Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 147

I’m Back!

Some of you may have noticed all the headlines saying “Walter Williams Back From the Dead,” in which I am discovered in a funeral home fighting my way out of a body bag.
Yeah. I am totally that tough.

Squeezebox

I’m in one of those dark Nordic moods, and so I need to listen to soul music, which— given my heritage— would be Maria Kalaniemi, virtuoso accordion player, and her composition “Skimningspolskan.“
Listen closely, close your eyes, and you can just about see the dancing dwarfs lurching to the music on the shores of the mist-shrouded lake.

Reviews in the Nick of Time: Monuments Men

Monuments Men is, as they say, “based on a true story,” in this case the story of theMonuments, Fine Arts, and Archives program of the allied armies during World War II, an organization composed of hundreds of (mostly) artists and art historians, from many countries, who attempted to preserve art and historic buildings during the Allied advance through Europe, and who also set out to locate thousands upon thousands of looted artworks, and restore them to their original owners.
This is damned g...

Sir David Attends

My favorite documentarian, Sir David Attenborough, turns his lens and his lush delivery upon my favorite winter sport, Olympic curling.
Awesome.

Truthiness

I’ve been watching the Winter Olympics with rather less enthusiasm than is my wont. Possibly because so much else is happening in my life right now that the Olympics are more of an intrusion than a pleasure. But still I feelobliged to watch, somehow. (The NBC overlords are chortling as I’m typing this.)
My favorite winter sport is still curling. Chess plus lawn bowling plus billiards, andon ice! Plus, it’s the only sport where players get better as they age, which seems pretty significant when...

Open Topic

I’m in Boston right now staring out the window at snow, so I won’t be doing much posting here over the weekend.
So y’all do it. Feel free to have a chat. Just remember to keep it civil.

Lessons For Writers: The Beatles Edition

So here in the States we’re celebrating the 50-year anniversary of the Beatles landing in New York, and at least one local station played nothing but Beatles the other night.
And what did I think about? I thought about what writers could learn from the Beatles.
I was actually alive and present on the planet when the Beatles arrived, and I remember all the excitement, for all that I was not terribly excited myself. I was a little kid in Minnesota, and I thought the Beatles were okay, but I wasn’...

Lessons For Writers: The Fab Four

So here in the States we’re celebrating the 50-year anniversary of the Beatles landing in New York, and at least one local station played nothing but Beatles the other night.
And what did I think about? I thought about what writers could learn from the Beatles.
I was actually alive and present on the planet when the Beatles arrived, and I remember all the excitement, for all that I was not terribly excited myself. I was a little kid in Minnesota, and I thought the Beatles were okay, but I wasn’...

Boskone Schedule

I’ll be in Boston for Boskone this coming weekend, and if you’re in the area you should definitely stop by and say hello.
Here’s my schedule, to make it all the easier to find me.
The New SF/F Thriller

Friday 20:00 – 20:50

Here’s one subgenre that’s really taken hold these days. Examples: Neal Stephenson’s _Reamde_, Max Barry’s _Lexicon_, Wesley Chu’s _The Lives of Tao_, Walter Jon Williams’ _This Is Not A Game_, Charles Stross’ “Laundry” series, and more. Why now? Do these appeal more to mainstr...

Guerres des Étoiles!

It’s Star Wars, as written by those mad scamps Georges Lucas and his partner, Jean-Paul Sartre.