Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 168

Dive Odyssey (Part Two)

Coral Sea memories,continued. Organized by topic.
Breathing.
Always one of those things we divers have to take seriously.
It has to be admitted, right off, that my air consumption sort of sucks. I use up a tank of air quicker than I should— not crucially, horribly, but quickly enough so that it bothers me.
It’s hard to say why, except that it started on my previous dive trip, to Pelau. At the time I was suffering from an undiagnosed case of acid reflux, so I’d figured my pulmonary efficiency was...

Dive Odyssey (Part One)

I was looking through the photos of my dive trip and thought this picture was one of my better efforts It shows how colorful and diverse underwater life can be, and it was taken at a shallow enough depth that the color flash. Most of my photos tend to be on the blue and green end of the spectrum, because the further underwater you go, the less color you get— the reds disappear first, and then the yellows, and before long all you’ve got is blue. You need to shine a light on something before it...

Tamale Season

I haven’t been posting much the last few days, but that’s because I’ve been having Holiday Fun, which mainly involves meeting with friends, then eating and drinking too much.

Plus of course there’s all the maintenance I needed to do around the house when I was traveling, and now need to do now that I’m back.

And then there was the Annual Holiday Plumbing Emergency, in which I have to try to get a plumber to turn up in the holiday season when they all have many better things to do. (This happens...

The Sequel

History has itssequels, just like the movies.

And like the movies, the sequels tend to get worse and worse.

Take, for example, the Spanish Armada(s).

Bloated (But Pleasing)

I saw The Hobbittoday in all its 48fps glory, which shows considerable restraint considering the hype I endured all those weeks Down Under. An example of which I offer you here, the safety video I sat through on each of my Air New Zealand flights. It was funny the first time.

I was prepared to go into the theater and roll my eyes a lot, since Peter Jackson has turned one children’s book into three whole films— that’s on the order of two minutes of screen time per printed page. Jackson is a dir...

Ho Ho Ho

Behold! It is the special Walter Jon Williams issue of Subterranean Magazine, which features not only my classic story “Surfacing” but my new novella “The Boolean Gate,” which you can now read for free.

(Which means that you don’t absolutely haveto shell out the $38 for the signed, limited edition, though of course you ought, not only because it’s a collectible sure to rise in value but because t would make an absolutely wonderful holiday gift for that special someone, especially someone inte...

Jetl;ag. Jetlap. Jetlag.

I’m back in New Mexico after over six weeks abroad. The security people in New Zealand tried to have me thrown off the plane, but eventually it got sorted. I think it’s down to my astonishing physical resemblance to Abu Nidal.

I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this, but while I was away the Northern Hemisphere seems to have got decidedly cooler.

The Sailor Home From the Sea

I’m off the dive boat, and back in the rather discouraging town of Cairns. During the last week I’ve racked up 25 dives in the Coral Sea and on the Great Barrier Reef, both of which were full of Teh Awesome.

I haven’t got my land legs back, so when I walk around, the earth heaves and sways beneath my feet.

I’m flying home tomorrow, which is Friday, and because of the date line, Friday will go on for 48 hours, 30 of which I will be spending in airplanes and airports.

I’ll check in when I get home...

Taos Toolbox

Taos Toolbox, the master class for science fiction and fantasy, is now open for submissions!

So send your story. Don’t worry about how I’m going to read it while I’m on a boat in the Coral Sea. That’s my problem. Just send your work.

Melting

I landed in Cairns in the middle of a heat wave, with temperatures of 38 degrees Celsius. Which, for those of you on Fahrenheit, is well past the temperature at which Walter melts.

So instead of venturing forth for adventure, I’ve been hiding in my hotel room, where there’s air conditioning, and only leaving for meals. Hungrily wandering around Cairns, I found it a rather unimpressive tourist town, and then I noticed the vast swarm of large bats flying past. So that was something I hadn’t seen...