Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 74

I Am Inevitable!

I will be interviewed on KKOB radio in Albuquerque on Monday, October 8, at 6pm Mountain Daylight Time. If you live outside the area, you can stream the broadcast live. On Friday October 12, I’ll be speaking at a speculative fiction panel at the meeting in Denver of the Mountains and Plains Independent Bookseller’s Association.  My panel will be at 4pm.  Harper is flying me in that day, and out the next, so if you want a book signed, you’ll have a rather small window, probably around the time...

Viral Video

In celebration of the publication of Knaves over Queens, the 26th(?) Wild Cards book, I offer the following video. It catches you up on the first 25 books, so you can start with the latest right away! Plus— catchy tune, ne?

 

Resisters

This last week marked the death of Freddie Oversteegen, 92, the Dutch resistance heroine who at the age of 14 joined a resistance cell dedicated to sabotage and assassination.  (She would meet German soldiers in bars, lure them to a secluded place, then shoot them.) She sabotaged railways, killed soldiers and collaborators, and sheltered Jews, gays, and political refugees.  (Her family had actually begun harboring Jewish refugees before the war started, and saw no reason to stop.) Ms. Overste...

Sekrit Island Bases

Friend of the blog Marcus sent this article about Russian real estate agents who purchase islands in strategic shipping lanes and then turned them into Bond-villain lairs. Airiston Helmi Oy was founded in 2007 as a non-public stock company for trading in real estate, and a number of the key persons behind the company were Russian nationals. The company has had just a handful of employees, and has consistently been showing figures in the red (as far as I know, it has never managed a single pos...

When It Goes Wrong

Dish Network decided to give me Showtime for a week, and I recorded some movies that I hadn’t seen in theaters.  Viewing them made me think about ways that creative projects can fail, and how the failure can be in the writing.  So I thought I’d share my thoughts, that being what these blog-things are supposedly for. Valkyrie.  Tom Cruise vs. Hitler.  Hardly seems fair, right? Valkyrie is a detailed, quite authentic movie version of Klaus Graf von Stauffenberg’s attempt to assassinate Hitler...

Hazards of Travel

So here’s a new one!  Observe in the photo above that suds are pouring out of my hotel toilet and covering the floor.  There was also a strong disinfectant smell. It was also happening in a neighboring room.  The hotel custodian confessed himself baffled, and helped me evacuate to a room higher in the building.  At midnight. There was a ferocious rain storm going on at the time, though I’m not quite sure what that would have to do with it.  I thought maybe someone on an upper floor had poured...

Where Am I?

Tell me where I took this photo, and you win a free, signed copy of The Accidental War. Y’all have 48 hours, and then I put up a new contest. Good luck!

I Speak!

I am interviewed by the highly informed David Barr Kirtley on The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy.   Check it out!

Encouraging Word

Reviews for The Accidental War are beginning to tumble in. B&N SFF BLOG: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci-fi-fantasy/a-countdown-to-disaster-in-the-masterful-space-opera-the-accidental-war/  “ The Accidental War  eventually breaks open into genuinely exciting action, but the book’s most dramatic moments are the most unlikely ones; a critical turning point takes place over the course of a committee meeting, without a (literal) shot fired. Though the first Praxis trilogy precedes it, read...

Hella Week

So Barnes & Noble finally got around to putting the Investments paperback on sale, and here’s your link. Otherwise, it’s been a hella week.  The Accidental War dropped on Tuesday.  I sent Quillifer the Knight to the publisher at 1am Friday morning.  I opened a bottle of champagne afterwards, but discovered it had turned to sparkling vinegar.  I didn’t even know that was possible. Thursday I gave a one-hour interview to the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast (which will be broadcast later).  S...