Today I took out a 12-copy subscription to the SF magazine Interzone. Once I have figured out the house style, I hope to submit some publishable stories.
It only remains to settle on some strong, believable characters the reader can identify with; to develop a plot with early hooks, some non-obvious twists and a surprise ending; to add texture and audience-immersion through rich and picturesque descriptive writing; and to power it all with those awe-inspiring ideas without which no SF story can truly fly - tropes such as hi-tech weaponry; trans-human-level AI; synthetic personalities indistinguishable from their human templates; human cloning; augmentation implants; well, you know that stuff .... oh, and short sentences. Naturally one will use a setting of tomorrow to illuminate the great unspoken-of and unresolved issues of today in a novel guise, as SF has always done.
I can hardly wait to read it myself.
