Walter Jon WilliamsNovelist

Dispatches since 2005

The journal

Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 55 entries, all of them here in full.

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  1. December 31, 2025 · 90 words

    Cods

    This is what the Australians call a “potato cod,” though in fact it’s a grouper. It’s one of a large pack that likes to hang around divers. That’s in one area of the Barrier Reef where divers were once allowed to feed the fish. That was decades ago, and the fish fed by the divers […]

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  2. December 26, 2025 · 122 words

    Feasts of Yule

    Lots of meetings with friends this holiday week, almost all associated with food. Above you see homemade soft pretzels served with chile con queso and a fine dry red, the cooking bossed by Darcy and assisted by her large family, who very kindly adopted Kathy and me for long afternoon. Christmas Eve featured an afternoo

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  3. December 5, 2025 · 13 words

    Moonrise

    Tonight’s supermoon rises above the Manzanos while sandhill cranes seek their night’s rest.

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  4. December 3, 2025 · 333 words

    Laying My Burdens Down

    I haven’t posted here since the middle of October. Instead I’ve been, well, knocking down a series of piñatas that have come floating up one after another. Slow-moving targets, but each requiring a fair amount of energy to knock down In the last few weeks, I have: Finished drafting HEAVEN IN FLAMES. (Will probably requ

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  5. October 16, 2025 · 420 words

    Oyez Oyez

    So today I filed the paperwork— actually an online form— claiming my share of the Anthropic settlement. Anthropic is an company which has trained its AI, called Claude, on vast numbers of books, song lyrics, and other stolen copyrighted matter, and which has now offered its victims $1.5 billion in compensat

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  6. September 30, 2025 · 244 words

    Naked Truth

    I visited my physical therapist this afternoon. We were born in the same town (Duluth), and went to the same junior high school (Ordean). He was a year behind me and we didn’t know each other. My family left town, and he went on to become a ski jumping champion and twice a member of […]

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  7. September 30, 2025 · 57 words

    Double Dog Dare

    My novella “Elegy for Angels and Dogs” is reviewed on Black Gate by Steven H. Silver. Also reviewed is my story’s precursor, Roger Zelazny’s “the Graveyard Heart.” “Elegy” was the longest story ever published in Asimov’s, and may still be.

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  8. September 21, 2025 · 508 words

    Mist

    This is Prince Rupert, B.C., or so I believe. And yes, it was named after Prince Rupert of the Rhine, cousin of Charles I and his principal commander during the Civil War. After the Restoration, Rupes returned to Britain along with the new king, and invested heavily in the Hudson Bay Company, getting so much […]

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  9. September 9, 2025 · 37 words

    Pod Fun

    A pod of harbor seals on an outing. They were having a riotous good time, and it was a joy just watching them. This was the same day we saw the whales doing their bubble fishing thing.

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  10. September 2, 2025 · 54 words

    Where’s Wally?

    Where’s Wally? Right here, if you want to know. Wally is the name given a boss humpback in the Prince Rupert Sound, and is easily identified by the two spots on the white ventral surface of its tail fins. When you’re looking at Wally, Wally is also looking at you. Just a friendly warning.

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  11. September 2, 2025 · 225 words

    The Pod

    We have snaked out of the U.S. and back into B.C. MV Imperial Shadow spent the day in Prince Rupert, while we ventured forth to see cetaceans from yet another catamaran. Again it was a day of miraculous sun. It’s almost drought conditions here, and I’ll return to New Mexico full of tales of the […]

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  12. September 1, 2025 · 268 words

    Wildlife

    Eagles and bears are the two critters that most visitors here want to see here in AK— well, maybe I should add whales to the list— but so far my wildlife adventures haven’t achieved greatness. Here’s an eagle, one of a pair. They were some distance away, but my Canon has a 50-to-one zoom and […]

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