Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 41

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!

Coolness

While the Northwest U.S. and Canada are suffering under their “heat dome,” with Canada thrice recording an all-time high temperature of 121F, my own neighborhood is experiencing a cold front.

The weekend’s predicted rain in Taos Ski Valley was delayed— I got in two hikes, not one, before the skies opened— but when the rain came it passed through the whole state, in my home town raining more or less continually for 24 hours. After a couple weeks of temperatures hovering around 100F, to...

Havoc x 2

June Havoc harmonizes with June Havoc singing “The Man With the Big Sombrero.”

I keep thinking the sombrero is a metaphor for something, but I can’t imagine what.

June Havoc, it will be remembered, was the younger sister of Gypsy Rose Lee.

Rained Out

I’m in my happy place, which is to say Taos Ski Valley. But Nature is not in tune with my bliss.

We thought a few days in the cool of the mountains would be an antidote to the misery of the 100-degree parched desert of our home, and we were right. We got reservations on the top floor of a Bavarian-style chalet that is proving very comfortable, despite the narrow spiral stair up which we had to haul our bags. (Fortunately Christof, our landlord, was willing and able to help.)

(It shou...

Pata Pata Time

Here’s Miriam Makeba with her biggest hit, “Pata Pata,” as performed on the Ed Sullivan show in 1967 (she’d been singing the song for at least ten years before this). From the quality of the video I suspect it was recorded off someone’s television.

Pata pata was the name of a dance popular in Johannesburg’s shebeens in the 1950s, where one partner would rotate in place while the other crouched and patted her down in the style of a cop patting down a suspect. (I’m guessing the inhabit...

Breaking Through

After weeks of frustration, things are finally getting done. I got the appointment I needed, I located a missing document, the laser printer I ordered a couple months ago is finally being shipped, the tractor got fixed, the hot tub ditto, and (after a couple hours chatting online with stupid robots) I got Comcast to send me a replacement modem for the one that wasn’t working. (Except that it didn’t arrive on the day it was supposed to, but then it’s Comcast, so I wasn’t surprised.)

Quite s...

Having a Day

For Father’s Day here in the States, I post a photo of my dad on a fishing trip taken before I was born. I know it was before my birth because there seems to be the outline of a cigarette pack in his breast pocket— he smoked with a holder, like Roosevelt— but he gave it up when I was born.

He was kind, gentle, smart, and supportive of my eccentric career choices. It’s only fair that he gets a Day every year.

(And can someone explain to me why WordPress is suddenly stretching photo...

The Steel Fortress

A few weeks ago I wrote about my post-COVID lassitude and the difficulty I was experiencing in shoving myself out the door and into the world even after the vaccines had made it safe to do so.

Well, the lassitude is over. Two dinner parties last weekend, three the weekend before. Lots of hanging out. Lots of martial arts. I’m planning trips. Lots of trying to get things accomplished, and usually failing because I can’t seem to get other people to do their work.

I’m as bouncy as I ev...