Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 186
February 26, 2012
Owl. Pussycat.
This really isn't the go-to blog for cute animal videos, but this one is so extraordinary that once I saw it on al-Zorra's site, I had to share it with you.
PayPal Puts the Screws on Erotica
I've always thought that PayPal was a useful service, and regretted the fact that they crashed every time I tried to log onto them. (Even when I tried to logon through other people's computers, they crashed. It's not the computer, it's me. I am cursed.)Be that as it may, I'm not so sorry anymore about being unable to use Paypal. Because they're now using their financial power to censor the work of authors.Specifically, they have ordered Smashwords to remove certain kinds of erotica from t...
February 24, 2012
Amazoniana
Our friends at Amazon have been in the news.First off is the fallout from their quarrel with IPG, the country's second-largest book distributor. Amazon tried to renegotiate a better deal with IPG's ebooks, IPG declined to budge, and now all IPG's ebooks are no longer available for Kindle.Because IPG's list is long on cookbooks and textbooks, and short on super-popular fiction, this will only impact about five percent of their business. So they're not taking a huge hit. Not yet anyway.But s...
February 23, 2012
I Am Nook'd
I just noticed that ebooks of The Praxis, The Sundering, and Conventions of War have been made available via Barnes & Noble.
When did that happen?
I had been grumped that they weren't available for my loyal Nook users, and now I need grump no more.
When did that happen?
I had been grumped that they weren't available for my loyal Nook users, and now I need grump no more.
February 22, 2012
What? Me Again?
If you don't feel there's enough me on this blog, there's even more me over on SF Signal, where I've written an essay about writing, about gaming, about writing gaming, and about the kind of games writers play.
Enjoy.
Get Yer Signatures Here!
Just to let you all know, I will be signing The Fourth Wall (and any other book you care to bring) at Page One bookstore in Albuquerque, this coming Saturday, February 25, at 3pm.There will be a talk and a reading as well.
Please come, so I don't have to sit there humming to myself for two whole hours.
February 20, 2012
Reviews Too Late: The Eagle
I finally got around to seeing The Eagle, which was one of two films released in 2011 that dealt with the disappearance of Legio IX Hispania north of Hadrian's Wall sometime around 117 CE. (I offer a brief review of the other film here.) Which just goes to show you that when it's Legio IX Hispania time in Hollywood, it's Legio IX Hispania wherever you look.This is by far the better film, in part because it's based on Rosemary Sutcliffe's The Eagle of the Ninth. I read this classic YA when ...
February 19, 2012
Meet the Billy D
I'm back from D.C. (where I gave a talk on Internet culture to an international audience with more credentials than even I can shake a stick at), but I'm jetlagged and feeling unmotivated and uncommunicative, so instead of me talking, I'll let History do it, and introduce you to the most incompetent warship in the history of the world.The destroyer William D Porter twice opened fire, with live ammunition, on the President of the United States, shelled the house of its base commander while...
February 16, 2012
Where's Walter?
As I mentioned in a previous post, I've left home and currently am in an Undisclosed Location.I don't want to say where I am, but if you'll look at the accompanying photo of innocuous cherry blossoms, you will find that I have inserted a clue into the illustration from which the clever among you may be able to deduce my location.
February 15, 2012
Behold! I Am Interviewed
I'm out of town for a few nights and my posting here may be erratic, so please enjoy this interview on Black Gate, conducted by none other than Emily Mah.
