JOURNAL ENTRY #25
September 16, 2008
Newly acquired books: Breakfast in the Ruins. Barry Malzberg comments on science fiction, where we've been, where we're probably going. (Of course, Barry's been around too long to believe any of us have a clue what's going to happen even as soon as next week.) But if you'd like to get a sense what's been going on in the field over the past four decades or so, this is a brilliant introduction. This is, by the way, a substantially expanded version of the author's Engines in the Night, from 1982.
Also, Brave New Words, by Jeff Prucher, subtitled The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction. Want to nail down what post-cyberpunk really means? Or what you've done when you unsuit? This one is an entertaining reference work, something to dip into when you're waiting for your ride to arrive.
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The current issue of Astronomy (Oct, 2008) contains a solar eclipse calendar. There will be two total solar eclipses visible in the United States over the next sixteen years. The first will occur August 21, 2017, and the other on April 8, 2024. The second one is of particular interest to me because it's the eclipse that happens in Moonfall, and alerts the world that it's seven days away from disaster. Readers of the novel will recall that we have a moonbase up and running by that time. I'm sorry to say that I think that notion might have been optimistic.
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I reported with great fanfare a few weeks back that I'd completed the second draft of Time Travelers Never Die, which will be out in November, 2009. Unfortunately, it has come to my attention that I blew several opportunities to improve the book. Vastly. The problem, I think, derived from an effort to keep the narrative consistent with the novella of the same name, which was originallly published in Asimov's, in 1996. (And which will, by the way, be reprinted in Cryptic , a best-of collection due in January.
Anyhow, Robert Dyke, who was the director of TimeQuest, made some suggestions. He was right, so I tossed seven or eight chapters, rearranged the action, and provided a stronger drive. Once again, a lesson for us all: There is no more valuable aide to a writer than somebody who has decent taste, and will tell you what he really thinks. If TTND works, Dyke will deserve a substantial chunk of the credit.
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I was happy to see that NASA's mission to Pluto is on schedule. I think they're estimating nine years before arrival. Would love to have them go into orbit out there and spot Clifford Simak's construction shack.
Jack
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