Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 23

1941-2023

David Crosby is the only major rock star I ever had a conversation with, backstage at the National Hispanic Cultural Center. We weren’t exactly a mutual admiration society: I adored his music; and though a science fiction fan who knew my name, he’d never read any of my books. (I sent him some, but I have no idea if he ever read them.)

I’ve read his autobiographies, full of fraught and hazard, and I’m amazed he made it to 81.

Here he is performing “Déjà Vu,” which was for its tim...

A Little Joiking in the Night

Friend of the blog Steinar Bang has sent me this clip of Norway-born Sami Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen performing a masterful joik.

It appears to be some kind of competition show. Now why can’t we have shows like this in the States?

I Am Revu’d

Locus Online has published Russell Letson’s lengthy, thoughtful review of Imperium Restored. I quote from a key paragraph:

I will repeat (again) the observation I made at the very start, two decades back: that despite marketing language and cover iconography, these are not only space-operatic military adventures but also novels of manners, which makes them future-setting cousins of Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin wooden-ships novels . . . Here character and social observation and the i...

Go Yeoh!

Via Variety:

Nobody is going to play off Michelle Yeoh. The actor, who won her first Golden Globe on Tuesday, jokingly told the awards show’s producers to “shut up” after trying to cut her speech short. 

“I can beat you up,” said Yeoh as music started to play midway through her remarks. “And that’s serious.”

Man, I would love to see that. Much better than watching comic actors bitch-slapping each other.

Saladin Swings Spider-Man

We continue with our survey of releases in 2022 from veterans of Taos Toolbox, the master class for writers of science fiction and fantasy.

Saladin Ahmed was at the very first Toolbox in 2007, where he workshopped his novel Throne of the Crescent Moon, subsequently nominated for every award in the field. Saladin was nominated for a short fiction Nebula before pivoting to the Marvel Universe, where he scripts Ms. Marvel and the Miles Morales version of Spider-man. He’s also continued hi...

Feed the Bear

It’s the New Year, so the application season for Taos Toolbox has finally opened!

Taos Toolbox, the master class for writers of science fiction and fantasy, has a proven record of helping new writers make sales, win awards, and build careers. If your New Year’s resolution for 2023 is “working toward becoming a professional writer,” this is the place to start.

George R.R. Martin will once again provide the Terran Award, a full tuition and lodging scholarship for a writer from a non-En...

Buffelhunde

Lawrence M. Schoen has published widely, has won both the Hugo and Campbell Awards, and speaks fluent Klingon. He’s also a veteran of Taos Toolbox, the master class for writers of fantasy and science fiction.

His latest publication in 2022 is based on a singular idea. His popular “Buffalito” series about far-future stage hypnotist the Amazon Conroy and his oxygen-farting pet, Reggie, began with the story “Buffalo Dogs,” which has been translated and published around the world. Buffali...

7-Day Countdown

Applications for Taos Toolbox, the master class for science fiction and fantasy, will open in just a week’s time!

Taught by Nancy Kress and Walter Jon Williams, the workshop has been in existence since 2007, and— as should be obvious from the number of posts I’ve made in the last few weeks, featuring published authors from Taos Toolbox— we help provide new authors with the skills and information they need to make real careers in the field of fantastic fiction.

If you have ambitions to...

Alien Pledge

I continue my survey of works published in 2022 by veterans of Taos Toolbox, master class for writers of science fiction and fantasy.

Toolbox 2008 veteran Brian K. Lowe has had an interestingly various career, including the Stolen Future trilogy, the Nemesis series of pulp-inspired thrillers, the fantasy Once a Knight, and a book on how to protect yourself from securities fraud.

Brian’s latest is in a lighter mode, involving an alien invader who finds himself pledging at an American...

Just Add Fairy Dust

I’m continuing my survey of 2022 works by veterans of Taos Toolbox, the master class for writers of science fiction and fantasy.

Kelly Robson was at the very first Toolbox in 2006, and since then has carved a career for herself, filled with nominations for Hugos, Nebulas, Campbells, and Auroras. She writes like no one else, and is therefore irreplaceable. Her new book High Times in the Low Parliament, was described by Library Journal as “A satirical send-up of politicians and bureaucra...