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Jun. 25th, 2012 11:51 amI had a rush of emails this morning. They were from the amazing and wonderful scientists at CSIRO (and a lone wonderful astronomer from Texas*). The science in my time travel novel needs tweaks only. I need to check for surface shale in some bits of my region, for instance, but otherwise the geology is fine and the water systems (which from my end are both important and complex) work. This is very, very good news on a number of fronts.
Firstly, it means I am still on track with the idiot doctorate. It was not my imagination: the novel is all but finished.
Secondly (and more importantly) it means that you don't need to do anything past year 10 to get things right in novels. You do, however, have to put the work in for that novel and think things through properly. When people point out their lack of history or languages, I can now point to my lack of science. Writers need to do their homework: writers need to get background right.
If I had got everything 100% right, then I would have been able to say this smugly, but the expert still has it all over the enthusiastic fiction writer in terms of understanding.
Thirdly, my hard SF doesn't look like hard SF. It looks like a novel by Gillian, with the people first and their actions leading the way and many bad jokes spattered along the way. Yet it *is* hard SF in terms of care taken with the science and with the landscape. It's also hard history in terms of care taken. However much the genre of novel looks like something else, it's got that work underpinning it. This is going to be really interesting, I think in terms of public reception and (let's be honest) finding a publisher. For it doesn't fudge where it's meant to fudge. In plotline, it's an alien encounter novel, but in setting it's got the detail one associates with historical fiction.
I think I am put on this earth to drive publishers crazy. I certainly drove Momentum crazy when they were trying to work out how to market Cellophane. Apparently it doesn't fit neatly into genre boundaries either.
That's not all my news of the morning, but it's quite, quite enough.
*Actually, my lone star astronomer emailed ages ago, but I couldn't leave her out!
Firstly, it means I am still on track with the idiot doctorate. It was not my imagination: the novel is all but finished.
Secondly (and more importantly) it means that you don't need to do anything past year 10 to get things right in novels. You do, however, have to put the work in for that novel and think things through properly. When people point out their lack of history or languages, I can now point to my lack of science. Writers need to do their homework: writers need to get background right.
If I had got everything 100% right, then I would have been able to say this smugly, but the expert still has it all over the enthusiastic fiction writer in terms of understanding.
Thirdly, my hard SF doesn't look like hard SF. It looks like a novel by Gillian, with the people first and their actions leading the way and many bad jokes spattered along the way. Yet it *is* hard SF in terms of care taken with the science and with the landscape. It's also hard history in terms of care taken. However much the genre of novel looks like something else, it's got that work underpinning it. This is going to be really interesting, I think in terms of public reception and (let's be honest) finding a publisher. For it doesn't fudge where it's meant to fudge. In plotline, it's an alien encounter novel, but in setting it's got the detail one associates with historical fiction.
I think I am put on this earth to drive publishers crazy. I certainly drove Momentum crazy when they were trying to work out how to market Cellophane. Apparently it doesn't fit neatly into genre boundaries either.
That's not all my news of the morning, but it's quite, quite enough.
*Actually, my lone star astronomer emailed ages ago, but I couldn't leave her out!