The Daily Grind

There's been a lot to do over the last few days, especially setting up these blogs and the website. At times I've been so excited I can hardly sleep at night. Strange dreams pursue me when I finally doze off, but do you think I can remember any of them when I wake?

Yesterday we had a cool meeting in Second Life with members and guests at the Science Fiction and Fantasy Centre. Chat was compact but intense as we debated the reasons why major publishing houses don't go for inspirational science fiction. One idea was that they shy away from anything that might seem prophetic in nature - and as sci-fi mostly deals with the future, that applies to just about everything in the genre.

Yet none of the classic mainstream SF writers claimed to be foretelling the future. Heinlein, Niven, Wyndham, Asimov. So far as I know (correct me if I'm wrong!) they all wrote of futures born from their vivid imaginations. The same as sci-fi writers do today.

I'm not discounting the effects of suggestion by any means. Last night I pulled up an old episode of Star Trek from the 80's and laughed when I saw the digital photo frame. That was fiction back then. Not any more.

Today I waded through various print and distribution contracts which will need to be faxed to the UK before we can really get going. Also sorted out some office administration stuff. I'm waiting to hear back from the New Zealand National Library about my application for ISBN's. And an author I greatly respect mentioned a manuscript he recommends I take a look at.

So yeah, plenty going on...