Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 22

Fiyo Away

We’ve been listening to Mardi Gras music all day on Sirius Radio, so I thought I’d share some with you. Here’s Trombone Shorty and Cyril Neville with “Fiyo on the Bayou.”

Dance if you want to.

Another Point for the Toolbox

I’m pleased to report that The Bone Orchard, by Taos Toolbox veteran Sara A. Mueller, has been nominated for the Compton Crook Award.

The Bone Orchard was workshopped at Taos Toolbox, and has been generating buzz for its author ever since its publication earlier in the year.

Not to be forever harping on the subject, but if you have ambitions to write professionally in the science fiction and fantasy field, you should apply to the Toolbox. We’ve helped a lot of people wri...

Back to Boston

I’m heading to Boston for Boskone 60 this weekend. I’ll hope to see you there.

I’ll be participating in panels, a reading, a signing, and a kaffeeklatsch, and I’ll also be hanging out and talking to people. Here’s the schedule. Some of the convention will be virtual, so you might be able to participate without actually traveling to Boston. Maybe some of my panels will be carried on the virtual schedule. It must be admitted that I don’t know.

Be that as it may, I plan to have fun thi...

Sending

Talk Video

Brenda Cooper, Ken Scholes, Hank Schwaeble, Cliff Winnig, and I are interviewed by Sean Patrick Hazlett about our participation in the anthology High Noon on Proxima B.

We had fun, I think. Odds are you will, too.

Cover’d

Looks like I’ve bought tickets to see Steve ‘n’ Seagulls live.

Hope they bring the anvil with them.

Another Win on the Shelf

So Bonnie got another Grammy to put on her shelf, much to the astonishment and outrage of the world. (If you can’t outrage the world at an awards ceremony, what’s the point?) I could post the video of “Just Like That” here, but I thought I’d put up one that was new to me— a live performance of Bonnie and Keb Mo in “Can’t Get Over You.” Check out those mad guitar skills!

Some headline writer described her as a “unknown blues singer.” I guess that’ll put her in her place!

When Horses Fly

I suppose because I was the most junior person on board, I was first through the hatch, and then I just gaped.

The smell struck me first, horse dung and horse sweat and horse panic and horse urine, all blended into a primeval acid reek that scalded the back of my throat. And then there was the demented sight of a dozen or more horses thrashing in zero gravity, legs kicking, eyes starting, foam flying from their nostrils, teeth bared, manes flying… They kicked at each other, at the walls, and...

Whole Yellow

For Cousin Cindy’s visit the other day, I cooked a large ham. It was something like 12 pounds, so it lasted considerably longer than the night Cindy was here. Since then we’ve enjoyed ham sandwiches, ham omelettes, and ham fried rice. Because there was a leftover ham bone, I was inspired to make a memory from my childhood, whole yellow pea soup (with ham), which is very pleasing on a cold winter night.

I think it’s a Scandinavian thing. My mother used to make this all the time when I...

How I Are a Williams

Victor and Alexsandra

A few days ago I had a visit from my cousin Cindy, who was in transit from Minnesota to visit friends in Arizona. Cindy has been assembling a genealogy of our family, and I was able to share a few stories about our history, including the story of how I became a Williams.

I figure I may as well share it with the rest of you.

My paternal grandfather Victor Kuusikoski (born 1876) hailed from the town of Kankaanpää, which was then in the Finnish province of Ostrobo...