Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 9

My Bubonicon Schedule

This weekend I’ll be attending Bubonicon 55, the latest iteration of New Mexico’s premiere science fiction convention. (And it’s a little staggering to realize that I’ve attended almost all of those 55 cons.)

In case any of you want to come by and say hello, I’ll be at the following events:

Friday August 23, 8:15-9:05. Reading.

Saturday August 24, 11:00-Noon. Panel. Stop that, Droid! Beyond the three laws of robotics.

Saturday August 24,3-4pm. Panel. Research joy: writing ...

Rifts in Time

Another dip into the archives today. Found was the copy-edit on THE RIFT. I was reminded that the manuscript was seven inches thick and amounted to a historically significant 1066 pages. (My own grueling Battle of Hastings) It was an open question whether binding technology would actually get a book that long between covers.

After I handed in the ms., I had a meeting with my editor, John Douglas. He said, “We could work really hard on tightening and cut 15%, or we could just send it to the p...

Your Career Can Be Yours!

Today Kathy strapped a bunch of wall calendars in some homemade shipping containers, with the intension of sending them off to TAMU special collections.

Why wall calendars? Because they contain day-to-day tracking of my life for the last thirty-odd years. (Assuming of course that anyone in the future is interested in such a thing.)

Plus: pretty pictures!

It occurs to me that I’m of the last generation to generate such a complete paper trail, what with calendars, copy-edited manuscript...

Beware the Witch Eye of Walter!

Red Eyes

I didn’t sleep well last night because I’d had eye surgery that morning and had this lump of stuff pasted over my eye, but the lump of stuff came off this morning and I had a successful nap.

Frankly I look terrifying. The sclera of my left eye is bright blood red, with the iris suspended atop like a button floating in a scarlet lake. Since the scarlet eye can be a result of petechiae breaking as a result of strangulation, I feel I ought to come up with a thrilling tale of desperate struggle ...

Cellophane

Tomorrow I’m going to have eye surgery to remove a cellophane pucker in my left eye.

Go right ahead, make all the jokes you like.

Going to the Well

I’m not exactly good at walking nowadays, but I thought I’d manage well enough at riding around on the John Deere, so I headed to the tractor the other day with the intention of trimming the grass on our rancho and shortening the weeds. One of the tires had gone flat, but I knew it had a slow leak, so I’d prepared by acquiring a can of Fix-a-Flat. I duly screwed the can to the tire valve and watched the tire inflate.

This was the last time in the entire day that a piece of apparatus work...

At Home

Kathy’s twice tested clean for COVID, so I said farewell to the Los Lunas Days Inn, and headed for home.

We celebrated with margaritas. Now I’m doing laundry.

A Day Among Others

This morning Kathy tested positive for COVID.

I reacted bravely by fleeing for my life to a nearby hotel.

I Cannot Walk

Oh, I can lurch. And shuffle. And I can dodder and shamble. I’m very good at hobbling. I limp, and I’m getting to be an expert at tottering.

But walk normally? Not so much.

The last month hasn’t been good to me, locomotion-wise. My knees, both of them, have taken up collapsing, fortunately not at the same time. So far I haven’t actually fallen, but I’ve come very close. The collapses are unpredictable, but I’ve learned to recognize the signs and if I can shift my weight to my o...