Girl Genius for Monday, September 15, 2025
Sep. 15th, 2025 04:00 am![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
girlgenius_main_feedThe Girl Genius comic for Monday, September 15, 2025 has been posted.
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WisCon is officially on(line) for 2026!
Sep. 15th, 2025 03:52 amwisconblog_feedThanks to the efforts of volunteers, we are officially staffed enough to commit to WisCONline in 2026!
We intend to have WisCon 2026 over the customary Memorial Day weekend, May 21-25, 2026. GoH announcements are coming soon! We can’t wait to share more with you about what lies ahead for 2026.
We’re also excited to announce that we’re planning to have WisCon in person again in the Concourse Hotel in Madison in 2027! If you’re interested in making that happen, consider volunteering with us.
You can find current open roles here: https://wiscon.net/volunteer/
The volunteer page will be continuously updated as we prepare for both upcoming WisCons.
Want to support the future of WisCon? Donations are always open at https://wiscon.net/donate/.
Got Myself a COVID Shot Today
Sep. 14th, 2025 07:14 pmscalziwhatever_feed
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
27 Years of Whatever
Sep. 13th, 2025 04:11 pmscalziwhatever_feed
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
The Wheelhouse - Week 9
Sep. 13th, 2025 10:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
clauderainsrm posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
therealljidolYou've got questions - I've got answers!
Maybe. For some things. Let's try this! Some from emails and some from a thread I was directed to so that I could know the sort of things people are curious about.
On this particular vote:
- Will the intersection totals count as your total votes, or just your individual totals. The individual votes.
- How will bye weeks count toward the total. Bye weeks are 0 votes. I considered doing the "average" but that wasn't anywhere in the original requests for this structure. Trying to maintain that integrity to the request.
- Doesn't that make it lopsided for people with bigger friends list? How would that work in a regular season if we did it that way? IMO, it wouldn't. But as a one time thing, it's interesting, which is why it ended up on the Wheel. :)
- Will you provide a list so we all know how many votes we have in total? Maybe. Full disclosure, I haven't even done that for myself yet. I have no idea how far "ahead" or "behind" anyone is going into this week! I need to do that this weekend!
The Wheel:
Is the wheel going to ever allow people to come back into the game?
There are *counts* 5 different scenarios allowing for different variations of people coming back into the game. 6 depending on how a specific special power is used. :) Sooner or later, odds are the wheel is going to land on one of them, and probably soon.
Do you remove options from the Wheel once they are used?
Most of them. There are a couple in there specifically designed to come up again. But they haven't come up yet.
What happens if we get down to the Final 5 but we haven't hit the "come back into the game option?" We proceed to the end game. That's the nature of the Wheel. Like I said, it could last a week and it could go on for the rest of our natural, and unnatural lives.
The Killer(s):
How many Killers are left in the game? There is absolutely no way I'm going to tell you that. :)
That said, the pieces are all there. You know we started with between 1-3. The original(s) don't even know how many we started with, or who the others are! I also tell you when there is an empty vial found, and when there isn't. Which considering you also know that the Killers have two choices: Recruit or Poison. If no vial is found, you know what they picked! You can do the math from there, and I've seen some people are doing that.
- Was a vial found this week? I can now reveal, yes. Yes there was an empty vial found.
- What is the criteria for who for an Accusation? What is the criteria for the Killer(s) in who they choose to poison? I'm not you. I can't decide what your criteria is. I assume that everyone has their own strategy for both of those things. For the former, I'd say it should be "Who do you think a Killer is" for the poisoning/recruiting - who would be the best choice for further whatever agenda you have in the game!
- If a Killer is eliminated during a poll, will you know? Yes. You will know.
- How does the Accusation work? Is it majority vote? Yes. The majority of you have to agree. If the Killer is Person X and 40% of you think it's them, but 60% think it's Person Y, you are going to officially accuse Person Y. The Killer(s) work on the same principle. They have to reach majority on two issues: Recruit or Poison and then who to either recruit or poison. In the event of a tie that cannot be broken, the Wheel would decide between the choices.
- How does the antidote work? Does the person taking it know if it works or not? Yes. Or rather the person who wins it knows. If they drink it themselves, they know and if they give it to someone else, they know that as well.... and so will the person drinking it.
- How does it taste? It has a bit of a minty lemon aftertaste that once you get used to is quite pleasant. :)
Participation
- Yeah. It's been down. Some of that is the small numbers we have and some of that is that I'm not driving engagement like I normally would be doing. Haven't been in a good place in awhile. I need to be doing more of this and less of *points the rest of the world*
How are you Gary?
- Not great. Some days MUCH better than others. Proud of Celena who has been accepted to every single grad school she's applied to so far. Cynthia's birthday is on Monday, so that's weird not going all in on it... and my birthday is coming up at the end of the month and really not sure how I want to celebrate it. If anyone wants to send me massive amounts of cash though, I'll figure something out! :D (Note to self - find people with massive amounts of cash, who want to give it to you!!! No, I won't send them to you!!!)
How are YOU?
I can't answer that. You go ahead and answer it below.
Ask any other questions you've been having below and I'll try my best to answer them.
Maybe. For some things. Let's try this! Some from emails and some from a thread I was directed to so that I could know the sort of things people are curious about.
On this particular vote:
- Will the intersection totals count as your total votes, or just your individual totals. The individual votes.
- How will bye weeks count toward the total. Bye weeks are 0 votes. I considered doing the "average" but that wasn't anywhere in the original requests for this structure. Trying to maintain that integrity to the request.
- Doesn't that make it lopsided for people with bigger friends list? How would that work in a regular season if we did it that way? IMO, it wouldn't. But as a one time thing, it's interesting, which is why it ended up on the Wheel. :)
- Will you provide a list so we all know how many votes we have in total? Maybe. Full disclosure, I haven't even done that for myself yet. I have no idea how far "ahead" or "behind" anyone is going into this week! I need to do that this weekend!
The Wheel:
Is the wheel going to ever allow people to come back into the game?
There are *counts* 5 different scenarios allowing for different variations of people coming back into the game. 6 depending on how a specific special power is used. :) Sooner or later, odds are the wheel is going to land on one of them, and probably soon.
Do you remove options from the Wheel once they are used?
Most of them. There are a couple in there specifically designed to come up again. But they haven't come up yet.
What happens if we get down to the Final 5 but we haven't hit the "come back into the game option?" We proceed to the end game. That's the nature of the Wheel. Like I said, it could last a week and it could go on for the rest of our natural, and unnatural lives.
The Killer(s):
How many Killers are left in the game? There is absolutely no way I'm going to tell you that. :)
That said, the pieces are all there. You know we started with between 1-3. The original(s) don't even know how many we started with, or who the others are! I also tell you when there is an empty vial found, and when there isn't. Which considering you also know that the Killers have two choices: Recruit or Poison. If no vial is found, you know what they picked! You can do the math from there, and I've seen some people are doing that.
- Was a vial found this week? I can now reveal, yes. Yes there was an empty vial found.
- What is the criteria for who for an Accusation? What is the criteria for the Killer(s) in who they choose to poison? I'm not you. I can't decide what your criteria is. I assume that everyone has their own strategy for both of those things. For the former, I'd say it should be "Who do you think a Killer is" for the poisoning/recruiting - who would be the best choice for further whatever agenda you have in the game!
- If a Killer is eliminated during a poll, will you know? Yes. You will know.
- How does the Accusation work? Is it majority vote? Yes. The majority of you have to agree. If the Killer is Person X and 40% of you think it's them, but 60% think it's Person Y, you are going to officially accuse Person Y. The Killer(s) work on the same principle. They have to reach majority on two issues: Recruit or Poison and then who to either recruit or poison. In the event of a tie that cannot be broken, the Wheel would decide between the choices.
- How does the antidote work? Does the person taking it know if it works or not? Yes. Or rather the person who wins it knows. If they drink it themselves, they know and if they give it to someone else, they know that as well.... and so will the person drinking it.
- How does it taste? It has a bit of a minty lemon aftertaste that once you get used to is quite pleasant. :)
Participation
- Yeah. It's been down. Some of that is the small numbers we have and some of that is that I'm not driving engagement like I normally would be doing. Haven't been in a good place in awhile. I need to be doing more of this and less of *points the rest of the world*
How are you Gary?
- Not great. Some days MUCH better than others. Proud of Celena who has been accepted to every single grad school she's applied to so far. Cynthia's birthday is on Monday, so that's weird not going all in on it... and my birthday is coming up at the end of the month and really not sure how I want to celebrate it. If anyone wants to send me massive amounts of cash though, I'll figure something out! :D (Note to self - find people with massive amounts of cash, who want to give it to you!!! No, I won't send them to you!!!)
How are YOU?
I can't answer that. You go ahead and answer it below.
Ask any other questions you've been having below and I'll try my best to answer them.
Catching Up With Saja
Sep. 13th, 2025 03:19 pmscalziwhatever_feed
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
New Books and ARCs, 9/12/25
Sep. 12th, 2025 07:26 pmscalziwhatever_feed
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
Girl Genius for Friday, September 12, 2025
Sep. 12th, 2025 04:00 amgirlgenius_main_feedThe Girl Genius comic for Friday, September 12, 2025 has been posted.
Vote - Week 9
Sep. 11th, 2025 09:39 pmclauderainsrm posting in therealljidolA few words from clauderainsrm:
clauderainsrm:
Another Killer has been taken off the board, but not before their deadly mark could be left on the game!
What will happen next? Only the Wheel knows. But it's quiet for now. Because now is the time for the Poll.
People were asking what this twist was, and it’s quite simple. You vote as you normally do. So read, comment and vote for your favorites! Then tell your friends about it! But then ALL of the votes from the previous weeks are counted along with them. It’s a cumulative result.
The idea was that people who do well all season long, and then have a bad week, shouldn’t be eliminated for it. Whereas I’ve always felt, like the NFL that it’s a case of “Any given Sunday”... so I never took that idea down off the shelf, until now. :)
The Wheel is spinning now to let me know how many contestants will be eliminated. The answer is 2!
So the 2 lowest cumulative vote totals will be leaving us this week.
It’s more important than ever to do your thing *points to the above* advice!
The poll will close Tuesday Sept 16th at 8pm ET.
Good luck to everyone!
Poll #33603 ’WheelofChaos-Week9’
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 23
Vote For Your Favorites!
alycewilson's entry
7 (30.4%)
bleodswean's Bye Week - Votes Do Not Count
5 (21.7%)
drippedonpaper's entry
4 (17.4%)
flipflop_diva's entry
8 (34.8%)
inkstainedfingertips's entry
8 (34.8%)
legalpad819's entry
7 (30.4%)
muchtooarrogant's entry
6 (26.1%)
serpentinejacaranda's Bye Week - Votes Do Not Count
3 (13.0%)
Week 9 - The Accusation
Sep. 11th, 2025 08:53 pmclauderainsrm posting in therealljidol Fresh off a major victory of outing a treacherous villain last week, can our heroes do it again? Can they finally put an end to the evil in this manor, or will they Killer(s) claim another victim? Or... is it already too late?
We are gathered here to find out the answers to these questions.
So the votes are in, and a single last minute vote was what determined who was going to be accused this week. But one vote is enough...
The residents of the Castle accuse
alycewilson of being a vile and loathsome traitor!!!
The shrieking starts as soon as those words leave your lips... Alyce goes into convulsions, and does a full back flip as foul smelling black smoke issues from her pores, escaping into the night... in her hand is a small glowing medallion... the light spreads across her, filling her with new life and a renewed spirit.
Congratulations!!! You have vanquished another Killer!!!
Was that it? Have you caught them all? Is there finally piece in the cast... another scream is heard and a heavy, savage thud. You turn as one, and everyone starts screaming and crying...
halfshellvenus is on the floor, no longer among the living.
Her final words etched in our hearts: halfshellvenus.dreamwidth.org/746724.html
We are gathered here to find out the answers to these questions.
So the votes are in, and a single last minute vote was what determined who was going to be accused this week. But one vote is enough...
The residents of the Castle accuse
alycewilson of being a vile and loathsome traitor!!! The shrieking starts as soon as those words leave your lips... Alyce goes into convulsions, and does a full back flip as foul smelling black smoke issues from her pores, escaping into the night... in her hand is a small glowing medallion... the light spreads across her, filling her with new life and a renewed spirit.
Congratulations!!! You have vanquished another Killer!!!
Was that it? Have you caught them all? Is there finally piece in the cast... another scream is heard and a heavy, savage thud. You turn as one, and everyone starts screaming and crying...
halfshellvenus is on the floor, no longer among the living. Her final words etched in our hearts: halfshellvenus.dreamwidth.org/746724.html
In Accordance With Reason Or Logic
Sep. 11th, 2025 04:09 pmmuchtooarrogantLJI Week 9: Edgelord
For the average person, when they're around someone who's blind, I firmly believe that their IQ score frequently drops by at least 50 points!
What's that you say?
"Dan, you're spouting provocative shit just to get a response. Don't be an edgelord!"
Ah, I see I'm going to have to prove it to you.( Read more... )
For the average person, when they're around someone who's blind, I firmly believe that their IQ score frequently drops by at least 50 points!
What's that you say?
"Dan, you're spouting provocative shit just to get a response. Don't be an edgelord!"
Ah, I see I'm going to have to prove it to you.( Read more... )
LJ Idol: Wheel of Chaos: "Here Be Dragons"
Sep. 11th, 2025 11:21 amhalfshellvenusHere Be Dragons
Idol Wheel of Chaos | Week 9 | 1129 words
Edgelord
x-x-x-x-x
Sverre Ormgard lived on the island of Verheim, a lonely outpost on the bitter edge of the Western sea.
There, he kept watch over the horizon, searching for ships that sailed toward the waters beyond his island boundary. Those ships were often lost, as maps for his region of the world were clearly marked with the cautionary words, Here be dragons.
Sverre fed his signal fire day and night, that sailors might find his island even in the gloom and dark. Some of the ships would sail into his lagoon and send a landing party ashore, where Sverre waited to greet them. Those were the times he enjoyed the most.
Sverre would invite the sailors to his cabin and give them fresh spring water to drink. He might also offer a few apples from the island's leeward side, in exchange for a story. Sverre dearly loved stories.
Tales of kings and warriors or dragons and princesses delighted him. Even fables were welcome, if they were all his guests knew. Sverre had visitors from many lands, and some were richer in lore than others. In turn, he would recite a story he had learned from another vessel. Sometimes he would be offered stories he had previously shared, and this amused him, for the phrasing and the details always seemed to have changed.
( Read more... )
Voting information to follow soon...
Idol Wheel of Chaos | Week 9 | 1129 words
Edgelord
x-x-x-x-x
Sverre Ormgard lived on the island of Verheim, a lonely outpost on the bitter edge of the Western sea.
There, he kept watch over the horizon, searching for ships that sailed toward the waters beyond his island boundary. Those ships were often lost, as maps for his region of the world were clearly marked with the cautionary words, Here be dragons.
Sverre fed his signal fire day and night, that sailors might find his island even in the gloom and dark. Some of the ships would sail into his lagoon and send a landing party ashore, where Sverre waited to greet them. Those were the times he enjoyed the most.
Sverre would invite the sailors to his cabin and give them fresh spring water to drink. He might also offer a few apples from the island's leeward side, in exchange for a story. Sverre dearly loved stories.
Tales of kings and warriors or dragons and princesses delighted him. Even fables were welcome, if they were all his guests knew. Sverre had visitors from many lands, and some were richer in lore than others. In turn, he would recite a story he had learned from another vessel. Sometimes he would be offered stories he had previously shared, and this amused him, for the phrasing and the details always seemed to have changed.
( Read more... )
Voting information to follow soon...
The Big Idea: Ren Hutchings
Sep. 11th, 2025 05:37 pmscalziwhatever_feed
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
Charlie Offers A Carrot
Sep. 11th, 2025 05:36 pmscalziwhatever_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
