{"id":39044,"date":"2024-02-09T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=39044"},"modified":"2024-04-11T11:33:05","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T15:33:05","slug":"from-a-coin-toss-to-sci-fi-royalty-the-saga-of-john-scalzi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/entertainment\/2024\/02\/09\/from-a-coin-toss-to-sci-fi-royalty-the-saga-of-john-scalzi\/","title":{"rendered":"From a Coin Toss to Sci-Fi Royalty: The Saga of John Scalzi<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Scalzi has won a number of awards over the years, including the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and a Hugo Award for Best Novel. Photo Credit: Athena Scalzi<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That life is sometimes stranger than fiction is one of those sayings you here but rarely see proven. But that is exactly what best describes the odyssey of John Scalzi<\/a>. His rich worlds and highly relatable characters have earned him the adoration of fans around the world. The author\u2019s unique voice and tight narratives have brought him just about every speculative fiction award you can imagine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet none of the above would have happened if a simple coin toss had gone a bit differently. A bit of wind or change in luck and the science fiction landscape of today would look incredibly different: no \u201cOld Man\u2019s War\u201d, \u201cRedshirts\u201d, or the dozens of other books we\u2019ve come to love. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I sat down to write my first novel, I was either going to write a science fiction novel or a crime thriller because those were the two genres I read for recreation. I literally flipped a coin, and it came down heads which was science fiction. And that is how I became a science fiction writer,\u201d he said to The Clarion in an interview. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As mad as it sounds, such are the plot twists that great careers are made of. For Scalzi, it was yet another change of fate that pushed him along the path he\u2019s on now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I make an effort to ensure that the worlds I write actually reflect the world I live in and the world I would like to live in moving forward.<\/strong>“<\/p>\u2013 John Scalzi<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI wrote it at the very last minute overnight in a rush and I was the only person in three sections of the class to get an \u2018A\u2019. I had what some might call an epiphany: \u2018writing seems to be pretty easy for me and literally everything else is hard, I should be a writer.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On graduating from college, Scalzi would pursue a career in journalism, writing at first for The Fresno Bee as a film critic and columnist. In fact, his first decade as a writer was spent navigating the world of entertainment journalism. But a high school reunion would change that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI started getting into novels because I was going back to my 10th high school reunion and I knew that when I went back, because I was known as the \u2018writer dude\u2019, they would be asking me if I\u2019d written a novel. So I thought, \u2018Ok, I need to write a novel,’\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One coin toss later and the wheels would begin turning on the first major chapter of the best-seller’s authorial career. Since then, he\u2019s created some of the most vibrant worlds in fiction, populating them with a constellation of characters as diverse as the modern USA. He cites his upbringing and journalistic career as important factors in his writing education.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDiversity is not something I have to think about too much because I grew up and worked in places that were always reasonably diverse,\u201d Scalzi explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Old Man\u2019s War would be Scalzi\u2019s breakout hit. Photo Credit: Tor Books<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he does admit to being inspired by his own hopes for the future when molding his casts. Readers can find Muslims, Polynesians, Africans, and even members of the LGBTQ+ community in his books, the importance of which is not lost on the award-winning writer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI make an effort to ensure that the worlds I write actually reflect the world I live in and the world I would like to live in moving forward,\u201d Scalzi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This approach has helped him attract readers looking for a richer, more realized flavor of sci-fi. It\u2019s a refreshing change from the classic all-white and militaristic model many stories from the golden age of the genre were centered around. Even better, however, is the author\u2019s efforts to bring about such change beyond the bookshelf. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe thing about the world that we live in still being pretty much tuned for your average white man to succeed,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Scalzi said, \u201cI try to atone for that by recognizing not only have I been extraordinarily lucky with the composition of my career but also that at least some of it was designed to advantage people like me. Secondly, I make sure to promote other writers and do what I can to make this world, specifically the publishing world and even more specifically sci-fi and fantasy the sort of place where anybody has a chance of having the innate advantages that I have.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the author would be the first to acknowledge that much work remains to be done, the industry today is a lot more diverse than it was when he entered it. And Scalzi, like many others, couldn\u2019t be happier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter literally decades of it being a genre that was predominantly white and male, in the past few years, especially the last ten, it has started to change and there are several reasons for that. The people who are acquiring sci-fi and fantasy now are vastly more diverse than even when I first got Old Man\u2019s War accepted 20 years ago,\u201d Scalzi said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is delighted that the speculative field of today is browner and queerer, with many more women in editorial positions than there were some years ago. They are but a few of the drivers pushing the industry forward. Editors and readers want to see different world views, settings, and life experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scalzi\u2019s latest novel trades outer space for superheroes and villains. Photo Credit: Tor Books<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe thing is that when those kinds of stories come out, the people who haven\u2019t seen themselves represented in Sci-fi and fantasy see themselves represented in it and they enter the field as readers and then possibly later as writers so as far as it goes, from an economic point of view, diversifying sci-fi and fantasy has paid dividends,\u201d explained Scalzi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A quick glance at any speculative fiction best-seller list proves his point. In any top 30, you will find nearly every race, gender, and creed represented. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor me it\u2019s great as a reader. What I want to read are the things outside my own experiences, that take me outside my own head, that give me a different view to think about. I believe that is fundamentally what science fiction is about: to feed your mind, to experience empathy for viewpoints you might not have had or considered,\u201d said Scalzi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an industry that seems to be entering a renaissance of its own, the veteran author and his colleagues around the world seem hellbent to keep quality books coming. Last year, Scalzi himself topped the charts with \u201cStarter Villain\u201d which came just a year after the highly successful \u201cKaiju Preservation Society.\u201d Readers, including the author himself, have plenty of reasons to smile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs far as I\u2019m concerned, \u2018more please, that would be great.\u2019 Like I said more is better, because more diversity and quality mean the field is better shaped to have a greater literary, economic, and cultural influence than it ever has had before.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ismael David Mujahid, Executive Editor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Scalzi has won a number of awards over the years, including the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and a Hugo Award for Best Novel. Photo Credit: Athena Scalzi That life is sometimes stranger than fiction is one of those sayings you here but rarely see proven. But that is exactly what best […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10416,"featured_media":39045,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2104,2616,2974,2110,5354],"tags":[1386,592,5767,154,5353,276],"class_list":["post-39044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-featured","category-literature","category-local","category-magazine-articles","tag-entertainment","tag-interview","tag-ismael-david-mujahid","tag-literature","tag-magazine-article","tag-sinclair-community-college"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-a9K","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Featured-Image-10.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10416"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39044"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39450,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39044\/revisions\/39450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}