Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 49

California Burning (Again)

Here’s tonight’s sunset, as viewed through a smoky murk blown all the way from California’s wildfires.  We’ve been breathing the stuff for weeks, but this is the worst it’s been.

Mad Science

Just before lockdown in March, the Albuquerque Museum had an exhibition devoted to the Muppets.
Here we see Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his assistant Beaker in a typical pose.

Launching Today

My sometime student Susan Forest has published the second book in her Addicted to Heaven YA series, Flights of Marigolds.  (The first was Bursts of Fire.)
The book launches today— which happens to be the day that Susan won the Aurora Award for best YA!
I’d say she’s having a good weekend.
“A definite twist to the fantasy genre is that while the logical consistency of the magic is there, the book (and series) is meant to focus on addiction and its many incarnations. It is an unusual subject choic...

Praxis Price Point

I’m not sure who arranged this, but The Praxis is available today on ebookdaily.com for $1.99.
Check it out!
UPDATE!  I’m told it’s the same price on Google Play.

So Then This Strange Thing Happened

As I mentioned in a reply to a previous post, my eye surgery went very well.
It had, however, an unanticipated consequence.  (I’m getting used to unanticipated consequences where medical procedures are concerned.)
When I had cataract surgery in my left eye in 2014, I asked for a closeup lens.  I’d worn monovision contact lenses for years, and then had monovision Lasik, with the left eye adapted for reading, and the dominant right for distance vision, and I knew that monovision worked for me.
(An...

Evil High Priestess Still Popular

I just got a note from Google, which keeps track of everything, to inform me that the most popular page on my blog is a 2012 post about Madonna being the High Priest of Satan.
It’s good to be remembered, but I hadn’t thought it would be for this.

Virtual Worldcon

Despite the odd technical glitch, I’ve been enjoying the world’s first virtual worldcon.  It’s a very science fiction-y thing, meeting and seeing friends scattered over the States via a server in New Zealand.
I’ve had a good time on my panels, and my reading (from Fleet Elements) seemed to be well-received.  (I think I had more people listening to my virtual item than I usually get at a live reading.)
After the reading I was supposed to meet with my readers in one of the chat rooms, but technica...

Don’t Blink

So the good news is that the paella was much better on the second try.  Jasmine rice was surprisingly good with the dish.
The bad news is that early Monday I’m having eye surgery.  Keep your fingers crossed.

New Zealish

I will be a participant in this year’s Worldcon, which was to be held in New Zealand but will now be held online.
I’m posting my appearance schedule below.  The first time given is New Zealand time.  I’ve found that to convert from New Zealand time to Mountain Daylight Time (where I live), you need to add six and then subtract 24.  For instance, if the program item is at noon on Friday in New Zealand, then you add six hours (to 1800 or 6pm), then cross the Date Line and subtract 24, which means ...

Tapa Out

So last night’s experiment in cuisine was seafood paella.  I’d never made paella before, and I’ve probably eaten it less than half a dozen times in my life, but I had a new skillet that I thought would do a good job with it, and the ingredients were to hand, including the terrific saffron that Patricia Rogers gave me a while back.
In addition to shrimp and bay scallops, the paella had ham, chicken, and chorizo.  I looked online for recipes, and found dozens of them, all claiming to be authentic ...