Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 200

Spam and its Discontents

 

Remember back in April when people were happy that the world volume of spam had decreased by a third or more?  Some of the more notorious botnets, like Rostock and Mega-D, were being dismantled, presumably with the aid of the governments of the former-SSRs that had been hosting them all this time.My spam count went way the hell down, far more than a third.  April was the cruelest month, for Oleg Nikolaenko anyway.  Some days I actually enjoyed looking at email, an experience I usually find m...

The Return of Days of Atonement

Just a little advanced glimpse of the cover for the forthcoming e-release of Days of Atonement.   One of my finer works, if I do say so myself.

The News This Week is Mighty Fine, Thanks for Asking

 

This week's news has to do with Turkey.Firstly, I've sold This Is Not a Game and Deep State to Pegasus Publishing in lovely, lovely Istanbul.  (I can hardly wait for my signing tour.)Nextly, Paul Witcover wrote a long, wonderful review of Deep State for the current Locus. Unfortunately it's not available on their site, so I can't link to it . . . but I'm pleased to report the highlights here."Both prescient and utterly of the moment, featuring an ingeniously concocted and elaborated plot...

The Wit of the Toolbox

The French have a term, l'esprit d'escalier, "wit of the staircase," for those incredibly pithy and clever remarks that you never actually deliver, because by the time you think of them, the party's over and you're heading down the stair on your way home.  Taos Toolbox has a similar sort of wit.  Not because it's not timely, because it always is, but because the context is completely lost to any observer who isn't present at the critiques.  Nancy Kress jotted down quite a number of these...

Taos Toolbox Retrospective

Ever since Taos Toolbox ended on Saturday I've been curled up in my cave like an exhausted bear, catching up on everything that's happened in my world since I went up the mountain on the 10th.     At least our political world is consistent: those losers in Washington are still arguing about the same stuff they were arguing about two weeks ago.The Toolbox class was amazing: in the two weeks they read and critiqued something like 198,000 words of fiction, did exercises, worked incessantly on...

Ursoid Loper

Here in the last days of the Taos Toolbox workshop, our totem animal finally paid us a visit, and I'm pleased to report that attendee Scott Hawkins had his camera ready.

And Speaking of Rupert Murdoch . . .

 

Wifi here has got very slow, and I'm unable to upload your daily amusements.    But if I put a video on this page, all I have to upload is the code, and although it will take fifteen minutes, you'll probably be able to see it.
So here, via Sean Eret, is It's a Wonderful Life, starring Rupert Murdoch.

Alas, Borders

 

Borders is dead.  The bookstore chain failed to find a white knight that satisfied its creditors, and will go into receivership within the next few days.This, my friends, is bad.  Borders was nearly half the bookstore sales in North America.  While competitors like Amazon and Barnes & Noble will doubtless pick up some of the slack, I've been reading lament after lament from readers who are no longer within easy commuting distance of a big bookstore, or any bookstore at all.   Small stores...

Return of the Rainbow

 

 

 

Another fine sunset rainbow, courtesy of what I believe was our third thunderstorm today.  Despite having to unplug all the electronics, I'm very happy for the weather.

Something To Look Forward To

Let it not be said that we are idle here at Taos Toolbox.   Among other things, we have plotted and outlined Christie Yant's next novel, put the whole thing on a series of 3×5 cards, and then stuck them on a door (because doors, as you know, are symblic).  Here's a picture.Nor will this picture be of any help to you if you unscrupulously— or even scrupulously—  set out to steal Christie's novel.  Because the notes are cryptic and you will be unable to make sense of them— and if you do think y...