The Science of Fiction

Random Interview Question: Stephen Hunt

2012-05-25T19:00:00.000+07:00

Sephen Hunt's Jackelian series of futuristic steampunk tales includes The Court of the Air and The Kingdom Beyond the Waves. He also founded SF Crowsnest where over 100 of my book reviews have appeared.

Q. Would you like to live in a court in the air or in a kingdom beneath the waves?

A. Well, my answer to that one has to be 'The Court of the Air' - especially if I was running the joint, as I could sit up high watching everyone and ordering the arrest without trial or murder of anyone who did bad stuff down in the world... and it doesn't get any better than that.

The Gondolier in Afrikaans

2012-05-20T18:15:00.000+07:00

Unable to find a market for this translation, I've decided to post it here instead:

Die Gondolier

Die swart neus van my gondola sny glad en stilweg deur die kalm waters van die kanale. Die elegante tuig het my vir baie jare getrou gedien. Hy het passassiers onder die leidende hande van my voorouers deur die stad se waterweë gedra.

Die son sak weg oor die oeroue stad en die water word 'n donker lint tussen elegande sandsteengeboue. Ek neem 'n diepe asemteug van die koel aandluggie.

Is daar enige pragtiger plek as hierdie wonderlike stad van kanale? Soos wat die boot in sy ankerplek inbeweeg stop ek, en kyk ek met tevredenheid op na die naghemel bo Mars.

Die Einde

Random Interview Question: Michael Cobley

2012-05-18T19:30:00.000+07:00

Michael Cobley is the author of the Humanity's Fire sequence among others. The first of those, which I particularly enjoyed because of the diverse cultures and accents used, was Seeds of Earth.

Q. What kind of planet would you grow if you had the right seeds?

A. If we were talking about a planetary biosphere, I would definitely try to grow one with a species of plant with a complex crystaline network within its trunk, branches and leaves, which converts sunlight into electricity, perhaps linked to large underground organic batteries/heating web - perhaps this plant came about as a result of evolutionary symbiosis with some burrowing creature/insect which benefits from warm ground and which somehow protects the sparky lightning plant. Anyway, some subtle genetic engineering could result in a cheap, easily grown, easily maintained form of organic power generator which would make life in sunny climates rather different from how they are on our world.

If we're talking about the socio-political world, well, we really need an international social democratic movement ready to curtail the power of international finance, and we need a United Nations that is able to defend weak nations and promote democracy, and which provides worldwide forums for debate, and which provides means whereby joint action can be taken against climate change and other international crises. I know, dream on, eh?

Random Interview Question: Jack McDevitt

2012-05-11T19:00:00.000+07:00

Jack McDevitt is the author of over dozen novels, including the Alex Benedit series I've been enjoying for the past couple of years. The first of theose was A Talent for War and inspires the first question in my RIQ feature.

Q. What would you like to have a talent for?

A. I guess I’d settle for the ability to be objective. If I could learn to look at issues based on the facts rather than on my preconceptions (my ‘gut’?), I’d get a lot closer to the truth than I’m currently able to--

Steampunk Cover Kudos

2012-05-09T18:14:00.000+07:00

Charles Harbour, the artist behind the fabulous cover of The Immersion Book of Steampunk has more good news this week:

The Immersion Book of SteamPunk cover has been accepted for inclusion in this year’s Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art Book no.19

Pretty pleased as it’s pretty stiff competition to get in, with judges including Art directors from Blizzard, Wizards of the Coast and Disney.

Judging process http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqh4Rq3Gvic

If you look closely you can spot the cover at about 35 sec’s in, apparently this room was filled and cleared 3 times.

Random Interview Questions

2012-05-08T01:08:00.000+07:00

Inspired by the random thoughts that some book titles evoke, I decided to come up with some random questions based on various author's titles. I've been sending the questions out and the answers have started coming back.

Begining later this week I'll be posting the answers here in a new feature called Random Interview Question (RIQ).

Get in touch if you're an author who'd like a question, or you'd like to suggest an author or question for me to include.

Dutch Acceptance

2012-05-04T19:03:00.000+07:00

My short story World Wire Web, first published in Nature magazine, has been accepted by Dutch magazine SF Terra. I'm particularly pleased with this as I've already had 2 near misses with Dutch magazines so I'm glad to be finally making it into this language.

This will be the 4th language for World Wire Web as I'm already expecting translations in Galician and Danish. Along with a German story I'm expecting, this will take me to 24 published languages.

Forgotten Experiment

2012-04-30T19:00:00.000+07:00

I've just discovered blogger's new statistics and analysis (I say new, I have no idea how long it's been available) and I discovered the answer to a forgotten experiment from November 2007.

Back then I was posting a short story most Fridays and one week, as an experiment, I based the story on several keywords that were trending that week, a story called Let Me Entertain You.

I now find that that post has had as many hits as the second and third most popular posts on my site combined, five times more hits than any of my other stories and twenty times more than the average post. I think the experiment worked.

Unhelpful Writing Advice

2012-04-29T03:10:00.000+07:00

I recently dreamt I was giving writing advice to some people and awoke with 2 bits of almost-plausible sounding advice in my head:

1. Don't allow your character to remain inactive for more than 2 hours.

2. Always write death scenes in the morning when you have more emotional energy to put into them.

After posting about this on a writing group I'm in, Helena Bell was inspired to blog about The Greatest Writing Advice in the Entire World. Take a look - it's brilliant.

Eastercon 2012

2012-04-10T19:24:00.003+07:00

As usual I was just at EasterCon for the Saturday, and this year spent most of the time in the dealer hall helping out and standing in at the TTA Press stand with Roy Grey, wandering round, chatting and drinking tea.

I met lots of people I've spoken to before at other cons, plus a whole selection of new people who wandered past the stall or who were manning other stands. In vaguely chronological order:

Martin McGrath, Ian Whates, Tony Lee, Gareth Powell, Chris Priest, Nina Allen, David Tallerman, Aliette De Bodard, Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, Damien Walter, Ian Sales, Terry Jackman, Mike Cobley, John Meaney, Charles Stross and probably many others. So many others went past in the crowd too...

World Palindrome Championships

2012-03-26T18:44:00.000+07:00

After some delays' I've heard that issue #8 of The Palindromist magazine is due out next month, including my palindromic story of time travel and bio-engineered lycanthropy entitled Time Did Emit. I discovered The Palindromist when it was featured on Have I got News For You? last year.

Meanwhile, The Palindromist's editor Mark Saltveit has been crowned World Palindrome Champion at the first world championships in New York. From the press release:

A standup comedian from Portland, Oregon defeated two professors, two computer programmers, a cartoonist and a book clerk to win the first World Palindrome Championship, hosted by Will Shortz, the New York Times' crossword puzzle editor.

600 word nerds filled the ballroom at the Marriott Hotel at the Brooklyn Bridge and watched seven prominent palindromists deliver new reversible verses written on the spot. Audience members voted by deploying signs that said "WOW" on one side (for their favorite) and "HUH?" on the other. Portland comic Mark Saltveit squeaked past Minnesotan John Connett, a professor of Biostatistics, by an audience vote of 169-165.

Victorian SF Adventure

2012-03-19T18:45:00.003+07:00

The final editing of my slightly steampunk, Victorian SF adventure story The Journey Within is now complete and both myself and the editors of the Ancient New anthology are happy. Now just awaiting a publication date...

Anthology Wins Steampunk Award

2012-03-15T20:33:00.004+07:00

The Best of Steampunk Awards are given out annualy by the Steampunk Facebook group, the largest steampunk community on Facebook with almost 175,000 members.

Among this year's awards are:

Best Anthology "The Immersion Book of Steampunk" by Immersion Press

Best Short Fiction "Cinema U" by G. D. Falksen, published in The Immersion Book of Steampunk

It's a wonderful recognition of the fabulous stories I was fortunate enough to receive for the anthology.

Eastercon 2012 Approaches

2012-03-09T22:52:00.002+07:00

It's 4 weeks until Eastercon arrives and I'm looking forward to a day of meeting up and chatting with numerous other authors, publishers agents et al in the SF field. I've not looked at the programme yet, but I've really enjoyed myself the past couple of years and I'm sure this year will be no different.

The Gondolier in Gaelic

2012-03-08T04:19:00.003+07:00

The Scottish Gaelic translation of The Gondolier appears in issue #71 of Cothrom, the magazine for learners, supporters and readers of Gaelic. My contributor copy arrived today - a glossy, colour A4 magazine full of all kinds of articles in Gaelic and English.

This is the 21st language I've been published in, and the 11th for The Gondolier.

The Gondolier in Slovenian

2012-02-15T19:57:00.000+05:00

Although the Slovenian translation of The Gondolier has been accepted by the Prizma SF society for publicaiton in their newsletter, I'm not sure if or when that will happen, so here it is for your enjoyment.

Gondoljer

Črni kljun moje gondole je enakomerno rezal mirno vodo kanala. Sloka ladjica mi je zvesto služila, saj je že vrsto let pod vodečimi rokami generacij mojih prednikov prevažala potnike po vodnih poteh mesta.

Sonce je zahajalo nad starodavnim mestom, da se je voda spremenila v tintast trak, položen med elegantne stavbe iz peščenjaka. Globoko sem vdihaval hladno večerno sapo.

Je mar na vsem svetu kaj lepšega od tega fantastičnega mesta kanalov? Ko se je barka počasi bližala privezu, sem se za trenutek z zadovoljstvom zazrl v temneče nebo Marsa.

Konec

Five New Stories

2012-02-09T17:16:00.000+05:00

I've written five new flash length stories in the past month, bulking up my rather depleted selection of stories I currently have under submission. I need to do some editing on them next, and two of them I've decided need more developing, so will probably end up longer than flash length. I have specific markets in mind for two of them too. Not a bad start to the year's writing.

New Immersion Steampunk Review

2012-02-06T18:30:00.000+05:00

The new issue of Vector, the Critical Journal of the BSFA, includes a review of The Immersion Book of Steampunk.

In summary it says:

As a whole though, the collection is a stylish and interesting assembly of tales from authors who may normally live in the shadows cast by the zeppelins of more instantly recognisable heralds of the subgenre but here are given a chance to showcase their talents and do so in fine fashion.

The Sound of Kulturkampf

2012-02-03T19:44:00.003+05:00

You can now listen to Anatoly Belilovski's Kulturkampf on the Cast of Wonders podcast. It's a great little story and one of the first that I selected for The Immersion Book of Steampunk. This presentation, with accompanying soundtrack, is a marvel of steampunk audio.

The Gondolier in French

2012-01-10T16:39:00.000+05:00

I sent this translation to various French magazines, and had an encouraging personal rejection from Canadian magazine Solaris (it was too short for them). In the end I've decided to post it here.

Le Gondolier
Par Gareth D. Jones

L'étrave noire de ma gondole tranchait doucement les eaux calmes des canaux. L'élégante embarcation me servait avec constance depuis des années. Dirigée par les mains de mes devanciers et elle avait conduit des générations de voyageurs à travers les canaux de la cité.

Le soleil se couchait sur la vieille cité. L'eau semblait changée en un ruban d'encre étalé entre les élégants immeubles aux façades de pierre. Je pris une profonde inspiration dans l'air frais du soir.

Existait-il où que ce soit un lieu plus beau que cette merveilleuse cité de canaux? Alors que le balancement du bateau s'atténuait dans son amarrage, je m'arrêtai quelques instants pour admirer les cieux assombris de Mars.

Fin.

Translated by Emilie Harry

Proofread by Aliette De Bodard

Danish Story Sale

2012-01-06T18:28:00.001+05:00

My short story World Wire Web, first published in Nature magazine, has been accepted by Danish magazine Proxima. It's scheduled to appear in the spring issue in May. Danish will be the 21st language I've been published in.

I'm hoping to have news soon on three other translations too.

Favourite Stories of 2011

2012-01-04T18:26:00.002+05:00

I read much less short fiction in 2011 than in previous years, but enjoyed a huge amount of it. My favourite stories of 2011 were:

Teamwork by Jonathan Pinnock – Murky Depths #16
The Orchid Hunters by Priya Sharma – AltHist #2
The Ceiling is Sky by Suzanne Palmer – Interzone #234
The Bitter End by Simon Kewin & Dominic de Mattos – Jupiter XXXIV
Digital Rights by Jim Hawkins - Interzone #237

First Review of the Year

2012-01-03T17:04:00.000+05:00

I've seen a few positive comments and ratings for The Immersion Book of Steampunk in places such as Amazon and Goodreads, but the first full review has now appeared, on the Abyss and Apex website. Altogether it's pretty positive:

I love steampunk, but so rarely find one that will fit my magazine’s needs. So it was a pleasure to shuck off my editorial hat and just dive in and enjoy this collection of “everything steampunk could be.” Most of it went down well.

You can read the full review here.

The Spreadsheet of Ideas

2011-12-29T16:21:00.002+05:00

Writing and editing Gap Years has kept me busy for ages. I've also recently done some work editing my novelette for the Ancient New anthology, written a flash fiction story and completed work on a collaboration with Ken Schneyer. I'm currently working on a collaboration with several other authors, but at the moment I have nothing to write until I hear back from them.

So, with time available, I sat down to do some writing and shockingly discovered that for the first time in several years I have nothing ready to write at the moment. My great spreadsheet of ideas lists 4 short stories and 2 novels, but even the short stories are not well-enough developed to start writing yet.

So I'm doing some plotting, working on synopses of the novels, biding my time...

Gap Years Edited

2011-12-28T18:42:00.001+05:00

Several months after finishing the first draft, the final edit of Gap Years is complete. It's also now 10,000 words shorter.

Conveniently, during a break only pages from the end, I formulated the broad plot for a sequel. Not sure when I'll start work on that...