Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 4

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.

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!