Was live, and now it’s here. Good times, good panel, good hosting; we could have gone a couple hours I figure. And, we were all talking before things cued up, and I don’t think any of us are trying to pull JK Rowling down. I mean, all writers owe her for creating a whole generation of readers, yes? I know I was always there at midnight, waiting for the next Harry Potter, and I’ve kind of ceremoniously handed her books on to my kids. At the same time, though, in her &#…

Specifically, my werewolves:

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I should have put a podcast category on my 2015 list. I’ll just do a whole post instead. Because a lot of them deserve a wider audience, and, honestly? Not sure I could really pick a favorite. Podcasts are so . . . situational, like. At the gym I want one thing, driving another, walking across campus yet a different one. And, when I know the hosts, or the guests, that’s yet another variable to factor in. Like, I like you, dude, sure. But I don’t want you driving to D…

‘Tis the season for lists, yes? And mine at this time of year, they’re always skewed by my terrible recall—the books and films &etc that just happened always seem to get higher billing. Still, in an effort to be even-handed, I did scroll back a few places, just to refresh, refresh (that’s a story joke) (which is hilarious), and here’s where I land, more or less. This time with pictures, and, yes, this time including books by friends, because, I mea…

Because I kind of insist on assigning amazing stuff for my grad workshops, I of course assigned Jeremy Robert Johnson’s Skullcrack City (my original write-up here). It was dug by all. Here’s JRJ’s answers to the questions we crowd-sourced:

—To start with the ending: Is this bleak or is it hopeful? Are they (that is, ‘we’) winning? What others ending were under consideration, if any, or did you have this as your get-to point the whole time?

This was always my …

From forever ago, yes. But I’m just now stumbling onto it. And, is ’emoji’ the right word? Like, what are those little character-based happy faces people put in their texts? It’s all confusing to me. But this isn’t: The Shining, without words. Pretty cool. Wondering if I should learn whatever this language is (he said between telling kids to get off his lawn, yes), use it to diagnose slow points etc in whatever novel I’m writing. Like, i…

I’m there now. Or, I’m here:

https://ello.co/sgj

I like the smiley face a lot more than the birdhouse, and I like the distinct non-blueness of the whole thing so far. Feels a lot like a Tumblr, really, but I got on Tumblr like fourteen years too late. G+, though, I’m still one of the holdouts who doesn’t understand why that didn’t become the new way (okay, because Google was spookily tracking every move of my mouse and selling it upstream).

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mix Buzzfeed‘s “23 Things that Prove Society is Doomed” with Salon‘s “War & Peace on the Subway: How Your iPhone is Saving Literature,” then angle it through my publicists’ rose-colored glasses, and you end up with something a lot  like:

1. Sitting together and reading still counts as socializing:

2. It’s considered polite not to read over your date’s sho

Favorite movie → Tucker & Dale vs. Evil

Favorite novel → The Enterprise of Death or 11/22/63

Favorite collection → We Live Inside You

Favorite non-fiction → Shock Value or Teenage Wasteland or Blind Descent

Favorite current tv → Breaking Bad and Phineas & Ferb

Favorite catch-up tv → Deadwood

tv I miss the most → Alias

Best re-watched tv → Dead Set

Favorite comic book series → Locke & Key and Scalped

Graphic novel I’d never read before, now lovewantneed → Pixy

Comic ch…