Journal 54
December 1, 2009
My novels have routinely been submitted in November. That means, for me, a start date on the next one in February. So I have about twelve weeks to sleep, work on the 3000-piece jigsaw puzzle that’s taken over our dining room table, and read. Since this is the Nebula season, I find myself playing catch-up with the year’s novels, and also with the magazines that have piled up in the bedroom. (I also read material that is not necessarily eligible for the Nebula, but that I missed the first time around.)
Among the stronger efforts I’ve seen so far, are: Wake, by Robert Sawyer (Ace); Plague Zone, by Jeff Carlson (Ace); Mars Life, by Ben Bova (Tor); Overthrowing Heaven, by Mark L. Van Name (Baen); and Julie E. Czerneda’s Rift in the Sky (Daw). I’ve just started (and am already hooked by) Galileo’s Dream, by Kim Stanley Robinson (Spectra).
Anyone with a taste for rousing fantasy will enjoy Kevin Anderson’s The Edge of the World (Little, Brown & Co). And Greg Bear’s City at the End of Time arrived today. It looks intriguing. But that's normal with Greg‘s books.
I’ve been going through the year’s magazines in no particular order. Standout stories so far: In Asimov‘s: “Act One,” by Nancy Kress, March 2009; “The Spires of Denon,” Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Apr-May 2009); “This Wind Blowing, and This Tide,” Damien Broderick (Apr-May, 2009), which gets the McDevitt Prize for best title; and “Deadly Sins,” Nancy Kress, (Oct-Nov 2009).
In Analog: “Gunfight on Farside,” Adam-Troy Castro (Apr, 2009); “The Jolly Boy Friend,” Jerry Oltion (Dec 2009); and “A Jug of Wine and Thou,” Oltion again (Apr 2009).
And I’ve just started….
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The most difficult part of the creative process, for me, lies just ahead. I’ve promised a story to John Joseph Adams for the premier issue of Lightspeed, which he will be editing. And of course there is a novel that will take up most of my time during 2010. (Why does that year have a resonance?) I have no idea what either of these will look like.
There are several possibilities: Some readers have asked for an account of how Priscilla Hutchins got started. (That’s a wild story.) Others have indicated they’d like to see more of the Time Travelers. And I’ve been tempted for years to write about what happens when the White House is informed there’s been a breakthrough in life extension and people are going to stop ageing.
The 2011 book may be one of these. Or something else entirely. Who knows? This is the reason I’m always impressed with writers who have a single plotline that spreads across a dozen novels.