Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 144

Bankers Ride Free

Over the weekend theNew York Timesmagazine published a lengthy article on why, when evidence showed Wall Street to be riding atop a sea of criminality, only one top banker went to jail after the financial crisis. And no, they conclude, it’s not the reason you think it is.
Here’s your take-away:
Many assume that the federal authorities simply lacked the guts to go after powerful Wall Street bankers, but that obscures a far more complicated dynamic. During the past decade, the Justice Department...

Voice of the 99-Cent Sale!

For the next week, Voice of the Whirlwind is on sale for a mere $0.99!
All at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, and iBooks!
Ride the Zen and put your money down!

Paradise Regained

I probably won’t be very visible here for the next few days, as I’ll be in San Antonio teaching at Paradise Lost, which— come to think of it— might well be the most exclusive writers’ workshop in the world.
Why? Because it only accepts people who havealready graduated from either Viable Paradise or Taos Toolbox, which makes them postpost graduates, or something. They’ve already got black belts in workshops, they’re just attending to catch their breath before conquering the world of publishing....

Spring Bouquet

Please enjoy this seasonal bouquet of, well, gastropod.

Décadence

I’ve been splayed in front of the pay-per-view watching films about decadence, and the first thing I noticed was that European and American filmmakers handle these things in completely different ways.
First up was The Wolf of Wall Street,Martin Scorsese’s biopic of financial sleazeball (“and motivational speaker”) Jordan Belfort. Belfort lost his job on Wall Street and went to work in a boiler room cold-calling working people in order to sell them penny stocks in pump-and-dump schemes. It was...

Hey! Want Some Guns and Dope?

Despite the best efforts of governments throughout the world, despite constant DDoS attacks and the FBI shutting down the Silk Road and busting the Dread Pirate Roberts, the dark web is still a major market for guns, drugs, stolen credit card numbers, and other contraband.
But there are two problems with doing your deals on the dark web. First, you need to know the exact URL of the guy you want to deal with, and these people change their URLs all the time. And second, you’re dealing withcrimin...

Happy 450th, Mr Shakespeare

Today is the day we traditionally celebrate the birth of“Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakspere,” as he was referred to in his baptismal records. It may not be his actual birthday, but what the hell: Let’s celebrate anyway!
There’s a kind of bad literary scholarship that we might refer to as “spot-the-influence,” in which the critic observes in the text a reference to, say,The Golden Bowl, and then pronounces, “This book was written under the influence of Henry James,” or “This book is a response...

Dinosaurs

For the last couple days I’ve been watching a new water well being drilled on my property, so I’ve had to hang around and throw circuit breakers, and otherwise make sure the house didn’t burn down. The result is that my self-publishing efforts got a boost, mainly because there was nothing else to do but work. Two stories in two days! Rah!
I’m pleased to announce that the house now has sweet water for the first time in, well, ever, and that my Hugo-nominated novelette “Dinosaurs” is now availab...

Surfacing Surfaces Again

My Hugo- and Nebula-nominated novella “Surfacing” is now available for your love on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords. It will appear on other sites in the next few days, and is a mere $2.99. You have my permission to spend freely.
The book is set in the same future as my novelKnight Moves,though you don’t need to have read the novel in order to enjoy the story. In fact “Surfacing” is basically an attempt to doKnight Moves all over again.
I thought I had failed with the novel. I was...

Walk This Way

The art collective Kreativiteket has created a Silly Walk Zonein the border village of Ørje, Norway.
I was tempted to begin this post with “Following in the silly footsteps of Monty Python . . . ” but something restrained me.
This is from the country that gave usLillyhammer. What’s going on up there?