don’t you just love the smell of old books?

Posted on By Wil

Happy Wednesday, friends! Some odds and ends that have been piling up on my desk for you, today.

This week’s It’s Storytime With Wil Wheaton is The Body Snatcher, by Robert Louis Stevenson. This is the story that I read, live, for Patreon and about 70 people who showed up, last month. I sincerely love this entire performance. Gabrielle helped me find some subtle layers that were obvious to me, right after she pointed them out, and I couldn’t be happier with the end result.

It’s a big ask, to come along for the entire performance of something that was written over a century ago, so it was more important to me than I thought it would be to nail it. I’m real proud of what we did. I hope you like it, too.

This episode comes with a pretty cool new sponsorship partner, our friends at Simon and Schuster Audio (who publish The Body, and put my narration up for Grammy consideration). To promote Other Worlds Than These, the final book in The Talisman trilogy from Stephen King and Peter Straub, they’re giving away a preview chapter of the audiobook to our listeners. It’s narrated by Patton Oswalt, who is one of the great voices today. I think it’s super cool, and I’m so excited to get a little bit closer to doing It’s Storytime full time.

Oh, speaking of that, do you know I have a partnership with Black Stone Publishing? They gave me some space to curate a collection of speculative fiction novels they publish. I have been a fan for years; they don’t use any DRM, ever, in their audio and ebooks, they support indie artists, and they publish some truly outstanding genre work. This month, I wanted to spotlight a mid-century classic that is a wonderful expression of the ideas being explored in genre fiction at the dawn of the atomic age. It’s David Starr, Space Ranger (I know, right?) from Isaac Asimov (I know, RIGHT?). I didn’t even know this existed until last year, but Asimov wanted to write his own son into some scifi that was inspired by Heinlein’s young adult books. It’s not going to be for everyone, but if you’re even a little curious or intrigued, it might be for you. And if it isn’t, there are some other wonderful titles in the collection for you to check out.

Did I ever write here about the summer reading program I did? I ended up finishing six books, reading about thirty short stories, and ended with a 129 day streak. I went to the library last week to see if I could collect any of my prizes.

“Hi, I did the summer reading program, and I wondered if there were any prizes left?” I showed the librarian my log sheet, like you do. She looked a little flustered.

“Oh… I think we are out of rewards,” she said, while she opened drawer after drawer and looked inside.

“I was hoping for, maybe, like … a scratch-and-sniff sticker? Or a bookmark?” I offered.

She smiled and opened one of the drawers she had just closed. She pulled a small basket out and showed me five rows of bookmarks. “How about a scratch-and-sniff bookmark?”

My eyes popped. “Oh my god that’s perfect!”

I saw it, a picture of chocolate chip cookies, a hazy circle on one end. I scratched, then I sniffed, then I was instantly transported to the Scholastic Book Fair in 1982.

“This is everything I ever wanted,” I said, joy welling in my heart. “Thank you.”

“You are very welcome,” she said, with a warm smile.

God, I love libraries and librarians.

Speaking of things I love and awkward, abrupt segues, I love love love ALL CAPS LOVE this little me plushie, which is only available until the end of the month. As I understand it, the business model for YouTooz is to take pre-orders and fill them, then retire the design. So this probably isn’t coming back. I just checked, and 177 have been ordered, which makes this kind of a cool limited edition thing. Anyway, I adore this little guy, and I want to make sure everyone else who may feel the same way has a chance to get one before they are gone. So now you know. Tell your friends.

The final book I scored in my summer reading program was Fabulous Bodies, by Chuck Tingle. It stuck with me, and I ended up writing a little bit of a review that I would like to share:

I am not into horror, really. Certainly not like I was when I was younger. The world is horror, you know? I’d prefer my reading to be about, well, not that.

But there are exceptions to all the rules, and this is a huge one. I loved this book. I wrote in my goodreads review that it’s gory, but it’s also clever and wry, sort of John Waters via Sam Rami, with just a touch of Rob Zombie. And the most surprising thing for me? It’s heartwarming. What? A heartwarming horror novel that’s funny? Okay, if you say so.

It’s fantastic. I gave it a rare 5 out of 5, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I put it back on the shelf.

I don’t have the English degree I want, so when I analyze a story, I’m coming at it from an actor’s perspective which I suspect has some overlap with what academics do. Still, I always feel like I have to qualify my examinations of the things I read, which I’m doing right now. Maybe I’m totally wrong, and maybe I’m projecting myself into the story, but upon reflection, I think it’s about generational trauma. It’s about parents who are so self-absorbed and such narcissists, they treat their children as nothing more than extensions of themselves, not caring at all how their child feels about it. It’s about one of those children, now an adult, doing her best to end the generational trauma.

It’s one of those books I wanted to recommend to a friend immediately upon finishing, but I don’t think I know anyone who would be able to handle the gory parts (they don’t define the book, and there’s so much more that isn’t gory, but I feel like it’s a fair warning that I have to give) so I’m hoping that maybe someone who is reading this — maybe you — are that horror reader.

Okay, that’s all for today. I have some family visiting, and we are going to have some fun together, as soon as I finish work, which is right … now.

Hi I’m Wil and I’m glad you’re here. I write this blog. I host It’s Storytime With Wil Wheaton, and the official companion podcast for Stuart Fails To Save The Universe with Felicia Day, both available wherever you get your podcasts. I am the New York Times bestselling author of Still Just A Geek. My narrations of Monsters of Ohio, by John Scalzi, and The Ship of Death, by Kyle Winkler, are now available wherever you get your audiobooks. If you’d like to get my posts delivered to your inbox, here’s the thingy:

that time we were tourists in los angeles on our anniversary

Posted on By Wil

Saturday, Anne and I celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary by being tourists in our own city. We got a little fancy, and went to The Broad museum in Downtown. I love their permanent collection (one of these days, I’m eating a gummy to go giggle myself into oblivion at the giant table and chairs), but we were both super excited to see the Takashi Murakami exhibit they have out right now. They did not disappoint; getting inches away from some of these pieces was extraordinary. If you’re local, remember that the Broad is free.

From there, we took the Angel’s Flight (first time, ever, for either of us) down Bunker Hill to Olive, and walked to the library. Y’all, the Angel’s Flight is so great. It’s a short funicular ride in a tiny car that feels like it hasn’t changed since the day they started operations. It’s not even a minute, but is still kinda magical. I have driven past it hundreds of times a year, for decades, and never even thought about riding it. But it was right there, and we were deliberately being tourists, so we bought our tickets and hopped on. I’m so glad we did.

We walked a big loop down to Pershing Square, and up 5th Street to the library. The last time I went there, I was in high school, probably sophomore year. My studio teacher, Marion, took me there on a field trip, specifically to do research using the vast resources that the public library offered.

I did the whole thing, with the card catalog, the microfilm thing, old newspapers, all that stuff. It was so much fun, and so satisfying, and my old man brain has completely forgotten whatever it was I learned about that day. All I remember is how exciting and overwhelming it was to have access to so much information, so many primary sources. Oh, buddy, just you wait for Wikipedia. You have no idea.

The library wasn’t that busy, but I was so happy to see the media labs and creative areas just full of people. Some kids stopped me for a picture. I asked them what brought them to the library, and they told me they were there to make posters and materials to promote their poetry shows in the valley. How fucking awesome is that? God, I love artists so much! And I love that our public libraries offer materials and facilities to support artists at no cost.

We spent a lot of time in the library. There are a lot of great exhibits up right now, including a giant pop-up book that actually works, even though it’s about the size of two billboards. There are many exhibits celebrating the library’s 100th anniversary, and they’re all written in English and Spanish. I’ve been learning Spanish with Babbel for awhile, and I’m starting to get to a place in my education where I can read the Spanish, understand most of it, and infer the parts I don’t know from the context that I do. This is the first foreign language I’ve ever learned, so I don’t know what milestone that is, but it felt so satisfying to experience.

From the library, we went into the Biltmore, which has historic significance in our family, to get out of the heat and have a Coke. We sat in this little bar together, quietly away from anyone else, and just sipped our sodas.

I said, “I love that we are being tourists in our own city, on our anniversary, because this is exactly what we’d be doing if we went away.”

“I love this too,” Anne said.

“And I know I say it all the time, but goddamn do I love being married to you. I just love Us so much. I love being part of Us.”

“Yeah, I love it too,” she said. She sipped her Coke and I did the same. “Happy anniversary.”

We clinked our glasses.

“Twenty-seven years. Still punk as fuck.”

“Still punk as fuck.”

We giggled like the dorks we are, settled up our tab, and headed back into the surprisingly suffocating November heat. We rode the Angel’s Flight back up the hill (I got to help a lady with her stroller, which I only mention because I rarely get an opportunity to help a lady with her stroller, and I love it when I get to be a helper), then we went to dinner.

It was, like everything else we did that day, just wonderful.

I’m so lucky, and so grateful to be married to my best friend, my partner in crime, my ride or die, for 27 years. What’s wild is, we both feel like we’re just getting started.

Hi, I’m Wil. I narrate audiobooks and host It’s Storytime With Wil Wheaton. Sometimes I’m an actor on TV. Sometimes I write this blog. I’m on Instagram and Threads @itswilwheaton. My Tumblr is wilwheaton.tumblr.com. My bologna has a first name, it’s S-U-B-S-C-R-I-B-E if you want to get these posts in your e-mail. Here’s the thingy:

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please don’t fuck this up.

Posted on By Wil

After one of the worst weeks of my life, I woke up yesterday morning in a world I genuinely believed was gone. I woke up to discover that gravity is, in fact, real. I woke up to a country that didn’t fuck up the open book test again, and for the first time in a decade, I think that maybe I see a warm and comforting glow behind a distant horizon. There’s still a whole lot of darkness to cross before we get there, but at least I can see it.

Which is why I want new leadership in Congress, if the speeches the current leadership has given are any indication of how they intend to use the majority we just gave them. With all due respect to Hakeem Jefferies, I’m going to quote Ashley The Baroness on Instagram, explaining why she believes we need a different Speaker: “What was all that fighting for, if when you get into that room, your courage ends?”

And as Amanda Nelson has so eloquently laid out, Chuck Schumer has shown us how he leads, and his leadership is wildly out of step with the base of the party, the mainstream of the party, and (as it turns out this week) the majority of voters in America. We’ve been fed up with his sternly-worded letters and his threats that whatever unconstitutional depravity coming out of the white house will sure make them look bad, and nothing else, for a decade, at least. America does not need, and can not survive, Democratic leaders who don’t have the stomach for the bare-knuckled brawling it will take to deliver consequences to Trump, his cabinet, his family, and the criminal Republicans who have enabled and protected them.

It was very telling that in his first speech after the GOP’s extinction-level event, Jefferies framed our need for accountability as a desire for revenge. He just doesn’t get it, if he truly believes that. He isn’t stupid, and he knows that if we do not hold all of them to account — which includes prison time — all those new Democratic voters who clearly said FUCK THEM UP SO THEY NEVER TRY THIS AGAIN will never come back, and we will be right back where we were last week.

It is astonishingly tone deaf, and not just a little insulting, to suggest that our demand and very real need for accountability and consequences is simply wanting to get even, to exact a petty revenge. I doubt he believes that, and is speaking in dogwhistles to the corporate donors and AIPAC, which would make his position even more craven than it already is.

Schumer is already surrendering in advance, probably locked in a room with The Baileys while he tries to figure out

Think of it like this: voters gave Democrats a loaded canon and said “aim this at the heart of Republican corruption”. We even set it up for them, so all they have to do is light the fuse. And Jefferies and Schumer swung the barrel around and aimed it at their feet.

Yeah. No. We aren’t going to stand for this. We gave you a mandate. Voters who have never and will never vote for a Democrat again gave you a mandate. The mandate is clear: HOLD. THEM. ACCOUNTABLE. FOR. THEIR. CRIMES.

In other words:

There is still time to get these guys on record and force them to commit to the most intense oversight in history. Call your reps and your senators, congratulate them on their historic wave election, and tell them that we expect them to use their majorities to punish these criminals so severely, nobody will even think about trying this again for at least a generation.

Hi, I’m Wil. I write this blog (duh), I host It’s Storytime With Wil Wheaton, which drops new episodes every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts, and in our Patreon. Occasionally I show up on your TV. You can follow me on Instagram and Threads where I am @itswilwheaton. You can get your own adorable Wil Wheaton Bedhead plushie for another 17 or so days, and if you want my posts delivered to your inbox, here is the thingy:

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I wish I really were a Traveler of all of space and time.

Posted on By Wil

It’s only been like ten minutes since I found out, just before it hit the press, so I’m staggered and doing my best to process everything, while my phone is blowing up. There will be wonderful obituaries and reflections from so many people who knew him. I’m going to do my best to write my own, but that’s going to take a little bit.

This was taken when we filmed Journey’s End.

For now, I want the world to know that Patrick wasn’t just my captain or my castmate; he was my friend and mentor. He made me a better actor, just by being in scenes with me. He never treated me like I was a kid; he always treated me like I was an equal, a fellow artist, at a time when I wasn’t mature enough to understand how precious that was.

I haven’t seen Patrick in a long time, our lives and schedules being what they are, but I thought about him almost every day. He rarely posted in our group chat, but when he did, it always made me smile. He always texted me back when I reached out to him directly, no matter what it was about, and he always — always — made me feel special.

I wish I really were a Traveler of all of space and time, so I could go to him, one final time, and tell him how much he means to me. I think he knew, but still.

There is so much more to say, and it’s going to take me some time to say it. Until then, I loved him, the same way I love the rest of the space family we shared. May his memory be a blessing.

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in which i am turned into a little plushie thing

Posted on By Wil

I love this webcomic called Poorly Drawn Lines, particularly a character called Mouse. I identify heavily with Mouse.

So about two years ago, when Reza (who writes and draws the comic) partnered with YouTooz to make a Mouse plushie, I smashed that pre-order button so hard it left a dent on the screen.

About a year ago, someone from YouTooz reached out and asked if I wanted to make a little plushie of my own with them. Of course I said yes, and immediately got to work spitballing what it would look like. I eventually settled on Bedhead, a coffee mug, my octopus tattoo, and a black t-shirt with a design that celebrates my allyship, my love of tabletop gaming, and being punk as fuck.

Here’s what he looks like:

Isn’t he adorable? His little coffee mug is attached with velcro, so you can take it off and replace it with whatever you like, limited only by your imagination and the laws of physics.

I’m from the Star Wars figure generation. Getting an action figure of myself when I was a teenager was a really big deal for me. When Funko did a Wesley Crusher, I just about lost my mind. So getting a little plushie dude who is such a fantastic representation of me is also exciting and a whole lot of fun. My sample has been hanging out with Mouse in the bookcase, and they are very happy together.

YouTooz is taking orders for the next 26 days, and it’ll ship early next year.

Hi, I’m Wil and this is my blog. I actually write meaningful things here more often than I promote things here. If you want to get my posts delivered to your inbox, here is the thingy: