I said last week I hoped to be able to announce some things soon, and here’s the first of those things.
Last summer I applied to be one of the writers for a new fiction anthology published by Cybersalon, All Tomorrow’s Futures. I say ‘applied’ rather than ‘pitched’ because this was done differently from most anthologies: instead of writing stories and pitching them, we applied as writers without a story in mind. We then developed our stories while talking to experts who could offer real insight into how the world is developing in various ways. The result is a collection of stories closely informed by the shape of things to come.
The anthology is split into five sections – my own story is in the section on finance and digital money. I applied for this because the future of money was relevant to something else I was writing, but I ended up following the research down another path. It’s an SF anthology, but I’m not sure I’d even call my story SF because it’s basically achievable now: it’s set in a future where the UK has moved to digital currency, and the implications that would have for the economy and how we think about it. This was where the discussions led me, and it’s not a story I’d have written without those discussions.
It’s a totally different way of writing from what I’m used to, and the things I learned while researching it have informed my everyday thinking on money and the economy. I’m very grateful to editors Benjamin Greenaway and Stephen Oram for letting me participate. All Tomorrow’s Futures is out on 31st March.
While I’m here, I’d also like to point you towards two long-form video interviews I did recently, which came out within a few days of each other. First, I chatted to the Doctor Who audio podcast The Sirens of Audio about how I made my way into writing for Big Finish, and covering some of the Doctor Who and Bernice Summerfield plays I’ve written:
And then The Time Scales invited me on to talk about my Doctor Who work and more – as it happens, I don’t think there’s a lot of crossover between the stuff I talk about on these! Both interviews were a pleasure to do, as you can probably tell by how long I talked:
Anyway, hopefully there are some insights people find interesting amongst all that. I’m going to work on looking into the camera more when I do these, maybe I need to put an arrow on my laptop frame pointing to it so I don’t forget it’s there.
Really enjoyed listening to those interviews, Eddie. I also enjoyed your shelves, top work.