[Doctorow] My novel-in-progress syndicated on Salon for next 10weeks
I've been working on a new novel since last December, working title
"Themepunks." The first third is in the can, and it is a short novel
unto itself. The book is about a post-dotcom boom and bust, built on
the ready availability of commodity hardware and open source code,
and concerns itself with the lives of a gang of visionary tech
entrepreneurs, journalists, bloggers, as well as Florida squatters,
students in the midwest, and Brazilian geek activists. I've read
aloud from it on a number of occasions, most recently at the Worldcon
in Glasgow in August, and always to enthusiastic responses.
Salon magazine has begun to serialize the book, and they will publish
a section every Monday for ten weeks. By that time, I hope act two
will be done and Salon will be interested in it, though of course
there's no guarantee of either (but act one is self-contained and
stands on its own). When the whole thing is done, Tor will publish it
between covers and I'll be doing my normal Creative Commons release,
but I relish the opportunity to do what Dickens did -- write a novel
in serial form just a few weeks ahead of my readers.
Hope you enjoy it!
> Andrea Fleeks almost never had to bother with the blue blazer these
> days. Back at the height of the dot-boom, she'd put on her business
> journalist drag -- blazer, blue sailcloth shirt, khaki trousers,
> loafers -- just about every day, putting in her obligatory
> appearances at splashy press conferences for high-flying IPOs and
> mergers. These days, it was mostly work at home or one day a week
> at the San Jose Mercury's office, in comfortable light sweaters
> with loose necks and loose cotton pants that she could wear
> straight to yoga after shutting her PowerBook's lid.
>
> Blue blazer today, and she wasn't the only one. There was Morrow
> from the NYT's Silicon Valley office, and Spetzer from the WSJ, and
> that despicable rat-toothed jumped-up gossip columnist from one of
> the U.K. tech-rags, and many others besides. Old home week, blue
> blazers fresh from the dry-cleaning bags that had guarded them
> since the last time the NASDAQ broke 4000.
>
> The man of the hour was Landon Kettlewell -- the kind of outlandish
> prep-school name that always seemed a little made up to her -- the
> new CEO and front for the majority owners of Kodak/Duracell. The
> despicable rat-toothed Brit had already started calling them
> Kodacell. Buying the company was pure Kettlewell: shrewd, weird and
> ethical in a twisted way.
>
> "Why the hell have you done this, Landon?" Kettlewell asked himself
> into his tie-mic. Ties and suits for the new Kodacell execs in the
> room, like surfers playing dress-up. "Why buy two dinosaurs and
> stick 'em together? Will they mate and give birth to a new
> generation of less-endangered dinosaurs?"
>
Part 1 on Salon:
themepunks_1/index.html target=corrydoctorowcraphound>http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2005/09/12/
themepunks_1/index.html
--
Cory Doctorow
doctorow@craphound.com
latest novel: craphound.com/someone
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