Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 4

Side Deal

Here we are back at the Grand Canyon. Center left, you can see a side canyon striking off to the distant north rim.

This is near a place called Grandview, which was the site of the canyon’s only hotel from 1893. Pete Berry had arrived as a miner, but found lodging more profitable. He built a two-storey log hotel, picked up visitors after a 12-hour stagecoach ride from Flagstaff, then guided them into the canyon on mules.

In 1901 the Santa Fe railroad arrived at a different loca...

Moonrise

Grand Canyon at sunset, with full moon. 2-8-2025.

On the Rim

Here’s a view from the Grand Canyon’s South Rim. I don’t remember quite where. The canyon is probably twelve or fifteen miles broad at this point, and what you see of the geology is complex.

I’d been to the North Rim in 2008, but I’d last been on the South Rim in 1977, when I was with a group of Albuquerque fans that motored to the park in order to attend Leprecon, a science fiction convention. Four of us drove out in my horrible 1972 Chevy window van. Because the van only had two se...

Travels with Fred

A couple weeks ago we returned from a five day trip to the Grand Canyon. Since then I’ve been inundated with Stuff That Must Be Done, most of which is bullshit, wastes my time, and provides no sense of accomplishment when completed. And I’ve yet to start the taxes, which is the bullshit doubled and redoubled.

It was a minor miracle that the trip happened at all. Two weeks earlier Kathy had been in the hospital. The American Republic was being destroyed wholesale by two willful childr...

Save a Few

Nobody bothered to tell me this, but due to a fortunate accident I discovered that Amazon is running a $1.99 special on the latest Praxis novel, Imperium Restored.

The other ebook sites will generally follow Amazon and cut their own prices, so if you don’t have an Amazon account, check your favorite ebook retailer for a discount.

If you haven’t yet got your own copy, now is your chance!

The Toolbox Strikes Again

Shen Tao (Taos Toolbox ’23) has sold her first novel in a number of markets, mostly at auction. After workshopping The Poet Empress at Toolbox, she finished the book, went straight out and got an agent, and then started collecting advances. A seven-figure advance in the States, a six-figure advance in Britain, another six figures from Germany, some pre-empts in Italy and Spain, and no doubt more to come.

This sort of thing happens once in a career, if you’re very, very lucky. Though it ...

Sun Dog

Grand Canyon sunset, Feb. 2025. Small sun dog at right.

Cruising

Here’s a spotted eagle ray cruising over the reef in the Turks and/or Caicos, 2016.

Eagle rays are impressive, with their ten-foot wing span, but they don’t hang around for long. They’re both fast and shy, and if they see divers in their vicinity, they’re out of sight very quickly. They’re pelagic fishes, living in the deep ocean, and only hang around islands and reefs if they happen to run into them on their travels in the Big Blue.

This one zoomed past, giving us only a few se...

London Broil!

So what to do with a beef round roast? It’s tough, it’s very lean, and it can be kind of flavorless.

Yet roasts can be comfort food, and comfort is what I’d kind of like given recent events, which include freezing weather for the last week, and a tomorrow promised to remain below freezing all day.

So beef round? The traditional method is to braise the hell out of it, for a couple hours or so.

I decided to go another route. I marinated it overnight in a marinade of Worcesters...

Go ‘Pods!

A gorgeous nudibranch crawling along the reef at Siladen, Sulawesi (formerly known as Celebes).

Sulawesi is a paradise for nudibranchs, and apparently every other form of aquatic life. Nudibranchs are a type of gastropod, basically a snail that has got rid of its shell and survives by tasting really awful to predators. The colorful exterior is a warning of bad taste to follow.

There are hundreds of types of nudibranchs, all of them colorful and beautiful, many of them yet to be ...