A few of the things I've read or thought about today:
- SF Signal has a great discussion with a number of SF/F authors on how the internet impacts book sales. Among the authors voicing an opinion are Matthew Jarpe, Tobias Buckell, Andrew Wheeler, Lou Anders, and David Louis Edelman.
- The February 2008 issue of Asimov's arrived the other day and featured the final section of Allen M. Steele's Galaxy Blues serial. Titled "The Great Beyond," the conclusion is space opera on a grand scale set in Steele's increasingly fascinating Coyote universe. The rest of the issue also looks good and I'll post some thoughts as soon as I finish reading it.
- Finally, Lee Goldberg linked to yesterday's post about the coming wreck in fan literature. While I appreciate the link, it's not accurate to count me among the "fanficcers." (Is that even a word?) While I'm sympathetic to fan writers, my personal feeling is that when one writes in another writer's or corporation's universe, you have to accept their ground rules going in. I'm also personally not a fan of fan literature. While the push may be on to call such writings transformative, I prefer the old term derivative. And in my experience, derivative works almost never equal the power or artistry of the works they are derived from.