Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 194

Come Naked

The following are alleged to be actual answers found on the official Australian tourist web site.  Even if that's not true, they're still pretty amusing.Q: Does it ever get windy in Australia ? I have never seen it rain on TV, how do the plants grow? ( UK ).A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around watching them die.Q: Will I be able to see kangaroos in the street? ( USA )

A: Depends how much you've been drinking.Q: I want to walk from Perth to Sydney – can I follow the...

Big Joe

So . . . who invented rock and roll?My money's on this guy.Not only did he record "Roll 'Em Pete", the first song with a backbeat, in 1938, but he mastered a whole series of musical genres.  Blues, jump blues, R&B, jazz, big band swing, and finally rock and roll.In addition to recording with jazz greats Art Tatum, Duke Ellington, and Sammy Price, he gave the Basie Orchestra a big shot in the arm with their collaboration.And then "Shake, Rattle, and Roll," with its risque lyrics, made him a...

Spacetime Rip

The Europeans, I am delighted to report, are planning on punching a hole in spacetime.(Into which, my cynicism tempts me to add, they will throw billions in their soon-to-be-worthless currency.)The combined power of 10 separate lasers would be focused down to a very small volume, creating conditions more extreme than in the center of our sun. It is hoped (yes, hoped) that this immense energy will punch a hole through the fabric of spacetime itself, heralding a new era of exotic physics...

Wild Cards in Film

 

Universal has just acquired the Wild Card books!
Universal is a major studio without a superhero franchise . . . till now.

WFC

When I tell my friends I'm off to the World Fantasy Convention, they always think I'll be attending a more exotic sort of event than it actually is.When I explain that it's a gathering of writers, artists, and editors, they sort of furrow their brows and say, "What the hell kind of fantasy is that?"Mine, apparently.  Sorry.But anyway, yes, I am off as of tomorrow morning.  Friday evening I'll be at the mass signing, probably arriving late, and will also be at a 3pm panel on Thursday...

Royalties

Three major publishers have announced that they're going to make sales data available to their authors.   I mean, like, wow.Those of you unconnected with the arcane world of publishing may have assumed that sales data was always available to authors.  I mean, why wouldn't it be?Because publishers stood to make millions by not telling authors how many books they were selling, that's why.I have before me a set of royalty statements from June 2011.  These reports didn't actually arrive last...

The Way We Are Now

The Association of American Publishers released figures for last June, showing that sales of adult trade paperbacks were down by no less than 63.8%.  (And my latest book was released in trade format!  My joy is unconfined.)Adult hardcover sales were down by 25.4%, and mass market paperbacks by only 21.6%.Revenues from ebooks were up by 161% over the previous year, but the increased e-revenues were not enough to make up for the losses caused by print books.Borders has collapsed, taking with...

Super-Entities

So . . . who owns the world economy?  Some systems analyst guys in Zurich (I suspect actual gnomes) have analyzed what they call "the network of corporate control."(Please note that economists didn't even think of doing anything like this.)As the New Scientist comments:From Orbis 2007, a database listing 37 million companies and investors worldwide, they pulled out all 43,060 TNCs [Trans-National Corporations] and the share ownerships linking them. Then they constructed a model of which...

Got It Live If You Want It!

[image error] The new ebook of Voice of the Whirlwind is now available for Kindle, Nook, and via Smashwords.Pretty awesome cover, neh?Elsewhere in ebook news, Hardwired, The Crown Jewels, Days of Atonement, and Rock of Ages should now be available in the Apple store, as well as Diesel and Scrollmotion.If they're not yet available in the Sony store, they should be shortly.  (Sony seems to take its sweet time.)Quite frankly, I'd prefer you downloading from Smashwords rather than iBooks, because I get a...

From the Lebanese Cookbook

Tonight's dinner was Samak al Kamoun, a whole fish grilled in a paste of garlic, paprika, olive oil, lemon juice, and cumin seeds lovingly toasted by yours truly and ground by hand with a mortar and pestle.
The grill scorched it a bit, so next time I'll bake it.