Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 46

Today/Tomorrow

I am the keynote speaker for the Year of the Stainless Steel Rat “conference for all things cyberpunk.”
There will be talks, panels, gaming, and even an auction.
It says on the graphic that this takes place on Sunday December 27th, but that’s only for those of you living Down Under.  For those in North America and Europe, it will take place on the 26th, Boxing Day.
My own talk will be 4pm Mountain Standard Time on Saturday, or thereabouts.  Or 10am on Sunday for those of you living in Sydney or ...

Ribless

Isn’t there a song titled “Have Yourself a Lonely Little Christmas?”  Maybe there ought to be.
With Kathy still in Albany, I’m flying solo for the holidays.  I haven’t put out decorations, raised a tree, sent cards, or even bought presents for anyone, but I’m doing my best to raise a bit of cheer.  Right now I’m wearing a bright red holiday shirt!  A standing rib roast is traditional in my family for Christmas Eve, so I actually cooked one just for myself, along with various trimmings.  It shoul...

One 9/11 Per Day

Hey, does anybody remember that when 9/11 happened, people got really shocked and upset and angry?  The towers were smoking ruins, nearly 3000 people died, “United We Stand” banners appeared everywhere, and we invaded a couple of countries at the cost of hundreds of billions of dollars.
Well, guess what?  A 9/11 death toll happens every day now.  Nearly 3000 people die in the U.S. of Covid-19 every single day.
What happened to “United We Stand?”  Where’s the united action against the killer?  Wh...

Updated!

Ive updated my interview page, adding links to every interview I could track down over the last years, including one in Finnish and another on Swedish-language radio.  The interviews were all listed on the blog when they first appeared, but now theyre all in one place. Good thing too, since the page was nearly five years out of date. How much more of me can you stand?  Guess well find out.

What It’s All About

From the northern reaches of my birth state of Minnesota, from the town of Palo (where my mother went to high school), its Steve Solkela and his accordion telling us what its all about.

Explosive Celebration

http://www.walterjonwilliams.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Walter-beheads-bottle.mp4 Today I celebrated the release of Fleet Elements with a virtual cocktail party attended by several of my favorite writer friends.  I decided to have a champagne cocktail, and to open the champagne bottle by a traditional method employed by the French military slicing off the top of the bottle with a sword (or in my case, a Nepalese kukri). Id never done this before, so the results were a little . . ....

Speaking to Excess

 

 

Suddenly there is a lot more of me out in the aether than there was a couple days ago.  Perhaps more of me than you actually want, but if you ration yourself a little, at least I wont be taking up your whole day. First up, a brief Q&A with Deborah Kalb. Next, I am interviewed by S. Daniel Smith on the podcast Coffee in Space And thirdly, Hank Garner interviews me for the podcast Author Stories.

The Sort of Thing That It Is

Fleet Elements releases on December 8, which is Wednesday!  Available in both trade paperback and ebook formats, please locate Fleet Elements at your favorite local bookstore (which deserves your support), and also at the Bigs:
Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Google Play, Kobo, Apple Books Two long, thoughtful reviews have recently come to my attention, the first in Locus by the always thoughtful Russell Letson. Two years ago, Walter Jon Williams returned to the setting and subgenre of...

Not Present

I havent been present here much, and for the most discouraging of reasons. About four weeks ago, Kathys younger sister Alice Emigh went into the hospital with a dreadful illness (not Covid).  Kathy flew East to be with her, but New York got new lockdown rules, and Kathy wasnt allowed into the hospital to see Alice until she finally got special permission last week.  Alice was horribly ill and either unconscious or semi-conscious, and Kathy had to try to coordinate tests, treatment, and...

Sage Advice

Mr Sam Jackson reads us a story we can all get behind.