May 2012

A microcast is our word for an asynchronous Q&A episode: you ask us tons of questions online, either through twitter or facebook or our listenermail account on the sidebar, and we want to answer as many of them as we can. Not every answer can fill an entire episode, though, so we take the smaller […]

I was talking with a friend of mine about how people routinely think that my middle name, Robinette, is a maiden name. Some people even try to hyphenate it with my last name. I once had someone, when I asked for a new badge at a convention, tell me, “I was corrected on that and

At long last. My office is assembled enough that I can show you photos of it. There’s a very narrow window of time in which I can show it off after the boxes are all put away before, you know, it descends into the chaos that is my more normal working environment. This is the

Years ago, a friend of mine introduced me to a cassette which had a square dance cover of “I Will Surive.” –Yes. I said Square Dance with all the do-si-do that implies. It made me giggle in all the best ways. Periodically, I plug in a search for it to see if it has made it

The Nebula Awards Weekend was amazing. It was my last event as SFWA’s VP and it was a good note to go out on. Peggy Rae Sapienza and her whole team did an amazing job. I’m currently sitting here in the lobby of the Hyatt Crystal City with Todd Vandemark, SFWA’s website content editor, on

We’re doing something new, and Howard gets to go first. [We’ll be doing Glamour in Glass later.] The plan is to take something one of us has completed, and which you’ve had ample time to read, and grill the creator about the project. Obviously there will be spoilers. Also, we’re going to run a bit long

All right, whisky fans. I have a challenge for you. Due to a variety of circumstances, I’m helping with a whisky tasting tomorrow and we need to decide the order in which to taste. The whiskys are pre-selected.  Some of them, I’m familiar with. Some I’m not. How would you order them, and why? Dalmore

Michael R. Collings and his son Michaelbrent Collings join us live at UVU to talk with us about cathartic horror. In particular, we talk about how the catharsis is part of what makes horror such a delightful genre. Michael leads with an example from his own writing, a novel called The Slab. Brandon talks about

I took a break from unpacking today to do a little gardening. It’s been about four years since I lived somewhere that gardening was feasible. Our balcony gets good light, plus came with two planters on the balcony. This is one of the two. I’ve filled them with edibles. There are two types of cherry

I’m flying into Houston today to read from Glamour in Glass at Murder by the Book. I will have the tiny little puppet show, temporary tattoos of the missing first line, and I’ll be in Regency costume. Will I see you there?

In case you’re wondering why I’ve been scarce, we’re still very much in the throes of unpacking. To tide you over until I emerge from all of the cardboard, here’s our dining room, with the remaining boxes carefully cropped out of the photo. The swinging door leads to the kitchen. You can just see the

Not only have I returned safely from Mo*Con, I also have a Chicago mailing address. I must really live here now. Mary Robinette Kowal P.O. Box 221298 Chicago, IL 60622

James Dashner joins us for a Q&A at Utah Valley University during Life, The Universe, and Everything. The first question starts out amazingly rough, but the 12-year-old asking it manages to stick the landing. The questions include: Why is the ARC of James’ first book so different from the later books? How do you handle

In 2004, I made my first sale to a magazine called The First Line. They have an interesting premise. Every story in an issue starts with the same first line, but with wildly different results. The idea is that the first line is so important, but if you gave Mark Twain the line, “Call me,