William Shunn's Blog

As near as I can pin it down, it was late January in 2009 when, frustrated by whatever recalcitrant writing project I was struggling with at the time, I opened up a new document and typed these sentences:

Everything changed when Hasta flipped Bobby Kimball the bird. The universe turned inside out—or at least that's how it seemed.

From then on, for Hasta and her friends, nothing was ever the same.

This was the opening for a novel with the working title Technomancers, a sort of young-adult urban ...

As near as I can pin it down, it was late January in 2009 when, frustrated by whatever recalcitrant writing project I was struggling with at the time, I opened up a new document and typed these sentences:

Everything changed when Hasta flipped Bobby Kimball the bird. The universe turned inside out—or at least that's how it seemed.

From then on, for Hasta and her friends, nothing was ever the same.

This was the opening for a novel with the working title Technomancers, a sort of young-adult urban ...

Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash There is no feeling quite like seeing your book displayed on a bookstore shelf. If it seems miraculous, that’s because it is.A remarkable chain of events had to transpire to make this happen. You spent months or years nurturing a fragile idea and rendering it into words. You managed to get those words in front of an editor, who was moved or excited enough by them to champion your work to more people. A book was designed, art commissioned, a marketing plan devis...

Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash There is no feeling quite like seeing your book displayed on a bookstore shelf. If it seems miraculous, that’s because it is.A remarkable chain of events had to transpire to make this happen. You spent months or years nurturing a fragile idea and rendering it into words. You managed to get those words in front of an editor, who was moved or excited enough by them to champion your work to more people. A book was designed, art commissioned, a marketing plan devis...

Down in Texas one Governor Abbott
Said, “We ain’t havin’ mandates, dagnabbit!”
      But when lawmakin’ tasks
      Go to men without masks,
It makes breathin’ a dangerous habit.

The New York Times Spelling Bee is a daily online puzzle that presents a set of seven letters and challenges players to construct as many words as possible using them. There’s always at least one word—the “pangram”—that uses all seven letters. One letter is designated as the “center,” and that letter must appear in all the solutions.I starting playing the Spelling Bee in the fall of 2018, and I quickly became fascinated with it. Before long I’d started building a little web tool to help me fin...

The New York Times Spelling Bee is a daily online puzzle that presents a set of seven letters and challenges players to construct as many words as possible using them. There’s always at least one word—the “pangram”—that uses all seven letters. One letter is designated as the “center,” and that letter must appear in all the solutions.

I starting playing the Spelling Bee in the fall of 2018, and I quickly became fascinated with it. Before long I’d started building a little web tool to help me fin...

[White House press briefing, 14 April 2020] "All right, I'll take one more question. Yes?" "Mr. President, who was responsible for the slow response to the coronavirus threat?" "Yes." "What?" "WHO." "That's what I'm asking." "That's what I'm telling you. WHO was responsible." "Do you have an answer to the question, sir?" "WHO." "Yes, that's what we'd all like to hear. Who was responsible?" "Thank you, that's what I've been saying all along." "Sir, who said on January 22nd that the situation...

I’m delighted to report that my short story “Last” will close out Season 2 of the top-rated DUST podcast.If you’re not familiar with it, DUST is an audio anthology series dramatizing science fiction stories. While the first season, Horizons, offered an eclectic mix of new and classic stories, the new season, Flight 008, presents selected stories from the recent XPRIZE anthology, Seat 14C . These episodes follow the lives of passengers on an ANA flight from Tokyo to San Francisco that passes thr...

Im delighted to report that my short story Last will close out Season 2 of the top-rated DUST podcast. If youre not familiar with it, DUST is an audio anthology series dramatizing science fiction stories. While the first season, Horizons, offered an eclectic mix of new and classic stories, the new season, Flight 008, presents selected stories from the recent XPRIZE anthology, Seat 14C . These episodes follow the lives of passengers on an ANA flight from Tokyo to San Francisco that passes...