Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 82

Mezentian Bridge

So in last night’s dream, I had recruited a group of friends to re-enact the famous game of bridge played in E.R. Eddison’s classic fantasy novel The Mezentian Gate. The Zimiamvian fantasies of Eric Rücker Eddison deeply impressed me when I first read them, age thirteen or so.  I loved the stirring Jacobean prose, the fact that the characters were proper Medieval aristocrats rather than prim Edwardian moralists, and that there was a fair amount of absolutely deluxe sex going on.  I think thes...

Tenebrarum et Nebulae

Behold!  A couple photos of the Hyper-Sooper-Dooper Blueberry Fresh ‘n’ Fruity Moon Incarnadine, or whatever they called it. Apparently we can’t just say “lunar eclipse” any more. The first photo shows the crepuscular, fuliginous shadow of Terra, creeping rather like an octopus across the lunar surface.  (Also note that I just called it the “shadowy shadowy shadow,” but I did it in foreign languages so you wouldn’t notice.) The second photo is the last moment of direct sunlight on the moon....

Reckless

I’ve been reading David Yaffe’s Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell.  Which I just sort of stumbled upon, and which turns out to be pretty terrific. Joni  Mitchell was one of those people who was on the radio constantly when I was growing up, which meant I didn’t have to think about her, because she was always right there.  And then she wasn’t constantly on the radio, which meant I didn’t have to think about her either, because she wasn’t around. And then I got an Amazon Prime subs...

1929-2018

When I heard of Ursula LeGuin’s death, I realized that she was someone who, as far as I was concerned, had always been there.   I’d been reading her since Rocannon’s World, the Hainish space opera that seemed equally to resonate with the works of Tolkien and Leigh Brackett.  (“Wherever he went, his super science made him a legendary figure!”)  She was a constant in my literary universe.  (And I’m still very fond of those early Hainish books.) I occasionally found myself in the same room with...

Tonight’s Sky

Wandering with my camera about sunset, I snapped these photos, and then dashed indoors because it was freezing.

 

 

Continuing to Speak in Print

I am interviewed by Jane Lindskold, mostly about Quillifer.

Signage

My signing at the Jean Cocteau went well, and I was gratified by the number of people who turned up, the more so considering that I was in competition with Albuquerque Comic-Con. After signing books for those in attendance, I signed the remaining stock, which means that if you want some signed Walter Jon Williams books, all you have to do is click right here. I also signed a lot of Wild Cards books, for which look at this page and subsequent pages.

For Aliens Only

Big news, my compeers!  George RR Martin is now offering the TERRAN PRIZE of free tuition to Taos Toolbox, the master class for writing science fiction and fantasy.  From his press release: “When astronauts look down on Earth from orbit, they don’t see borders, national boundaries, or linguistic groups; they see one world, a gorgeous blue globe spinning in space, streaked with clouds.   I don’t know if humanity will ever reach the stars (though I hope we will), but if we do, it won’t be Ameri...

I Am Me Right In Front Of You

This coming Sunday, January 14, I’ll be at the Jean Cocteau Theater in Santa Fe for a 3pm talk and signing.  George RR Martin will be conducting the interview. Albuquerque Comic Con will be going on at the same time, so I expect the crowd might be a little thin. Feel free to show up and confound my expectations!

 

Table Manners of the Stars

In my novel Implies Spaces, I referred to a particularly catastrophic cosmic event as the “big belch.”  Now the Hubble and Chandra space telescopes have viewed a “double burp” from a black hole in a galaxy known by the stirring name SDSS J1354+1327. The Mighty Williams Prediction Machine rolls on! Hubble was able to show them that a cloud of blue-green gas extending away from the black hole represented the aftermath of an earlier burp. They found that electrons had been stripped from atoms in...