Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 214

Advice that could have saved so many people hours and hou...

Advice that could have saved so many people hours and hours spent in darkened theaters.

Fiction Factory

Wanna write a novel for a $250 advance?  Apparently a lot of people would.There are these organizations in our business called fiction factories.  They are run by people called "packagers," who basically operate very much like Hollywood producers.  They come up with an idea for a book, or more likely a series, then sell the package to a publisher, hire a writer to do the actual work, and then collect something like half of the earnings.   They also try to sell the package in other media.When ...

Taos Toolbox 2011

I'm happy to announce Taos Toolbox 2011!
Our lovely two-week master class in science fiction and fantasy will take place July 10-23 in Taos Ski Valley.  Teaching will be Nancy Kress, Walter Jon Williams, and Jack Skillingstead.
Applications are accepted beginning December 1.
Write!  Submit!  Tell your friends!

We Are Moved!

Walter Jon William's blog has been moved to this new address! Please bookmark it, and--- if the mood strikes--- send lots and lots of money!All the old posts and replies have been moved to the new location, so if you want to revive any old arguments or look through the archives in search of some perfect bit of wisdom you vaguely recall my having written, you can do it over there.Comments will be

Please to Maintain

Due to some changes going on in the electronic neighborhood, I won't be posting here for a few days. I'll be making some New, Improved Posts when the wave function reduces to a single state.

Salander. Sula.

We went to the movies this afternoon, and the theater was packed. But as I looked around I realized that no one in the theater seemed to be under fifty. Okay, so the cheap Sunday matinees are attractive to people living on a pension. But why this movie, rather than the others in the multiplex? What was bringing a whole crowd of middle-aged to elderly people out to the cinema?The answer? A

My God--- It's Full of Planets!

I certainly picked an interesting time to take an intensive astronomy course.Via David Brin, I hear that we've now found that our new space telescope Kepler has found 140 Earth-sized exoplanets. Kepler finds planets by detecting almost imperceptible 'winks' - the tiny amount of dimming that occurs each time a planet moves across the face of a star . . . 'Transits', as they are known, by

Signing in Albuquerque

I'll be signing in Albuquerque this weekend, on Saturday the 24th, from 3-4:30pm. The signing will be at Page One, Albuquerque's biggest independent bookstore. I will be signing The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories, along with whatever else they have in the store (which should be everything in print, and some other stuff besides.) I'll be alongside Bob Vardeman, and we'll read, chat,

1979: The Writer's Life

We've been reorganizing the garage, and I've been going through a lot of old paperwork to see what can be tossed away. Among other things, I found boxes upon boxes of old tax forms and documentation stretching back to 1979, my first year as a full-time professional writer. I've tossed away pounds and pounds of old bills and canceled checks, but I've hung onto the actual tax forms and my expense

Ten Atmospheres

When I was learning scuba, I was being forever warned about the kind of stuff that many atmospheres of water pressure could do to you.Mythbusters had an episode that illustrated this very nicely, and Carrie kindly pointed out the relevant video on YouTube.They stuffed a dead pig in a hardhat diving suit, dropped it to 100 meters depth, then drained the air pressure from the suit, subjecting Mr.