Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 151

God and Mammon

More notes from my trip to Indonesia, demonstrating I hope that I was actually paying attention to more than just the fish.
Indonesia has more Muslims than any country in the world, but the part of Northeast Sulawesi I visited was strongly Christian, something I hadn’t known until I got there. Even the smaller villages have a church, built in the highly individual local style. These are “Protestant” churches, though whether they resemble Protestantism as practiced in the States is more than I...

Snow Day

This was the scene that awaited me this morning. A very quiet, pleasant snowfall that lasted into the afternoon, after which it all began to melt.
This is building into a big storm, though, so if you live in Texas or parts of the midwest, you might be on the alert for something less tranquil than is implied by this picture.
The second picture was taken at sunset. The lovely gold color in the trees wasn’t produced by autumn leaves: it’s the snow reflecting sunset colors, a contrast to the part o...

The Sex Organs of Parasites . . .

. . . or. if you prefer, orchids.
This picture was taken in the National Orchid Garden in Singapore, where hundreds if not thousands of unique orchid varieties are on display. Some are named after politicians or celebrities who visited the gardens. (The one named after Margaret Thatcher looked quite spiky. I suspect political commentary on the part of the hybridizer, or whatever it is you call people who invent new orchids.)
This is one of the photos visible in our new calendar for 2014,which c...

The Biggest Day of the Year!

It’s the First of December! Which means that applications are now being accepted for Taos Toolbox, the master class for new writers of fantasy and science fiction!
I have a feeling there may be a flood of early applications, so get yours in soon!

Lights! Turkey! SpongeBob!

We’ve got a lot to celebrate this week: Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, festivals of light, family, and food. So SpongeBob and I wish you the best of the season!
SpongeBob, I hear you ask?
You see, I was unaware of SpongeBob’s significance to the holiday season until I went to Singapore, which was already decked out for the holidays in the middle of November. There was Santa in his sleigh, there was snow, there were reindeer. To my Western eyes this seemed incongruous in the blast-furnace equatorial...

Slight Miscalculation

Today was a miserable cold day, so I decided to spend it indoors, catching up on the movies I missed while I was away. So I saw THOR: THE DARK WORLD, which was pretty good as Thor movies go— lots of action, twisty story, some nice comic turns, and each actor had a scene to call his own. But after a while, I began to sense a problem in Malekith’s cunning plan to wipe out all life in the Nine Universes. No one else, so far as I know, has noticed this little flaw.
I illustrate thus:
Let’s assume,...

Dodging

I’m the only person who saw this nudibranch, and no one was able to identify it from the photo. I couldn’t find it in any of the reference books, so maybe I discovered a new gastropod! Or not. I’m good either way, but if the former, I thinknudibranchia hardwired would make a good name.
This is larger than life size: the actual heterobranch was about half this size.
Today is the first day since my return that I’ve felt normal, or at least as normal as I’ll ever cop to feeling. I’ve accomplished...

Rifts at Baen

I’m pleased to report that the ebook of The Riftis now available at Baen, as well asKobo,Amazon,Nook, andSmashwords,
Slowly, slowly, we conquer the world.

Jetlaggin’

I’m home, after about 35 hours in planes, airports, and buses. (The trip out took 44 hours, so coming back I was lucky.)
Though I’ve had a couple nights in my own bed, I’m still cross-eyed with jetlag, a totally screwed-up sleep schedule, and readjusting to living at altitude.
So why don’t you look at this nice picture of a lionfish while I try to readjust my biorhythms? I will avoid cliche descriptions of its “deadly spines,” and remark only that you probably don’t want to use one of these guy...

Singapore!