Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 43

Alors

Lately I’ve been watching a lot of French television, particularly the last season of Call My Agent! (Dix Per Cent), a submarine thriller called The Wolf’s Call (Le Chant du Loup), plus episodes of Capitaine Marleau, a whodunit series featuring a kind of gender-flipped Columbo.

All this viewing and listening has encouraged a dangerous illusion, which is that I speak a foreign language.

While it’s true I took French in school (and Greek in college), any fluency has faded in the decades s...

Days of Going Wild

Since having my second COVID shot, I’ve engaged in multiple reckless behaviors!

I had a haircut for the first time since June, and as a result no longer look like someone whose primary residence is a cardboard box!

I’ve twice dined in restaurants! Indoors! (The restaurants were allowed to seat at half capacity, but I was the only customer, so it hardly mattered.)

Tomorrow we have tickets for a museum exhibit! Oh man, I am livin’ la vida loca!

New Mexico COVID numbers have bee...

Wild Cards Weekend

I’ve been unable to post here for several days due to technical issues which may or may not have been resolved. Which is really annoying, because I have something cool and fun to announce.

This weekend I’ll be attending virtual Wondercon, the mighty game convention counterpart to Comic-Con usually held around this time. Among other things, I’ll be running a Wild Cards RPG with four other Wild Cards writers as players: Carrie Vaughn, Melinda Snodgrass, Caroline Spector, and Max Gladston...

Quillifer Ink

So someone told me today that she saw someone with the word “Quillifer” tattooed on his arm.“Did you get a picture?”Alas, no.  But it’s cool regardless.Everyone should have a Quillifer tattoo.  Everyone.

Two Shots

So I am now officially Walter “Two-Shot” Williams.  I had my second Pfizer jab yesterday.I must say New Mexico is doing this right— we’re the most vaccinated state in the country.  Having a governor with a degree in Public Health is a plus.When I had my first shot, there was a long line of cars lined up to deliver their drivers to the Vaccination Station, and the cars were ushered through in pods, to be vaccinated more or less at the same time, then wait out the 15 minutes, and all without any...

Mighty Urho

It’s Saint Urho’s Day!  It is claimed by some that the serious drinking can only begin after donning the ritual green and purple.I find the opposite is equally valid.

The Process Unveiled

I am podcast again, this time at The Worldshapers.  Writer and editor Edward Willett interviews me mostly about my writing process, but we touch on other topics as well.Incidentally, Edward is running a Kickstarter for Shapers of Worlds, Volume II, an anthology featuring stories by all the author guests in the second year of The Worldshapers.  It’s a power anthology, and you should definitely check it out.

It’s Back!

My 2006 story “Incarnation Day” is featured in the current March issue of Galaxy’s Edge magazine.  I seem to be in good company.Nice cover art, ne?

Generous Review

Paul Di Filippo reviews The Best of Walter Jon Williams.  Your takeaway:Emerging from a deep dive into this truly entertaining treasure chest of riches, the reader immediately has several reactions. First, although Williams’s range of topics is immense, every story emerges from that core template of speculative fiction: assume a novum, extrapolate logically. There are no gauzy impressionistic tales here, and even a recent fantasy from him, Quillifer, exemplifies this hard-nosed approach. Second...

Not A Leg

I asked the market to give me a leg of lamb, but they gave me a pork roast instead.  So when life gives you a pork roast . . . I’m sure you can finish this sentence on your own.I decided to cook it sous vide, because sous vide cooks the food exactly the way you want it, and because it melts the collagen and makes everything tender.  So I went looking for a recipe, and found one in Tina Baker’s Sous Vide Cookbook, for what she calls Chinatown Braised Pork, essentially an attempt to re-create th...