Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 183

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...

Your Classics, Please

I am off later this week to the annual Jack Williamson Lecture in ever-friendly Portales, New Mexico.  This year's guests of honor will be Carrie Vaughn and Daniel Abraham.   There will also be Connie Willis, Ian Tregillis, Melinda Snodgrass, and probably a good many more.While I'm there, I'll be on a panel about science fiction classics.I have a list of science fiction classics to wave around, naturally, but I don't want to leave anything out.What should be on my list?  What treasures of...

Reviews In the Nick of Time: Hunger Games

I actually went to see a movie on its opening weekend! This almost never happens.  I should probably get a check-up.Hunger Games was, miraculously, a surprisingly faithful adaptation of the book.  (Is it possible that Hollywood has learned that if you adapt a book with millions of rabid followers, and you actually make a film of the book, you will make potloads of money?  As f'rinstance Harry Potter, Twilight, Game of Thrones?  Naaaah, never happen.)It's pointless to approach this film, or...

Give a TOS

Facebook has altered its Terms of Service (TOS), and now states that merely by using Facebook you now assent to their trademark of the word "book."The "book" addition to the user agreement isn't as strong as a registered trademark or copyright, but provides extra protection, says intellectual property attorney Denis Ticak of Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff LLP in Cleveland, Ohio. The difference is that instead of extending to anyone who infringes upon the trademark, the user...

Recortadores

As a co-author of the bull-leaping story "Tauromachia," I've retained an interest in feats of gymnastics performed on and about our Taurid cousins.Here we find some Cretan bull-leapers— well actually they're Spanish recontadores, aided I suspect by some enthusiastic local amateurs— introducing their sport to Canada.  Which may cause a certain conceptual disconnect when you hear "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the start of the video.  (It is played to salute the bulls, who are from Colorado.)...