Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 195

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.

 

 

A Social History of British Dentistry . . .

. . . circa 1964.
As my late friend Dick Patten once remarked, "They look like their mothers made them wash."

Taos Toolbox 2012

I'm happy to announce that Taos Toolbox 2012, the master class for writers of science fiction and fantasy, will take place June 10-23, 2012, in Taos Ski Valley.
Teaching will be Walter Jon Williams, Nancy Kress, and special lecturer Daniel Abraham.
Submissions will be accepted beginning December 1.  Start honing your manuscripts!

Wild Visitor

I was alone in the deserted Snow Bear lodge, but I thought I heard someone moving around, and on the assumption it was the landlord, I went looking for him.  Instead I found this golden-eyed beauty perched on the rear balcony.A brief web search indicates that this is a Great Horned Owl, though if any informed strigiphiles care to correct me, they are welcome.The owl made to fly away as I rounded the corner, but as soon as he realized I wasn't advancing on him, he settled down and settled for ...

I Am At Snow Bear

 

I am at Snow Bear for a one-man writer's retreat, wherein I plan to exercise mightily, eat simply, and write lots and lots.I could use a little less snow and ice, frankly.  But I'll just have to go below the snow line for my trail hikes.I would also like to upload some pictures of the lovely mountain scenery and golden aspens, but I'm having a lot of problems uploading pictures right now.  WordPress seems to be traumatized in some significant way.I'll let you know when normal service has...

Goldman's Game of Life

Does anyone remember The Game of Life?  You drove in a little plastic car around the game board, and if you made all the right decisions, you'd end up with a home in the suburbs, a mortgage, and 2.5 children.  Which was the game's definition of happiness, I guess.Those zany jokers at Goldman have created their own version in a flowchart of Europe's current fiscal dilemma, with outcomes ranging from Euro Happiness to Euro Misery.  The chart seems reasonably comprehensive, except for the box...

Skynet Got Drones!

 

A computer virus has hit the entire U.S. drone fleet.  The virus— a keylogger— was first spotted a couple weeks ago, and is proving very difficult to scrub from the drones and their servers.
So far the virus hasn't interfered with the drones' missions, but that only means that Skynet is biding its time . . .