Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 62

The Big Book of Me.

I am pleased to announce the forthcoming publication of The Best of Walter Jon Williams, from Subterranean Press.  200,000 words of, well, me, with short fiction drawn from the forty years of my career, including stories that have never before been collected. Also, signed.  By me.  By hand.  Which is a good deal less fun than choosing stories, believe me. Illustrations will be by that famed artist, To Be Named Later.  (But trust me, it’s coming together.) Should be out sometime later this yea...

In Search of a Sequel

So there was this science fiction convention being held at a spa hotel, which meant that in addition to seeing your favorite SF writers on panels, you could go to a sauna or a hot tub or a massage, or you could have your chakras aligned or your colon cleansed or whatever.  Instead of being confined to a dealers’ room, the dealers set out their tables in pleasant green courtyards, under the shade of trees.  It made for an agreeable, low-key convention experience. I was wandering through one of...

Remember the Doom

A useful reminder: if you’re plotting your next novel with index cards, it’s always handy to have this one in reserve. Taos Toolbox 2019 is over, and the attendees are returning to the various corners of the globe whence they came.  I’d like to thank them for their talent and hard work, and wish them success in their future endeavors.  They were great to work with. I’d also like to thank George R.R. Martin and Emily Mah for being exemplary guest speakers. And I’d like to thank Nancy Kress for...

Carpet

Here we see a lovely carpet of lupines.  They were imported from Alaska to Iceland because they are hardy plants that stabilize the soil, and the soil of Iceland has a tendency to get blown out to sea during storms. Of course I am of the generation that, when the subject comes to lupines, promptly thinks of this:

Frozen Giants

This was once a giantess who had captured a ship, and was towing it to shore to devour the crew.  Unfortunately she lost track of time, the sun rose, and she was turned to stone. Seems kind of unfair that the ship and sailors were turned to stone as well. Also, Iceland must be hard for giants in the summer, when the sun is above the horizon 22 hours per day. I’m at Angel Fire teaching Taos Toolbox this week and next, and so my opportunity to write any long, thoughtful essays is going to be li...

Newly Arrived

Come just in time for the Glorious Fourth was a box of the uncorrected proofs of Quillifer the Knight, which will be available in bookstores the first week in November, the date having been moved, apparently, from the first week in October. All the better for the holidays! Here’s the flap copy: Rogue. Joker. Lover. Reluctant conspirator. The bumptious, ambitious young Quillifer has been knighted for services to the crown, but was then banished from court by a queen who finds him obnoxious.  N...

The Whale That Didn’t Get Away

Finally a whale lets me get close! This is the skeleton of a long-finned pilot whale, floating eerily with a number of other whale skeletons in the attic space of the Whale Museum in Húsavik.  Most if not all of the whale skeletons were from strandings, though Iceland still does catch whales, some to sell to the Japanese, and some to feed to tourists. We saw quite a number of restaurants that served whale, almost all of it bought by tourists along with smoked puffin and fermented shark.  I de...

Breach

This is the less successful of the two photos I managed of breaching humpbacks.  But then any photo you get of a breaching whale is a success, no? I shouldn’t have written “humpbacks,” because there was only one humpback jumping this day, and he kept it up for some time, as if he were indulging all the photographers on board.  (I’m guessing he was a he, and trying to impress a female with a display of his athleticism.)  He seems to have thought he was a spinner dolphin, because he spun as he...

Chris

Taos Toolbox 2014 veteran Chris Cornell died unexpectedly a few weeks ago, and his family has set up a memorial page for those who knew him. They have very kindly approached me to establish a scholarship in Chris’ name, and the page includes a link to Taos Toolbox, for those of you inclined to donate.

Hidden

This was described to me as “a church of the Hidden People.” The Hidden People are, well, people— they’re not dwarves or elves or trolls, who are supernatural beings who also hang around in Iceland.  They’re just people who are hidden. (Some people think the Hidden People are the same thing as elves, but Arni assured us this isn’t so.  Different origin stories, for one thing.  The Alfar come from other worlds, and the Hidden People are children of Eve and have always been on this planet.) The...