Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 71

Moody

Here’s one of my favorite pictures in the new 2019 calendar.  It’s a small boat tossed on a moody monochrome ocean, with a moody skyscape above.  If it weren’t for the bit of color provided by the setting sun, you’d think I’d printed this out with silver nitrate or something. The only thing that prevents me from bursting with pride over this photo is that it’s the result of a complete accident. I had just come up from a dive on one of Palau’s many reefs into what was otherwise a pleasant warm...

Gifts for Readers #4: While Gods Sleep

. . . Aaaaand now we are at  #5 of my reading recommendations, all by veterans of Taos Toolbox, the master class for writers of science fiction and fantasy.  (And if you want to write SF or fantasy, why not click the link and find out what it’s about?) L.D. Colter’s While Gods Sleep appeared the same week as Sherri Woosley’s Walking Through Fire and Lauren Teffeau’s Implanted.  (Dang!  We are on fire!) Here’s the flap copy: The first time Ty died he was five, the second time he was seven. He’...

Pleasantly Tart

I think it was nine years ago when Jean-Bertrand gave us a memorable dessert, a kind of upside-down apple tart.  I was delighted by two things: first, by the tart itself; and second, by the discovery that actual French people cook from recipes by Julia Child.  (And why not?  They’re thoroughly tested and in their way perfect.) Anyway, what Julia calls La Tarte des Demoiselles Tatin stuck in my mind, and since we had a dinner party last night, I thought I’d give it a try. I’m not really a dess...

Gifts for Readers #4: Arabella the Traitor of Mars

Here we are at #4 of my gift suggestions for readers, all books by veterans of Taos Toolbox, the master class for writers of science fiction and fantasy. Arabella the Traitor of Mars is the third in a series by Hugo-winning author David D. Levine, beginning with 2016’s Andre Norton Award-winning Arabella of Mars. The series features an alternative Napoleonic Wars, in which the sailing navies of Europe navigate between planets, Napoleon has set up an empire on Venus, and Britain has establishe...

Tall and Narrow

Here’s another photo from our 2019 calendar.  This is an interior view of something called the Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood— lighthearted name, that— in St.  Petersburg, Russia.  It is built on the site where Tsar Alexander II was mortally wounded by a nihilist bomb in 1881. Alexander was progressive as autocrats go, and reformed the government and freed the serfs.  This, alas, was not progressive enough for the nihilists.  At the dying tsar’s bedside were his son and grandson, A...

Gifts for Readers #3: The Moons of Barsk

Looking for something to read over the holidays?  Or something to give a reader friend? Here’s the third recommendation I’m making of a book written by a Taos Toolbox veteran. (And by now I suspect that, if your ambition is to write, attending Taos Toolbox might be a smart thing to do.  We really do produce writers.) Lawrence M. Schoen has a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology, is a world-renowned authority in the Klingon language, and has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula, and Campbell awards. T...

The Scare

I write about my Wild Cards story “Witness,” touching on the Red Scare, agent of Moscow Christopher Marlowe, and other UnAmerican Activities. (Try not to look at the photo at the top of the page, it might scald your retinas.)

Gifts for Readers 2: Walking Through Fire

Here’s another fine gift for the reader in your life.  Or for yourself. Sherri Cook Woosley is another Taos Toolbox veteran whose book appeared in the same week as my previous recommendation, Lauren Teffeau’s Implanted. Walking Through Fire, from Talos Press, wasn’t workshopped at Toolbox, but we workshopped the sequel, and it was a nonstop rocket ride through a contemporary landscape that has had, basically, the entire content and architecture of myth and fantasy dropped in its lap, with hor...

Take Over, Skipper

Some days, you’ve just got to take charge and get behind the wheel yourself. (I should also like to state, apropos taking charge, that I’ve lost something like forty pounds since this photo was taken.)

Gifts for Readers 1: Implanted

Now that we’re in the season for gift-giving, I’m going to start a new series of gift suggestions, all of them books by veterans of Taos Toolbox. You can’t have too much reading, right? First up is Implanted by Lauren C. Teffeau, available as a paperback, ebook, or audio book from Angry Robot. From the flap copy: When college student Emery Driscoll is blackmailed into being a courier for a clandestine organisation, she’s cut off from the neural implant community which binds the domed city of...