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.
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
Read entry →September 14, 2017 · 219 words
The Triumph of Virtue
The Book of Swords, edited by Gardner Dozois and with my story “The Triumph of Virtue,” is now available for pre-order. You can order the book at your favorite local bookstore, or via Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or (for ebook only) Google, Kobo, or iBooks. The release date is October 10, but why wait? You […]
Read entry →September 12, 2017 · 172 words
Criminals?
So . . . the credit rating agency Equifax suffered a data breach that allowed criminals to gain access to the personal details of 143 million people, including names and social security numbers. All anyone would need to perpetrate massive acts of identity theft. But that doesn’t mean their top executives can’t make a f
Read entry →September 9, 2017 · 711 words
The Voynich Manuscript—- Solved?
My introduction to the Voynich Manuscript came in the Chaosium RPG Call of Cthulhu, in which it was presented as an item that could (1) increase your knowledge of the occult, while (2) blasting your sanity. Oops! Despite its appearance in an RPG and the works of Lovecraft, Colin Wilson, and others, the Voynich Manuscri
Read entry →September 7, 2017 · 52 words
Kiss of Fire
This classic tango was playing in my head all morning. I don’t know why, maybe I was stalking a pantheress or something. Anyway, here’s Gaby Moreno, Hugh Laurie, and the Copper-Bottom Band doing “Kiss of Fire.” You’ve probably heard this song all your life without knowing its name, and now you do.
Read entry →September 4, 2017 · 207 words
Veyshnoria, My Veyshnoria
The other day Belarus and their Russian allies declared war on three fictional countries. But now one of the countries seems a little less fictional. As part of a joint military exercise taking place later this month, Belarus and Russia are mobilizing against three enemies: Vesbaria and Lubenia (strangely resembling Li
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