Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 162 entries, all of them here in full.
October 4, 2017 · 208 words
Wild Cards at the Jean Cocteau
This Sunday, at 4pm at the Jean Cocteau Theater in Santa Fe, 20-odd Wild Cards writers will be present for a signing. The cost of admission is to buy a book. I don’t know if any of my other books will be available, but no one will object if you bring your own. The latest […]
Read entry →October 3, 2017 · 315 words
Angel Sale
October’s been completely packed, and it’s only three days old. Not only did Quillifer drop just yesterday (I trust you already have your copy), but I’ve just put my classic novel Angel Station on sale for 99 cents. Angel Station was my first attempt at setting a story entirely in space, and I set myself the task [&hel
Read entry →October 3, 2017 · 117 words
Alas, Cronkite
Once upon a time, Walter Cronkite did stuff like this. When Watergate was a confused scandal difficult for the public to grasp, Cronkite took two evenings to put it all together on television. The second evening was curtailed by a terrified network chairman, but by then Cronkite’s point had been made, and the Watergate
Read entry →September 29, 2017 · 51 words
Welcome Arrival
Advanced copies of Quillifer arrived today. They looked so posh I put them on a red velvet cushion. Quillifer, I remind, will be released on October 3. You can pre-order at your favorite local bookstore, or at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Google, iBooks, and Kobo.
Read entry →September 28, 2017 · 102 words
Gilt and Glory
More gilding from St. Petersburg— I have to think half the world’s gold supply is slathered over the buildings and monuments. This is part of the Admiralty, originally a fortress built by Peter the Great, now an Empire-style complex built in the early 19th century. The weathervane atop the tower is in the shape o
Read entry →September 27, 2017 · 152 words
Body Count
I’ve been watching the Ken Burns documentary on Vietnam, and trying not to be completely overcome by shell shock. I lived through the era, but now seeing twelve or more years of folly and slaughter condensed into 10 episodes of television, is something like having 10 bad acid flashbacks in a row while being repeatedly
Read entry →September 24, 2017 · 79 words
Sea of Lost Ships
Via Janice, the announcement of a “ship graveyard” in the Black Sea, featuring the preserved remains of wrecks stretching over 2500 years. Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman . . . it’s all there. The Black Sea is a notoriously stormy sea, and the Greeks called it Euxeinos Pontos, “the hospitable sea,” for the same reason
Read entry →September 21, 2017 · 281 words
Days of Frenzy
I had a lovely time traveling this summer, but I knew I was going to pay for it later. And by later, I mean now. I’m working on a number of things more or less simultaneously. Promoting Quillifer!, which will be released on October 3. Doing an online sale of Voice of the Whirlwind, which (unfortunately) sort of [&helli
Read entry →September 19, 2017 · 226 words
First Review
My new novel, Quillifer, has received its first review, or at least the first review that anyone’s bothered to tell me about. From Publishers Weekly: 09/11/2017 In this sprawling, lively episodic adventure, Williams (Angel Station) returns to his swashbuckling historical fantasy roots while exploring new territory. Eig
Read entry →September 17, 2017 · 123 words
Pleasantry
Hope you’re all having a pleasant weekend, doing pleasant weekend-like things. Like sailing. This isn’t my boat, unfortunately, but I snapped its picture during my Northern jaunt, as it sailed past a bastion of Suomenlinna, also known as Sveaborg, the gigantic island fortress outside Helsinki harbor. Despite being know
Read entry →September 15, 2017 · 421 words
Two Views Toward Heaven
Looking back on my summer of travel, I found these photos of St. Isaac’s Cathedral in St. Petersburg. Commissioned by Alexander I, the cathedral took 40 years to build, and produced a saying in Finnish: “Rakentaa kuin Iisakin kirkkoa,” “to build like Isaac’s Church,” meaning to take forever to complete some vast, ungai
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