Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 40

Reviews in the Nick of Time: The Green Knight

The Green Knight is a film that makes absolutely no sense, but the nifty thing is that it makes no sense in exactly the way that medieval romance made no sense. The characters live in a liminal world. Miracles happen all the time, sorcery is common, magical objects clutter every cupboard, prophetic dreams descend on people without warning, and none of it is explained, it just happens. King Arthur sits with his knights at the Round Table every New Year and waits for a miracle to occu...

Electric Boogaloo

I had all sorts of pleasant things to post here, about the Colorado trip and some other things, but then my electric fixtures began to act up, and it’s using up all my energy.

The day after the return from our trip, the air conditioner died, and will need to be replaced. Unfortunately it will take two weeks for all the parts to arrive, during which time we’re subjected to 90+ degree heat. The contractor has loaned us a couple of portable AC units, one of which is adequate for the space it’...

Thin Air

Our week-long trip to Colorado is over, and now that I’m back, I can’t help but feel this vacation was a little too much work. The plan of driving somewhere new (nearly) every day was too busy. We should have chosen a base or two and stayed there for a few days at a time.

Which isn’t to say there wasn’t plenty of spectacular scenery to enjoy. Here’s a grandiose view of Dillon impoundment with mountains and clouds in the background. This was taken with my iPhone, because though I ...

EXCELLENT ADVICE

An excellent suggestion from the closed movie theater in Center, CO.

Local Green

So the sign on the hotel door read NO SMOKING OF ANYTHING INSIDE!

“Hmm,” I thought to myself. “I must be in Colorado.”

We are on our first trip out of state since August 2019, cruising up central Colorado to Steamboat Springs and back, magnificent scenery all the way, cool temperatures, and signs of a thriving green economy. No less than three cannabis dispensaries are lined up in a row next to our hotel. I wondered if this was the one block zoned for cannabis.

New Mexico recently d...

Sun and Smoke

The other day we meandered down to Belen to view a work by the artist Judy Chicago. She and her husband moved to Belen some years ago and bought an old brick railroad hotel. They live in part of the hotel, and use the rest to store art. (Since Chicago tends to go in for massive installations along the lines of The Dinner Party, they need a lot of room.)

(I might point out that while I live close enough to Belen to share a zip code, I live well out into the country amid the waving fiel...

Foot of the Bow

I apologize for the poor quality of this photo, but I shot in through the screen, in some haste to capture the image before it vanished.

If you observe the rainbow from today’s cloudburst, you’ll see it stretches all the way to the ground in front of the treeline. The rainbow actually touches ground a couple hundred yards from where I stood. I’d never seen that before.

The rain was intense while it lasted, and all the while in brilliant sunshine. I expected to see a unicorn, or a...

Rain, Glorious Rain

Of the last fifteen days, fourteen have featured rain of some sort, anywhere from a light drizzle to an hours-long thundershower. The monsoons came a month early, and it’s been glorious.

New Mexico normally receives half its yearly rainfall in July and August, as big brawling Pacific summer storms battle their way across all of Mexico to dump the last of their rain on us, but the last few years the monsoons have come late, leaving my neighborhood sweltering in 100-degree plus heat, and ...

From the Family Archives

So have I ever told you about the time my dad was held hostage by a gun-wielding madman?

No, I didn’t think so.

My dad was quite young at the time, under ten years of age, so perhaps his memories of the incident aren’t 100% accurate, but on the other hand it’s not the sort of thing you’d easily forget.

My dad, his parents, and his two older brothers were living at home in an isolated farm in Markham township in northern Minnesota. They were going about their ordinary day when a man ...

Midsummer Sale!

The ebook of Fleet Elements is on sale most everywhere for $1.99! Check it out!

The sale began on June 28— though I only found out today— and will run through August 2nd. Buy it while it’s hot!