Philcon 2006 » Guests » Charles Stross
Personal website: Antipope.org
Charles Stross was born in 1964 in Leeds, England. He studied in London and Bradford, acquiring degrees in pharmacy and computer science, and worked a variety of jobs (including pharmacist, technical author, and programmer) before becoming a full-time writer in 2000. He currently lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, with his wife, Feorag.
Charlie began reading SF in his early years and started writing in his mid-teens. (He wrote his first novel at the age of 16 which, if ever found, he promises to burn.) In 1986 he made his first professional sale to Interzone, and went on to sell many SF short stories in the UK through the mid-'90s; at the same time gaining a sideline in freelance computer journalism. After a writing hiatus of a few years he began selling stories in U.S. markets; and soon after, novels.
Unlike most British SF writers, Charlie is primarily known in the U.S., for it's there that his novels are first published.
His first SF novel, the post-singularity computer-techie space opera Singularity Sky (Ace, 2003 — written 1995-98) was shortlisted for a Hugo, as was its sequel, Iron Sunrise (Ace, 2004 — written 1998-2002). Ace has also published Accelerando (2005) (a segment of which was a 2004 Hugo nominee) and its semi-sequel Glasshouse (July 2006).
In addition to those tech-heavy novels, he's writing a series of cross-universe economic-minded fantasies for Tor, The Merchant Princes: currently comprising The Family Trade (2004), The Hidden Family (2005), and The Clan Corporate (2006), to be followed by A Merchants Revolution and two more.
Finally, he's produced a series of Lovecraftian British spy thrillers, published in hardcover by Golden Gryphon and in paperback by Ace: The Atrocity Archives (2003/05 — includes the 2005 Hugo-winning novella “The Concrete Jungle”) and The Jennifer Morgue (November 2006).
His current project is Halting State, a near-future thriller set in the world of software companies that produce MMORPGs, due from Ace in July 2007.
(You may also wish to consult Stross's own comprehensive list of complete and upcoming writing projects.)