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Books Scott read in 2016

People often ask me, “Hey, FDØ, do you read books?”

To which I usually respond, “How dare you. How goddamn dare you, you sonofabitch. How DARE you question my commitment to literature?

I am a goddamn Man of Letters™. I have degrees and shit. I’m educated AF. I have a library with many pleather-bound books.

I am literature […]

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Frustrated with your writing career?

Read also: "When rejection letters become blurb requests"

How does it feel when the people who reject you for that thing you desperately want to do wind up courting you when you’ve finally done that thing?

Well, that’s more than a little overly dramatic for this situation, but as they taught me when I was a journalist you have to hook the reader with the lead. […]

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ALONE Full Cover

Junkies, here’s a fun bit of how the sausage is made. Del Rey Publishing was cool enough to share with me the full ALONE dust jacket for the hardcover, which is out March 7, 2017. That’s Spingate on the cover (sorry if that’s a spoiler, folks, but ALIVE and Continue Reading →

Whitey Whiterson writes PoC skin tones …

Points to consider for writers describing people of color

Did you know that certain skin tone descriptions can piss some people right the fuck off?

We contracted a new editor to do the copyedit for my scifi/thriller EARTHCORE (out Nov. 29 in print, eBook and audiobook). This editor did a solid job. She’s quickly getting the hang of my particular style and the Siglerverse as well […]

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I knew her when we were immortal

Spoiler alert: my friend Shannon died today, after a long battle with multiple cancers. Writing is my life and my therapy. This is me trying to work through some things in the only way I know how. Besides scotch, I mean. Oh, wait, I’m doing both at the same time!

My friend Shannon was a […]

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Shifting our priorities

I.e., "Striking while the iron is hot."

“Hey, Sig, what’s up with the old white dead dude at the top of this page?”

Well, Pilgrim’, we’re making some changes in these here parts. We’re easing up on something that has served us well for a decade so we can better focus on what we do best.

You won’t see the effect of these changes […]

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How to spot a total asshole

Dear Junkies:

You can buy my stories if you so choose. Many of you do, and for that I am grateful. Some of you choose instead to listen to the free podcasts. That’s cool, too. The free podcast is kept free via advertising — you know, like every other form of storytelling entertainment. You may have heard […]

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The death of the Goreline

Back in 2005, a devilishly handsome young podcaster was looking for a way to get more fan involvement on his show. He found this crazy site called K7.net, which gave a free 206-area-code number that worked not only as a free fax-to-JPEG service, but also a free call-to-MP3 service. You called the number, left a message, […]

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Join EFF’s Day of Action against Rule 41

Click here to email your congressperson on or before June 21, 2016.

I’m a supporter of the Electronic Frontiers Foundation (EFF),  the leading nonprofit organization defending civil liberties in the digital world. EFF works to ensure that rights and freedoms are enhanced and protected as our use of technology grows.

The Department of Justice is using an obscure procedure to push through a rule change that will greatly increase law enforcement’s ability to hack into computers located around the world. It’s an update to Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. If Congress does nothing, this massive change will automatically go into effect on December 1.

Why you should care about changes to “Rule 41”
It will result in a dramatic increase in government hacking. Here’s an overview of some of the main reasons to be concerned:

  • Government agents hacking into computers more frequently is a recipe for disaster. Law enforcement will increase their exploitation of security vulnerabilities in common software products, meaning vulnerabilities that could affect millions will be left open instead of patched.
  • Law enforcement will forum shop, finding government-friendly magistrate judges to sign off on warrants with a loose connection to the judicial district.
  • Law enforcement will pressure judges to sign off on remote searches of thousands of computers with a single warrant—a direct violation of the Fourth Amendment and a pattern we’re already seeing.

This rule change especially impacts people using privacy protective technologies like Tor or VPNs.

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Let’s nitpick GAME OF THRONES

SPOILER ALERT: This entire post is spoilers.

I enjoyed this episode. By my scoring, it’s a 7/10 and a nice recovery from the episode where the Beloved Character™ dies for apparently no f-ing reason (see below). However, as much as I enjoyed this episode and can’t wait for next week, the Nitpickious the Annoying showed up […]

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Diverse characters ≠ an evil liberal agenda

Thousands of people read my books. (Quick aside: that phrase still rattles my melon — thousands of people read my books. Livin’ the dream, boss.)

But in any large enough population, you get groups of people who look at the exact same thing and see something completely different. People tend to imprint their worldview upon what they experience. […]

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