Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 117

Make 2016 Your Year!

Today, December 1, is the first day of the application period for Taos Toolbox, the master class for writers of science fiction and fantasy. This year’s instructors will be Nancy Kress and Walter Jon Williams, ably assisted by special lecturers E.M. Tippetts and James S.A. Corey. The workshop will take place July 10-23, 2016, at the deluxe Angel Fire resort near Taos, NM. If you’ve been thinking about applying, this is really the year you want to do it. Trust me on this.

Through the Publishing Wormhole, to You!

One of the great injustices in the world is that my Praxis books have not been available as ebooks outside of North America. As a crusader for justice, I have set out to right this wrong! Not that it was easy. I had first to retrieve the rights from my U.K. publisher, which never exercised them. (And in fact might have been unable to. Ebooks did not exist in the U.K. when that contract was signed, and instead there was some ambiguous language in the contract allowing the publisher to utilize...

Subterranean Rogues from Tequila

Today I received my own personal copy of the illustrated, slipcasedRogues collection, edited by George RR Martin and Gardner Dozois, and published in a limited, signed edition of 500 by Subterranean Press. The volume has my story “Diamonds from Tequila,” as well as stories by Joe Abercrombie, Neil Gaiman, Gillian Flynn, Carrie Vaughn, and many other household names, each story illustrated by Ken Laager. It’s lovely, and the collectors among you should take note. The publisher’s website says “...

Beatdown

IfThe Force Awakensisn’t at least this awesome, I’m going to be terribly disappointed.

Through the Holiday

Just to let you all know, I’m continuing the 99-cent sale onDays of Atonement through the Thanksgiving holiday. Just ’cause I’m a nice guy. You may find it via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, Google, and iBooks. Have a great harvest festival!

Water View

Once again, we have created a calendar, this one for 2016. It features views of some lovely places one or another of us has been in the last year, including Hawaii, Lake Superior, and the Black Hills. I do this to share my life with my friends, so I don’t make any money on this. The calendar features all your holidays, at least if you live in the U.S., Canada, U.K., and/or Mexico. (And happy St. Andrew’s Day to my friends abroad, by the way.) If you’re the sort of person who still uses a wa...

That Darn Postillion

Years ago, I heard of a phrase book used by travelers to the Russian Empire which included the useful phrase, “Alas! Our postillion has been struck by lightning!” What I didn’t realize until today was that the unfortunate lightning-struck postillion had become a kind of folk meme transmitted down nearly a century, and thus become a suitable subject for an article in Wikipedia. The earliest use of the term dates to a 1916 article inPunch, where the phrasebook is described as Hungarian. The nex...

Words of Astounding Wisdom

Author Ryan Schneider has asked me his famous ten questions, in an interview directed at my writing process, the Oxford Comma, and my novelDays of Atonement, which I remind you is still on sale for a mere 99 cents. Check it out!

Taos Toolbox, Rousing from its Hibernation

Yes, there will be a Taos Toolbox next year! I’ve had to delay the announcement due to our losing our lodging, and to the fact that there will be massive construction in the Ski Valley next year. The master class for writers of science fiction and fantasy will be held July 17-30, 2016, at Angel Fire, NM, just a short distance from Taos. Teaching will be Nancy Kress, Walter Jon Williams, indiepub guru Emily Mah Tippetts, and James S.A. Corey, author ofThe Expanse. Applications begin December !...

Holm/Rousey

I’m just back from seeing Penn and Teller at the Route 66 Casino, west of Albuquerque and owned, I believe, by the Laguna tribe. (Indian casinos seem to own most of the new concert venues.) The concert was great fun, though I was a bit disappointed that I’d recently seen almost all the tricks on P&T’s summer TV series,Fool Us. I’m heading back up Route 66 tomorrow night, because I’ve got a ticket to watch the Ronda Rousey/Holly Holm fight on HD. (The actual fight is taking place Sunday mornin...