Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 6

Waterfowl

Trees, pond, sandhill cranes. Sunset today.

Ghost Docks

About six years ago I was on a motor trip along the North Shore of Lake Superior, and wandered down a small road from the highway down to the lake. When I parked in the small recreational harbor, I saw this huge abandoned facility along the shoreline. (It’s much bigger than it looks in this photo, with nothing to give ir scale.) As a Duluth native, I knew ore-loading docks when I saw them, but I’d never seen or heard of the place before. It wasn’t on any map. And it was empty.

Turns ...

Ear Jive

From Britain, 1975. Heineken had a whole series of these ads, promising that Heineken would help consumers grow, ah, firmer. Apparently it also works on aliens.

20% Off

I spotted this globe in the gift shop of the Corning Museum and immediately wanted it. I wanted it so much that some Japanese visitors actually took a picture of me wanting it.

It’s about the size of a bowling ball and was created by artist Josh Simpson. While it may look as if it’s filled with water, it is in fact all glass, with formations under the surface that call coral reefs to mind. (The rows of white dots aren’t part of the sculpture, they’re reflections of the ceiling light...

Jimi’s Jacket

Found in a museum exhibit of psychedelia, this is Jimi Hendrix’ jacket. While there seem to be a number of techniques used in constructing it, much of it seems to be hand-painted silk.

The second I saw it, I was struck with jacket envy.

Judging by the size of the jacket, Jimi was a tiny little dude. I think I always pictured him as eight feet tall.

Bogiemas

Everyone have a merry Bogart’s Birthday!

Sand Spit

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Here I stand on a sand spit outside the town of Dalyan, in southern Turkey. The year is 2009.

To reach this beach, we had to hire a boat to take us from the town and through a mazelike passage between islands of tall, rustling reeds, an experience that led straight to the scenes in Quillifer where my protagonist is taking a small boat through the reed-maze outside his home city of Ethlebight.

Across the river is a path to the ancient Lycian city of Kaunos, now...

Santo Whatsisname

Here’s a mosaic of some saint or other, from St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice. He was very high up in the church, on the inside of a dome I think, and I had to crank up the telephoto to capture him. The tesserae are in pretty good shape.

Though St. Mark’s is the iconic church in Venice, it’s a basilica, not a cathedral. The actual cathedral is another big church on another island, and I never got around to visiting it.

Though I don’t know which saint this might be, we can easily see hi...

Hoodoo

From 2006, taken from a balloon adrift over Cappadocia, in central Turkey. The terrain in Cappadocia is spectacular and craggy, featuring “fairy chimneys,” hoodoo spires, cliffs, hidden valleys, and signs of habitation going back thousands of years. The closest analog I’ve seen to this country are parts of the Colorado Plateau, like the Cedar Breaks— except that the hoodoo spires at the Cedar Breaks don’t have homes carved into them. There is at least one entire castle carved out of a bi...

Ironclad

Here I am in 1987 taking command of HMS Warrior, Britain’s first ironclad warship. Henry VIII’s galleon Mary Rose had just been put on display, and of course HMS Victory is there in all its glory. My gaming group had been intensely playing my Privateers & Gentlemen roleplaying game, and I plundered the gift shop for Christmas presents, Admiral Nelson Toby jugs, Royal Navy recruiting posters, and other goodies.

Portsmouth, 1987,