Sitrep
I just finished the first draft of HALTING STATE. (That doesn't mean it's ready to send to my editor; it just means that it's ready for me to throw it at a few select readers who can whack on it and tell me why bits of it don't work — then I get to go back and fix them.) And in addition, tomorrow is my birthday, so I think I might just be taking the day off from pounding the keyboard to catch some fresh air, remind myself that there's a real world out there, and fill out mortgage application forms. Or something.
Meanwhile, Reuters just opened a news bureau in Second Life. But I'm sure you already saw this coming ...
(Later I'll post some thoughts on trying to write a near-future SF thriller in the current climate. But first I need to take some time off.)
Comments
Beer had best be involved....
Posted by: Erik V. Olson | October 17, 2006 9:31 PM
Congratulations and happy birthday, Mr. Stross!
Posted by: Bruce Chrumka | October 17, 2006 10:14 PM
Happy birthday, Charlie! I'll hoist one for you; and to help buy yours, I've pre-ordered Jennifer Morgue.
Posted by: Clifton Royston | October 18, 2006 1:26 AM
A very happy birthday, Mr. Stross. Enjoy the day!
Posted by: Paul Tomes | October 18, 2006 7:26 AM
Happy birfday Mr Stross, hope you have a good day and all that.
And thank the electronic gods that you've got the first draught done - any longer and you'd have been writing current affairs...
Posted by: Serraphin | October 18, 2006 8:43 AM
Happy Birthday from Australia, too. And congratulations on getting through the first draft.
Posted by: Adrian | October 18, 2006 8:46 AM
Many Happy Returns. Relax.
Posted by: Harry Payne | October 18, 2006 9:51 AM
Happy birthday!
Posted by: marrije | October 18, 2006 10:49 AM
And Whisky, surely?
( Bow Bar? )
More near-future SF, LOTS more of the Singularity Sky/Iron Horizon universe. ''''
Please not too many more "Merchants" - not up to your usual standard (I think)
Posted by: G. Tingey | October 18, 2006 11:13 AM
G. Tingey: nope, no more singularity sky/iron sunrise. Having just finished the police procedural, the next far-future SF novel I have planned is going to be a Heinlein pastiche -- late period Heinlein, not Heinlein juvenile.
(I'll have something to say on this topic when I finish recovering from the hangover I plan to install tonight.)
Posted by: Charlie Stross | October 18, 2006 11:55 AM
Happy Birthday,
just bought another of your scribblings so add a few more pennies to the fund for your endeavours this evening - if you haven't started already that is.
Posted by: A.J. Rimmer | October 18, 2006 2:48 PM
Happy Birthday & have fun getting that hangover. :)
Posted by: Andrew G. | October 18, 2006 3:17 PM
Late period Heinlein -- so that means that you're having your birthday with alternate history versions of yourself, discussing who first landed on the Moon, and how many Kennedies were president of the USA?
I agree that late Heinlein is misunderstood. He was, I believe, evolving considerably beyond conventional structure of novels. Not so far beyond conventional story as Chip Delany, but rather post-modern.
John Varley, Mary Turzillo, and Jay Lake have done interesting new-Heinleins. Yours will be -- surely -- different in various ways.
Happy Birthday!
Posted by: Jonathan Vos Post | October 18, 2006 4:36 PM
Charlie,
Happy birthday (dare we ask how many?) and happy hangover. And if you dare to pull one those late-Heinlein "and he woke and it had all been a dream, and he was the richest and most powerful literary characters in all the Metaverse" plot twists (cite: "The Number of the Beast" et. seq.), I will personally write you into a horror story as the victim.
Posted by: Bruce Cohen (SpeakerToManagers) | October 18, 2006 5:17 PM
Happy Birthday from Ireland.
Looking forward to reading Halting State - your books are the only ones I buy new now.
Posted by: Stephen | October 18, 2006 9:33 PM
enjoy. And write what you want, I'll read it.
Posted by: Adrian Midgley | October 18, 2006 10:18 PM
Have a good time. And write whatever you want, although I'd prefer it if you wrote what I want to read, obviously.
Posted by: Neil Willcox | October 19, 2006 12:48 AM
Happy Birthday from Mountian View, CA!
Since everyone seems to be voiceing their opinions of what you should write, my favorite is Accelerando, but I liked Singularity Sky, Iron Sunrise and Glasshouse. I also can't wait to see where Merchant Princes stories go next.
I can't wait to read Halting State.
Have a great birthday party, you deserve the time off.
Posted by: David Watson | October 19, 2006 3:18 AM
Oh everyone's voicing opinions eh? Well in my opinion I need to learn how to differentiate between draft and draught.
Although by the time you read my message you may indeed have finished your first draught of something.
Hope your head's killing you - it's apparently the sign of a good night out.
Posted by: Serraphin | October 19, 2006 8:49 AM
Congratulations, looking forward to it.
If you need another "select reader" you've got my email ;)
Posted by: John | October 19, 2006 1:34 PM
Happy Birthday! Less partying more writing! :) Seriously, hope your celebration was fun.
Posted by: Cormac | October 19, 2006 11:35 PM
Congratulations. Thats a lot of typing. I hope your mortgage applications go alright, they can be a pain in the neck.
Posted by: guthrie | October 20, 2006 9:31 AM
Late period Heinlein pastiche is frightening, Charlie. Please, please tell me that there'll be no 'nubile' women, where 'nubile' means 'junior high school age'.
Posted by: Barry | October 22, 2006 10:38 PM
Barry, the only reason for re-visiting late period Heinlein is to see how it might have played out without the brain eater.
And as the elevator pitch for the novel is: "200 years in the future, humanity goes extinct -- but human civilization shrugs, and goes on spreading itself to the stars", I think you can rest assured that 'nubile' women of 'junior high school age' will be thin on the ground. I have other fish to fry ...
Posted by: Charlie Stross | October 22, 2006 11:00 PM