Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 85

Don’t Blame the King

Here we have the famous Vasa, a 64-gun ship of the line commissioned (and largely designed) by Gustavus Adolphus, which capsized and sunk after sailing something less than a mile on its maiden voyage.  It was salvaged intact in 1961, and now is permanently moored in a house built for the purpose. You have to say that the Vasa was the largest monument to hubris until they launched the Titanic nearly 300 years later. All the swag and ornaments would have been brightly colored, but a few centuri...

Yes This Is A Game

So the Kremlin released “irrefutable proof” that the US is aiding the Islamic State in Syria, by using AC-130 gunships to cover fleeing IS troops in order to use the survivors to further dastardly American objectives in the region.  (Even given the confusion and bizarre policy shifts of the US in the area, I find that one hard to swallow.) The Russians’ irrefutable proof was a video that, it turns out, was drawn in part from a smartphone game, AC-130 Gunship Simulator: Special Ops Squadron.  ...

Skyscape

 

I’ve come down with the same upper-respiratory infection that I’ve had on five previous occasions over the last year.  I’m pretty well disgusted with it by now— though I know it’ll be over within a week, I can also look forward to getting it again inside the next two months. Yes, I have an appointment with a doctor.  Thank you. But as I’m spending my days coughing and sniveling, and hardly in the mood for social media, I thought I’d at least put up a pretty picture.  So here’s the Winter P...

My Favorite Season

It’s my favorite time of year.  Summer in New Mexico is too hot and I spend my days hiding under the air conditioner.  During spring a ferocious dry wind can blow for weeks, even months, sucking the moisture out of everything living.  Winter is mild, as winters go, but it’s still winter, and I’m allergic. That leaves autumn, with its brilliant foliage and the arrival of the cranes, geese, hawks, eagles, and ducks that move into the neighborhood. Most days when I’m at home I run four miles or...

Memoirs

I’ve spent six of the last seven days either traveling to the World Fantasy Convention in San Antonio, or attending, or traveling home.  I’m very tired now, and in retrospect I probably shouldn’t have tried quite so hard to have a good time. My reading on the trip out was Just Kids, Patti Smith’s memoir of her life with Robert Mapplethorpe.  The memoir is kind and loving, and it gets a few things just right, particularly the way a certain type of literary kid sees everything through the prism...

The Next Quillifer Contest

So . . . where am I  now? Identify this location, and win a free audio book of Quillifer. I’m calling off the previous contest before we go through all 700 of the world’s stratovolcanoes.  The picture was of Mt Ngaurohoe in New Zealand, which stood in for Mt. Doom in the Lord of the Rings movie.  Thus I would have accepted Ngaurohoe, Mt. Doom, Orodruin, Amon Amarth, or any other of Tolkien’s names for the place. Maybe I was hoping you’d all recognize it from the movie. Anyway, maybe this phot...

Where Am I?

Where is the subject of this photo? The first correct answer will win a free audio book of Quillifer. (Hint #1: There is more than one correct answer.) (Hint #2: There are no stratovolcanoes in Finland.)

We’re Baaaack!

Taos Toolbo x, the two-week master class for writers of science fiction and fantasy, is getting set for 2018!  The workshop (June 17-30, 2018)  will be taught by Nancy Kress and Walter Jon Williams, along with special lecturers Carrie Vaughn, indiepub guru Emily Mah Tippetts, and special guest George RR Martin. This is Year 11 for Taos Toolbox, so we’re into our second decade!  We must be doing something right! If you want to write professionally, or if you know someone who does, then be sure...

October Surprise #4

Hey, I’ve released the four Dagmar Shaw near-future thrillers volumes as ebooks!  New and improved, the first two with covers by Roberta Berto, and the last two with provisional covers that will be replaced by Berto covers as soon as she gets back from a trip.  Which provisional cover you get depends on where you’re downloading from, since Amazon lets me put up a homemade cover and the others don’t. Anyway, if you end up with a provisional cover, you can wait till the new cover is released, e...

The Nutella War

Conflicts within a former Soviet republic are now posing a threat to the world’s supply of Nutella, the disturbingly tasty Italian hazelnut-chocolate spread. Hazelnuts are the second-largest export (after copper ore) from the Republic of Georgia, which is the third largest exporter of hazelnuts in the world.  Georgia has also exported hazelnuts from its breakaway Russian-puppet republic, Abkhazia. But new rules in the European Union threatens Abkhazia’s exports, because they now require an or...