You said in an interview in 2001, the one on your site, "that only a couple of strains of science fiction may actually survive under the science fiction label: the realistic extrapolative kind and the science fantasy variety." How would you characterize your own writing?

Well, in science fiction, I have, I believe, come to the side of realism. I've tended to strive for something that is plausible, as opposed to something that is utterly fantastic or fun. Maybe I lack imagination or something. I know what the rules are for realistic science fiction. I try to observe them. And if I broke any of them, it was because of my ignorance or whatever. But I was trying to do something that was realistic. I try to look at it as how did this particular world develop from the world that's around now? And to at least have some idea of how that could happen.

I mean, for the Venus books, I actually wrote some future history for them. I actually set that whole thing, "In the year 2000, such and such." And I have this broad sort of general historical background that I just wrote for myself. I had diagrams. I had various theocracies that were tied into it. A lot of stuff that's not in the book, but I had to have it for myself. And it's kind of depressing to look at now, because the world is already nearing too many of the things I'd imagined for those books back in the late 1970s. And that's depressing. That is really depressing.

Do you still see science fiction the same way, as broken up into two main subgenres?

Actually, right now I'm not sure how I see it. I was on a panel last night [at Philcon] where we were discussing new writers. And what I've been noticing is that, the last few years, especially, there's a real change in science fiction going on, and that's the British writers. And they seem to have this energy going on. When I made that statement that you quoted, I didn't see that coming. And it's a very different direction from over here.

And this is too much a generality, but I think that the science fiction writers in this country seem almost more — I won't say intimidated, but they don't seem to be really going out there on the cutting edge of things. I know some of them are. I mean, you've got people like Bruce Sterling. You've got people like Neal Stephenson, certainly, who goes his own way. But in England there's a current going on there that I just don't see in science fiction here.

Could you name some of them?

Somebody like Stephen Baxter. I think of it this way. I know that I can pretty much count on a few interesting science fiction novels coming out of England now in a year or two. But I'm not so sure about over here.

Well, you've got yours. What else is in the future for you?

Well, right now I'm writing a novel. And actually, that's a sequel to one of my young adult novels, Earthseed, which came out in 1983. And it was my good fortune to have an editor work on them who was first of all a fan of Earthseed and asked me if I had ever thought of doing more stories that were set there. I said, "Well, actually, I had thought of it, but I didn't think anybody would be interested." So actually, I'm developing two more books. First Earthseed will be back, and then there will be two more books that will go on and explore more of what happens to those people.

Do you find yourself going back and forth between genres, almost like somebody might, you know, if they're working out, pick up weights and then hit the machine? I mean, does it help you take on a different genre, like a fresh start?

It certainly keeps me from getting bored. I think I probably do, and I probably don't really see exactly what it does until later. I mean, certainly I think that the experience of trying to write a realistic science fiction novel probably helped me write an historical novel. Because the way of doing the research and the way of thinking about the book was very similar. And had it been the other way around, it probably would have helped, too.

So I think working in different genres probably does help me to think of something that otherwise I wouldn't have. And now I'm not sure where I'm going. I mean, in my new collections, there are stories that are horror but not quite horror. It's satire, but it's a lot of different things. It certainly is not science fiction. It certainly is not fantasy.

So it's a pastiche, post-modernistic?

Yes.

Well, I really want to thank you for taking the time, especially so long! I hope that you enjoy the rest of your time here.

Oh, I know I will. You know, these people always treat everybody very well.