Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 172

Trusting My Readers

I’ve been working on Cat Island, the next of the old seas stories I plan to release in ebook formats. While I’ve generally been pleasantly surprised to read my earlier works, this is the first of the re-issues that have made me want to go through the book with a machete. So that’s what I’m doing.
I found the first forty or fifty pages to be solid exposition, in which I catch the reader up on my main character’s history, his past naval commands, his battles, and his love life. I also talk about...

Hopping

I am of an age where, on a regular basis, I’m forced to contemplate my age. But I’m not old. Not by the Hopping Standard, anyway.
I’ve decided that I’m young so long as I can don my trousers standing up, hopping from one foot to the other. When I have to put my trousers on sitting down, I shall be old.
So yaaaaah to you, young punks of the world! I am still your peer.

Reviews In The Nick Of Time: Argo

Argo does not seem to be a movie that appeals to the teenage audience. I don’t think there was a single person under forty in the theater, and most were eligible for Social Security. I haven’t been in an audience of so many gray-haired people since The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest. (Retirees love them some Salander. Go figure.)
I’m not sure that anyone else in the audience was there for the same reason I found myself present: to trace the line from Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light and the ar...

Maples

There is exactly one canyon in New Mexico where you can find maple trees, trapped here by changing climate after the last Ice Age.
This is clearly the time of year to go see them.
We went about ten days ago, but the leaves were just starting to turn. We returned yesterday to find the color at its height. Walking along the trails was like walking beneath flame-colored Gothic arches.
The canyon? It’s tucked away in the Manzano Mountains about a 90-minute drive from home, and appropriately enough i...

The Tern Schooner

Behold! The Tern Schooner, the latest in the ebook reissues of my old sailing series, is now available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.
The book was originally published by Dell as The Yankee, in the same month and from the same publisher as The Yankee by Dana Fuller Ross. (Because Dell was just a fiasco in constant motion, that’s why, fascinating to watch if it wasn’t your career being made to walk the plank.)
I know I said I’d release Cat Island next, but once I got into the book,...

Quizzical

Wow, we have only a single winner for the Boolean Gate quiz. Congratulations, Steve Halter! Email me your address, and a signed copy of the uncorrected proofs will soon be winging their way to you.
Here are the questions and answers:
1. Who are the three historical figures depicted on the cover?
Mark Twain, JP Morgan, and Nikola Tesla.
2. What the hell is a Boolean Gate, anyway?
I’ll defer to Ralf’s technical explanation for how it all works, but what I was aiming at was that logic gates in comput...

Boolean Quiz

Lo! It is the cover of The Boolean Gate, my new novella from Subterranean Press, available now for pre-order in a signed, limited edition!
You can also pre-order it at Amazon and divers other places, I believe.
The price is a mere $38. But if you’re short a few dollars, don’t despair! I have a few copies of the uncorrected proofs lying around, and I’ll be happy to send copies to the first three people to give the correct answers to the quiz below.
Now, the proofs do not have the handsome J.K. Po...

Taos Toolbox 2013!

I’m happy to announce that the next Taos Toolbox, the master class for science fiction and fantasy, will take place July 28-August 10, 2013, at Taos Ski Valley.
Teaching will be Nancy Kress, Walter Jon Williams, and special lecturer Melinda Snodgrass.
The application period begins December 1. Mark your calendars!
(and special thanks to Toolbox grad Rich Baldwin for the nifty new Toolbox logo!)

Golden Clouds

I’ve spent a few days up the mountain looking at scenery like this, an aspen grove up above 10,000 feet, where the autumn leaves look like golden clouds sitting just beneath the rim of the sky.
I would have been uploading pictures all along, but I forgot the cable that connects my camera to the outside world.
Oops.

I Am In My Happy Place

I’m up on top of a mountain, surrounded by aspens that have turned a brilliant gold, and breathing air that tastes like champagne. (Well actually it tastes more like pine, but you know what I mean.)
Posts may be scarce for the next few days.