Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 124

Signals from Fred

In critique, “Signal from Fred” is shorthand for those moments in a text in which the author’s subconscious issues a cry for help, usually by pointing out that the action doesn’t make any sense. A character might say, “I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it!” or “This was unbelievable!” or “I can’t make any sense of what’s going on!” All leakage from a mind disturbed by a plot gone terribly, terribly wrong. I recently encountered an entire chapter in which Fred was signaling like mad...

Not The Magi You Were Expecting

Stained glass from the church atSainte-Mère-Église, showing American paratroopers dropping to the rescue of Mary and Baby Jesus. As surprise attacks go, I’m guessing this one was successful.

Nemesis In the House

Nemesis Games, the new book by my pal James S.A. Corey, appeared a couple days ago. I’ve been reading it, and it’s a winner, which I know because I’m having a hard time putting it down. This is the fifth book inThe Expanse,the first book of which isLeviathan Wakes, so you should probably start there. It’s smart space opera, with an extremely complex and well-worked out future, and with well-developed characters who act not from an excess of genius or self-righteousness, but from a complex mix...

99 Cents

My 99-cent sale ofTo Glory Arise ended a few days ago, and was a success. It reached #21 on Barnes & Noble, and #52 on Amazon . . . though, as is normal with these kind of promotions, it retained those numbers for less than a day. Because action-adventure sells better than SF, To Glory Arise sold better than any of my science fiction, though not as well asThe Rift,which is my biggest seller and still going strong. But though the numbers were good (for my work, anyway), the follow-through was...

Time for a Change

May I recommend to you my new story, “The Venetian Dialectic,” to be found inThe Change, a brand-new anthology edited by S.M. Stirling? The story takes place in Steve’s Emberverse, in which he’s been writing for damn near 20 years now. In order to understand the story, you need only to know that in this alternate world, all advanced technology ceased to work back in 1998, and the planet was thrown back to the tech of the late Middle Ages. In addition to Steve and myself, the anthology feature...

Family

So what good is family, exactly? Raising children, obviously, and caring for the elderly; establishing a financial and property arrangement to the benefit of all members; providing emotional support, a loving and safe environment; a sensible division of labor. All of which is to some degree supported and regulated by law. But what’s the point of familyin fiction? Well, you could be writing a novel about family, in which case a family should be right there center stage. But families in family...

Mountain Mysteries

The Rio Hondo workshop is over for another year, and I’m scrambling to catch up with my normal life, such as it is. And prepare for Taos Toolbox, which begins in less than a month. Here I am in the Commandant’s chair at the head of the table in our meeting room at Snow Bear, complete with its kitchen, its odd decor of rustic candle holders, artwork, Venetian carnival masks, and its treacherous rest room (which locked one of our members inside, resulting in a half hour’s frantic activity on th...

Getting Stuffed

Here’s your cute cat picture of the day. Except, y’know, dead bobcat plus chemicals plus mannikin. Because we’re sharing a hotel with the New Mexico Taxidermy Convention, and there’s a whole giant room full of stuffed animals in lifelike poses. Plus Corvettes. Because the Corvette Fancy is here too. So Corvettes, Taxidermy, and science fiction. This could not be more cool.

Here’s your cute cat picture of the day. Except, y’know, ...

Here’s your cute cat picture of the day. Except, y’know, dead bobcat plus chemicals plus mannikin. Because we’re sharing a hotel with the New Mexico Taxidermy Convention, and there’s a whole giant room full of stuffed animals in lifelike poses. Plus Corvettes. Because the Corvette Fancy is here too. So Corvettes, Taxidermy, and science fiction. This could not be more cool.

Not Paleo

Courtesy of Diana Rowland, the “potato po’boy,” a New Orleans treat with which I was previously unacquainted. A hoagie roll slathered with mayonnaise, filled with french fries, and then drowned in brown gravy. A very good thing, if this is the sort of thing you think is good. Of course, your pancreas can disagree.