Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 3

Pointed

The 9th issue of Nathan Toronto’s paperback magazine Bullet Points is now available, with a reprint story by yours truly (“Wolf Time”). Bullet Points “captures the complexity, tragedy, and hope of warfare and violence in human and nonhuman society,” and this issue has an AI theme.

Bullet Points is generously sized, and packs a lot of words between its covers. Feel free to check it out.

Living Genteel

The process of settling into new quarters continues. The living room, pictured here, is almost ready for actual living. The Berlin Wall of cardboard boxes that once blocked access to the bookshelves is gone. In the foreground is our elliptical trainer, which has finally emerged from its container. As the container took up about as much space as a large dining table, it’s a relief to see it gone.

Most rooms are navigable and capable of functioning more or less as intended, with the si...

The Citadel

It’s 2009, and I’m in Turkey to research my novel Deep State. Standing behind is Melinda Snodgrass, and Patricia Rogers is behind the camera.

I’m in the smog-swathed capital of Ankara, the city known to the Hittites as Ankuwash, to the Romans as Ancyra, and to the Ottomans as Angora. Ankara is a modern, largely secular city, with more than 20 universities, but looming above is the acropolis topped by its citadel, mostly Byzantine and Turkish but with foundations that go back to the P...

Storm Swathing

A storm swathes the Sandia mountains, as seen from our balcony.

CoA

So we’ve made the big move, and we’ve sacrificed the joys of country living for the excitement of the big city. As you can see. Excitement everywhere you look.

The move itself took 2 days, the first to pack everything, the second to transport it and unload the trucks. The movers finished at 9pm and I gave them each a nice tip.

There was enough room for all the furniture we cared to bring— lots of bookshelves— which surprised me. Perhaps the apartment is a tesseract.

It’s ...

The Ol’ Green and Purple

Happy St. Urho’s Day!

Happy Pie Day!

Not 3.1415, but British broadcaster Jonathan Pie. Who here melts down in an epic live-mic rant that probably registers an approximate 6.5 on the Richter Scale.

New Digs

We have finally got a moving date, so by the end of the month we’ll be in our new apartment in Albuquerque! Yes, after a 30-year rural idyll, we’re leaving our blissful, well-appointed country house for a place in the big city!

What motivated all this? Well— it was time. After three decades we were getting tired of maintaining a very large house on a very large piece of land. I had got tired of wrangling the tractor. I had got tired of chopping weeds in 110-degree summer heat. We h...

Proclaiming

For those who haven’t seen it, here’s David Tennant’s exuberant opening for this year’s BAFTA awards.

For those looking for a wee bit of relief from out country’s incessant drumbeat of madness and doom. (Maybe it’s not so doomy in Britain.)

WARNING: Scottish accents.

Immunity.

Yesterday I had a shingles shot and a COVID vaccine.Today my body is one giant flare of pain. I’m sure it will get better.