Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 106

Warp Wolf

Strange to think that I’ve known George R.R. Martin (seen here with Gwenda Bond) since 1979. I was a newly-minted historical novelist with my first contract, and he was transitioning from his first career, as a greatly admired award-winningAnalog writer, to his second as a writer of horror fiction. After that came his career writing for television, after which came Career #4, which involvedGame of Thrones and his becoming the World’s Best-Known Writer. Those of you who missed Careers #1-3 mi...

In the Navy!

I had an unexplained bump in the sales of a seven-year-old book, and on checking I discovered that the U.S. Navy had bought 1555 copies of my novelThis Is Not a Game. To which I had a number of responses. Whoa, this is awesome! What’s the heck is wrong with theother services? I’d kind of like to know what the Navy is doing with my novel— I mean, would it help if I came and delivered a talkabout it or something, because I’d totally be down with that— but on the other hand, it’s just abo...

Beneath the Sign of the Bear

Here’s a souvenir of what I’ve been doing the last two weeks: teaching atTaos Toolbox, the master class for science fiction and fantasy, held this year in the isolated mountain fastness of Angel Fire, New Mexico. I taught plotting and contract language, among other things, and Nancy Kress did her usual brilliant thing, not onlyline-editing each submission (which isreally above and beyond any call of duty), but teaching the fine details of how to bring emotion into every scene, managing infodu...

Released

The Turkish government is now using last week’s coup as a bridgehead toward complete control of the country’s education system. 1500 university deans have been ordered to resign, and the licenses of 21,000 teachers have been revoked. These teachers mostly worked at private institutions, many of which had been founded by the Gülen organization as part of its educational mission. The government knows who the Gülenists are, because when the AK/Gülen alliance was in effect, the government helped...

Saving Great Britain

After the Brexit vote, it’s clear that Great Britain is in danger and needs saving! Eric Idle and her majesty Elizabeth II did it before, and maybe it’s time for another teamup.

Worst. Possible. Result.

So a couple days ago there was a military coup in Turkey. And that coup has failed. Which is the worst possible result. Much worse than if the coup hadn’t happened, worse than if the coup had succeeded. Prior to the election of Erdogan and his AK Party in 2003, Turkey was under the thumb of the Deep State (derin devlet), a creepy alliance of politicians, military figures, and mafia whose chief ideological task was to keep the reins of power (and of money) in their own hands, and to make sure...

Straight Face

I’m up on a mountain along with Nancy Kress, helping fourteen very talented new writers hone their craft, and so I’ve been very busy. But I’m not totally out of touch, and I was as surprised and baffled as anyone when Britain’s new PM appointed Boris Johnson* as foreign minister. If you want to start your day with a smile, check out this video of the State Department spokesman trying to keep a straight face when responding to the news. *(Mr Johnson is an odd choice for head diplomat, having o...

Lord Nelson in Spaaaaaace!

Today is the release day for my friend David D. Levine’s first novel,Arabella of Mars. The story features the Napoleonic Wars fought between planets by a sailing navy, and showcases a young heroine described as“a Patrick O’Brian girl fighting a Jane Austen world.” David talks more about the book and its concepts over on Scalzi’s blog. If you’re into swashbuckling, cross dressing heroines, classic interpretations of Mars, and Jules Verne-type scientific romances, this is one you should definit...

Crescent Moon Kingdom

I’ve finished the novel. (Yay!) But all that means is that I have to finish reading and critiquing 140,000 words of fiction for the Taos Toolbox workshop, which starts on Sunday. (Yay?) So I am still buried in work, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy this photo of the crescent moon at sunset, taken a couple nights ago.

Billionaires in Spaaaaace!

I’m still on a mad rush to finish the novel, so I thought I’d pose a question for you all, and let you do the work of filling up this blog space. A number of American billionaires (Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Paul Allen, and Robert Bigelow, for starters) plus one highly-leveraged Brit (Sir Richard Branson) have started up their own space programs. We in the States tend to approve of this (free enterprise on the final frontier, yeah!), but I wonder what we’d think of private space programs were bei...