Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 181

Mystery Pix, Solved!

DorjePismo was right, the Mystery Picture was a Native American structure, or what’s left of one.
In fact it was probably a kiva, an underground ceremonial structure. At any rate, it was the largest room in the small, mesa-top pueblo.
I won’t say where we were, except that we were roughly in the Four Corners area. The reason I’m being so coy is that this particular pueblo is known only to a very few people, and has never been excavated. It’s very remote, perched on top of a mesa, and contains m...

City on Fire, Cover 1.0

Here’s my first go at a cover for City on Fire. I couldn’t find a piece of art as broody and awesome as that of Metropolitan, but then I don’t get that lucky every time.

Crowd reSource

You can all go to war now. You don’t even have to be of military age. All you need is a Internet connection, and if you’re reading this, you’ve already got one of those.
Just pick what side you want to be on, figure out what you have to contribute, and get busy.
Technology Review recently documented several of the people who contributed to last year’s Libyan revolution.
. . . It’s a mid-April night in 2011, and Twawa’s men are frightened. Lightly armed and hidden only by trees, they are a stone’...

Mystery Pix

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I was out of town this week in a location so remote that I had access neither to Internet nor phone.
Here’s a picture of one of the places I visited.
My question for you all is, What is this?
“It’s a piece of southwestern countryside” is a perfectly accurate answer, but it would be an incomplete one.
There’s something else in this photo. Can you guess what it is?
I’ll reveal the answer in a future post, but in the meantime you are all free to speculate.

Native Language (a flashback)

I’m wrapped up in projects, including getting City on Fire ready for ebook release, so I thought I’d offer an essay I originally posted seven years ago, in which I discuss my native language, and why I don’t know what it is. –wjw
My native language isn’t English.
The problem is, I don’t know what language my native language actually is.
I was raised in a household where Finnish was spoken, but I never learned more than a few words, so I’m reasonably certain my native language isn’t Finnish. I h...

Today Is Tregillis Day

I thought I’d give a shout-out to my friend Ian Tregillis, whose fine first novel Bitter Seeds has just been released in mass-market paperback.
This is Book One of the Milkweed Triptych, the very name of which will tell you that there are two more books somewhere in the pipe. (The next, The Coldest War, will be available in July.)
I’m hoping this series gets some traction, because it’s been lost somewhere in the Tor Abyss. The hardback came out two years ago. Who’s in charge over there?
But what...

“Investments” Has Arrived!

I’ve spent the last three days in a place so remote and blissful that there was neither Internet nor telephone. Interesting things happened there, and I’ll tell you about it if the photos turn out.
Hours before I left, I managed to upload my short novel “Investments,” set in the Praxis universe. And now I see that the ebook has gone live via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.
Here’s the cover.
Looks kinda like a novel from Baen, circa 1995. At least it screams “space opera!” The picture’s g...

Praxis on Sale!

Hey, guys!
Harper has very kindly put The Praxis, the first of my Dread Empire books, on sale for $2.99 for Kindle and for Nook!
If you haven’t got started on this series, now’s your chance. And if you have the book and like it, feel free to recommend it to a friend!
As for me, I’m going to take advantage of this by getting “Investments” online as an ebook, so I may not be here for a few days.

Metropolitan: the Lawyers

I’m now delighted to report that Metropolitan is now available for the Nook. It always takes a little longer over at the brick-and-mortar store, but now it’s done. Mad downloading and rejoicing may commence!
This is the third of a series of essays on my novel Metropolitan, and will deal with its commercial and legal history. Fortunately a number of the principals are dead, and I am now free to tell the truth, insofar as I understand it.
But first, a note on Metropolitan’s setting. Many reviewer...

Metropolitan: Writing and Reception

This is the second essay on the conception and creation of my novel Metropolitan. Perhaps it’s best, if you’re new here, to start with the first installment.
We now return to the narrative.
Actually writing Metropolitan was, as it turns out, quite a chore.
My previous two books, Aristoi and Days of Atonement, had been easy and joyful to write. I have no explanation for why one work is easy for me and another is hard— Aristoi, Hardwired, and This Is Not a Game were effortless: Angel Station, Metr...