Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 18

Bundle Time!

The Science Fiction Writers of America have put out another novelbundle, and I am once more included!

This time it’s fantasy. There’s something about fantasy that never fails to thrill readers of all ages and backgrounds. Stories filled with magical creatures, wizards, romance, and adventures, both big and small, continue to cast spells over our collective imaginations. In SFWA’s Take No Prisoners StoryBundle, there’s plenty of adventure, magic, unlikely heroes, and otherworldly creatur...

Rain in the Opera

The Duomo in Palermo was built at the command of William II the Good.

(William was the son of William I the Bad. Father William doesn’t seem to have been particularly bad, as medieval monarchs go. He seems to have acquired his monicker because he had a tendency to promote competent commoners over the heads of the local nobility, who viewed royal offices as their hereditary right.

(William II, on the other hand, seems to have earned his nickname. He was much less bellicose than his ...

In A Parallel World Near Yours

Lots of stuff going on in the world of Wild Cards. A new original anthology, Pairing Up, has been published here in the US. I’m not in it, but these guys are:

“Trudy of the Apes”   KEVIN ANDREW MURPHY
“Cyrano d’Escargot”  CHRISTOPHER ROWE
“In the Forests of the Night”   MARKO KLOOS
“The Wounded Heart”    MELINDA M. SNODGRASS
“Echoes From A Canyon Wall”    BRADLEY DENTON
“The Long Goodbye”   WALTON SIMONS
“What’s Your Sign?”   GWENDA BOND & PETER NEWMAN
“The Wolf and the Butterfly”   DAVID ANT...

Loving Couple

From the National Museum in Reggio Calabria, a rare double burial dating from either the Paleolithic or Mesolithic, or maybe the boundary between the two.

The two were buried in a cave. The man’s left arm is around the woman’s shoulders, and the woman rests her head on the man’s shoulder. I can imagine the two were in love.

Details were lacking, such as how old the couple were when they died and whether they died at the same time, or a later burial was added to the first.

Still...

The Best Peste!

Cover by Aurélien Police of the forthcoming French edition of The Green Leopard Plague, translated by Jean-Daniel Brèque.

Pretty cool, no?

Personal Appearance

Here we see Roger II of Sicily being crowned by none other than Jesus Himself. Usually it’s a bishop or pope doing the investing, but in this case Roger outranked both, at least in Sicily, so he went straight to the Savior.

His father Roger I— who wasn’t a king, but gets a number anyway, I guess because he was really cool or something— started life as a Norman knight, Roger de Hauteville. When he offered to lead a crusade to replace the Moorish emir of Sicily, he persuaded the pope t...

Segesta

Temple of Athena

By Sunday everything had improved except the weather. Kathy reported that she was swiftly recovering from the worst effects of COVID, and my knee had improved to the point where I could walk nearly pain-free. (I think what might have happened was that my accident had knocked free a piece of cartilage, which was moving around inside the knee joint and causing pain or not according to where it ended up that day.)

At any rate I felt after a hearty breakfast ready to set for...

Just Don’t Put Peas In It

The Laughter of Carthage

Some weird Roman thing

We return, after I’ve caught up with some of the sleep I lost at Toolbox, to Mediterranean adventures.

Saturday was the worst day. Kathy’s COVID was peaking, and her ribs were aching and she was coughing continually, and I was a long way off and unable to help. I was exhausted and stressed and pretty well needed to spend the day in a cool, dark room listening to soothing music. That wasn’t going to happen.

Le Bougainville crossed from Porto Empedocle to Tunis ...

On Their Way

Taos Toolbox for 2023 ended this morning, with all the participants flying off to their splendid futures. The two weeks were busy and exhausting and most of all rewarding. I’d like to thank Nancy Kress for being a wonderful co-teacher, and Emily Mah and George RR Martin for being inspirational guest speakers.

There was a whole room full of talented writers, and I think you’ll be hearing from them soon.
Here’s our class photo.

Back Row:

Neil Flinchbaugh, Thea Boodhoo, Russ Nickel...