Paul Stotts has written an extremely perceptive review of This Is Not a Game.    (Extremely perceptive because he agrees with me, okay?) [The] interconnection between reality and fiction is masterfully explored in Walter Jon Williams’ latest novel This Is Not A Game, a beautiful multi-layered novel, both vastly entertaining and astute. It’s a fascinating sociological […]

A few years ago I made an effort to visit the crypt of pioneering Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, which is located in a moderately obscure Prague church called Our Lady Before Tyn.  Tycho’s meticulous astronomical observations, all with equipment he designed and built himself, were so good that his Rudolphine Tablets were used well into […]

Wanna write a novel for a $250 advance?  Apparently a lot of people would. There are these organizations in our business called fiction factories.  They are run by people called “packagers,” who basically operate very much like Hollywood producers.  They come up with an idea for a book, or more likely a series, then sell […]

Ah, don’t you just love the winds of change blowing in Washington? For instance, noted Illinois shithead congressman John Shimkus— who last made headlines by walking out of one of the Commander-in-Chief’s speeches to a joint session of Congress— now tells us that we don’t have to worry about global warming, because God made a […]