The excellent French online magazine ActuSF has published an interview with me.  They wanted to know about Ventus and Permanence and some of the ideas I explored in them.  It was refreshing for me to talk about those books, because as the current Virga quartet winds to its conclusion (not that there won't be further books set there, by the way!) I find my interests and attention wandering back to the issues I explored in my first three novels.  I'm hugely interested in present developments in cognitive science, and am now thinking about how the vast array of settings and tech I developed for Ventus and Lady of Mazes might be used to support a novel about cogsci.  --Relax, I'm just daydreaming, for now.

Yesterday I was interviewed by Grant Stone, who does a nationally-syndicated radio show called Faster Than Light here in Australia.  We talked about my work, what it's like for an SF writer having a Mennonite background, and my connection to Australia (we got married there).  The interview was done over the phone, even as a local couple we hadn't seen for seven years was coming in the front door.  Embarrassingly, I had to hide in the bedroom to do the interview while Janice and her mother and aunt took care of the social essentials.

It all worked out, and yesterday Janice and Paige went to meet seals and penguins while I stayed at the hotel to catch up on my writing.  Today, we're in Geraldton and on our way to Kalbarri for a week.  Yay!  I'm really looking forward to that; Kalbarri is where we tied the knot, and it'll be great showing Paige all the places around there that we discovered together the first time. 

The interview with Mitch Wagner went very well.  I took the photo below as the amphitheatre was filling up; there were lots of people there and Mitch and I had no trouble finding things to talk about for an hour.  Mitch was particularly interested in my foresight activities, so we talked about how that works, and about the upcoming "scibarcamp" I'm helping organize here in Toronto.

I was hugely impressed by how helpful and polite people were.  No griefers in this crowd!  A lot of people hung around after the formal interview; I apologize for not finding the chat window in time (I'm new to the Second Life interface) so I'm afraid I missed a lot of questions.  But nobody got impatient with me. 

I'm impressed; and I'll be back.

Mitch and I have been going over our talking points, and we're going to cover the gamut from my work in foresight studies to how the world of Virga came to exist.  We may even discuss the very first MORPG I worked on--way back in 1982! 

Friday, February 1, 2008, I'll be interviewed by Mitch Wagner of Information Week.  The interview is going to happen inside Second Life, so if you're a member, come on over to Dr. Dobb's Island at 12:00 noon Pacific time, and find your way to the amphitheatre.  I'll be chatting with Mitch for half an hour or so about my various obsessions--augmented reality, green tech, and wild new directions for science fiction--and then we'll open up for questions and comments from the floor.  It should be a great time.