Blogging Interview with Ken MacLeod

Ken MacLeod was born in Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, Scotland, on August 2, 1954. He is married with two children and lives in West Lothian. He has an Honours and Masters degree in biological subjects and worked for some years in the IT industry. Since 1997 he has been a full-time writer. He is the author of ten novels, from The Star Fraction (1995) to The Execution Channel (forthcoming, 2007), and many articles and short stories. His novels have received one BSFA award and three Prometheus Awards, and several have been short-listed for the Clarke and Hugo Awards.

Ken MacLeod's weblog is The Early Days of a Better Nation.

First, I want to thank you for taking the time to do this interview.

Well, thank you for inviting me.

Why do you blog, and what made you start?

I blog mainly to write briefly on whatever's on my mind at the time: books I've read, places I've been, current politics, science fiction. It's a messy mixture. A lot of it has been about politics, centrally the war. It was anger about the war that got me started.

What do you feel is the importance of blogs and the platform itself?

On the one hand it's easily over-rated. On the other hand, it's the first platform that gives anyone with access to it a potential world-wide readership in real time. It enables you to link to all kinds of sources of information. This is very different from writing pamphlets. Repressive governments take blogging very seriously indeed.

In what way do you see blogging and blogs evolving?

Who knows? But I suspect the blog is such a useful and adaptable medium that something like it is here to stay. Blogs like 3Quarks Daily and BoingBoing show a different way of using the medium -- to highlight cool stuff.

Why do you think so few novelists blog?

Because it's a time sink, as I know too well.

What are your favourite blogs?

Making Light, The Sideshow, Informed Comment, Unqualified Offerings, Once Upon a Time..., The Sharp Side, Chicken Yoghurt.