Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 183

Three Works Fly Free

So I've received word that Harper has reverted, Metropolitan, City on Fire, and The Rift.
Actually they were reverted last autumn, but the notification was sent to my late agent, Ralph Vicinanza, who passed away in 2010, and whoever is in that office now did not forward the news.
But in any case ebooks will soon be forthcoming!

I Shall Rise on Easter

I'm very pleased to announce that I will be next year's guest of honor at Eastercon, the UK national convention.
Nothing like a ticket to Europe to raise the spirits!
Let's all hope the Mayans were wrong, shall we?

 

Print-on-Demand?

A question for you all.I've been engaged in the lengthy project of converting all my out-of-print works into ebooks, a project which has been a modest success, and which stands to keep me in beer money for a while.   (Or it would if I actually drank a lot of beer, which I don't.)But I can also make the same books available via print-on-demand.  I haven't done a ton of research into this, but I believe I could make the books available as hardbacks on quality paper with dust jackets for around ...

Kenpo Fable

The Kenpo Master was about to begin class with his senior students when he was approached by a stranger who said he was a Tai Chi Master."I would like to do push-hands with you," said the Tai Chi Master."I'm about to begin class," said the Kenpo Master."I am a Tai Chi Master," said the Tai Chi Master, "and I would like to do push-hands.""An august personage such as a Tai Chi Master is always welcome to my school," said the Kenpo Master. "By all means come into the training area, and let us...

Stories That Can't Have a Good Ending

I've been watching some of the new series that have premiered in this last season, and I've noticed one significant thing about a number of them— there is no possible good ending. The creators put all of their inventive energy into the series' premise, and never thought ahead to how they were going to pull the various plot strands together for a satisfactory finale.Why bother?  The system doesn't reward such thinking.  You've got to dazzle the network brass with the brilliance of your...

Aristoi Update

Aristoi is now available for the Nook.  Enjoy.I found the whole business of creating the cover, making multiple conversions, and uploading to various sites taxing enough that I failed to mention exactly what it was that I uploaded.As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had been trying manfully to duplicate in e-formats the unique two-column text of Aristoi, and asked for help from the Group Mind.  You all rose brilliantly to the occasion, but unfortunately all your technical expertise was for n...

Aristoi. Finally.

I'm pleased to report that Aristoi is now available for the Kindle, and in multiple formats via Smashwords.It should be available for the Nook in the next few days, and via iBooks, Kobo, etc., whenever they get around to it.  (My job here is done.)And here's the final version of the cover.  I found a variant piece of artwork for the background that features a darker sky, so that the Princess's head doesn't get confused with the background when she's shrunk to postage-stamp size.It's baroque, ...

Must Visit Lithuana Very Soon

I'm off to the Jack Williamson Lecture.
While I'm gone, I'm renting out this space as a billboard.  So please enjoy this tasteful, quiet advertisement for Lithuanian mineral water.  (via Pat Cadigan)

Aristoi 1.0

Here's my first stab at cover art for Aristoi.I'm combining two pieces of stock art.  The woman in the foreground was detached from her original background (which was too busy and distracting), and placed against a surreal backdrop by a completely different artist.One of her arms conveniently obscures a Magritte-like figure in a bowler hat.I don't know what the light bulbs are doing there, though the extra-large ladies' shoe probably indicates a recent visit by a transvestite.It could use...

Taking Stock of the Stock Art

I've been trawling through stock art sites in hopes of finding something suitable for the ebook release of Aristoi, and I'm finding that there are certain images that appear over and over again.Bald heads, for one.  If there's a person without a helmet or something covering his or her hair, ten to one that person's bald.I don't think this is because science fiction artists have a strange fetish for bald heads.  I think it's because hair is difficult to paint using Photoshop or other...