mikekn

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/08/29/parking-lot-kittens-iv-the-final-photo/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57069

We’ve had a delightful time fostering these kittens, but today is the day they are off to their forever homes. So please say farewell to this trio as they head off and out into their new lives. On one hand I am sad, because they’re absolutely delightful and cuddly and I would love to keep them all. On the other hand I am happy because their lives will absolutely be better than they were when they were found in that parking lot. I’m glad to have had a part in that. May their new lives be long and full of love.

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/08/29/parking-lot-kittens-iv-the-final-photo/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57069

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/08/29/the-big-idea-julia-harrison/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57049

Highways to Hell, Stairways to Heaven: in From the Other Side, author Julia Harrison suggests a different way of locating these ineffable planes of the afterlife… which may or may not so ineffable after all.

JULIA HARRISON:

When it comes to dealing with anxiety that stems from the unknown I’m the kind of person who likes to play devil’s advocate, no pun intended. The two biggest of these subject matters for me are space, my brain is incapable of comprehended something without a known beginning or end, and death.

I’m a little strange I know.

I’m not particularly religious, but not really an atheist either. Let’s just say I keep an open mind. From the Other Side came from a “what if,” moment of ponder regarding death.        

Most people think of heaven and hell as being vertical in relation to earth, both literally and metaphorically, I’m not sure where this belief originated. Maybe from the teachings of old where figurative expressions were transcribed in literal terms. But it is widely accepted that above is light, which is the epitome of goodness and purity, below is dark, which is the embodiment of evil and malevolence. Therefore, in both a physical and astral sense heaven exists and is above us, whilst hell exists and is below us.

But what if this isn’t the case?

What if our planes of existence were much more aligned in relation to each other? That the inhabitants from each plane can and do travel between them?  That living beings are almost entirely oblivious to them, the good and the bad. How and why are they unaware of such happenings?

Of course each question I asked had to answered in some semi-logical fashion, and from that came the backbone of the book. It seems feasible to assume that humans could have spent a millennium conditioning themselves to unsee anything other than earth and it’s living inhabitants. A self-inflicted blindness that inhibits their ability to see the very linear existence between the planes. The teachings of religion, science, and the occult all serve as a method of both social control and psychological protection, as the saying goes, ignorance is bliss.

Imagine every living person possessed abilities far greater than they were able to acknowledge. That we could all see and interact with each plane of existence. Those who may be referred to as gifted, the ones who see and hear things beyond the realm of the living, those who experience a feeling of dread right before a disaster occurs, or who feel the presence of something when they are completely alone, it isn’t that they possess a supernatural power, simply that they are less able to inhibit their brains natural intrinsic abilities.

One of the most basic instincts possessed by the living is self-preservation. Maybe that is what prevents them from crossing over each plane. That dark alley that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, the hole in the crawl space that generates the fight or flight response, that part of the forest devoid of singing birds and chirping bugs, the secluded beach or sunny pasture that fills your heart with an inexplicable sense of contentment and peace, all glimpses of the interweaving of two planes.

Good versus evil is an age-old concept, one derived from a truth that has, over time, become a twisted and convoluted version of its former self.  I do think that good and evil absolutely exist, but human beings are not born with a predisposition for either. Rather, our souls consist of elements of both. Every being has a balance of both good and evil within. Laws, cultural norms, and social constructs manipulate us into a desire to attain a label of good. To be perceived as righteous, and of high moral standing, and why? Because we are always answerable to a higher power. Anything that deviates from this has dire consequences. If no legal or social ramifications materialize then the belief is that the cosmos, as a whole, will transpire against you, like there is a vengeful universe examining our every move in the hope of detecting any digressions to warrant inflicting some karmic damnation upon the perpetrator of such wrong doings.

Every now and again we catch sight of our darker instincts, some even embrace it. Not every crime is committed out of necessity, not every abuser was once abused, not every serial killer suffered a traumatic head injury. Nurturing our narcissistic impulses, inflicting mental or physical torture for pleasure, annihilating an entire race in the name of ideology, are all perfect examples.

Years ago I visited a psychic, a creepily good one. The rationale behind this meeting was to connect with lost loved ones, in particular a friend who had dies very young. She shared a lot of information but one piece in specifically stuck with me and not in a good way.

She stated that when we die, and pass into whatever afterlife there is, we cease to be who we were. That scared me. The only way my brain allowed me to accept the very natural act of dying was to focus on reuniting with lost loved ones. I found writing about this extremely therapeutic, I’m still not entirely at peace with what she said, but I’m definitely getting there.

From the Other Side: Amazon|Apple|Barnes & Noble|Kobo

Author Socials: Web site|Bluesky|Facebook|Instagram

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/08/29/the-big-idea-julia-harrison/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57049

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/08/27/what-you-should-be-watching-youtube-edition-jenny-nicholson/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57020

The idea of watching hours upon hours of video essay content over media I’ve never even seen sounds absolutely wild, and yet I have done it, and I am here to recommend the same to you. Specifically, Jenny Nicholson has an amazing talent of making the most random topics extremely entertaining, to the point where I literally laugh out loud and come back to the same videos over and over again.

Jenny has exceptional delivery, completely valid critiques of the media she’s talking about, her editing skills really contribute to the humor of the video, and she really commits to the bit by dressing up as whatever she’s talking about. I appreciate her thorough examinations of the media, and the amount of time and energy she puts into the research of the media before she talks about it.

Beyond the critiques and humor, I honestly just really like how she speaks. There’s a lot of good content on YouTube that is unwatchable to me because of the creator’s voice grating me the wrong way. I like Jenny’s voice and her soft-spoken-ness, I like the speed at which she speaks, and her general cadence. She is pleasant to listen to and even when I’m not watching her I like to listen to her videos when I drive sometimes.

My most favorite of her videos, and the one I’ve seen over a dozen times at this point, is her video over The Vampire Diaries:

I watched four seasons (well, three and a half) of The Vampire Diaries when I was a young teen, but even if you haven’t seen any of it, I can’t recommend this video enough. Not only is absolutely hilarious, but she goes over everything so thoroughly that you’re sure to be an expert on the show and all of its many, many flaws by the end.

I think the most interesting part of the video is that she doesn’t just talk about the show itself, but the books it was based on, the author and the company that published her, and even the video game. Yes, there is a video game, and yes, it’s just as bad as you’re imagining.

I also always crack up at her video over this very strange church’s theatrical performances:

And even though I have absolutely zero interest in Dear Evan Hansen, I truly love her video over it:

I just recently watched her video over The Rise of Skywalker and it’s no joke the best analysis and critique over the movie I’ve ever heard:

She and I have so many of the same opinions, she says everything I think but says it better. She honestly just nails it, every time.

There are a lot of content creators that I feel like seem like really cool people and I’m sure are nice and all, but very few that I feel like I could genuinely be really good friends with. Jenny seriously feels like someone I’d really enjoy hanging out with, and seems super cool and nice. I love when a creator feels really personable and friendly, it just makes me enjoy their videos that much more!

I hope you’ll give her videos a try, and enjoy them as much as I do. They’re honestly comfort watches for me at this point.

Have you seen The Vampire Diaries? Or Dear Evan Hansen? Did you like The Rise of Skywalker? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day!

-AMS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/08/27/what-you-should-be-watching-youtube-edition-jenny-nicholson/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57020

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/08/27/the-big-idea-josh-rountree-4/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57014

Most grandmas play bingo, but author Josh Rountree’s grandma had a more occult hobby. Come along in his Big Idea as he tells you about ghosts, Texas, and his grandma, and how it all led to the creation of his newest novel, Summer in the House of the Departed.

JOSH ROUNTREE:

I do my best to put my heart on the page with every book and story I write, but Summer in the House of the Departed is especially dear to me.

The Big Idea for this one was simple – I wanted to write a story about a boy and his grandmother, whiling away the last weeks of her life in a haunted house while she tries to solve the mystery of death. But there is more to it than that. 

This little boy was me. And the grandmother was mine.

Sort of.

I grew up in a small West Texas town. Way out in the middle of nowhere would not be an inaccurate way to describe it.  My grandmother was a high school teacher in that same town who never met a stranger, and was beloved by her students. She taught English and Spanish and Folklore. And, sometime in her middle age, she started hunting for ghosts. 

That wasn’t really something that was done in that place, in those days. But soon enough, she became well known for collecting stories.  People would write her, call her on the phone, come knocking on the door.  She was the “ghost lady” and people knew she would listen if they reached out to her with their weirdest stories.

Soon enough she was going on ghost hunts of her own.  I recall her telling me a story about her hanging out in the middle of the night by a lake, looking for La Llorona. She had tons of cassette tapes with subject interviews, people telling their stories, and in some cases, ghostly noises she’d captured. She shared all of this with me, apart from anything she thought too frightening for a kid my age.

The scary stuff was the good stuff, though.

She planned to collect a lot of these stories in a book, but she passed away when I was a teenager, and was never able to finish.  For many years, I had the Big Idea that I’d pull all that together some day.  Finish that book.  But I’m not much of a non-fiction writer, and I wasn’t sure where to even start.

Still, the idea of doing something with her stories, and with those memories, hung on through the years. And eventually I decided to approach it through my fiction. 

Let’s be clear – Summer in the House of the Departed is entirely a work of fiction. Nothing in this story really happened this way, or at least not much of it.  But the book is alive with my memories of my grandmother, and the little boy in this book bears a pretty striking resemblance to me, way back in 1981. 

The portal in the sky. The occult rituals.  I added all that stuff.

But the ghosts?  Those all belong to my grandmother.

Summer in the House of the Departed: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Powell’s

Author socials: Website|Instagram|Threads|Facebook

Read an excerpt.

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/08/27/the-big-idea-josh-rountree-4/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57014