Tansy,  Alex, and Alisa have launched the Galactic Suburbia podcast.  Similar in conception to the late lamented (are you listening Tony C. Smith) The Sofanauts podcast, it involves three friends with an interest in science fiction (writer, reviewer, editor/publisher) talking about what’s happening in the field, what they’re reading, and other stuff they think is interesting.  I really enjoyed the first instalment of “Galactic Suburbia”, even if I wanted to keep arguing and interjecting with the trio (because I know them and tend to argue and interject, one way or another, though usually online).  Go listen and subscribe!

I should also mention John Joseph Adams and David Barr Kirtley’s The Geeks Guide to the Galaxy which is often interesting and is also worth listening too.

When I stumble out into the real world where I might actually interact with writers I am, very occasionally, asked for advice. What should a new writer do about this or that? Do you, based on your experience, have any advice for writer? Normally I don’t have a good answer to that. A lot of the advice any editor, or reader, can give is repeated endlessly from one of end of the web to the other, and it gets fairly dull.

However, something did occur to me yesterday when I was doing a bit of business for Wings of Fire, and it was this. Manage your digital assets. It does not matter whether you are just starting your career, whether you’re in the middle of your career, or whether you feel your career is reaching a conclusion – there is ALWAYS value in having clean, digital copies of your work.

What prompted this was that I briefly was considering asking for permission to reprint Jack Vance’s fine novelette, “The Dragon Masters”, in my book. Time is short, the manuscript is due with the publisher in a couple weeks but I knew, because of the fine efforts of the Vance Integral Edition people, that Vance has clean digital copy of all of his works. If I wanted to include the story and he agreed to it, then it would be a simple matter to do so.

Contrast this to many, many writers who have no digital copies of their work whatsoever. I have contacted writer after writer for many projects, and the number of times that I’ve been amazed to find out that they have no digital copies of their work, despite it only having appeared quite recently, is shocking.

Now, you might say that from a writer’s perspective this is a publisher’s problem. And it is, but it’s not. You see every time someone reprints your work you get paid. It is literally, like the old song says, money for nothing and chicks for free. Someone asks to reprint your story; you say yes, you get paid. However, if your story is unavailable digitally that can be a real disincentive. There’s a cost in scanning, proofing and checking text. Sometimes, when digital copy is unavailable, it’s simply more economical to go elsewhere.

Beyond the financial incentive, making your work easy to reprint can increase the likelihood of it being reprinted. Go check some day how much more of Jack Vance’s work is available, and in clean nice copies, now that the VIE has done its job than was formerly in print. It also means less work for you in the long run. Should your work BE reprinted, there’ll be less checking of proofs and such because your text will be clean.   So, is it a pain to keep digital copies of your fiction, tracking changes through editions and so on, and then keeping it in an accessible format – yes!! Is it in your best interests? Definitely!

Cyberpunk. In the early 1980s Interzone called for a “new science fiction” and a small group of writers in North America responded, starting a Movement that focussed on high tech and low life that used information technology and cybernetics, but took them out of the lab and onto the street where anyone could pick them up, recycle and reuse them.

The fiction was gritty, typically dark and dystopic, and in the mid-1980s, utterly thrilling. Writers like William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Pat Cadigan, John Shirley, Lewis Shiner and others pushed the envelope and cyberpunk evolved into only the second true literary movement in the history of science fiction (after the New Wave).

In 1986 Bruce Sterling edited Mirrorshades, the definitive anthology of cyberpunk fiction. It featured just a dozen stories, all of which sketched out in one way or another, what cyberpunk was and what it meant. In some cases the authors weren’t cyberpunks per se, but the work in question very much was.

I’ve just accepted the challenge from Jeremy Lassen at Night Shade Books to, a quarter century later, follow in Bruce’s footsteps and edit a new anthology that will cast its net wider and deeper, and give a fuller picture of what the cyberpunk movement was and what it meant to the field. The anthology, which is still untitled (though I’m referring to it as Cyberpunk at the moment), is due out in 2012.

What I am doing now, though, is asking you to recommend your favourite cyberpunk story using my Cyberpunk Fiction Database. I am looking for recommendations for short stories, novels, and anthologies, and am considering any cyberpunk story, no matter when it was published.  I am especially interested in / looking for recommendations for work by women, people of colour and others.  Cyberpunk was mostly a white male phenomenon, but I’m eager to present as full a picture of this important movement as possible.  Anyone recommending a story will be acknowledged in the final book. I’ve put some recommendations in myself, just to get things started.  You can see what’s already in the database here.

So, we’ve “upgraded” to Windows 7 as of today. What a total clusterf*ck that was, and I say that having arranged for someone else to handle the actual physical upgrading of the physical machines in question.  It’s very clear to me that I made an error of judgement last year when I opted to upgrade my working computer at home to a new Windows-based machine. I toyed with the idea of buying a MacBook to replace it and most likely should have.

The reason that I’m so confident about this is because moving my Outlook email from one machine was, once again, a drama. At a time when I needed to be working on various projects I suddenly had to deal with not having computers accessible and then trying to manage 31,748 emails that weren’t quite where they should be. (sigh)

Still, that is done now.  I now need to look into (a) network storage and (b) the wireless network.  This last set of problems has made it clear that since “Jonathan and Marianne’s Editing Inc” depends on our computer network then it needs to be better managed and regularly backed-up in a safe manner.  I’m looking into that (Netgear’s Stora seems a possibility).  Marianne also continues to experience wireless network connectivity issues, so it looks like that’s going to have to be dealt with too. So, more dollars.

I think what makes this so much fun is that  it’s happening at the same time I need to finish up on Wings of Fire (lots to do and its due 18 March), write copy for the Niven collection, and get ready for taxes.  And all of that has to be done by 2 April, cos we are going on holiday, people, and I will be offline for the whole time. Busy business indeed!

I’ve never done a lot of link updates, but here are few I’ve noticed this morning.  First, there’s an interesting new webzine going up over at Lambda Literary. From the stuff that’s up already it’s should be well worth checking in on regularly.

I also noted that Tor.com have persuaded my pal and colleage Lou Anders to get his geek on and talk about Michael Moorcock as part of their celebrations of all things Moorcockian.

And finally, the latest issue of Clarkesworld is online.  The March issue features fiction by Gord Sellar and Matthew Kressel, along with a conversation with Kij Johnson and a piece on neuroscience fiction and neuroscience fantasy.  Clarkesworld has developed into a terrific magazine and I’ve become a real fan of Gord Sellar’s fiction. Check it out!