I’ve managed to avoid making any resolutions this year. Don’t get me wrong, I have plenty of things I want to get done in 2009, I’ve just decided to try to stay flexible instead of tying myself to a set of arbitary goals. However, if forced, I’ll admit the following items are on my task list:

1. Complete enough material for a second short story collection
2. Complete at least the first two chapters of each of the three novels I currently have outlines for
3. Research and compile a viable proposal for the non-fiction book I want to write

I’m already nearly halfway towards achieving the first item on the list, and the other two are within reach, if I can find the necessary time and discipline over the next twelve months…

Last night I wrote the 2,000 word outline of a new novel set in present day Bristol. It still needs some work (and a title), but I’m pretty excited at what I’ve got. At the moment, there’s a sort of Douglas Coupland/Cory Doctorow vibe to it, although it’s written from a very British point of view. I’m hoping to be able to work on it at the same time as the space opera novel I am about to start writing, switching back and forth between the two as the mood takes me.

Update: 11.05pm - Now up to 2,500 words.

Pendragon Press (who will be publishing my novel “Silversands” in 2009) have a new, revamped website at: http://www.pendragonpress.net/

Rudy Rucker joins the likes of Cory Doctrow, Charles Stross and Jason Stoddard, by making the entire text of his latest novel Postsingular available online as a free download.

A few months ago, I published a list of my favourite short story collections and a list of my favourite individual short stories. And now, I present a list of my favourite SF novels, in the hope that these three posts will go some way to answering the question: “which SF writers have most influenced your work?“

• Nova by Samuel Delany
• Neuromancer by William Gibson
• Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan
• Nova Swing by M John Harrison
• Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds
• Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson
• The Ringworld Engineers by Larry Niven
• The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
• Consider Phlebas by Ian M Banks
• Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon
• Gateway by Frederik Pohl
• The Star Fraction by Ken MacLeod
• A Deepness In The Sky by Vernor Vinge
• The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt