Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 207

Early Drafts

Why do good writers do more than one draft?Because instead of being on a list of the Most Disgusting Characters Ever Created, we'd prefer ending up on the list of 5 Insane Early Drafts of Famous Characters.  (Of course, we'd prefer not to end up on either list.)Think what list Spielberg and Lucas would have been on if, as in their original concept, they'd left Indiana Jones as a pedophile.. . . But no possible justification could make Indy anything other than a "sick child molester" if he...

Soft Apocalypse

My sometime student Will McIntosh (Taos Toolbox 2008) has published his first novel, and it's a very fine work indeed. Soft Apocalypse — the very title of which introduces a useful idea into science fiction— is what happens when your civilization starts to crumble and then just keeps on crumbling.  There's no bang, there's no war, there's no great dramatic moment when the cities burn, there are no armies of zombies, there's just a slow and steady erosion of everything that makes your society...

Kickingpunchingscreamingfallingdown . . .

So it was karate weekend here in the Land of Enchantment, with people coming from several states to participate.  Friday was five or six hours of class, most quite vigorous, some not.  This was followed by my requalification as a Kenpo black belt, which is something I have to do every so often in order to demonstrate that I haven't forgotten everything I've learned while I was off learning cool new stuff.Re-cert, as we hip karate cats call it, involved two hours of full-bore all-out...

Plans A-gley, the Way They Do

I had every intention of writing a lengthy post tonight, but after due consideration I decided to imitate Topaz here and take a nap instead.
My gain, alas, is your loss.
The next couple days are going to be occupied with a bunch of full-bore karate events, in which I will be requalifying for my black belt, so I expect it will be a sorer and wiser Walter who posts here next.

The Old Green and Purple

I'm wearing green and purple today.  Why?  Because it's St. Urho's Day, of course!


For those of you not in the know, I present a brief video explaining the cosmic importance of St. Urho.  It's clearly from another year in which March 16th fell on a Monday, but don't let that concern you.

Meanwhile, From Japan . . .

Meanwhile we have via Jeff Kooistra a complaint from Japan about the way foreign media is handling the earthquake story.. . . Then my email started going crazy.  People from all over the world were writing to see where I was and was I safe. I started to reply but there were too many emails and I was wondering why. The Japanese TV was showing exactly the locations were things were happening in and were giving out all the information.  It was a huge area, but not all the country.  There...

Corpse-Eaters

I've started getting spam from organizations claiming to be charities engaged in helping the people of Japan.They're lying, of course.  They'll keep the money and laugh at you while dancing on the corpses of the tsunami's victims.I'm sure that everyone reading this knows enough to treat this sort of solicitation with the contempt it deserves, but it doesn't hurt to issue a warning.  When a titanic disaster like this occurs, we want to help, and there are people who will take advantage of our ...

Set Phasers Tae Malky

I have a full weekend ahead of me and probably won't be posting much, so while you're waiting for me to serve up my usual broth of wisdom, please enjoy the trailer for the new Star Trek franchise.

Science Fiction Bagpipe, Illustrated

So the artist Ward Shelley has achieved a degree of celebrity in our tribe through his painting, in which he managed to encapsulate the history of science fiction in a graphic that seems to otherwise depict  a couple of Lovecraft monsters having sex.Or maybe it's a bagpipe turned inside-out.But I'd like to point out that this can't be a real history of science fiction, for the simple reason that I am not mentioned anywhere in the design.And it can't be complete without me, now can it?  This i...

Still More Me!

It's another Walter Jon Williams interview! This one's in Lightspeed Magazine and is conducted by the fine author Chris Moriarty, who knows my work well, and who is also really, really smart.
Check it out!