Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 162

Events Here, Events There

I will be at the New Mexico Book Fiesta this Saturday, from 12:30-1:30, signing at the Page One booth. Though there are a number of SF authors attending, all but one are signing only. They seem not to quite know what to do with SF authors.
Which seems to be a theme this week, since they didn’t know what to do with me at Jacksonville’s Sci-Fi Weekend, either.
They flew me in, and put me up at a very nice hotel, but then . . . not much. I was scheduled for only one hour of programming the whole w...

March of Triumph

I’m pleased to report that “The Boolean Gate” has been nominated for a Locus Award. Congratulations to the other nominees. And more importantly, congratulations to meeeeeeeeee!
The Locus Award is one that anyone can vote for, so I encourage you all to seek out and read all the nominees, make an objective judgment, and then vote for “The Boolean Gate” like God intended.
If you haven’t read it, or wish to read it again, it’s still available for free at the Subterranean website.
I should mention th...

You Might Just Be A Redneck, If . . .

From rural Florida, it’s the punchline to a Jeff Foxworthy joke.

To Florida!

I’m off to Jacksonville for their convention at the Science Museum. I hope to see at least some of you there.

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...