Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 160

Two Surprises

So, a free election in Iran in which the liberal candidate won.
And in Turkey, the prime minister is threatening to treat demonstrators as terrorists, calling for a new constitution, and threatening to send in the Army.
The world is full of surprises, isn’t it?

Two Good Causes

Hey writers! The Clarion Writers’ Workshop is having their annual write-a-thon beginning June 23. You write, and other folks pledge money depending on how much you write during the six-week period. Everybody benefits, because you get something written, and Clarion earns a few bucks. Check it out!
A few years ago, I attended Launchpad, the science workshop for SF writers, in which I and a score of other writers spent a week learning astronomy from writer-astronomer Mike Brotherton. Launchpad wa...

Police State

Recent events, here and in the world, have me thinking about police states, and what they are and how they come about.
In Turkey, Prime Minister Erdogan— who has been democratically elected three times— heads a state that is increasingly authoritarian, and he is now depending on police forces to maintain his grip on power. A new draft bill has landed on Erdogan’s desk that gives the Turkish intelligence service,MİT, police powers— except that while the police and the gendarmerie supposedly hav...

Deep State (of Depression)

Once again I’m watching scenes from one of my novels play out on television, and once again I’m finding it depressing. Deep Statewas a novel about a revolution against an oppressive Turkish government, and now we get to see that on CNN— and to watch Christine Amanpour try to corner a Turkish official about exactly which “terrorists, radicals, and marginal people” are responsible for the violence. (He had no answer, since it’s perfectly obvious that the overwhelming majority of the violence is...

My Ebooks Are Live At Baen!

My various ebooks are now available at Baen Books, which I hope will help to find them a new audience.
You can click to them via the ebook page, or head straight for my index page at Baen.
Baen is also bundling some of my books into easy-to-click collections, including the Hardwired Bundle (Hardwired, Solip:System, Voice of the Whirlwind), the Maijstral Bundle (Crown Jewels, House of Shards, Rock of Ages), the Metropolitan Bundle (Metropolitan and City on Fire), the Novel Bundle (all the other...

As The Knee Bends . . .

Kathy’s home from the hospital a mere two days after the knee replacement, and is getting along well on a walker. She’s experiencing little to no pain, and was the star of her physical therapy class.
Thanks to all of you who expressed your good wishes. No doubt she’ll thank you herself very soon now.

For Wild Cards Fans

I’ve been remiss in pointing out the recent appearance of a couple Wild Cards stories over on Tor.com. These were both edited by George RR Martin, and they are free. Free as in, y’know, just click and read.
Cherie Priest, known for her Clockwork Century novels, offers up “The Button Man and the Murder Tree.”
And Paul Cornell, known for his work in comics and Doctor Who and Robin Hood and all kindza stuff, puts on his Wild Card hat for “Elephant in the Room.”
Both are illustrated by the spectacul...

Piña Coladas. Five Cents.

Kathy underwent knee replacement surgery this morning. Which means either that posting here will be scarce, or that I’ll be posting a lot, since I’ll be sitting in a hospital room with a keyboard in front of me and little else to do.
In the meantime, enjoy this amazing video of New York in 1939, via friend of the blog al-Zorra. Beautiful Kodachrome, perfectly processed, looks like it was filmed yesterday.

Chat About Writing and Food

Fran Wilde (Taos Toolbox ’12) interviews me about writing and food. Check it out.

Fun

Posts have been scarce the last ten days or so, and it’s all because I was having fun. I could either stop having fun in order to post about all the fun I was having, or I could just go on having fun. Which is what I did.
Most of the fun was had at Rio Hondo, where I had fun with this crew, to-wit: James Patrick Kelly, Rick Wilber, Carrie Vaughn, Oz Drummond, Diana Rowland, Jay Lake, Kim Jollow Zimring, Michaela Roessner, David Levine, and Daniel Abraham. (I’m the one on the left.)
We cooked an...