Voices In My Head

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/06/welcome-to-the-neighborhood-aecha-cafe/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=55980

A couple days ago, my cousin sent me a Facebook post from AeCha Cafe that said they were having their soft opening. A new bubble tea shop was opening in Tipp City and this was the first I was hearing of it?! Though I wasn’t able to go to their actual soft opening on Tuesday, I did make it out there yesterday with my cousin and her three kids.

AeCha Cafe is smackdab in the middle of Tipp City’s historic downtown, and has the prettiest blue tile storefront:

We walked in and took a look at the menu. They offer milk tea, fruit tea, some coffee options, lemonade, matcha, all that good stuff:

I had never heard of Cha Dum Yend before, so I asked about it and was told that it’s like Thai Tea without the milk. My cousin doesn’t drink milk so she actually ended up getting that, and I got an iced strawberry matcha. I know, I know, I should’ve gotten bubble tea since I was at a bubble tea place, but a strawberry matcha just sounded so nice and refreshing in the moment! I promise I’ll try the bubble tea next time.

Initially, I thought that the space was pretty small, but it turned out there was a whole other section of the shop with a decent amount of seating, and it even had this comfy looking couch section:

I noticed a couple of wall decorations that were perfect backgrounds for aesthetic photos, like this neon-sign and wall sticker set up:

After careful consideration of where to take my drink photo, I chose the latter:

I’m glad that this cute little shop moved in, and am excited to visit here more this summer with my cousin and her kids. It’s a great location and I’m looking forward to seeing more from them once they’re all settled in and in the groove of things.

If you’re in the area, be sure to check them out and support them in this first week of being open! Their hours are Tuesday-Friday from 8am-8pm and 10am-8pm on Saturday and Sunday.

What’s your favorite milk tea flavor? Do you like popping pearls or tapioca pearls? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day!

-AMS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/06/welcome-to-the-neighborhood-aecha-cafe/

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Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/05/the-big-idea-ryk-e-spoor-11/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=55942

A heart attack, life and all its craziness, and the loss of a close friend certainly threw a wrench (or multiple wrenches) into author Ryk E. Spoor’s life, but it didn’t stop him from writing this novel. Come along in his Big Idea for his newest novel, Fenrir, and read not only a story about perseverance, but a lovely tribute to a friend.

RYK E. SPOOR:

The Final Collaboration

Most of my readers know that I have worked with Eric Flint on multiple books – the Boundary series, the Castaway Planet books, and our first collaboration, Diamonds Are Forever. Most also know that it was through a long process – starting with me insulting his editing skills on Usenet – that led to Eric getting me published at Baen to begin with. Eric Flint was a mentor, a gadfly, a collaborator, and a friend of inestimable value to me. 

When we’d brought the Boundaryverse to a close with Castaway Resolution, we’d already been bouncing around different ideas for another collaboration. There was an odd alternate-universe fantasy concept, a few scattered other ideas, but we both ended up coming back to our successful collaboration in a genre neither of us tackled well alone: hard-edged SF along the lines of Boundary or other people’s work like Weir’s The Martian. 

After a few false starts, and a lot of discussion, we came up with the idea of a First Contact novel which changes up the usual approaches to this. There are a number of stories that have the aliens show up in our solar system for some purpose of their own, and at varying levels of technology (Footfall, The Jupiter Theft, etc.); there are others in which the ship in question is either automated or a derelict (Rendezvous With Rama, All Judgment Fled, etc.). We decided to intersect these by having the alien vessel approach, then experience an unknown accident that turned it into an apparent derelict. 

We created a rough outline, got a contract to write the book, titled Fenrir – and Eric became extremely busy, and then had a number of health issues, which slowed down our collaboration. I was also busy writing other books, and going through my own difficulties, at the time. COVID also intervened to make everything more complicated – and afterward, I had a heart attack of my own. But we did manage to hammer out some details, and I eventually started work on the story itself, with Eric still working on some of the key background and eventual resolution details. Naturally, whenever you’re making a new book in a new universe, you have a lot of worldbuilding to do – and you want the world to support potential sequels, as “get a long-term series” is the holy grail of a would-be professional writer. David Weber has Honor Harrington, Jim Butcher has Harry Dresden, and Eric had 1632. 

Then, one day, I picked up the phone and called Eric with a key question on the direction I was planning to take the book. No one answered, but that wasn’t terribly unusual; I figured I’d call him again tomorrow. 

I never would, though, because somewhere around the time I was calling him, Eric Flint had already passed.

His loss was felt throughout a large portion of the SF community, and none more than the multiple authors he had supported and shepherded through the beginnings of their careers – I was only one such. His publishing company, Ring of Fire Press, failed without him – which happened to include a number of my more recent books. The consequences of his passing continued for quite some time, not just for me but for other people and even the companies he had been working with. Eric had been, well, a very busy guy.

With respect to Fenrir, I felt like I’d been shot in the gut; the idea of trying to finish one of our hard-SF collaborations without Eric to provide advice, backstop, and occasional deflation of my usual space opera/melodramatic preferences was paralyzing in its quiet terror. There were huge open questions we’d just been working on when he passed, and I knew from work on Threshold, Portal, and the Castaway Planet books that my off-the-cuff inventions often improved drastically with Eric’s dry, measured, experienced input. 

But… I had a contract. I had notes. Despite my occasional impostor syndrome, I had, in fact, written those several hard-SF novels, and they’d been fairly well received. And I had Eric’s memory – his sometimes gravelly voice, his incisive and occasionally sledgehammer-hard advice, his approach to analyzing what I’d done to make it better, and, most of all, the times he’d simply kicked me into DOING things because he wouldn’t let me convince myself I couldn’t do them.

Once I’d recovered, I made myself start anew. And – sometimes with that phantom voice correcting me – I began to see how I could finish Fenrir. It wouldn’t be exactly what I’d have written with Eric; it was a fool’s errand to try to pretend I was also Eric Flint. But it was still born of both our concepts, still built on things he’d done as well as my own ideas. And slowly, it began to come together. I began to hear Stephanie Bronson speaking to me, learned about the conflicted motives of the sinister yet earnest Group that wanted humanity to just wait a little until we were sure the “Fens” were nicely dead before going to their ship; I dug into the size and power of the immense ship we called Fenrir and its owners called Tulima Ohn. I chose key technologies that weren’t utterly ridiculous to be the core of Earth’s interest, above and beyond just the appearance of another species. 

And I had a sketch that Eric had made of some very peculiar-looking creatures, his rough vision of the “Fens” – and from that sketch I found myself meeting Imjanai and Mordanthine and starting to understand the civilization that had come so far to discover our own. 

I took some old, fan-favorite technology and found a new coat of modern paint that would make it work for the story; found a ridiculous but not scientifically impossible way for Fenrir to cross the gulf between the stars, and figured out just how terrifyingly huge its energy requirements were. 

And in the end, I even figured out why Fenrir – Tulima Ohn – had made its journey across light-years to our distant solar system.

In its final form, Fenrir tells the story of the human race overcoming its own worst impulses to show its best side, and of another species facing fear and uncertainty to discover survival and friendship. It may not be exactly what would have been written if Eric Flint were still with us – but it is still, inarguably and absolutely, a new hard-SF novel written by both Eric Flint and Ryk E. Spoor. I would like to think that Eric would read it and say “You got a little carried away, Ryk… but it’s still a damned good yarn.”

And of course, I hope all of you will too. Thanks to you, readers, thanks to John Scalzi for this space – and above all, thanks to you, Eric.

Fenrir: Amazon|Barnes & Noble

Author socials: Website|Facebook

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/05/the-big-idea-ryk-e-spoor-11/

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Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/04/attending-night-school-at-joui-wine/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=55923

Last night, my most favoritest wine bar in all of Dayton was hosting a new type of event they’re trying out. I decided very last minute to go and check it out, so I snagged myself a ticket just a few hours before the event. It’s called “Night School,” and is basically a much more casual and fun version of an educational lecture, and you get to drink during it!

If you didn’t catch my post back in January where I talked about the cocktail class I attended at Joui Wine, Joui is a super cute, lovely wine bar right in the heart of downtown Dayton. It has plenty of open space, beautiful colors and art, a stunning bar, and of course, incredible service, drinks, and food that are amazing every time. It’s truly a delight to visit.

My mother and I attended their burlesque brunch event this past Sunday (which was so awesome), and I thought, there’s no way I could go to two Joui events in one week. And then I thought, well why the heck not? And I’m so glad I did!

This Night School event was the first of its kind, and they already have more lined up for future dates. Each Night School is about a different topic, with a different expert brought in to talk about their field of expertise. This one in particular was titled, “When Marijuana Wasn’t Cannabis: A Botanical and Legal History,” and the expert on the scene was Dr. Sarah Brady Siff.

Upon arriving, I was greeted and checked in, and handed a drink voucher. I had no idea when I bought the ticket for twenty dollars that it came with a drink included, so I was stoked about that. It was basically a free drink in my mind because I thought I was just paying twenty dollars for the talk itself, so it was like a sick bonus to be handed the drink ticket.

Joui put together a special line up of drinks you could redeem with your ticket:

While I was super curious about the Cannabis Spritz and thought it was cool they’d include that given the topic of the evening, I just opted for the Prosecco. It was a lovely Prosecco, very crisp and bubbly.

Joui had moved their stylish furniture around and set up an area for the speaker with a microphone and all that jazz, and then set up a few rows of black folding chairs for the audience, but you could also sit at the bar or in the back at the high-top tables. At each table next to the chairs was a printed out packet and pencils. The packet was basically like a bunch of PowerPoint slides and you could follow along with the speaker as she went over everything.

Y’all, I learned so much about cannabis. Not just about the plant itself (which we learned plenty about the actual plant, too), but also about its history, both in terms of its legality/criminality over the years, and how the press and government talked about it. Check out these headlines included in the packet:

Dr. Siff also talked a ton about how indigenous cultures viewed marijuana, how colonizers and the US government tried to eradicate the plant, how white people demonize minorities by associating marijuana with minority groups like Mexicans; it was all super interesting and also upsetting. But that’s like, all of history.

At the beginning of the lecture we were told we could get up and get a drink at the bar or use the restroom at any time, don’t be shy. Well, people were definitely shy and I of course ended up being the first person to get up and get a refill on my beverage. But at least I inspired a few other people to get up, as well, though. What can I say, I’m a trendsetter.

For my second beverage, I got a cocktail instead of wine. There was a ton of great ones to choose from:

Specifically I got the Low Rise Jeggings, with vodka. The owner said she was out of lavender syrup, so she used blueberry syrup to make it and it turned out amazing:

Isn’t it so pretty! It was fruity and refreshing without being overly sweet, the perfect summertime drink to sip on throughout the rest of the lecture.

At the end of the lecture, there were five glass jars on each table that each had a colored scrap of paper inside. We were given a worksheet with the colors listed on it, and we were supposed to smell the jars and write down if a color was cannabis or not.

There was cannabis, hops, peppermint, ginger, and a very smelly variety of geranium. I had written down that the hops were cannabis, as well, which like I should’ve known it was hops and not cannabis because I worked at a cidery for crying out loud! I know what hops smell like (obviously I don’t)! Anyways that was a fun little interactive activity.

After the lecture, Dr. Siff took questions and hung around for a little bit after to talk with people. I spoke with her and she ended up giving me several extra printed out pages of information for me to read and look at, which was really cool. She was super friendly and did an awesome job explaining everything in a really interesting and engaging way. I feel like I learned so much, honestly.

The event as a whole was great, especially considering it was only twenty bucks. I definitely want to go to their future ones that are in August in September. The August one is over DEI and why it matters so much, and the other is over quantum physics. As you can see, there’s already a huge variety happening in terms of topics which is great.

I implore you to check out Joui Wine even if it isn’t for one of these cool events, and follow them on Instagram if you’re in the Dayton area.

Is this a topic you would’ve been interested in? Would you have tried the Cannabis Spritz or is it not for you? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day!

-AMS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/04/attending-night-school-at-joui-wine/

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Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/04/the-big-idea-kalla-harris/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=55917

Sometimes, great ideas can stem from just a single word. Author Kalla Harris talks about her single-word-inspiration in the Big Idea for her debut YA novel, The Ground That Devours Us. Follow along as she takes you through the many changes this story underwent; you’ll be dying to read it.

KALLA HARRIS:

The Big Idea for my young adult debut, The Ground That Devours Us, came from another Big Idea. Yep, you read that correctly—two ideas were meshed together to create this diabolically plotted dystopian novel set in a post-apocalyptic Charlotte, NC.

My writing group, lovingly called HQ, can take some of the credit. In 2020, we started a creative writing prompt challenge for the month of October, and each day we’d write a short story based on a specific word. The word in question? Blood. I didn’t think much about the story when I sat down to write it, only that I was going to type out a few quick paragraphs and be done with it. Except when I started, the words began to flow. Suddenly, a scene unfurled in my mind: a sarcastic teenage girl fighting a zombie prince to the death. Spoiler: there was a lot of blood. As the words appeared on the page, so did the setting. A dying world full of slayers and zombies with supernatural abilities. What started as a short story turned into a full-fledged chapter, which quickly devolved into late-night outlining sessions in my pajamas. 

Over a few months, that single chapter became an entire novel. My main character, Ruby, was a hardened zombie hunter who needed enough kills under her belt to gain access to a human compound on the other side of the decimated city she lived in. There, she and her twin sister would finally be safe from the flesh-eating creatures that go bump in the night, including that (unfortunately cute) zombie prince from the writing prompt. 

After revising, I entered The Ground That Devours Us into a writing program called Pitch Wars. I didn’t get in, but two of the incredibly talented mentors I’d applied to offered to work with me on the side, although they did warn me that their feedback would suggest significant changes.

Oh boy, they weren’t kidding. I ripped the story to shreds. Cut characters, subplots, and entire settings. Amid the chaos, the idea of switching out zombies for a new paranormal creature was tossed around, and that’s when it hit me: vampires. I wanted to create a unique take on the ever-familiar “bloodsuckers” pop culture knows and loves, giving them abilities that matched the apocalyptic setting, such as earth-walking, and trading out their fangs for infection-spreading, sharp fingernails. 

As the ideas churned, my new Big Idea formed: What if Ruby was a vampire hunter who lived in the human compound? What if said human compound may not be the saving grace she thinks it is? What if the zombie prince from the writing prompt was now a ruthless vampire named X who turns Ruby’s twin sister? What happens when Ruby has to team up with X to keep her sister “alive” long enough to find a cure for vampirism?

These questions quickly turned into realities on the page. They became huge plot points and fundamentally changed how Ruby interacted with her world and the characters that live in it, including her sister and X. This Big Idea ultimately landed me with my editor (and literary agent!) and placed me on the path to traditional publishing. Regardless of which Big Idea you look at, though, if you plan on picking up The Ground That Devours Us, expect lots of blood.

The Ground That Devours Us: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop

Author socials: Website|Instagram

Read an excerpt.

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/06/04/the-big-idea-kalla-harris/

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