Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 145

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?

Crashing Carriers

I saw the new Captain America movie the other night. Which I liked just fine, it’s one of the best of the Marvel film adaptations, and it avoided several obvious pitfalls (like forcing Cap and Black Widow into a romance).
I don’t feel the need to analyze it. There are plenty of analyses elsewhere, and I doubt I’d add anything to the conversation.
What I want to talk about is S.H.I.E.L.D. Specifically the Helicarrier, which is this giant flying aircraft carrier that serves as its headquarters.
I...

CounterIntuitive

Recently I’ve encountered two counterintuitive, if not outright heretical, arguments about history and culture.
The first belongs to New Mexico’s own Corey Fincher and Randy Thornhill, both biologists, who have marshaled evidence to support their theory that culture, including political culture, is a function of the disease pathogens infesting your particular neighborhood. If you have high levels of malaria, dengue, typhus, T.B., etc., then your culture becomes increasingly wary of outsiders w...

Rolling Deep

More proof, if one were needed, that reality is takingDeep State as a template.
USAID— a branch of government that normally gives humanitarian aid— tried to undermine the Cuban government by setting up an social media project funded by the US government, but routed through third parties in Spain, Nicaragua, and elsewhere. They intended to build a a subscription base by concentrating on non-controversial content like baseball or music, and then eventually start creating flash mobs that could,...

Mr. Poe Requests the Honor of Your Presence . . .

. . . at a great big ol’ war.
Which is all by way of saying that my novella “No Spot of Ground,” featuring the Civil War adventures of Edgar Allan Poe, is now available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Smashwords. It will appear on other forums presently.
And it’s only $1.99! Less than two bucks for a short novel! What more do you want?
I have a fairly personal relationship with the Poe canon— but then so does everybody else, so far as I can tell.
I think that the first short stories I ever...

Enter the Dark Pool

Michael Lewis, author ofLiar’s Poker andMoneyball and other fine works about money (and who owns it and how it moves), has a new bestseller inFlash Boys, about a few brave souls who discovered that the U.S. stock market was rigged, and who decided to do something about it.
What did they do? They started their own stock exchange.
An adaptation can be found over atZero Hedge.

Eventually Brad Katsuyama came to realize that the most sophisticated investors didn’t know what was going on in their own...

Taos Toolbox: the News is Good

Recent news from graduates of Taos Toolbox has been pretty darn good, if I say so myself.
Graduate Fran Wilde has a story, “Like a Wasp to the Tongue,” in the April/May ASIMOV’S. She’s also sold three books to Tor, one of which was workshopped by the Toolbox gang.
Graduate Gail Strickland has sold the novel she submitted at the workshop.
Graduate Brian Lowe’s “Rights and Wrongs” is live at the Intergalactic Medicine Show.
Graduate Lawrence Schoen has been nominated for a Nebula for his novella “T...