Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 162

New Cover. Same Text.

I found a pretty piece of public-domain nautical art that was better than the public-domain nautical art on the original cover, so The Macedoniannow has a new, prettier cover.
The text is still the same, though.
If you want to buy a new copy just for the cool new cover, however, don’t let me stop you. Just wait a few hours/days for the change to percolate through the system, then go toAmazon,Barnes & Noble, orSmashwords. (At Smashwords, you won’t have to buy the file over again, just download t...

The Charts of My Life, Part !

If I were to describe to you the events of my last three days, you’d say, “How could you possibly work so hard, for so many hours, for so little result?”
This chart from xkcd explains all.

Escaping History

At a panel at Eastercon— or perhaps it was the interview, I’m not sure– I made a statement that seemed to catch everyone by surprise.
“If we ever succeed in populating other worlds,” I said, “the first thing they’ll do is lose interest in Earth history, because none of it will be relevant.”
Which seemed to shock a lot of history-loving SF fan to the core. But consider: what if the past is not merely another country,it’s another solar system? If the nations of Bozniagraphica-Nostra Patersdolf si...

This. Not to Mention That.

The first weekend of May I’ll be in Jacksonville, Fla., where I’m a guest at the Sci-Fi Weekend being held at the Museum of Science and History. Looking at the schedule, I see they’re charging folks $10 to come to my programming event. Guess I’ll find out who my real fans are.
They haven’t thrown an SF convention before, which kind of shows, but it’ll be fun anyway, because it’ll be full of the sort of people I like to hang out with. And I’ll be available all weekend to meet anyone who doesn’t...

Reviews In the Nick of Time: The Spies of Warsaw

I see that BBCA is showing The Spies of Warsaw, with David Tennant, this very evening, and I thought I’d do my best to warn you off it, since I saw it on a transatlantic flight just last week.
The Spies of Warsawis based on a novel by Alan Furst that I very much like, along with his other World War II thrillers, so I had hopes for the TV version. Sadly, this is a classic BBC production, which is to say that it’s static, stodgy, low budget, and low-key.
The screenwriters made every attempt not t...

The Gallery of Whaam

The weather was dubious in England, and Kathy is up for knee replacement and really isn’t good on cobbles or stairs or whatever, so we spent a lot of time indoors in art galleries and museums. And seeing a whole lot of art n a short amount of time sent certain ideas floating up to my attention.
First, it’s easy to tell the genius stuff from the merely first-rate. I remember standing two whole rooms away from one particular painting, glancing at it, and saying “Vermeer!” Because, y’know, the ge...

Jet Lag

I’ve been back in the States for a few days now, and am almost over the jet lag. I’ve always found East-to-West a lot harder to get over than West-to-East.
One of the joys of returning to my home is that I can finally sit in a room with enough light to read. Three weeks in Britain, and I never found myself in a room that was less than murky. Which wasn’t on account of the weather— though the weather was depressingly cloudy and cold for most of the trip— but because the British seem to speciali...

Nobody Asked Me

I’m still in England, and will be for another couple days. The news here is dominated by two huge stories, and though absolutely no one asked me for my opinion, I’m going to give it anyway.
The ghastly, pointless bombing in Boston has filled me with sorrow for the victims and their families, but mostly it’s pissed me off. The perpetrators were feeble-witted jackasses who sacrificed lives for no other purpose than air time. The bombings do not threaten the U.S., do not make us more or less safe...

Stay Dench, My Friends

Still On The Road

No reason you can’t enjoy some music, though.