Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 154

Time Passeth

Wow. What happened tothat week?
Well, there was a wedding, and the tractor broke, and a birthday party, and game night, and karate class . . . so it was a busy week, in truth.
But what mostly happened was The Rift.
Yes, I’m finally getting my longest novel ready for e-publication. It’s something like 310,000 words long, more than three times the length of the average novel. It’s taken avery long time to edit it into shape, and there’s more editing left to do, but it should be available at your f...

Taos Toolbox 2014

I’m pleased to announce that 2014′s Taos Toolbox, the master class for writers of science fiction and fantasy, will be held July 6-19 at Taos Ski Valley in New Mexico. Teaching will be Nancy Kress, Walter Jon Williams, and special guest Ian Tregillis.
Submissions begin on December 1! Mark the date on your calendar.

Tick Tick Tick

The sale ends at midnight on Friday! But until then, you’ll still be able to buy my novelKnight Movesfor 99 cents atAmazon,Barnes & Noble,Kobo,Smashwords, andiBooks.

Special Shapes

More photos from the Balloon Fiesta. The bees, which are very popular, are velcro’d together so that they fly holding hands, sometimes with a third Baby Bee between them. This time Baby got off the ground on his own, but the others skimmed the ground for a bit, then came to rest, un-velcro’d, and then were deflated. Baby joined them. I don’t know what went wrong, but maybe the wind forecast wasn’t good.

555 Luftballons

Morgan Stanley was apparently sufficiently impressed by my anti-Wall Street tirades in this forum that I was invited to their Corporate Tent this morning for Albuquerque’s annual Balloon Fiesta.
(Thank you, Morgan Stanley! Our motto: “Hardly ever indicted!”)
This involved getting up at 5am, a time at which I am rarely comfortable, and driving through the bleak pre-dawn blackness to the balloon field on the far side of Albuquerque. it was a beautiful still morning, and when the first balloons ro...

Silhouette

Taos Pueblo dancer at the fire circle.

99 Cent Sale!

My novel Knight Moves, nominated for a Philip K Dick Award, is now on sale for a mere 99 cents, or a 99-cent equivalence if your home currency doesn’t happen to be USD.
You will find the book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and iBooks. Word of the price change seems not to have reached Sony, despite my best efforts.
I uploaded theKnight Moves ebook nearly two years ago, and it’s remained a consistent poor seller despite the award nomination and its generally good reception by the few who have...

Reviews in the Nick of Time: Rush

I used to follow motor sport more than I do now, so I thought, despite my deep reluctance to view another blockbuster, that I’d check out Ron Howard’s racing film, and see if I could recapture my youthful enthusiasm for Formula 1.
After all, I was possibly the only person on the planet who liked Howard’s previous racing film, Wind, about the America’s Cup.
I was a bit surprised when I walked into the theater and saw my fellow viewers. Okay, so it was a matinee, but still . . . I was the only pe...

Lake Mummies

Check out these amazing photos of birds literally turned to stone by the natron-ized waters of, well, Lake Natron in East Africa.
“Natron” is the name used to describe the various salts used by the Egyptians to mummify their ancestors. Looks like the lake waters did at least as good a job.

Rehabilitating Walter

I don’t have much to say about the final episode of Breaking Bad,not least because I haven’t seen it yet, but I have one thing to be grateful for, which is that the series has completely rehabilitated the name of Walter.
Walter is a Germanic name meaning “wielder of the armies,” which I have to say sounds pretty studly and awesome. But in recent decades the name has suffered a decline, at least in popular culture. If someone named Walter turned up in movies or TV, you were guaranteed that the...