Peace Breaks Out

I’ve just finished the final draft of The Quiet War, and must now contemplate the next, which is presently called Outer Dark. But now I have to go off and write an introduction to a collection of stories about AI...

Elsewhere, Paul Kincaid is pleased by the health of the short story market, Jeff Vandemeer is unimpressed by mere comptence. And Mark Lawson, post-Booker Prize, feels that authors can choose between ‘the smooth and brightly lit genre path that winds through entertainment, optimism and simplicity’ to ‘adulation, mansions and fame’ (yeah: right), or the ‘dark and densely tangled’ path of yer actual literature, which leads to ‘bleakness, experiment and sentiments which many will consider unspeakable or unreadable’. No wonder the poor dears of the literary field need champagne-fuelled award parties to cheer them up. They really do suffer for their art, you know.