Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 166
February 7, 2013
Why, It’s Clarion!
Did I forget to mention Clarion? I was probably in Australia when the application period began for this granddaddy of all science fiction workshops, and I neglected to mention it to you.At any rate, the application period is still ongoing, so you can still get in your application, which of course you will want to do.
Clarion is a six-week short story workshop of incredible star power, this year featuring Andy Duncan, Nalo Hopkinson, Cory Doctorow, Robert Crais, Karen Joy Fowler, and Kelly Link...
February 6, 2013
Nupdate!
No updates here! Nupdate!
It’s rare that a post of mine generates such unanimity, but it looks as if the question I asked in my last post has been answered.
The Riftwill therefore hit the net unaltered, except for the usual tweaks and small improvements. People reading the novel will experience an alternative universe rather more pleasant than the one we live in now, where Katrina and Fukushima and 9/11 never happened.
We, as a culture, have learned the lesson that a merciless world can kill us...
It’s rare that a post of mine generates such unanimity, but it looks as if the question I asked in my last post has been answered.
The Riftwill therefore hit the net unaltered, except for the usual tweaks and small improvements. People reading the novel will experience an alternative universe rather more pleasant than the one we live in now, where Katrina and Fukushima and 9/11 never happened.
We, as a culture, have learned the lesson that a merciless world can kill us...
February 4, 2013
Revised? Updated?
As you all surely have noticed, not least because I keep nagging you about it, I’m reissuing my backlist in ebook form. I have only two books left, one last privateer book and The Rift. (Plus, of course, a whole lot of short fiction.)The privateer book just awaits sufficient time to format it and fling it onto the electronic seas of the Internet, but The Riftis a special case.
For one thing, getting it in shape is going to take a while, because it’s my longest work. 310,000 words, more than 70...
February 3, 2013
Objective Confirmation of My General Swellitude
Every single thing I published in 2012 ended up on Locusmagazine’s recommended reading list.
Both of them!
Yes! You may consider this objective confirmation of the fact that I’m just as swell as I think I am!
And just in case it slipped your mind what I published last year, here they are, along with locations where they might be found. Because I’m just helpful that way.
THE FOURTH WALL, Orbit Books, February 2012 [excerpt][kindle][nook][trade paperback]
“The Boolean Gate” Reprinted atSubterranea...
Both of them!
Yes! You may consider this objective confirmation of the fact that I’m just as swell as I think I am!
And just in case it slipped your mind what I published last year, here they are, along with locations where they might be found. Because I’m just helpful that way.
THE FOURTH WALL, Orbit Books, February 2012 [excerpt][kindle][nook][trade paperback]
“The Boolean Gate” Reprinted atSubterranea...
January 31, 2013
Mindermast
I see that Moriarty has raised his hoary head in yet another Sherlock Holmes adaptation, and that therefore the series is almost certain to go to go off the rails. A pity, because I was getting to like it.
It’s all very well to do Sherlock Holmes, even modern adaptations of Sherlock Holmes. (My favorite is “House.”) But sooner or later the writers feel obliged to introduce Professor Moriarty, and then everything collapses.
The problem is that Moriarty has to come up with a plot so complex, so...
It’s all very well to do Sherlock Holmes, even modern adaptations of Sherlock Holmes. (My favorite is “House.”) But sooner or later the writers feel obliged to introduce Professor Moriarty, and then everything collapses.
The problem is that Moriarty has to come up with a plot so complex, so...
January 30, 2013
Reviews Too Late: Zero Dark Thirty
Jessica Chastain has two movies in the theaters at this moment. Mamais a horror film, and Zero Dark Thirtyisn’t.
Without having seen the first, I suspect the second film is far, far scarier.
It’s fortunate that I heard a lot about this movie before I saw it. I knew to be prepared for grueling torture scenes. I knew to be hyper-alert for signs that the director either endorsed torture or didn’t endorse it or was exposing it to public view, and/or was trying to weasel out of the implications of w...
Without having seen the first, I suspect the second film is far, far scarier.
It’s fortunate that I heard a lot about this movie before I saw it. I knew to be prepared for grueling torture scenes. I knew to be hyper-alert for signs that the director either endorsed torture or didn’t endorse it or was exposing it to public view, and/or was trying to weasel out of the implications of w...
January 29, 2013
Wanna Hand Out Some Awards?
As I mentioned in an earlier post, it’s Award Season, and not just in Hollywood. Eligible folks are now nominating for the Hugo and Nebula Awards.
Feel free to nominate your favorite books and stories right here. I won’t hand out any awards, but maybe I’ll go on to read them and nominate them.
You need not mention myworks. Here we take it for granted that you think I’m swell.
What was your favorite SF&F for 2012? Let us know.
Feel free to nominate your favorite books and stories right here. I won’t hand out any awards, but maybe I’ll go on to read them and nominate them.
You need not mention myworks. Here we take it for granted that you think I’m swell.
What was your favorite SF&F for 2012? Let us know.
January 28, 2013
Reviews Too Late: The New World
So I’m just a little late in viewing Terrence Malick’s New World, which came out in 2005. It was far down in my Netflix queue somewhere, but either Netflix’s computer glitched or every other damn disk wasn’t in the warehouse that day, so here the movie came. It sat around for months, and then I realized I might as well view it and get it over with.
It should be admitted that am not a member of the Cult of Malick. I saw his movies, and I thought they were okay, but I didn’t quite understand why...
It should be admitted that am not a member of the Cult of Malick. I saw his movies, and I thought they were okay, but I didn’t quite understand why...
January 25, 2013
Making For a Much Shorter Trilogy
Have a happy weekend, out there.
January 22, 2013
Seriously?
I’ve just read a literary novel. And I suppose you know, simply from reading that sentence, that what follows will be a litany of complaint. My apologies for being so predictable.
(Honestly, there are literary novels that I like, even adore. This just doesn’t happen to be one of them.)
Exhibit A for the prosecution is the “it was only a dream” ending. I mean, honestly, what was the author thinking? . . . Can’t they just carve THOU SHALT NOT USE THE ‘IT WAS ONLY A DREAM’ ENDING above the lintel...
(Honestly, there are literary novels that I like, even adore. This just doesn’t happen to be one of them.)
Exhibit A for the prosecution is the “it was only a dream” ending. I mean, honestly, what was the author thinking? . . . Can’t they just carve THOU SHALT NOT USE THE ‘IT WAS ONLY A DREAM’ ENDING above the lintel...
