One of the great things about being part of the Canadian SF community for over 30 years is that I get to watch young creators throughout the arc of a career. That's certainly true of Cory Doctorow, whom I've known since he was a teenager working at Toronto's Bakka Books.

Cory is a Maven. An Explainer. An Agitator.

I think of him as a one man Pirate Radio Station, and he has been a regular contributor to my reading lists, recommending dozens of authors to me, introducing me to the work of Neal Stephenson, Charles Stross, Vernor Vinge, Nalo Hopkinson, Kelly Link, Karl Scroeder and many, many others.

Just before I left to cover the New York Comic Con, I got a copy of Cory Doctorow's new novel 'Little Brother'. It very quickly displaced 'Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom' as my favorite novel of Cory's, so I was thrilled to get to interview him last Friday.

The novel is a Young Adult novel, and it is very much the heir to the Heinlein Juveniles. Heinlein opened my eyes to the possibilities of space travel, and Cory's novel will no doubt open his reader's eyes to programming and computers.

I decided to do the interview in a graffiti laden alley, as it fit the urban, anarchistic themes of the book, and I knew, from earlier interview with Cory that he could handle the various distractions of an outdoor interview. 

Cory sees the present very clearly, so clearly that it sometimes creates the illusion that he is living in the future, and reporting back. He's also an early adopter, and he's constantly flashing some new piece of tech. Before Cory showed me I didn't know running shoes could have wheels in them, or how seductive a PDA could be, or what an iPod was. All commonplace now.

It was a fun interview, and I'll make a piece for HypaSpace next week, and perhaps feature him on the podcast.
Here's a small excerpt from the interview, just to whet your appetite.

::WATCH