Cosmopolitan Predators!

… and now for something completely different.

Not a novel, not a series of short stories, but a little bit of both.

I had the germ of the idea for this years ago when I read Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City.  I love many things about Maupin’s writing, but one of the things that really caught my attention about the Tales was that they originally appeared as regular instalments in the San Francisco Chronicle.

That struck me as a really different way of writing.  When I write a novel, I plan it out, write it, redraft it, change the beginning, change the end, redraft again… I’ve often wondered what it would be like writing a story as a serial, not having the luxury of going back and changing what I’d done.  What would that mean?  Would the characters evolve in a different way?  The idea has fascinated me for years, however there’s always been one drawback.  Nobody really publishes serial fiction any more.

I discussed this with Chris Beckett at Eastercon last year, and it turned out he was fascinated by the idea of serial fiction, too.  So, it turns out were Keith Brooke, Eric Brown, Juliet E McKenna, Philip Palmer, Adrian Tchaikovsky and Ian Whates.  We all wanted to write serial fiction, but there was no outlet for it…

So I decided to do something about that.  My wife is an experienced editor, I have the IT skills and so…

Athernet Magazine will be launching on March 30th.  Aethernet Magazine is the magazine of serial fiction.  In it you’ll find serial fiction by the above authors, and by me.  Cosmopolitan Predators! is just a little but like Tales of the City in that it follows the lives of a series of characters, however it scores over Maupin in that it has more robots in it.

The concept behind Aethernet Magazine isn’t a new one, but perhaps its a concept whose time has come again.  See what you think…

8 Comments

  1. Sounds like a cool idea to build something new (or rebuild something fresh) but I have to ask, is this delaying the third Twisted Metal/Blood and Iron book? I have recommended the books to so many people, and everyone loves them, but keep asking me for a time frame for when the third one is coming out.. I don’t really fancy saying back to people “You know that trilogy/series about robots I recommended to you, well as far as I know the author seems to have dropped all work on it”. 🙁 It’s starting to feel a bit like that. I am not asking for spoilers or a time frame, just knowing its still being worked on would be nice.

  2. The book is being worked on … look for some news towards the end of the year 😉 And thank you for the recommendations, I appreciate it!

    In the meantime, try Cosmopolitan Predators! to ease those robot blues…

  3. I will do. I really enjoyed “Stories from the Northern Road”.. But it got me hungry for the 3rd book all over again. lol.

  4. Sounds like a great idea with some of the best authors. Very much looking forward to March 30th. Also excited about the teaser on the third Twisted Metal/Blood and Iron book, i’m also looking forward to the 3rd installment.
    You say it runs for 12 issues, will it stop then after a year or could it continue?

    1. Thanks Phil! We’re looking forward to the launch too.

      We said 12 issues because we thought that was manageable, and it gave the writers and the readers a guarantee that the stories could reach some sort of conclusion. We didn’t want to get into a situation where the stories were running indefinitely and going nowhere (like so many TV series try and do)

  5. Shouldn’t “is just a little BUT like Tales of the City” be “is just a little BIT like Tales of the City”? You may have also misspelled “installments”, or that might just be a British English vs. American English thing. You should get your wife to proofread and edit your blog entries 😀

    Everyone seems to be itching for Penrose III. Can I be the first to say that you shouldn’t give in to pressure and rush it? Someone at Nintendo once said “A delayed game is eventually good. A bad game is forever.” I think this applies to novels, too.

    1. The new Duke Nukem was delayed for almost a decade.. When it finally came out it was terrible..

      But yes, Don’t rush.. just do it fast.. LOL..

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