Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 198

Dragon*Con

(Dragon*Con sort of wants the asterisk to be there, and I sort of don't.  So I'll put it in the first sentence and the title, and you can take it as read from this point onward.  Right?)Typographical issues aside, My Horrible Month of Travel is now over.   During the last thirtysome days I've got to spend eight whole nights at home, and the rest on the road.  Though I had a good time wherever I went, I'm not about to do anything like this again.  (Not unless people offer to hand me great...

Kicking It Old School

 

Via Ian McDowell, this juicy trailer from Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame. Directed by my onetime creative associate Tsui Hark, with fight chorography by Sammo Hung, and starring Andy Lau, Carina Lau, and Tony Leung (Ka-fai).  The movie was nominated for thirteen Hong Kong Film Awards and won six.I'm always happy to see Judge Dee in any of his incarnations.  My first introduction to the character came from the series of mystery novels by Robert van Gulik, a Dutch diplomat ...

Dragoncon Schedule

I am off to Dragoncon at the unfortunate hour of 6:25am.  Fortunately it's a nonstop flight and I can sleep the whole way.  This is the fourth convention in a row for me, and I'm surprised I can stay on my feet.Here's my schedule.  I seem to be mainly on alternate history panels, but there's a whole hour where you can ask me anything you like.After all this travel, I may be too beat up to understand the questions, though.Title: A-Viking We Will Go!
Time: Fri 04:00 pm Location: International ...

Mostly Complete Ebook List!

 

I've updated my ebook list to a nearly-complete status!  So if you're looking for my work in e-formats, check there.
Because some of my stories are available in anthologies that have been e-formatted, new stuff is popping up all the time, so the list can't possibly be complete.  But in the meantime, feel free to download and enjoy what's there.

Windy Newscasters

I spent the weekend enjoying myself at Bubonicon, but every so often I'd check the news to see whether Hurricane Irene had destroyed the East Coast, as our bold media establishment had been predicting for days.Of course the hurricane had been downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it made landfall in the Carolinas, and did only a modest amount of damage and produced only an insignificant death toll, which proved to be a catastrophe for the newscasters if not for the country.Not that the n...

Bubonicon Schedule

 

So here's my schedule for Bubonicon, Albuquerque's finest convention.   For a gathering named after the Black Death, it's had a surprisingly long life span, and is currently in its 43rd year.I've been to most of them, God help me.This convention will have more writers than you can shake a stick at, and I'm betting you can shake a stick at a lot of writers.  GoH will be Stephen Leigh/S.L. Farrell, toastmaster Ian Tregillis, and artist guest John Picacio.Wandering the halls of the convention y...

Snob Burgers

 

To get a good hamburger I seem to have to pay $10 these days.I don't eat a lot of our national dish, but every so often I get a craving, and then I go in search of that special taste.   But the average burger is pretty pathetic— the meat isn't high quality, and for reasons having to do with liability it's always cooked well-done, which means it's largely flavorless and often dry.  Plus here in New Mexico the fries are pathetic— pale, usually, and limp, and tasteless.(I'm not sure why that...

News From the Dismal Science . . .

So Moody's has downgraded Japan's debt.  Zero Hedge, my favorite site for economic paranoia of all stripes and dimensions, offered a suitable comment: "What was that word Freud used when you are a weak, pathetic, corrupt, powerless, piece of anachronistic filth and instead of doing the right thing (for fear of losing your job or worse), you lash out at a weaker and irrelevant substitute? Oh yes, projection."And over at Forbes, Steve Denning offers a detailed and fascinating explanation of ...

People 3, Dictators 0

While I was in sunny Reno enjoying the Worldcon, another autocratic regime crumbled into the desert sand.  I only found out when I turned on CNN Monday morning, but then regime c0llapse happened very, very quickly, within the previous 24 hours.An offensive by a largely Tamazight-speaking Berber force from the western highlands coincided with a massive uprising in Tripoli itself. By the time the rebels arrived, the Tripolitanians had pretty much liberated themselves.  As I watch CNN now, I...

I'm Busy Today, So Please Enjoy this Broody Mountain

 

Here's a piece of the Canadian Rockies.  I'm sure it has a name, but I don't know what it is.