Here we welcome to SFFWorld science fiction author Stephen Baxter. An excellent author in his own right, here we had chance to talk as the latest in his Long Earth series, co-written with Sir Terry Pratchett, is being published.
Hello Stephen. Many thanks for doing this.
We’re speaking as The Long Utopia, the fourth book in your Terry Pratchett/Stephen Baxter collaboration, is being published. Can you tell us how things have moved on from The Long Mars?
We’ve tried to move the concept along with each book. With Mars, you had another ‘Long’ planet in the solar system. In Utopia you have an entanglement with an altogether alien world. It’s all building up to the big climax in Book 5.
When I reviewed The Long Earth, I said that the book was ‘a proper collaboration, and all the better for it, something that is identifiable to the writers, yet is something neither could do as well singly.’ What was your original intention of this series?
The basic elements of Long Earth had been worked out by Terry in a series of unpublished stories back in the 80s. He had always had an ambition to write hard SF. But he abandoned that project when Discworld took off. After a chance dinner party conversation discussing that old idea, we realised that I could contribute on the hard SF side – expanding and developing the idea, working out a geography and a timeline. But the heart of it is those old stories of Terry’s, and his vision of how he had aimed to develop them.
And collaborating with Sir Terry must have been both exciting and daunting! Can you tell us how your collaboration worked?
Initially we spent about six months swapping ideas by phone and face to face. We came up with an outline, and worked through some sample pieces together, and then divided it into two strands for us each to follow separately. We put that together in a first draft and then worked through that together line by line. That was Book 1; the subsequent books were similar, though it got easier as we worked through the ideas. We had the odd argument but we were united by enthusiasm for the stuff. It was fun.
I’m sure, like us, you must miss Sir Terry terribly. How was it/is it continuing and finishing the series without him?
We finished all five books by the end of 2013. We knew we didn’t have an indefinite amount of time and there were other projects Terry wanted to pursue. After 2013 we did go back and revise what we had, developed fresh ideas, but it was basically done. So Book Five is actually finished; I just need to guide it through the editorial process.
Of course, this is not the first time you’ve collaborated with a legend of the field. How was working with Sir Terry different to your collaborations with Sir Arthur C Clarke (another of my personal heroes!)?
Arthur was more physically remote; he lived in Sri Lanka and we never got to meet face to face as we worked together (though we had met earlier). So that affected things. Also he was that much older, in his 80’s when we worked together. But he shared with Terry a great enthusiasm for the work in general and our projects in particular.
How does your own personal writing schedule work?
Basically it’s 9-5, Monday to Friday, with plenty of breaks. And it’s not just writing; there’s always revisions and ancillary work to be done, and a lot of research. I’m just back from London from a conference on space politics. But I try to keep the evenings and weekends free for normal life.
And what’s next?
I have a new fix-up collection of short fiction set in my Xeelee universe, called Xeelee: Endurance. Out from Gollancz in September.
More Xeelee! We look forward to that, and, of course, the remaining books in the Long Earth series. Many thanks for your time, Stephen.
Thanks a lot.
