Britain is relatively compact and much closer to the borders of the U.S.S.R. than anywhere in North America. Charles Stross More Quotes by Charles Stross More Quotes From Charles Stross The programmers have another saying: 'The question of whether a machine can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim.' Charles Stross swiminterestingthinking What I'm hoping for is something that goes much, much further than the conservative enablers of dog-eat-dog capitalism putting on a puppet show of cleaning house. But that's probably not going to happen just yet. Charles Stross puppetsdoghouse We are, after all, homo economicus. Charles Stross My gut feeling is that SF as we know it today is actually a heavily propagandized field that grew out of a specific set of cultural trends running in the USA and Europe between 1918 and 1950, during the post-imperial modernization period. Charles Stross usarunningeurope When I do get to chow down on a book, I try to read ones that are nothing like what I'm writing. So, as I'm currently working on a space opera (of sorts) I'm mostly indulging in urban fantasy. Charles Stross spacewritingbook What I read: while I'm writing, I tend to go off reading fiction for relaxation - especially the challenging stuff. It's too much like the day job. Charles Stross readingwritingjobs I write almost entlirely on Macs, because: Windows gives me hives. Charles Stross writinggivingwindow I drink tea pretty much continuously at a rate of around 1 imperial pint/hour, which sort of enforces screen/keyboard breaks. Charles Stross keyboardsdrinktea I began my first novel when I was 15. It went through three drafts, of around 40,000 words each. If I find it, I'll burn it. Charles Stross novelthreefirsts I was heavily into AD&D in my teens (late 1970s-early 1980s) but fell off the RPG habit in the mid-80s and have never gone back to it; my lifestyle today isn't very compatible with having a regular gaming group (too much travel). Charles Stross rpgsgroupsgone There's a long-standing (50 year old) flame war within the field over whether it's "sci-fi" or "SF".SF has traditionally been looked down on by the literary establishment because, to be honest, much early SF was execrably badly written - but these days the significance of the pigeon hole is fading; we have serious mainstream authors writing stuff that is I-can't-believe-it's-not-SF, and SF authors breaking into the mainstream. If you view them as tags that point to shelves in bricks-and-mortar bookshops, how long are these genre categories going to survive in the age of the internet? Charles Stross writingwarbelieve Most established novelists are writing books informed by experiences gained in their youth. Middle age is not the best time to be changing smartphones every six months or adopting new technology platforms - because we tend to get slower and less accommodating to change as we age. Charles Stross technologywritingbook I'm not planning a kickstarter game. And I'm not really a game designer. Charles Stross planningdesignergames I have a CS degree and a history that includes working as a software developer and being a computer magazine columnist back during the 1990s. I guess I simply paid attention to the social effects of the IT revolution as I lived through it. Charles Stross magazinesdegreesattention An important factor to note is that it's rare for anyone to sell a first novel written before they turned 30-35; long-format fiction tends to require a bunch of experience of human life that takes time to acquire. So your average mid-career novelist is in their forties to fifties! Charles Stross careersaveragelong I write exclusively using computers. Pens and typewriters can fsck right off - I wrote my first half million words in my teens on a manual typewriter (had to trade it for a new one due to keys snapping from metal fatigue) so I am not a pen or typewriter fetishist. Charles Stross typewriterskeyswriting I have time to write 1-2 novels per year, and get roughly novel-sized ideas every month. I have to perform triage on my own writing impulses. Charles Stross writingyearsideas My agent is based in New York. And due to a historic accident, my publishing track is primarily American - I'm sold into the UK almost as a foreign import! So I'm quite out of touch with what's going on in UK publishing. Charles Stross agentstracknew-york I was an early adopter: have been on the internet continuously since late 1989, barring a six-month loss of access in the early 90s. Charles Stross six-monthsinternetloss It's usually quite easy to shrug and write something else instead. Charles Stross easywriting
