Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 3,179 entries, all of them here in full.
February 5, 2021 · 382 words
Onward and Backward
Back in the days of my youth, optical astronomy was done with telescopes, and the sky recorded on dry glass plates. Starting in the 1890s, millions of glass plates were viewed, then stored in archives throughout the world. They’ve been largely ignored in the years since— there are so many, where do you start? Yet
Read entry →February 3, 2021 · 285 words
Giza Cat
Behold our cat Mocha contemplating the Pyramids. Dish Network is for some reason devoting Channel 100 to a digital re-creation of Giza in the 1920s. The camera never moves, and mostly nothing happens in the image, except that every so often a biplane might fly into the picture, circle the pyramids a couple times, and [
Read entry →January 26, 2021 · 169 words
Interestingly Various
Mr. Russell Letson has reviewed The Best of Walter Jon Williams. I’m a terribly modest fellow, as I’m sure you know, so I won’t quote the whole review, but only a couple salient excerpts. Exactly 30 years ago, this column’s lede was “Walter Jon Williams is an interestingly various writer….” The intervening decades hav
Read entry →January 24, 2021 · 139 words
Rediscovered
I recently found an old pocket notebook with four carefully numbered entries. 1. Larod (?) not major (?) 2. Lament 3. Beast 4. Tune The first line is my best guess. It might be “Earon not manor,” or any combination of the two possibilities. I’m guessing these aren’t updates on the status of my psyche, […]
Read entry →January 22, 2021 · 74 words
The Hogfather Approves
Instead of continuing in my normal course of cynicism and gloom, I thought I would celebrate the detectible and growing spirit of optimism in our world by showing this video of Hogmanay in Edinburgh. Since Hogmanay is what non-Gaels call “New Year’s Day,” I’m posting a few weeks late, but my friend Louy only sent [&hel
Read entry →January 7, 2021 · 1,046 words
Predictable
So after watching the US Capitol stormed by a hostile force for the first time since the War of 1812, and after hearing reporters bleating out their catchphrase, “Who could have predicted this? (usually employed when something happens that is completely predictable), I bethought myself of an article I first read in Nov
Read entry →January 4, 2021 · 156 words
The Frog. In the Pool.
The copyright of The Great Gatsby expired on the first of the year, so now it (and other classic works) have entered public domain. Go forth and make your revisionist art, creators! The eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg are upon you! But what no one expected was a groundswell of fans demanding a new Gatsby film starring [&hel
Read entry →January 3, 2021 · 731 words
Doppelgänger
I’m working on The Restoration, which is the Praxis book following Fleet Elements, and lately I’ve been having a hard time with it. Part of it has to do with how much less amusing it is to write about a great empire that’s tottering because of greed, mendacity, scapegoating, and stupidity when I’m actually living in a
Read entry →December 26, 2020 · 118 words
Today/Tomorrow
I am the keynote speaker for the Year of the Stainless Steel Rat “conference for all things cyberpunk.” There will be talks, panels, gaming, and even an auction. It says on the graphic that this takes place on Sunday December 27th, but that’s only for those of you living Down Under. For those in North America […
Read entry →December 25, 2020 · 221 words
Ribless
Isn’t there a song titled “Have Yourself a Lonely Little Christmas?” Maybe there ought to be. With Kathy still in Albany, I’m flying solo for the holidays. I haven’t put out decorations, raised a tree, sent cards, or even bought presents for anyone, but I’m doing my best to raise a bit of cheer. Right […]
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