TV: Interior: Chinatown

Description: Interior Chinatown follows the story of Willis Wu, a background character trapped in a police procedural trying to find his way into the larger story—and along the way discovering secrets about the strange world he inhabits and his family’s buried history.

Starring: Jimmy O. Yang, Chloe Bennet, Lisa Gilroy, Tzi Ma, Archie Kao, Ronny Chieng

Created by: Charles Yu (based on his book)

Network/Streamer: Hulu

My Rating: 8/10 overall; finale 10/10

My Take: Wonderfully weird, meta and fourth-wall-breaking narrative. Jimmy O. Yang, Ronny Chieng, Diana Lin are notably fantastic.

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The 2024 Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook Updates

In case y’all don’t know: I love Dungeons & Dragons. Love might not even be a strong enough word.

A lot of D&D players were pretty wary about the 2024 rules updates Wizards of the Coast announced for Dungeons & Dragons. This is not a new edition of the game, but rather a revision of the 5e ruleset. I was more optimistic than wary, particularly because if I didn’t like the new ruleset, the original 5e ruleset is still there to use whenever I want.

That said, I’m very happy with almost all of the changes. There were some changes that seemed kind of pointless, and some nerfs that seemed unnecessary to me, but overall the changes are largely positive. As an editor, I’m a little disappointed that they didn’t clear up some of their spells that are complexly worded and hard to parse in the moment, but they did clarify a lot of rules and made a lot of things seem simpler. The addition of the large glossary of terms in the PHB was very welcome as an easy go-to reference point.

In any case, if you’re a 5e player and you’re on the fence whether or not to buy the 2024 sourcebooks, I highly recommend them. The new books are intended to be backwards compatible with the original 5e rules, so you can even have some characters made with 5e rules and some made with 5.24e rules in the same party. Likewise, if you’re a new player just wanting to start playing, the 2024 books are a great place to start.

BTW: I’m presently doing a TTRPG survey. I did this a couple of years ago about just D&D, but now I wanted to find out about Cypher, Pathfinder, and Tales of the Valiant. If you play any of those things (including D&D), fill it out!

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Put your savings in a high-yield savings account

I feel like a chump for not having realized these were a thing until recently, but if you’re like me and were unaware of them (or just haven’t gotten around to getting one), do it without delay. Might as well make your money make more money when you’re not using it for stuff. Check out NerdWallet for a breakdown of the various options. Personally, I really like SoFi, because they give you both a savings and checking account; there are no fees or limits for withdrawing money from your savings, and there are no overdraft fees—so you can leave zero dollars in your not-high-yield SoFi checking account and whenever you use it for payments, SoFi just “overdrafts” from your savings account at no cost.

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Red Hot Chili Peppers Drummer Chad Smith Does Drum Sorcery

Drumeo is a site/program that helps you learn how to play drums. But even if you have no interest in learning to play, their YouTube channel is very entertaining, particularly if you’re into metal or heavier rock. They have a great series on there—”X Hears Y For the First Time”—where they get a famous drummer, play them a song they don’t know without the drum track, and then they create their own part.

I always enjoy it, but this one is really something special. Chad Smith doesn’t even listen to the whole song even once—he starts playing along after listening to only the very beginning of the song. And he KILLS IT. It’s really something to behold.

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I can’t picture images in my mind

This condition is known as aphantasia, and it’s supposedly extremely uncommon, yet I’ve encountered a lot of creatives who have this condition. A lot of people don’t realize they have it because they think that picturing things in your mind is a kind of metaphor—not that people can literally see images in their mind’s eye. I did an informal poll of creatives on Twitter a while back and got responses mostly at either end of the spectrum—i.e., “can’t see anything in my mind’s eye” to “I can see vivid images as clear and high-fidelity as reality.” Below is a basic test to determine where you fall on the aphantasia spectrum. I’m a 1, alas—though maybe it makes me a better editor, since all I have is the words to evoke the idea of imagery and no actual imagery.

v

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Sign Up for My Robot Wizard Zombie Crit! Newsletter

Robot Wizard Zombie Crit! Newsletter

Robot Wizard Zombie Crit! is my new newsletter, which will bring you updates about my anthologies and other projects, including Lightspeed and Nightmare. Plus, you’ll get my thoughts about books, short stories, TV and film, roleplaying games, and related subjects. Subscribers will receive Robot Wizard Zombie Crit! Stories: Volume One as a free reward for subscribing. Delivered to your inbox once a week, starting January 2025.

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OUT THERE SCREAMING Awards Roundup

Here’s an update with all of OUT THERE SCREAMING’s award nominations and wins:

  • Stoker Award: won!
  • Locus Award: won!
  • Shirley Jackson Award: finalist
  • British Fantasy Award: won!
  • World Fantasy Award: finalist
  • Ignyte Award: finalist (winner TBD)

Not too shabby!

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REVIEW: “Astonishingly good […] Rich in great stories.” —Rocket Stack Rank, on COSMIC POWERS

“Astonishingly good […] Rich in great stories.” —Rocket Stack Rank, on COSMIC POWERS [review]

The reviewer singled out “Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance” by Tobias S. Buckell as the best story in the book, giving it 5/5 stars. They also highly recommended the stories by Charlie Jane Anders, Adam-Troy Castro, Seanan McGuire, and Yoon Ha Lee. Each story gets a minireview at the link.

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