Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 64

The Land of 10,000 Cute Lakes

So there’s something call MinnRoast, which I’m guessing is a kind of charity event in the Twin Cities.  This year Emily Larson, the mayor of my home town of Duluth, had a little something to say about the contrast between Duluth and Minneapolis/St. Paul. Y’know, I think she could have a career in standup if the political thing works out. Plus, bonus points for being a politician who actually knows when she’s being absurd.

Hellooo, South China!

So it’s not every day that I find myself mentioned in the . Of course the article’s mostly about George RR Martin and the talented Terran Prize winner, Zhou Wen, but then if I’m going to end up as a footnote in the career of another writer, I could do a lot worse than George.

Joiks!

See, that’s pronounced “yoicks!”, which is why it’s funny.  Sort of.  (Never mind.) Joiking is a highly improvisatory vocal style from the Arctic Circle, and combines throat singing, chanting, and folk music to produce, well, the effects that it produces. I should stop trying to explain and just let Wimme sing, y’know?  So here he is.

 

This Week’s Rainbow

Here’s the rainbow from a few nights ago. According to Oz Drummond, who is married to a meteorologist, the Middle Rio Grande Valley has experienced 660% of its normal rainfall so far in 2019. And here I thought it was Florida that was supposed to be sinking.

I Fail to Achieve Divinity

So it was a gloomy day on this gloomy, ramshackle freighter chugging over a gray, listless sea.  The freighter was this old rustbucket, World War II vintage maybe, 5000 tons or less.  My fellow passengers were listless, and all they wanted to do was talk about their deeply uninteresting lives while rattling the ice in their highballs.  The crew were mostly silent.  The sky was swathed in dark cloud. The weird thing was that just behind us was a much more impressive ship, a beautiful white st...

Uh-Oh

Looks like a security camera caught me when I was on one of my recent missions.

D&D

My life these days might best be described as D&D, by which I mean Dull and Dutiful.  It’s not like I’m not accomplishing stuff, it’s just that the stuff I’m accomplishing isn’t very exciting to write about. Apparently I’m saving all my insights for a novel. While I deal with the dullness of my duty, please enjoy the retro stylings of Miss Caro Emerald and “Tangled Up.” (Which could also be titled “Tango Up,” but never mind.)

The Rat Flew Straight and True

So I finally saw Avengers: Endgame, two weeks later than most of you.  I made up for the delay by seeing it in IMAX and 3D, which I suspect really didn’t improve it that much, though I did duck when Starlord kicked the rat at my head. If this is the sort of movie you like, then you’ll like it.  If you don’t care for films in which costumed characters bash each other in a fight over a bunch of plot coupons, you won’t care for this one, either. I’ll leave detailed analysis and criticism with th...

Flash Fortuna

My time seems fully occupied today, so while I’m buried in the frustrating trivia of daily life, please enjoy this video of an unexpected performance.

The Shuffle

A note for all you completists out there.  The ninth Wild Cards collection, Jokertown Shuffle, has been reissued by Tor with new material, two never-before-seen stories by Carrie Vaughn and Cherie Priest. In addition to the original stories by Stephen Leigh, Lewis Shiner, John Jos. Miller, Melinda Snodgrass, Victor Milan, and Walton (Bud) Simons. And me.  This volume contains my Black Shadow story, “When Night’s Black Agents to Their Preys Do Rouse.” Black Shadow was the first Wild Cards char...