44 Facts About John Scalzi

1.

John Michael Scalzi II was born on May 10,1969 and is an American science fiction author and former president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.

2.

John Scalzi is best known for his Old Man's War series, three novels of which have been nominated for the Hugo Award, and for his blog Whatever, where he has written on a number of topics since 1998.

3.

John Scalzi won the Hugo Award for Best Fan Writer in 2008 based predominantly on that blog, which he has used for several charity drives.

4.

John Scalzi has written non-fiction books and columns on diverse topics such as finance, video games, films, astronomy, writing and politics, and served as a creative consultant for the TV series Stargate Universe.

5.

John Scalzi earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy at the University of Chicago, graduating in 1991.

6.

John Scalzi abandoned his course of study with Bellow after he was elected Student Ombudsman of the University.

7.

John Scalzi began writing professionally in 1990, while a college student, working freelance for the Chicago Sun-Times.

8.

John Scalzi was laid off in 1998, and since then he has been a full-time freelance writer and author.

9.

John Scalzi was first elected president of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2010.

10.

John Scalzi had previously run as a write-in candidate in 2007, challenging the sole ballot nominee that year, but was not successful.

11.

John Scalzi left office when his third term expired on June 30,2013, having not sought reelection to a fourth term.

12.

John Scalzi garnered significant media attention by taping raw bacon to his cat "Ghlaghghee" in September 2006.

13.

John Scalzi asked readers to donate money to him if they enjoyed the novel, and earned around $4,000 over a period of five years.

14.

John Scalzi intended to sell the book commercially, so he chose the genre of military science fiction because he felt it would be the most marketable.

15.

In 2006, John Scalzi won a nomination for the Hugo Award for Best Novel for Old Man's War.

16.

John Scalzi has commented that he originally wrote the book as free verse poetry, then converted it into prose format.

17.

John Scalzi announced the release on his blog on April 7,2010, and the novel was published on May 10,2011.

18.

John Scalzi has not written many short stories: one of them, "After the Coup", featured as the first short story published originally on Tor.

19.

John Scalzi wrote a sequel to "Three Robots" for the third season of the series.

20.

John Scalzi is the author of the "Book of the Dumb" series of books from Portable Press.

21.

In November 2005, John Scalzi announced that entries from the run of the Whatever, his blog, would be compiled into a book from Subterranean Press.

22.

The book, You're Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop to a Coffee Shop: John Scalzi on Writing; was released by Subterranean Press in February 2007.

23.

John Scalzi began writing for his personal blog Whatever in September 1998.

24.

John Scalzi started it because he wanted to practice writing in a newspaper- or column-like format, which he had done prior to his novel-writing career.

25.

The name suggests the wide range of topics John Scalzi writes about there, although many of John Scalzi's postings center on the topics of politics and writing.

26.

John Scalzi's essay "Being Poor" was based on his own experiences growing up in poverty.

27.

John Scalzi used the Whatever as a way to solicit fiction and non-fiction submissions on the theme of Science Fiction Cliches in 2005 for issue No 4 of Subterranean Magazine, which he guest edited.

28.

On March 29,2007, it was announced that John Scalzi had again been nominated for a Hugo Award, this time in the category "Best Fan Writer", for his online writing about the science fiction field.

29.

John Scalzi was the first Campbell Award winner to receive a nomination in this category.

30.

John Scalzi uses the Whatever to help raise money for organizations and causes he supports.

31.

John Scalzi extended the deal to all Whatever readers, raised 256 times the admission price, and posted his critical report on the Creation Museum on November 12,2007.

32.

Some stories were selected from a competition run on Whatever to write a story to explain a painting John Scalzi had commissioned from Jeff Zugale, that featured John Scalzi as an orc and Wheaton riding a unicorn pegasus kitten.

33.

John Scalzi pledged to donate $5 to RAINN, Emily's List, the Human Rights Campaign, and the NAACP every time Day mentioned him on his website.

34.

John Scalzi has acknowledged this tonal difference, based on the different missions of each site.

35.

John Scalzi blogged professionally for AOL's Ficlets site beginning in March 2007, writing about literature and other related topics.

36.

On December 7,2007, John Scalzi announced that by mutual agreement, his contract with AOL would not be renewed at the end of the year, in part so that he would have more time to devote to writing books.

37.

For traditional media, John Scalzi wrote a DVD review column and an opinion column for the Official US PlayStation Magazine from 2000 through 2006, wrote an additional DVD review column for the Dayton Daily News through 2006, and writes for other magazines and newspapers on an occasional basis.

38.

In 2009, John Scalzi was a creative consultant on science-fiction television show Stargate Universe.

39.

John Scalzi was the writer for the 2015 mobile device video game by Industrial Toys, called Midnight Star.

40.

John Scalzi wrote the story for the prequel to the game, in a graphic novel called Midnight Rises.

41.

On March 30,2016, the Los Angeles Times announced that John Scalzi was one of ten "Critics-at-Large" who would contribute to the newspaper as a columnist writing on literature and culture.

42.

John Scalzi met his wife Kristine Ann Blauser when he was living in Fresno, and they married in 1995.

43.

John Scalzi's only child, a daughter named Athena, was born in 1998.

44.

John Scalzi has declared himself a feminist and, formerly, a Rockefeller Republican, though he currently supports the Democratic Party.