Why John Scalzi got $3.4 million for his next 13 books (in 2015)

The short answer: Tor, his publisher noticed that many people who bought one of his books went right back and bought all of them!

Sounds rational to me ... I've just finished his latest:

I found this one extremely satisfying ... even better than its predecessor:

These two (and a proposed third book) are set in an alternate universe where there are physical "flowstreams" that allow quick interstellar travel.   But what happens when a physicist predicts that these flowstreams, which are the basis of many civilizations including several space habitats that can't support human life without regular trade? Two very good novels, that's what ...

Try any of Scalzi's books; you can't go wrong!

An interesting interview with Scalzi is here ...

Pulitzer prize winner and another good one from Matt Richtel

I saw a review of this one recently and added it to my library list:

It tracks four patients through cancer and autoimmune disorders and give a history of the understanding of the immune system. Well done!

I enjoyed this one so much (four stars) that I looked for other work by Richtel and found his Pulitzer Prize winner:

I could hardly put this one down! This is the story of the first prosecution of a person suspected of texting while driving who caused a fatal accident.

I thought the way the author put together the stories of all the main characters (the perpetrator, the state trooper, the prosecutor and more ..) was just masterful.

Five stars for this one; money back if not completely satisfied ... and old enough (published 2014) that you can get it from the library!

I ordered a copy for my 86.8 year old bridge partner who called me from his car the other night ... my goal is to keep him alive until he can get a self-driving car!

Finally cold-less string broken; starting a new one!

I finally came down with a minor respiratory crud the last week in March:

This for the first time in around 3 years! And timing really stunk: I was playing in a national bridge final!

I coped with two over-the-counter aids:

and ...

This worked! The first day I had this crud was the day I did well in the national tournament I was playing in ..  But one side effect of the Ricola:

I couldn't understand why I was having this effect until I realized that a bunch of Ricola lozenges was an extra load of sugar! So I just added some more potassium to my regimen for a couple of days, and that handled it.

Here's to three more years (or more!) with robust health!

On becoming a "life master" at bridge

I finally got my the last 1.5 "gold points" (see below) needed for me to achieve the Life Master designation with ACBL.

Just to be clear: the significance of this achievement in the wider world is like this:

The ACBL put in "masterpoints" of various colors decades ago to get money out of the game ... some people will cheat for masterpoints, but many fewer than might have been expected to cheat when playing for money ...

I've been playing steadily since 2006 ... the game is deep and complex enough that it's still plenty challenging. This "life master" bit is really just a low intermediate step in the bridge hierarchy.

I'm still playing the "strong one club" system I wrote about at the beginning of this blog, and doing well enough with it that a partner and I were using it to score 18th of 87 entries in a national event (the NAP Flight C pairs event in Memphis at the national ACBL tournament this past week.)

So: not significant but satisfying to do that well against tough competition. I'm looking forward to several decades more bridge, learning all the way!