At first glance, The Plovdiv Excelsior Mall seems like nothing out of the ordinary - a half-empty shopping center home to a few run-of-the-mill shops and an artisanal ice cream parlor. But its grand size and stature might tip you off to the fact that it has a more interesting history than is readily apparent.
It was, in fact, once the majestic Cinema Excelsior, completed in 1911 at the hands of an ambitious Italian entrepreneur named Edmondo Vaccaro. Built in Parisian-esque style and splendor, the cinema was expected to be a success, but only a few years after its construction, World War I broke out, leaving Italy and Bulgaria on opposite sides of the conflict. When Vaccaro returned to the city in 1919, the burgeoning paradise he had once envisioned was no more. He ended up selling his beloved cinema in 1923.
The building remained a theater (later named Hristo Botev) for some time, but it gradually went into a decline, becoming first a gambling house and then a shopping mall. Though some of its former grandeur remains today, and the original name of Excelsior has returned, much of its charm has been lost in time.
Adding to the building's allure, ancient ruins were unearthed in the basement floor of the Excelsior.
My stop in Burlington constituted what I consider to be the end of my book tour for The Shattering Peace; I have two other events this year (the Texas Book Festival and a library appearance in Jacksonville, FL) but those aren’t specifically tied into the book, and they are two and three weeks away, respectively. All my tour events took place within the space of five weeks.
So how am I? And what is up with me for the rest of 2025?
1. Well, to begin, I’m exhausted, albeit mostly in a good way. From Portland, OR to Burlington, VT, I did seventeen different events, including bookstore readings, library events and convention appearances. I had a ridiculous number of plane flights, not all of them at decent hours of the morning (although now I have Gold Medallion status on Delta, so, hooray, I suppose), slept in a plethora of hotel rooms ranging from hipster to “we’re not really a murder hotel I SWEAR” and saw thousands of folks at readings, panels and signings, some of whom were friends, and with whom I was happy to spend a little bit of time while on the road.
The tour did what it was supposed to do: The Shattering Peace popped up on the New York Times bestseller list at #9, which was higher than I expected (thank you all!). We have sold quite a healthy number of books, ebooks and audiobooks in the last month and change, both of the new one and of the backlist titles. Plus it was a delight to see so many folks while I was on the road. Also, I have been “on” for six weeks, with only a few breaks in there to be at home and sleep in my own bed and socialize my new kitten, so, yeah. It was great! And also a lot! And I’m looking forward to spending two weeks at home before I go anywhere else, and then after those last two events, being home for the rest of November and all of December.
2. I will spend the rest of the year being at home, but that is not to say that I will be be just turning into a creative lump. There will indeed be some of that, but I also have to finish the upcoming novel, with is the thing I will the most focused on for the next several weeks. Some of you who saw me on tour got a preview of the book because I read from the prologue; the rest of you, I’m afraid, will just have to wait. But that needs to get done, and that’s where my brain will mostly be for much of the rest of the year.
Beyond that I have another project I can’t tell you about yet but which is seriously damn cool, which I will spend at least a bit of time in this last quarter of the year building out. It is actually a Scalzi Enterprises project, so those of you who might have thought the company is just a thing designed to make sure our family has medical insurance, surprise! It’s a real thing! (although of course it is also a thing designed to make sure our family has medical insurance, welcome to America, friends).
Remember also I have two more works coming out this year, both in November: a short story entitled “3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years,” which will be out for Amazon (if you have Amazon Prime you can already check it out as part of its “first reads” program), and then the print/ebook edition of “Constituent Service,” a humorous novella I wrote last year. Here’s a fun thing: If you order the (signed, limited) print version directly from Subterranean Press, they will give you the ebook edition at no additional cost. Totally worth it.
3. On less thrilling “state of Scalzi” news, this morning I clocked in at 202 pounds exactly, the heaviest I have ever been. I am not feeling very happy about that because I can feel the physical penalties incurring on my body for carrying around roughly 30 pounds more than I would prefer, and also, my clothes just don’t fit right anymore. There are a lot of reasons why my weight has crept up in the last couple of years, but certainly a month of eating not exactly fabulously while on tour didn’t help things any.
A few years ago when I had a similar weight gain, I found that getting a Fitbit exercise tracker helped me stay focused on getting myself in better shape — turns out, gamifying my exercise has actual benefits for me — and when I stopped wearing one, there was a correlation with me exercising less and my weight creeping up. So last week I bought myself the Pixel Watch 4, since Google ate Fitbit and all their exercise and tracking software, and the Pixel watches are where those things live now. Today I started a new exercise and calorie-awareness regimen, and hopefully it will take, because I don’t want to buy a whole new wardrobe, and also would like to feel happier in my own body.
(As always this is not commentary on anyone else’s weight and/or exercise goals. This is about me, my own health and well-being, and my own stack of sarcastic t-shirts I would like to fit into again.)
So that’s where I am today: Lots of plans! Some exercise! And also, looking forward to sleeping in a lot for the rest of 2025.
"Mendez says he realized the potential of fan edits a couple years ago, when “Suits” videos were garnering hundreds of millions of views on TikTok. He credits those clips with catapulting the 2010s legal drama to the most-streamed show of 2023 and spawning a spinoff.
While it’s difficult to measure the conversion rate of people who see a fan edit and then watch the movie or show it’s based on, Mendez says the proof is in the comments section...The week Areq’s edit was posted, viewership of the 2015 boxing drama increased 29% on Amazon Prime, according to Luminate data.”
2) Was watching High Potential and a recent episode was such a mess, all it revealed was that the show writers are clearly not in the same category as their main character. ( Read more... )
3) I don't want to ding High Potential for this specifically because this problem occurs in every show and movie I think I've ever seen. But it leaped out at me because the way CPR was done for a drowning victim was so crappy. The fact is that near-drowning can cause lifelong problems in a number of areas and is not something one just bounces back from in minutes (not to mention, there's hardly ever a scene of a victim doing prolonged puking). To me, this is a public health disservice. ( Read more... )
4) Even though I never used Deviant Art myself, it's fascinating to read about its history (and its deliberate destruction) given it's a contemporary period for my being online. It seems strange to have the ethos of the web then explained to people who have never known anything but today's impersonal and exploitative models.
"All of these various elements that might make up a page linked back to the tens, sometimes hundreds of other creators, alongside prominently displayed collections of favorited works from around the website, making every profile a constellation of user creation curated in a unique way that promoted not just the user themselves but the entire community." ( Read more... )
5) There was a recent article in the Hollywood Reporter about how movies are the lifeblood of streaming services. Though I find this disappointing, I don't find it surprising. Movies are (often) a one-shot sort of story, quick to get through, and usually getting a lot of expensive publicity before their release date, thus raising awareness in a big part of the potential viewing public. And people rewatch a good bit because, again, it's short and doesn't require a big commitment.
The other two reasons are, I think, more recent in nature. ( Read more... )
Thank you for writing for me! This letter is bound to be long, so tl;dr: I love all kinds of different things at different times, I love these fandoms and characters, and I'm sure to enjoy whatever you come up with.
Any prompts are intended purely for inspiration, not to restrict your choices. Take what's useful and leave what isn't. I hope you have a lovely Yuletide.
Nothing lastingly bad happens to the dog in this book.
Sorry but not all that sorry to those of you who wanted that suspense, but Brandy is a lovey good big boy and I think most of you will have a much better time if you don't have serious worries about the mastiff. This is a debut novel, so Serra Swift doesn't have a lot of trust built up. This is the beginning of building it. Brandy gets a nice chewy in his nice bed. He is fine.
The humans...well. The humans are a bit more messed up. A bit more tangled in grief, a bit more vengeful, a bit more desperate. The Beast has been slaughtering humans since time out of mind, and after Lyssa Carnifex (Cadogan) loses her brother she swears that she will put an end to it no matter what. She manages to dispatch a large and varied number of magical beasts, but The Beast eludes her. But when she meets Alderic Casimir de Laurent, it seems like she's found someone who's just as dedicated to helping her slay The Beast as she is to doing it. She just has to put up with Alderic's annoying fashion sense and weird priorities.
...or so she thinks. Obviously, "or so she thinks," there's not a book if there's not an "or so she thinks." I don't feel like the twist is one that will surprise most experienced fantasy readers, but if you're looking for an engaging and well-written adventure fantasy, this may well suit.
In northeastern North Carolina, not too far from the Virginia state line, lies the town of Jackson in Northampton County. The town’s visitor's center provides a walking/driving tour pamphlet that mostly focuses on the history of historic downtown Jackson (which is also worth a visit). However, the pamphlet also includes a few sites of interest that are within a few miles of downtown. One of these sites (about 3 miles from downtown) is a well-maintained roadside cemetery containing a set of grave houses.
While some people believe that grave houses come from an indigenous tradition, others claim Scots-Irish connections. In either case, this well-maintained graveyard holds three grave houses, or “spirit homes,” that serve to protect the grave and potentially provide a home for the spirit.
These are the remnants of an old salt mine — but not the underground kind. Here, salt was pulled from evaporated ocean water, leaving behind wooden shacks, rusting train tracks, and weathered buildings along the roadside on the way to the beach.
The faded structures and salt-stained landscape create an atmospheric backdrop that’s perfect for photographs.
There are no signs saying "pirate lair this way" when you enter the Hôtel Magon in the heart of Saint-Malo. The elegant and fine furnishings on the main floor and the attentive staff seem a world away from the swash-buckling ways of the French pirates known as Corsairs that ruled the seas around St. Malo in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Yet this very building, now listed as an official Monument Historique (Historic Monument), was constructed in 1725 as the residence of François-Auguste Magon de la Lande, renowned Corsair of the King and director of the French East India Company. The corsairs were privateers authorized by the French Crown to attack and plunder the merchant and trade ships of France's enemies, many of which were returning to Europe from the Americas. The Magon house was used in part to store a bounty of these stolen goods.
A classic 18th century built home, with beautiful furniture and the everyday knick-knacks you would typically associate with the period: snuff boxes, elegant candle holders, and the classic monocle chains strewed across mahogany embossed writing desks. Though it all appears to be the belongings of a fine gentleman of the 18th century, it is in fact all stolen, by pirates. Pillage the high seas by day, live like kings by night. This was meant to be a hidden pirate lair, and the disguise is a good one.
The pièce de résistance comes as you enter the basement. As you descend down old narrow stairs, the lighting fades and you’re suddenly in an empty room. This room once housed the spoils of pirate battles against the English and Portuguese. The portholes along the wooden wall were smuggling tunnels, for which corsair ships would open their gunports and could dock directly aside the house, and smuggle in illegal contraband and the plunders of war.
Hôtel Magon may seem like a typical house museum at the corner of the fortified St. Malo, but it is, in fact, an intricate veil of deceit and juicy history in the heyday of maritime warfare.
Deep beneath the vineyards of the Loire Valley, in the cool, dimly lit tunnels of an ancient limestone quarry, lies a museum unlike any other. The Musée du Champignon near Saumur is a living, underground world devoted to fungi, where visitors wander through vast galleries lined with countless mushroom varieties. From delicate chanterelles to towering king oysters, these mushrooms thrive in the quarry’s naturally humid conditions, just as they have for centuries.
More than just an exhibition, this subterranean wonder offers a glimpse into the region’s long tradition of mushroom cultivation, a practice still vital to the local economy. Walking through the tunnels, surrounded by the earthy scent of growing fungi, feels like stepping into a hidden ecosystem that has quietly flourished beneath the Loire for generations.
At California State University, Fullerton (CSUF), there is a replica of Michelangelo's famous David curiously broken into eight pieces lying on the ground. Although the statue's placement here is very much intentional in the tradition of modern art, it was not always intended to be this way. It started its life as a whole sculpture at Forest Lawn Memorial Park's Cypress cemetery. Erected in 1967, it was actually sculpted in Florence from the same Carrara marble that Michelangelo used.
Michelangelo's sculptures, however, are known for being light and delicate with uneven weight distributions. As such, many David replicas have broken over time as cracks gradually formed. Even the original has developed fissures and is at risk of fracturing. That is exactly what happened to the Cypress David when the Whittier Narrows earthquake rocked the area in 1987.
Fortunately, although the statue could not be repaired, it fell onto grass that cushioned the impact. As such, it only broke into eight relatively large pieces. This caught the attention of CSUF art professor Donald Lagerberg. He re-erected the pieces in the same arrangement in which they originally fell. This was meant to invoke ancient statues that have survived as ruins, some of which influenced Michelangelo himself. The spot Lagerberg chose for the pieces ensured that the sun would always provide good lighting.
A great idea often comes with the added bonus of a million questions, and it’s up to the writer to have answers for all these questions. In author Marie Lu’s case, this path of answers led to the creation of her adult debut novel, Red City. Come along in her Big Idea to see how transformative one idea can be.
MARIE LU:
Several years ago, I had the enormous privilege of doing something that has been on my bucket list: I got the chance to take a summer course at the University of Oxford, a place I have been enchanted with since I was a teenager. The class itself (Astronomy) was, of course, incredible—but a perk of being a summer student is that you can get a library card to access the university’s Bodleian Libraries, which is not open to the general public. The feeling of sitting inside the Radcliffe Camera, beneath its exquisite dome and encased within its illuminated bookshelves, is a core memory seared into my mind.
At the time, I was struggling with what would become the first full draft of Red City, my adult debut. It is a dark contemporary fantasy, a story about the pursuit of perfection at any cost and the price of ambition. But while I had my characters and setting, and I had my plot and themes, I did not have a magic system to bind it all together. I knew I wanted the story seen through the lens of fantasy, but I didn’t know what that fantasy element was. What could symbolize the idea of our endless hunger to transform ourselves, our eternal dissatisfaction with who we are?
I can still remember picking through the hallowed shelves at the Bodleian while I fought with this essential piece of storytelling. I pulled book after book and brought it to my corner—medieval collections about the heavens and texts about the Renaissance, the history of nations and the advent of early sciences.
I don’t remember exactly which book it was that sparked the idea. But one of the titles I pulled was about the origins of alchemy, the precursor to modern chemistry. And that night, in my room, the first inkling of the idea came together: alchemy is the pursuit of perfection. It is the transformation of something into something more desirable, lead into gold, mortality into immortality.
It was my missing piece.
It would take several more months for the idea to truly solidify. But you can always tell when the idea is the right one, because your mind starts exploding with questions: What if alchemy was real in our world? How did our ancestors use it? Was that ever recorded in our histories? What if its reality was an open secret for all these centuries? How would it be used in the modern age? What is the cost of being an alchemist; what do you sacrifice in the pursuit of perfection; how does this magic damage you and reshape you?
From those questions came wild answers that excited me. Perhaps the Greek gods were actually human alchemists, capable of transmuting lightning from nitrogen and oxygen in the air or capable of changing molecules in the human body in order to heal a wound or improve a mood. Perhaps it is studied in just as much detail as any branch of science—there are classes and sects and philosophies, categories of study and theories and debate. Perhaps the philosopher’s stone, the holy grail of alchemy, would fit into today’s capitalist society, would become a product you could sell. Perhaps it is behind all of the modern age’s inventions and innovations, this symbol for our ruthless desire for perfection—we want more wealth, more power, more life, more beauty, more, more, more. And what if alchemy is the engine behind that? What would that look like?
How would alchemists behave in our modern world? How would ordinary people?
The relentlessness of our world haunts me. I think it may be why I wanted to explain it with magic. There is mystery to magic, a surrendering of yourself to the fact that there are things outside of your control, that maybe we don’t understand everything about ourselves.
In it, we can find solace, and in solace, we might be able to puzzle out the harder aspects of our world. The concept of alchemy helped me find reason in our ceaseless pursuit of success, and in that idea, the story was truly born.
Another flare-up of lower-back issues. This will be the third time this has happened with Academic Thing impending.... (podcast particiption scheduled for tomorrow). Can do without this, really. in particular the associated insomnia.
***
Further cause of miff: thought from listing in back of an NYRB paperback that there was a Jessica Mitford volume I did not have - further delving reveals it is merely The Making of a Muckraker under a different title with a new introduction and one chapter that is not in my 1979 Quartet p/b. Huh.
Come on (thanks Chuck): styles of music have their day and time moves on.
Will concede that have recently been reviewing books leaning heavily on popular music culture of the 50s-70s and its impact, but you know, that was a particular time and context, and anyone doing rock now is pretty much a tribute band or very very retro, surely?
It was clear from the works I was reviewing that The Scene was constantly shifting and moving on and developing niche scenes differentiating themselves from The Mainstream and so on and so forth.
And it is one thing to be nostalgic, and to be interested in a bygone epoch of popular music culture, and another to believe that it has to keep on being a living scene.
Cats are known for many of the unique characteristics, but purrhaps they are best known for being the most judgmental animals on the planet. Not only towards us hoomans, but to all living, breathing and purrhaps bothersome animals in this world. And while we cannot quite pinpoint what it is about feline psychology that makes them think that they are better than everyone else, there is no denying that that is what they believe, and they sure do know how to convey their displeasure through their eyes.
So while you slack off working, wasting precious hours that could be spent earning money to pamper your purr-machine at home, we figured we would back up your cat children and present you with this list of judgmental felines to remind you to get back to work. Those treats are not going to buy themselves now, are they?
Cats truly are a curious bunch. To know what is going on in their tiny minds would probably break our minds into pieces. As will the motivation behind this story, which tells the tale of a chonky cat child who lived a life of indoor luxury, wanting for nothing and doing anything it wanted, who one day decided to up sticks and run away.
A very curious plan indeed which cannot be explained by anything really, especially that she had never really shown an interest in the outdoors. But whatever it was that lured her to head out into the world to try her hand at survival, the magic soon faded and eventually a reunion with her pawrents happened. But we will never quite know what it was that made this indoor catto decide to leave it all behind for the cold and cruelty of the outdoors.
I roasted the following in the oven with olive oil and salt: parsnips, parsley root, potatoes, carrots, yellow beets, acorn squash. To go with that, I took the baby summer squash and baby butternuts and put them in an oven pan, covered with a mix of bread crumbs, butter, basil, hazelnuts run in a blender, and grated parmesan cheese (I almost, but not quite, reinvented pesto there...). On the side, there was baba ganoush, and also fresh shelled beans in butter, chopped parsley, salt, and juice from flowering quince (which I use as a lemon replacement). Can recommend!
There were four vegetables from the garden in this meal that we tasted for the first time: - Parsnips (I generally like parsnips, but hmm, ours were not top notch somehow. They were also a bit small and skinny, so perhaps a little more manure for them next year.) - Parsley root (I had never had this before--it does taste of parsley, but also a bit earthy and mealy. I wasn't a huge fan, and as it also didn't sprout well, we might not grow this again.) - Acorn squash (Yes! I loved the rich and nutty taste, and this was one I picked because I thought it didn't look quite mature, and it was still delicious. Will grow again, and more of it.) - Greek Gigantes runner beans (Yum! Huge white beans, creamy and buttery and tasty. I thought at first that they hadn't been that productive, which is true in terms of number of beans, but they're so huge that if you go by weight they were still cropping well.)
Reading: As of midweek, I'd read nine novels (well, eight and a novella) this month, which is very pleasing given that I usually consider that a good number for a full month, never mind just about halfway through one. (Of course, for the last few days my brain's done an about-face and decided that I'm going to be just reading a cookbook now, thanks.)
Since my last accounting, I've finished KJ Charles' All of Us Murderers (gothic murdery queer romance), Freya Marske's Cinder House (which I wish I'd realized going in--or perhaps more importantly, when I bought it at full price--is a novella, although that didn't keep me from enjoying it quite a bit), Stephen Graham Jones' The Only Good Indians (very solid, but I feel I've met my quota for books with mutilation for a while), Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle (not so much my thing, maybe [whatever that is], but I sure see why it's a classic!), and E.K. Johnston's Pretty Furious (a satisfying "~good girls~ lash back at the fucking patriarchy and its associated bullshit" read).
Now I'm reading through the aforementioned cookbook, Bee Wilson's The Secret of Cooking: Recipes for an Easier Life in the Kitchen, which swiftly made its way onto the inherently-aggravating-but-complimentary list of cookbooks bought in ebook that I now want in hard copy.
Also, scruloose and I are...maybe a third?...of the way into Fugitive Telemetry (having decided to listen to Murderbot in chronological order rather than publication order). Growing: In a shocking development, our Tiny Tim tomato plant (which we bought immediately before the drought turned unmistakable official, and therefore have since watered once or at most twice since putting it in) has produced a couple handfuls of ripe fruit! scruloose reports that they're tasty! We're over halfway through October!
A bundle for Daniel James Hanley's tabletop roleplaying game of Gothic and Romantic Horror in the decadent, disastrous age of Marie-Antoinette, Napoleon, and Lord Byron.
Hello, Writer! However you ended up writing something for me, I thank you--I'm glad and grateful. ♥
A note about treats, in case it's relevant: yes, I am all for them!
(Also, let me say that you'll notice it's very common for me to ask for some of the same fandoms from year to year. If you've written for me previously, please do not ever think this is because I don't still love your gift! I do--it's just that I am still-and-always in the mood for more of these characters and I love them so much. And I am greedy. :D)
If you already have something in mind you think I'll like, go ahead and write it! I want you to enjoy yourself.
If more information about my preferences would help and inspire you, then here's some:
Once you become a pawrent, your life changes in many ways, but the main one is that you have less meowtivation to get up in the morning because you now have a purrmanent cuddle buddy who is just jonesing for you to stay in bed for 5…. more hours. We actually have to set our alarms for 15 minutes earlier than we need to because our cat knows that we need to get out of bed when the alarm goes off, so she sneaks up and snuggles with us to bribe us for more cuddle time. How are we supposed to get up and go to work when we're snuggled up under the covers with our cat child, all cozy and warm, and outside it's cold and we can't bring our cat with us? The math isn't mathing.
But, someone has to pay the bills that allow our fur baby to live the purrfect life she has, so, especially on Meowndays, we need a little extra kick to get out of bed. We need something to help us land softly into the work week without thinking too much about how we have five days in the office ahead of us, and that purrfect distraction is feline funnies. These hilarious cattos are here to uplift your Meownday mood and give you the strength and pawsitivity to face the week ahead without a second paws. So get up and go get 'em. You've got cat treats to buy and a cat child to pamper.
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