Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 182

“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...

Metropolitan: the Worldbuilding

I’m delighted to report that the Metropolitan ebook is now available on Amazon and via Smashwords, from whence it will migrate in time to the Apple Store, the Sony Store, the Kobo Store, Baker & Taylor, etc.
Those of you with Nooks, as usual, will have to wait another day or two for the file to clear customs at Barnes & Noble. Sorry about that.
Metropolitan was such an unusual project for me that I’ll probably devote several posts to it, one of which will have to do simply with its odd legal an...

Lo! The Mighty Cover Art Approacheth!

As you can see, Photoshop and I finally called a truce, and I produced this.
I have to say that I was mightily enabled by a wonderfully moody piece of stock art.
The ebook should be available, umm, soon.
City on Fire may take a few weeks, due to formatting and copy-editing delays.
So my next ebook will probably be my short novel Investments, which is set in the Praxis universe and which I wrote for a Robert Silverberg anthology some years ago. I imagine most Praxis fans haven’t ever seen it.

Run Run Reinstall

So I’ve finished the edit of Metropolitan, and I downloaded a surprisingly atmospheric and appropriate piece of art for the cover, and then when I tried to create the cover with Photoshop, Photoshop up and crashed on me. And crashed again. And kept on crashing.
So it’s now to the point where I de-install it, then re-install it. Except that it’s telling me that I have to de-activate it before I can de-install it, and I can’t de-activate it, because in order to de-activate Photoshop, you have to...

Camus Cat

I’m still locked in combat with Constantine and Aiah, so by way of apology I offer this philosophical video. (via Suzy Charnas)

I Am Working

I'm working on getting Metropolitan set up as an ebook.  (I thought you'd approve.)
But since I've got my head buried in a text file, so I've arranged for Eddie Izzard to assist you with the choice of a martial art.
Whether you follow his fashion advice, on the other hand, is entirely up to you.

Being Aristoi

When I wrote Aristoi I damn near had to teach myself to write all over again.  The book was just that different.When I started writing science fiction, I believe in late 1983, I came up with a list of what I wanted to do.  Because I'd come from a fairly limited branch of historical fiction— naval action-adventure, where every plot concerned about 200 males on a ship— I wanted to expand in as many directions as possible.So here is my list:The future where everything went right.  (This became...