Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 3,180 entries, all of them here in full.
January 15, 2018 · 85 words
Signage
My signing at the Jean Cocteau went well, and I was gratified by the number of people who turned up, the more so considering that I was in competition with Albuquerque Comic-Con. After signing books for those in attendance, I signed the remaining stock, which means that if you want some signed Walter Jon Williams [&hel
Read entry →January 12, 2018 · 283 words
For Aliens Only
Big news, my compeers! George RR Martin is now offering the TERRAN PRIZE of free tuition to Taos Toolbox, the master class for writing science fiction and fantasy. From his press release: “When astronauts look down on Earth from orbit, they don’t see borders, national boundaries, or linguistic groups; they see one worl
Read entry →January 12, 2018 · 59 words
I Am Me Right In Front Of You
This coming Sunday, January 14, I’ll be at the Jean Cocteau Theater in Santa Fe for a 3pm talk and signing. George RR Martin will be conducting the interview. Albuquerque Comic Con will be going on at the same time, so I expect the crowd might be a little thin. Feel free to show up […]
Read entry →January 12, 2018 · 202 words
Table Manners of the Stars
In my novel Implies Spaces, I referred to a particularly catastrophic cosmic event as the “big belch.” Now the Hubble and Chandra space telescopes have viewed a “double burp” from a black hole in a galaxy known by the stirring name SDSS J1354+1327. The Mighty Williams Prediction Machine rolls on! Hubble was able to sho
Read entry →January 9, 2018 · 363 words
Nazis for New Year
If you use social media, you’ve met neo-Nazis and their allies. They’re everywhere, and they’re about as charming as you’d expect. And if you haven’t met them personally, you’ve probably met one of their avatars. The con goes like this: The impersonator lifts an online photo of a Jew, Muslim, African-American or other
Read entry →December 30, 2017 · 55 words
Straight Up
I amazed myself by taking this photo on Christmas afternoon, while the moon was more or less directly overhead. I hadn’t imagined the 50-to-1 optical zoom on my Canon was going to be this good, or that the software would be able to stop the image jittering. I hadn’t even brought a tripod with […]
Read entry →December 26, 2017 · 402 words
Cranes
People have asked me my plans for the holiday, and I’m pleased to report that I don’t have any. Honestly, after all the travel and work and running around I’ve done all 2017, the idea of spending a couple days at home, staying warm, eating prime rib, and opening presents, was very, very attractive. But […]
Read entry →December 25, 2017 · 110 words
Tamale Time
Among the holiday traditions in New Mexico are the consumption of tamales, the setting of fires, and late-night visits to the graves of the ancestors (where, usually, fires get set). We haven’t set any fires ourselves, but we did pay an after-dinner visit to a local graveyard to enjoy the peaceful night and the luminar
Read entry →December 24, 2017 · 925 words
Yuletide Breakage
Normally we take a certain amount of damage around the holidays. The tradition of a plumbing emergency on Christmas Eve is well established here, and when it happens we have the joy of trying to get emergency plumbing service here some time before Santa’s scheduled arrival. Fortunately PHC of Peralta, NM, has always be
Read entry →December 17, 2017 · 63 words
This Is Quite a Sale
As a holiday gift to you all, I’ve reduced the price of the first of the Dagmar series, This Is Not a Game, to 99 cents till at least Boxing Day. You can find it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google, iBooks, and Smashwords. So buy yourself a little prezzie! What are the holidays for?
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