Jo Walton | Jo Walton -- Science Fiction and Fantasy Author

Blog Archives

23rd February 2004: The Dyer of Lorbanery (Spearpoint theory)

Posted on April 9, 2017 by Jo Walton

There comes a point in writing, and it’s a spear-point, it’s very small and sharp but because it’s backed by the length and weight of a whole spear and a whole strong person pushing it, it’s a point that goes…

Posted in Books, Writing

9th January 2004: Clarification

Posted on April 9, 2017 by Jo Walton

[I’d posted asking for recommendations] I don’t want twins, I want the situation where someone takes on the persona of someone else and has to act with people who know the original person as if they are that person, while…

Posted in Books, Small Change

18th October 2003: Under Milk Dune, a Child’s Christmas on Arrakis

Posted on April 9, 2017 by Jo Walton

You’re going to be missing huge chunks of context if you haven’t read (a) Frank Herbert’s Dune and (b) Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood. Under Milk Dune: A Play for Voices First Voice: It is night, night in the deep…

Posted in Whimsy

6th November 2003: Being able to talk about things

Posted on April 9, 2017 by Jo Walton

Thank you everyone who posted on my previous entry, I really appreciate the support and sympathy. I’m fine, and Zorinth (of course) came home without any problems and we had dinner and he told me way more than I wanted…

5th November 2003: Why I am brave

Posted on April 9, 2017 by Jo Walton

It’s November 5th, and I have let Zorinth go to see Pirates of the Caribbean on his own, and come back on his own. November 5th 1976, my sister and I were crossing a road, on a zebra crossing near…

5th October 2003: Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth

Posted on April 9, 2017 by Jo Walton

Tom Stoppard is definitely a genius; in fact he’s clearly one of those geniuses who are proverbially close to madness. We saw Dogg’s Hamlet, Cahoot’s Macbeth at the Player’s Theatre in McGill, performed by the same university group who put…

Posted in Theatre

16th September 2003: Writing is weird, some more

Posted on April 9, 2017 by Jo Walton

The thing is, when you tell a story you already know, you’re not telling the same story. It’s like all the versions of fairy tales, they all have the same plot and the same characters but they are different stories.…

Posted in Poor Relations, Writing

15th September 2003: Writing is weird

Posted on April 9, 2017 by Jo Walton

There’s something very weird about the act of actually telling a story. This is a lot more noticeable when you’re telling a story you know already, as opposed to making up a story. I’m stuck and conflicted on my Lifelode…

Posted in Books, Poor Relations

3rd September 2003: Gravy Bath Coriolanus

Posted on April 9, 2017 by Jo Walton

Theatre is something it’s only possible to have in civilization. There are barbarian poems and stories and carvings and paintings, but only in settled communities have people come together to co-operate in this strangest of arts. There is a script,…

Posted in Human culture, Theatre

18th August 2003: Poor Relations

Posted on April 9, 2017 by Jo Walton

Is there anything actually preventing one from writing Mansfield Park as a space opera? Well, I guess the physics. And not being able to read it while one was writing it. But think of being able to fix the end!…

Posted in My Books, Poor Relations