened at all. Three, those 200+K followers have been replaced by more than twice that number on Bluesky, Threads and Mastodon (there are repeat followers on each service, to be sure). So surely my ego is assuaged there.
That said, the business aspects of being on social media are not my primary reason to be there, although of course I do tell people when I have new books and other projects out, or when I’m doing appearances. Mostly, though, I’m just hanging out. And while none of the other social media services are perfect (he said, delicately and understatedly), none of the rest of the ones I hang out on are so aggressively tuned to be unpleasant as the former Twitter was when I left, and still is today. It’s possible to chat and hang out and have fun on Bluesky (and Threads and Mastodon) and not feel icky for being there. That’s the real win for me: I’m enjoying myself online more. These days, that is not a small thing.
I’m aware that people are still on the former Twitter and even prefer it there, for whatever reason, and they are welcome to their own karma. There’s nothing and no one there that’s so essential to my day-to-day life that I need to go back there. Likewise, outside of a few right-wing dickheads who like to snark about me, the former Twitter seems to have entirely forgotten that I exist, and I can’t say this bothers me greatly. It’s a pretty clean separation.
I don’t imagine I’ll do another update about this again; there’s not much point to it from here on out. But again, maybe I’m a useful anecdotal case study. What happens when you leave the former Twitter? For me, mostly, online life just got better. If you’re still on the site, maybe it’ll work that way for you, too.
Spice is the cat who is probably the closest to me on a day-to-day basis; she sleeps on the bed near my head, and frequently camps out on my desk whilst I type. She’s also the one who misses me the most when I travel and the one least afraid of offering her editorial comments to me about my absence when I return. It appears that my most recent trip was one trip too far: Spice rather pointedly peed on two of my travel bags this weekend, including, unfortunately, my new Exercising Demons bag from Calamityware.
The two bags are now irredeemably trashed, and Spice does not appear in the least bit regretful for her actions. We will have to have a discussion about this at some near point in the future. However, inasmuch as last weekend’s trip was the last one I had scheduled for the year, it seems unlikely there will be further editorial comment along this line. At least, hopefully. Anyway, it’s nice to be missed. Just not that way.
For all my Dayton and Cincinnati readers, I have an excellent small business recommendation for you today if you find yourself in need of a makeup artist or esthetician! A few weeks ago, I was a bridesmaid in my friend’s wedding, and she had a makeup artist from West Chester come up to Englewood to do all of our makeup. As someone who never does their makeup, I love having the opportunity to have it professionally done for me, and usually the only time that happens is when I’m in a wedding. So I always hope that it turns out well since it’s such a rare occasion for me.
Thankfully, Kelsi is a very talented makeup artist, and everyone ended up looking amazing! She was able to do a variety of looks, as I wanted soft glam with false lashes, while the matron of honor wanted a very natural, subtle look with no falsies. Everyone was a little different, and Kelsi listened to everyone’s requests perfectly. She totally nailed my eyeliner wing and sparkly rose gold eyeshadow, and I felt so pretty.
While I was in the chair and Kelsi was working her magic on me, we ended up talking a little bit and right off the bat I really loved her energy. She was friendly and accommodating and I found her to be very funny, as well. I enjoyed talking with her and decided that I would really like to book a facial with her at her studio sometime. So I did! And I drove all the way down to West Chester this past week to get a Pumpkin Spice Facial.
Let me tell you, this facial was totally worth the drive. I loved how cute Kelsi’s studio set up was, it was very comfortable and relaxing. The bed was heated and the blankets were so soft and comfy. Though the Pumpkin Spice Facial comes with some pre-determined items like the Pumpkin Perfecting Mask by Circadia as well as the Hydrating Marshmallow Mask, she customized some of the other items based on my skin’s needs. I was particularly dry from the colder weather, and she adjusted the facial accordingly.
Plus, I added on a dermaplane, and it was a totally painless and comfortable experience! Not that a dermaplane should ever really hurt, but Kelsi had a particularly gentle approach when using the blade that was much appreciated.
Before starting our session, Kelsi asked if I wanted a “yap sesh” or a “nap sesh,” and I love the consideration of this question. Do I want to chit chat or do I want to relax and drift off? Normally, I’m more a fan of the latter, but I enjoyed talking to Kelsi so much at the wedding that I wanted to converse more, so I went ahead and ordered a Yappaccino (aka I opted to talk to her more).
In between sharing recommendations of where to find the best espresso martini in Cincinnati and talking about weddings, I was treated to a truly excellent facial that felt incredible. Between Kelsi’s massage techniques and her running jade combs through my hair, I was becoming more destressed by the second. It’s so nice to find an esthetician who has immaculate vibes and provides amazing service! At the time I got my facial, I just so happened to catch a promotion she was having. It was a 50% off special on the Pumpkin Spice Facial, and I felt so lucky I managed to be included in that window when the special was happening. Thank you for the amazing deal, Kelsi!
Kelsi also agreed to a mini interview, so please enjoy these couple of questions I threw her way:
Q: What got you into the makeup and skincare scene?
A: I’ve always had interests that were adjacent to the beauty industry; I was always the girl with my nails painted in middle school (even though we weren’t allowed to have them painted) and I was definitely a victim of the 2016 makeup craze! I have a friend that does hair who pitched me the idea of being a makeup artist for her bridal team in 2019, and everything took off from there!
Q: What’s your favorite look to do on a person? Glam? Natural? Halloweenie?
A: I love a good solid soft glam that reflects the personality of the person wearing it. Makeup is so personal, it’s always so fun learning what makes someone feel beautiful. Whether it’s the waterline black liner you’ve been rocking since the 90s or a signature red lip that you wouldn’t feel like yourself without! My favorite glam is a look that makes my client feel like the best version of themself!
Q: What’s been your favorite part of having your own business?
A: My favorite part of owning my own business has been being able to customize the services I offer so I know I’m only doing things I’m passionate about. I love being able to offer fun seasonal facials, I love doing bridal makeup, and I love a good lash and brow transformation! I think it’s so important when you’re in a creative industry like this to only do things you’re passionate about so your heart can really be in it and your work will reflect that sincerity.
Q: What’s something you’ve really enjoyed about your work, and one thing that’s challenging?
A: Something I’ve really enjoyed about my work is being able to connect with so many lovely people! It’s so easy these days to feel cynical about the state of the world and the people in it, but I’ve found that there’s so many beautiful people out there if you let yourself find them. One thing that’s been challenging has been pushing myself harder on slow days when it’s easy to be lazy and pessimistic. I knew when I opened my suite this year that things would be challenging to start out on my own, but I’m constantly reminded how lucky I am to be where I’m at, and I’m so excited to see where I’ll be 5, 10, and even 20 years from now!
There you have it, folks. If you have a kid going to prom in the Spring, you’re an Ohio bride in 2026, or you just want to treat yourself to a lovely self-care moment and get a facial, Kelsi is your girl.
You can book a facial service through her website, or follow her on Instagram, Facebook, and Tik Tok. I know I definitely need to book myself a Peppermint Hot Cocoa Facial for the holidays.
Have you been part of a wedding before? Do you like getting your makeup done? Would you try the Peppermint Hot Cocoa Facial? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day!
Folks, I think we may have hit the parking lot motherlode here: Three parking lots and a parking garage! Another city is going to have work very hard to ever beat Jacksonville’s bounty here.
Then when it’s done I go back home and write like the wind, after all I have a novel to finish before (mumble mumble mumble). The life of a science fiction writer is always intense, it seems.
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”: This one promises me access to book-promo networks across TikTok and Linkedin, which is a cursed combination if there ever was one;
”: This spammer is trying to neg me into using its “service” by suggesting Amazon is not doing enough to promote The Shattering Peace, an odd statement to make inasmuch as Amazon is one of the book’s publishers (via Audible, who, incidentally, sent me a very handsome marketing document, which they executed upon perfectly) and the book itself was a New York Times best seller;
For all my Dayton and Cincinnati readers, I have an excellent small business recommendation for you today if you find yourself in need of a makeup artist or esthetician! A few weeks ago, I was a bridesmaid in my friend’s wedding, and she had a makeup artist from West Chester come up to Englewood to do all of our makeup. As someone who never does their makeup, I love having the opportunity to have it professionally done for me, and usually the only time that happens is when I’m in a wedding. So I always hope that it turns out well since it’s such a rare occasion for me.