Walter Jon WilliamsNovelist

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.

  1. September 1, 2017 · 52 words

    Let There Be Chat

    Live from Helsinki! (Okay, so it’s slightly delayed.) It’s the Hugo-nominated Coode Street Podcast, in which I am interviewed by Gary Wolfe, Jonathan Strahan, and Hugo-nominated Toolboxer Kelly Robson. We’re talking mostly about my next book, Quillifer! I had enormous fun with this interview, and I hope you can hear th

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  2. September 1, 2017 · 114 words

    Walter’s Saga Book VIII: the Return

    I’ve been back at home for a few days, after seven or eight weeks away. The cat looked at me like she vaguely remembered me, perhaps from a former life. Here’s a picture of our eclipse gear, the Astroscan and the Canon with their homemade solar filters. All you need at an eclipse besides beer […]

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  3. August 31, 2017 · 27 words

    Forty Years of Voyager

    The Voyager spacecraft have been traveling through space for forty years, longer than most people on Earth have been alive. Here’s a brief appreciation of their achievement.

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  4. August 25, 2017 · 94 words

    Les Tetons

    Here we have the Grand Tetons, named (I imagine) by a very lonely and somewhat nearsighted French voyageur. Some decades ago I was visiting France, and fell into a conversation with a young French woman. It went something like that. SHE: Is it true that in America you have mountains called ‘les grandes tétons?’” ME: Ou

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  5. August 25, 2017 · 227 words

    From the Earth to the Moon

    You can’t say the week was without its variety. First the solar eclipse, and then four days in Grand Teton and Yellowstone parks. So here I’ve documented the morning rainbow at the feet of the Lower Yellowstone Falls (it vanished a few minutes later as the sun rose), and below is the diamond ring as […]

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  6. August 23, 2017 · 338 words

    Solar Dragon

    So we had a three-day turnaround between returning from Helsinki and starting our drive to Wyoming to see the eclipse. It was a two-day drive to our guest ranch near Dubois (rhymes with Royce). A two-day drive to watch a two-minute event seemed a little out of balance, so we’re staying for the rest of […]

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  7. August 19, 2017 · 47 words

    MP

    So here I am at Worldcon, signing a book for Finnish MP Jyrki Kasvi, who reads SF, can speak Klingon, wears a cowboy hat, and presented the Best Novel Hugo. Honestly, why can’t we get legislators like this? The photo is by my hard-working minder, Pekka Rantasaari.

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  8. August 15, 2017 · 43 words

    Stand By for Greatness

    So while I was in Finland, Orbit reverted the rights to all three of the Dagmar Shaw books. I’ll try to make those available as soon as I can. I can hardly do a worse job of promoting them than the original publisher.

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  9. August 11, 2017 · 20 words

    Native Speaker

    I am interviewed in Aamulehti, the second-largest newspaper in Finland. You will be amazed at how well I speak Finnish.

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  10. August 9, 2017 · 22 words

    At the Worldcon

    I am at the 75th Worldcon, and it is perfectly glorious. Also, the headline says I’m a “sci-fi great.” I won’t disagree.

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  11. August 7, 2017 · 128 words

    Founder

    Walking around Stockholm, I saw this statue, which I believe is that of Jean-Charles Bernadotte, the Gascon sergeant who rose to the rank of general during the French Revolution, and who then married Napoleon’s old girlfriend Desiree and went on to become King Karl XIV Johan of Sweden, founder of the present line of Sw

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  12. August 5, 2017 · 53 words

    Me, On Finnish Radio

    I am interviewed on a Swedish-language station on Finnish state radio! The analysis is in Swedish, but I’m speaking English. (No surprise there.) Just hit the Avsnitt for 5.8.2017. I think. And here’s a transcript of the interview, entirely in Swedish for those of you who want to puzzle it out.

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