Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 102 entries, all of them here in full.
September 11, 2021 · 238 words
Sometimes the Magic Works, Sometimes It Doesn’t
I found some duck breasts at the market, and it occurred to me that I liked duck breast but had never cooked one, and that this could serve as the seed for another fine culinary adventure. The label assured me that the duck breasts were antibiotic-free and had been raised vegetarian (which isn’t the case […]
Read entry →September 10, 2021 · 257 words
Hero State
Over the summer I’ve been participating in a multi-episode online superhero campaign run by Matt Yancik, all installments of which are available on YouTube. The series is modeled on comics, naturally, and first introduces all the characters as if they were appearing in their own title. Then comes the two-parter finale
Read entry →September 5, 2021 · 97 words
Audio Me
The Best of Walter Jon Williams has just been released as an audiobook from Tantor Audio. You can buy it most places where audiobooks are sold, or you can get it here for free. I’ll send a download code to the first three people to reply to this post. Be sure to make certain that […]
Read entry →August 26, 2021 · 88 words
Chin Up, Bear
Alas, Covid has forced Taos Toolbox 2020 to postpone for the third time. We hope to hold the 2020 workshop sometime in mid-2022. I couldn’t see putting 16 people in a classroom for six hours per day over a two-week period and trusting that no one would get sick. And of course if someone did […]
Read entry →August 21, 2021 · 458 words
First to Die
So a few years ago we booked a hotel online in Rennes. Though this wasn’t obvious from the online site, the hotel was brand-new, and sat in a half-completed industrial park just outside the city proper. The street it was on was so new that it wasn’t to be found on any map. We had […]
Read entry →August 14, 2021 · 159 words
I Am Dragon’d
Fleet Elements has been nominated for a Dragon Award, given at Dragoncon in Atlanta over Labor Day Weekend. It’s been nominated in the Military SF category, which I suppose ends the discussion over whether the Praxis series is MilSF at all. I’ve always maintained the book isn’t about the military, but about people who
Read entry →August 13, 2021 · 1,024 words
Reviews in the Nick of Time: The Green Knight
The Green Knight is a film that makes absolutely no sense, but the nifty thing is that it makes no sense in exactly the way that medieval romance made no sense. The characters live in a liminal world. Miracles happen all the time, sorcery is common, magical objects clutter every cupboard, prophetic dreams descend on [&
Read entry →August 8, 2021 · 250 words
Electric Boogaloo
I had all sorts of pleasant things to post here, about the Colorado trip and some other things, but then my electric fixtures began to act up, and it’s using up all my energy. The day after the return from our trip, the air conditioner died, and will need to be replaced. Unfortunately it will […]
Read entry →August 3, 2021 · 368 words
Thin Air
Our week-long trip to Colorado is over, and now that I’m back, I can’t help but feel this vacation was a little too much work. The plan of driving somewhere new (nearly) every day was too busy. We should have chosen a base or two and stayed there for a few days at a time. […]
Read entry →July 26, 2021 · 139 words
Local Green
So the sign on the hotel door read NO SMOKING OF ANYTHING INSIDE! “Hmm,” I thought to myself. “I must be in Colorado.” We are on our first trip out of state since August 2019, cruising up central Colorado to Steamboat Springs and back, magnificent scenery all the way, cool temperatures, and signs of a […]
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