The early review copies of my next novel, Eastern Standard Tribe, have begun to circulate among critics and bookstore owners. There’s a bit of a discussion going on about the book’s notions of geography-independent tribes over in Julie Czernada’s SFF.net newsgroup.
What struck me, about 2:00 AM this morning, after reading the book last
night, is that the tribes exist already. Cory isn’t talking about a nebulous
future, I am, in effect, part of E.S.T. I certainly haven’t adjusted my
circadians to E.S.T. (consciously, though for some time I have been rising
an hour or two earlier than I used to, and going to bed earlier), yet also,
for some time now, a significant percentage of my social interaction has
revolved around newsgroups that focus on several E.S.T.authors, some
E.S.T.publishers, a WorldCon that took place in E.S.T. Additional time is
spent communicating with Robert J. Sawyer’s Yahoo Group (E.S.T.) and an
R.P.Gaming programmers’ group that has its key members in E.S.T. My
favourite Canadian book distributor is on E.S.T. and I devote a
dis-proportionate share of my work energy into promoting their books.
(Thanks, Kent!)