METAtropolis Starred Publishers Weekly Review
Posted on June 8, 2009 Posted by John Scalzi 8 Comments
This is nice: METAtropolis’ upcoming print version just got a starred review in Publishers Weekly (scroll down for the review), which said, among other things:
Editor Scalzi (Zoe’s Tale) and four well known writers thoughtfully postulate the evolution of cities, transcending postapocalyptic clichés to envision genuinely new communities and relationships… Each story shines on its own; as a group they reinforce one another, building a multifaceted view of a realistic and hopeful urban future.
Nifty. It’s nice to see the anthology getting some reviewer love. To be clear, as editor of the project I’m getting a bit more credit than I should; Toby Buckell, Elizabeth Bear, Jay Lake and Karl Schroeder made my editing job one of those “collect stories, get credit for their work” gigs. On the other hand, if all editing gigs were this fun, I’d do more of them. And then when would I get my writing done?
Speaking of which, off to hit my daily quota.
Careful. That daily quota might hit back.
I’m curious how well this daily quota is working for you. I gave myself a daily word-count quota back when I was working on my thesis, and I had a terrible time with it. I even had a spreadsheet to keep track. It sounds like you’re doing a time quota rather than word count; do you find that that works better?
Can you edit my seventeen syllable haiku?
PS I lent my copy of OMW to a friend here in Seoul, South Korea. He read it in a few sittings. Another fan born . . . in what soon could be Nukeville.
John Murphy:
I use both. I have a time quota unless I reach a particular word quota. If I hit the word quota before the time quota, then I get to stop before time is done. Like today.
When I was doing technical writing, word quotas were the only way I could avoid being destroyed by the procrastination monster, especially when I was doing book-length stuff.
I found time-quotas way too easy to fudge.
Toby Buckell, Elizabeth Bear, Jay Lake and Karl Schroeder made my editing job one of those “collect stories, get credit for their work” gigs.
Do that another few hundred times, and you’ll be writing as many books as Asimov.
That’s not a goal I really have, I have to say.
It really doesn’t help that every time I see “METAtropolis” it turns into “MEATropolis” and I think about bacon.
Mm. Bacon.