David J. Williams

I’m pleased to announce to all and sundry that Night Shade has released THE PILLARS OF HERCULES, which you can acquire right now, or go to a bricks-and-mortar store and demand a copy!

Plus I now have a gnarly new website, called, appropriately enough, www.thepillarsofhercules.com, so check it out…

(The astute among you will note that the book is out under the name David Constantine, which is my brand new pseudonym.  But in truth, my cats have yet to notice the difference…)

The rumors are true. I have a fourth novel about to hit bookshelves, under my fantasy/steampunk nom de plume, David Constantine. Slated for release on March 6th by Night Shade Books, THE PILLARS OF HERCULES is steampunk set in the age of Alexander the Great, and features Persian princesses, Gaulish barbarians, Greek mercenaries, as well as a wild and crazy journey to find the magick artifacts lost beneath the waves at Atlantis.  Plus Alexander himself is a major character, along with all the Macedonian generals you know and love:  Ptolemy, Hephaestion, Eumenes, Craterus, and other assorted bad-asses.

Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist has published an excerpt from the book here, and the book also has a website at www.thepillarsofhercules.com.

So stay tuned.

My partner-in-crime Mark S. Williams and I have a new story in the latest issue of Star Wars Insider magazine: MAZE RUN features Han, Chewie, and the Millennium Falcon as they navigate perilously near to a rather large black hole while battling the Imperial department of dirty tricks.

Those among you who have studied my career closely will also note this is actually my FIRST published short story, and I couldn’t be happier to have it be a Star Wars one.

Yes, that’s the burning question….and my answer and those of others are on io9. I should note none of the responses are as awesome as the Hieronymous Bosch painting.

It seems a little ironic that the laws allowing the government to indefinitely detain human beings drew less protest than SOPA has. Then again, the line has to be drawn somewhere. As I wrote a few years back in my essay on the Future of War, the national security state is keenly aware that domination of the web is critical. Indeed, this past July, the Defense Department declared that the Internet to be an “operational domain of war”, and what’s going on right now is war by another name. For now, I think (and hope) that the wave of protests that constitute Black Wednesday will stem the encroachment; then again, if they can’t shut down your website, they can always arrest you and throw away the key.

Keep in mind, too, that this is merely the first round. The bills and executive orders that will be the successors of SOPA will be framed and justified by a national security imperative: i.e., telling the American public they need to give away their freedoms because companies need to make more money (e.g., SOPA) is one thing, but telling them they need to give it up for security…. hell, that works every time. Especially if the inevitable cyber-terrorist attacks that will be used to justify it came in the midst of food riots, looting, and economic chaos… shit, you won’t even notice that your screens have gone dark then.

So much to talk about…last night’s GOP primary…my cats’ latest scheme to undermine me….the teetering state of the world economy…but for now I’d simply like to introduce you to a colleague of mine, Benjamin Tate, whose latest book is now OUT.  LEAVES OF FLAME is awesome stuff, and well worth your time.

And yes, Benjamin Tate is a pseudonym, and no it’s not me.

The rumors as to my kidnapping at the hands of fanged space rabbits are unfounded. I have returned. But things are not as they were. To wit: I’m now living in Los Angeles, and I have a new novel coming out this spring. Which I will tell you all about in due course!

But enough about me, I know that what you really care about is seeing a photo of my new kitten. His name is Catticus Finch, and though his older “brothers” Ajax and Captain Zoom find him somewhat annoying at times (because he only has two speeds, Asleep and Insanely Hyper), they have accepted that this is now a three-beast household. My sister tells me this essentially makes me a crazy cat guy, to which I plead GUILTY AS FUCK.

And btw, happy new year!

“The roar was loud, but not really any louder than what you usually hear in the cockpit of a jet plane. Another interesting thing is that a great many new musical nuances and timbres can be heard in that roar. I have never heard anything like it on earth. I got the impression that the powerful rocket engines were creating the music of the future—perhaps more moving than the music of our time.”

An amazing re-creation of the view from Gagarin’s window is now on Youtube to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the flight.

Jim and Jerry over at Cult Pop interviewed me on the Autumn Rain trilogy; the episode was televised on Comcast in Michigan and is available on their website here. Thanks guys!–I think that concludes the Autumn Rain interviews/announcements, but you never know. And make sure you keep watching this space for announcements on new projects as they’re unveiled….

I’ve been radio silent for a while here, but I daresay the end of the year is worth resurfacing for. Especially as THE MACHINERY OF LIGHT has been named the sixth best speculative fiction read of 2010 by Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist, which is a nice way to finish up a decade that began with me starting to write the books that would take me on a very long strange trip.  To those of you who stuck with me for the whole trilogy, thanks for sharing the ride, and stay tuned for more announcements shortly.  So on behalf of me and ze cats, happy new year; may we have a better second decade then the last century did…