Tuesday, June 21, 2016

Sit Rep

I've just fired the manuscript of Austral through the ether to my agent and editor, the second stage of what was just a notion (someone on the run in a greening Antarctica, getting into deeper trouble with every step) becoming a thing. (The first step was, of course, writing it down.)

At this stage I should fall over for a while, but there are other things to do. One of them is reviewing all the novels nominated for the 2016 Clarke Awards. So far I've read five and reviewed four -- the reviews can be found by scrolling down just a bit. After I've posted the last review, I'll write an overview post, asking what the six tell us about the state of British science fiction publishing, and lightly speculating on which of them might win.

Adam Roberts used to do this roundup on a regular basis, and did it far better than me, but after Nina Allan commented that no one seemed to be doing it this time around I thought I'd pick up the gauntlet. So far it's been a lot less like work than I thought it would be, although emitting a review roughly once a week is hardly pushing myself. A couple of decades ago I was reviewing six or seven novels for Interzone once every other month while writing my own books and holding down an actual job. Ah, but I was so much younger then; I'm older than that now.


2 Comments:

Anonymous Allan said...

Come on Paul, if you're going to quote Dylan get it right. As I am sure that you know, the correct quote is "I was so much older then. I'm younger than that now." As someone said to me last week, "Age is in your head."

I did reply "It's also in your knees." (having a bit of trouble in that area at the moment.)
But keep thinking young. I am about the same age as you, and have also (so far) survived an encounter with cancer, and am still very pleased to be alive and active. Keep the novels and reviews coming. I have always enjoyed your writing very much and need a boost to recover from the European tragedy.

Allan

June 25, 2016 8:56 am  
Blogger Paul McAuley said...

Hi Allan, Well spotted, but the misquote was an intentional inversion (re-inversion?) of Dylan's inversion. The Survivors' Club isn't one we wanted to join, but we're both glad to be here, at whatever real or imagined age...

June 25, 2016 9:27 am  

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