Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 154

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...

Set of Wheels

I learned to drive in a Model A Ford.
And no, I’m not that old!
The Model A in question belonged to my grandparents and was kept on their farm in Markham, Minn., which was not only the headquarters of the Williams clan but the source of the name I gave to my fictional nautical family in the Privateer books.
Check out the video for an idea of the driving experience.
The Model A had been, uh, highly modified, because it had been turned into a tractor. This was common during the Great Depression amo...

The Horizon

We get some spectacular sunsets here in the Southwest, though my particular Western horizon is somewhat limited by buildings and trees that my neighbors inconsiderately put in my sight line.
Still, this one’s pretty good. And while it looks like I’ve amped the color saturation, I totally haven’t. This is exactly what I saw when I stepped out on my front porch.

Raffle! Book! Sign Up!

My friend Emily Mah is running a raffle, and she’s giving away a signed copy of my own Implied Spaces.
It’s not like you’d win a zillion bucks like with PowerBall, but on the other hand you have a much better chance of winning. Click, and good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Green Leopard Gone Live!

My collection, The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories, is now live on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.
It will be available on other sites by and by.
The collection contains two Nebula winners, several other award nominees, and other good stuff that was published in places where award nominators never visit.
Those of you with a good eye for design may note that the cover art is the same cityscape as the backround for Implied Spaces,except that I flipped it 180 degrees and left more in...