Walter Jon WilliamsNovelist

Dispatches since 2005

The journal

Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 178 entries, all of them here in full.

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  1. November 11, 2014 · 1,031 words

    Invasions

    I’ve been back in New Mexico for several days, slowly recovering from jet lag and the fact I moved from sea level to 5000 feet in mere hours. The Williams Invasion of France and the Middle East is definitely over. Kathy had to turn right around and fly to the East Coast, because her Aunt […]

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  2. November 4, 2014 · 253 words

    Autumn

    Our last day in France, so perhaps it’s appropriate we visit a cemetery. (Or maybe we’re celebrating Day of the Dead a little late this year.) This is the rather odd cenotaph of Charles Baudelaire, whose actual grave is elsewhere in the Montparnasse cemetery. He’s got two effigies: squatting all scowly up top, and wrap

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  3. November 3, 2014 · 9 words

    In Flight

    The heron takes flight, at Les Machines de l’île.

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  4. October 31, 2014 · 62 words

    In Nantes

    I am in lovely Nantes, the hometown of Jules Verne, for Utopiales, France’s largest SF convention. I’m heavily programmed, but then I got a free trip to France so I can hardly complain. In any case, I’ll either be working or having fun, and unlikely to be composing any thoughtful essays in this space. Have […]

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  5. October 28, 2014 · 472 words

    City of Corsairs

    We are in Saint-Malo, a Breton walled city completely rebuilt after being destroyed by George Patton in 1944. (They named a street after him anyway.) Saint-Malo was famous for Duguay-Trouin and other privateers who made fortunes by plundering the British merchant marine, and also as the home of Jacques Cartier, who lef

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  6. October 26, 2014 · 14 words

    So Here It Is

    You really can’t take a bad picture of it. No bad angles at all.

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  7. October 26, 2014 · 164 words

    Load Up For All Saints’ Day

    Part Four of the Hardwired serial released on November 1, which happens to be All Saints’ Day, but you can pre-order it via iBooks, Amazon, Kobo, and Smashwords! It will be available via Barnes & Noble as well, but they won’t give me a link to it until the day of release, because . . . […]

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  8. October 24, 2014 · 21 words

    Calling the Fire Brigade

    I see that Private John Steel is still hanging from the church steeple at Ste.-Mère-Église. Can someone please cut him down?

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  9. October 23, 2014 · 37 words

    Aristotle

    From the St.-Pierre church in Caen: a carving of Aristotle being ridden and flogged by Campaspe, the mistress of Alexander the Great. Perhaps the moral lesson intended by this carving is best left to the medieval imagination.

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  10. October 22, 2014 · 426 words

    On the Beach

    Seventy years and several months ago, my dad was bouncing around in a small boat just off this inoffensive-looking beach, which was then covered with obstacles, burning ships and tanks, and a lot of dead soldiers. My dad was ready to join Eisenhower’s great crusade, and though he didn’t land until three days after the

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  11. October 21, 2014 · 22 words

    After Monet

    And the best thing was . . . the public toilet was named after Marcel Duchamp. How perfect was that?

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  12. October 20, 2014 · 721 words

    Reflexes

    The sad fact is, Henry spoiled us. After ten days of Henry planning our travel, our meals, and arranging our public appearances, our travelers’ instincts had faded. Thus, when catastrophe struck, we found ourselves with small resource. Yesterday we flew from Tel Aviv to Paris. The plan was simple: we’d arrive at 11pm,

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