Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 191

Taos Toolbox

Taos Toolbox has survived the holidays very well, and is still accepting applications. 
So if you want to participate in a two-week workshop, in luxury mountain accommodations, with me, Nancy Kress, and Daniel Abraham, you should apply soon.  Particularly because if you beat the January 1 deadline, you can save a few bucks.

The Centaur Is In the Building

 

Okay, so finally Knight Moves is available for Kindle, Nook, and on multiple formats via Smashwords.
This book is brought to you courtesy of my crowdsourcing program.
My holidays are finally complete.

Making the Holidays Even Brighter

By now I trust you've all had the chance to open your holiday presents, eat your holiday meals, and belch your holiday belches.  By now you're all sitting bemused about the tree amid piles of wrapping paper and ribbon, while 95-proof eggnog does triple axels in your head.  And you're probably asking yourself, What next?Well, if you happen to be one of the 4,000,000+ people who got a Kindle this holiday season, or the many others who received iPads or Nooks or Kobos or other readers, I am...

Good Merlinpeen To All

This is a not-particularly-brilliant photo of this year's Merlinpeen tree.  I must admit that I was on my second margarita when I took it.I hope you all enjoy this year's Festival of Mouth Pleasures, or— if you happen not to share my Verdukian faith— a wonderful Christmas, a joyous Festival of Lights, a riotous Saturnalia, delightful Daft Days, a glorious reemergence of Amaterasu, a good Biewe Festival, a mickle Maidyarem, a memorable citrus bath at Donzhi, a great Goru, a joyous Junkanoo, a ...

Centaur In Your Stocking

 

One reason I haven't been posting much this week is that I've been laboring to get the ebook of Knight Moves, my Philip K Dick nominee, available for your reading pleasure.I'm pleased to report that though I did my job, the book is currently available only on Smashwords.   I guess it'll be available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble whenever their staff returns from their holiday break.However, Smashwords does have it available on whatever format you could possibly desire, so if you have a...

Miraculous

Behold my photo of Santa Fe's Loretto Chapel, where we attended Pro Musica's annual Baroque Christmas Concert the other night.  The chapel was built by the Sisters of Loretto, who came to Santa Fe in the 1850s and ran an orphanage and hospital until 1968, after which the chapel was de-sanctified and is now a private museum that you can rent for weddings and other functions.The Sisters arrived at the request of Archbishop Jean-Baptiste Lamy, the aristocratic Frenchman who is the central...

Angel Station

I have to admit it, Angel Station was not one of the books I was looking forward to reading during the process of converting the book to e-formats.  (Wherein it is now totally available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.  Just in case you forgot.)I've always had a problem with Angel Station.But before I get into all that, a little bit of history.  I wrote the first part of Voice of the Whirlwind around 1980 or early 1981, and I know this because the original typescript is in fact a...

Bill of Rights Day

So the National Defense Authorization of 2012 has passed, aided by the lobbying efforts of defense contractors such as Honeywell and Bluewater Defense, who are no doubt looking forward to being paid billions for building LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of prisons and torture chambers.The bill passed on December 15, which happens to be Bill of Rights Day.  Thank you for the fucking irony, asshats!Thirteen senators voted against, neatly divided into six Republicans, six Democrats, and one Independent.Se...

In the Now

I am pleased to announce that the ebook of Angel Station is now available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.
Just in time for the winter gift-giving holiday of your choice!
Enjoy!

Cyclopean

Here's another picture from our 2012 calendar.  This is the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul, built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian in the 6th Century AD.I'd say it's holding up pretty well.The photo gives you an idea why the Turks call the cistern the "Sunken Palace."   It's the size of a cathedral, with the roof standing over 60 feet high, and can hold nearly three million cubic feet of water.It's one of hundreds of cisterns beneath the city,  most of which have been forgotten.The roof is...