Thought for the Day

Exhibit A

Resolutions Revisited: January

I know this is about four or five days early, but yesterday I finished writing on Welt am Draht and finally had the long-awaited appraisal, so it feels as if 2009 is over. My December to-do list:

1. read and comment on article for journal
2. write and deliver six four three lectures
3. mark thirty-five two horror essays
4. second mark ten audiences essays
5. write and deliver seminar paper
6. write chapter on The Man Who Fell to Earth
7. write chapter proposal for book project
8. read book and watch two one films for adaptations project
9. write a chapter of seventies book
   
    
   3000 / 6000 words. 50% done!

I never did finish that chapter, but I've been progressing well. Until last week I was doing 500 words a day; this week has slowed.


So for 2010?

1. Probably write another chapter on The Man Who Fell to Earth
2. Write a section for another guide to sf
3. Write an article on steampunk slipstream
   
4. Write a chapter based on the proposal
5. A 100,000 word book on seventies sf.

 

16100 / 100000 words. 16% done!


Set reading:

• Larry Niven, Ringworld
  
• Robert Silverberg, A Time of Changes
  
• Philip José Farmer, To Your Scattered Bodies Go
  
• Isaac Asimov, The Gods Themselves
  
• Arthur C. Clarke, Rendezvous with Rama
  
• Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed
  
• Joe Haldeman, The Forever War
  
• Frederik Pohl, Man Plus
  
• Kate Wilhelm, Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang
• Frederik Pohl, Gateway
• Vonda McIntyre, Dreamsnake
  
• Arthur C. Clarke, The Fountains of Paradise
  
• Gregory Benford, Timescape
  
• Joan D. Vinge, The Snow Queen 

I'm going to add the Campbell Award for Best Novel and BSFA Awards for February:

• John Brunner, The Jagged Orbit (1971)
• Barry N. Malzberg, Beyond Apollo (1973)
• Robert Merle, Malevil (1974)
• Arthur C. Clarke, Rendezvous with Rama (1974)
• Philip K. Dick, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said (1975)
• Christopher Priest, Inverted World (1975)
• Bob Shaw, Orbitsville (1976)
• Wilson Tucker (special retroactive award for a novel from 1970), The Year of the Quiet Sun (1976)
• Michael G. Coney, Brontomek! (1977)
• Kingsley Amis, The Alteration (1977)
• Frederik Pohl, Gateway (1978)
• Ian Watson, The Jonah Kit (1978)
• Michael Moorcock, Gloriana (1979)
• Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly (1979)
• J. G. Ballard, The Unlimited Dream Company (1980)
• Thomas M. Disch, On Wings of Song (1980)
• Gregory Benford, Timescape (1981) 

(Dates are for awards, not publication. I could swear I saw a copy of Malevil the other day - but did I buy it?)