Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 84

Crown

So here’s a crown rack of lamb I produced the other day.  I cooked it sous vide, then browned it in olive oil on the stovetop. The lamb came pre-sealed in a vacuum pouch, so all I had to do was toss it in the pot for two hours at 130 degrees for perfect medium rare. The result was moist and tender and perfectly cooked, but lacked a bit of flavor.  Next time I’ll take the lamb out of the vacuum package, throw in some herbs and garlic, then put it in a baggie and cook it the same way. Also I mi...

Dagmar

Let’s go behind the fourth wall, via some thoughts about the Dagmar books, timely now that the series has been re-released as ebooks. Back in 2005, my friends Sean Stewart and Maureen McHugh, along with Elan Lee and Jordan Weisman,  invited me and Jim Cambias to join them in creating an online game called Last Call Poker.  The same team had created the Alternate Reality Games The Beast and ilovebees, and I’d been hanging with Maureen at Rio Hondo when part of that was going on, and what she t...

“AtreiDEEZ Nuts, Son!”

Doc Sweets directs his attention to Dune.  Will Dune survive? As might an academic, Sweets deploys a vast array of jargon and specialized terminology.  So why can I understand him, and not them?

Open to Submissions

Just a reminder that Taos Toolbox, the master class for writers of science fiction and fantasy, is now open for submissions. The workshop runs June 17-30, 2018, and will be taught by Nancy Kress, Walter Jon Williams, George RR Martin, Carrie Vaughn, and EM Tippetts. Time is passing!  Get your submissions ready!

Back to the Mississippi

A new Wild Cards shared worlds book (the twenty-fourth) has just appeared, Mississippi Roll, edited by George R.R. Martin and Melinda Snodgrass (who seems to be uncredited, at least on the cover). I don’t have a story in this one, but you might find one or two of my characters involved in the action. This may sound strange in regard to the twenty-fourth book of a series, but this one is actually a good place for a newcomer to start. It’s self-contained, all is explained, and it’s the first in...

The First Century

Happy Hundredth Birthday, Finland!

Vladimir Does It Again

Once again, I am compelled to make a comparison between my calendar and that of Vladimir Putin, which various Russian sources insist is a huge seller in the UK, despite it being carried by few or none of Britain’s calendar distributors. With my calendar, you get lovely photography of the interesting places I’ve been in the last twelvemonth, including Mexico, Finland, Sweden, Russia, Yellowstone, and the Grand Tetons, along with shots of August’s total solar eclipse. With Putin’s calendar, you...

Adventure Log

As we have so many times in the past, we’re making a calendar available for our friends and readers.  It features photos from our Baltic journey of the summer, along with views of the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, and the eclipse of August 2017.  It also features holidays and other important dates for the US, Canada, Mexico, and the UK. It’s a log of our adventures, and you can use it to log your adventures in 2018. You need a calendar, right?  And you need it in hardcopy, because online calenda...

Palace of Mystery and Message

Eltham Palace, near Greenwich, was given to Edward II in 1305, and was used as a royal residence for over three centuries.  Henry VIII and his sisters were raised there.  But the palace was wrecked during the English Civil War, and after the rebuilding of Greenwich Palace under Charles II, Eltham was used less and less. In the 1920s the crown leased the palace to Sir Stephen and Virginia Courtauld.  Wealthy philanthropists and patrons of the arts, they hired the architects John Seely and Paul...

I Speak to Hobbitses

This Wednesday, November 29, at 6:30 pm, I will be addressing the Hobbit Society at the University of New Mexico.  The event will be held at the Honors College, on the lower plaza or ground level of the Student Health Center building. I’ll be talking about Quillifer and other subjects of relevance.  It’s open to the public, so  y’all come.