Cory Doctorow is a writer, activist, blogger, and all around good guy. From co-editing Boingboing.net to serving on the board for firms such as Technorati and the Open Rights Group and writing books such as Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, Eastern Standard Tribe and more, Doctorow is on the forefront of the future, working in more directions than you could shake a stick at. He sat down with the footnote for a quick interview. And be sure to read to the end for a special bonus treat!

What made you decide to target the young adult (YA) market now, with your book Little Brother?

Cory Doctorow: I grew up thinking of computers as tools that opened new doors for me, gave me more control over the world and over my future. But today, when I talk to kids, I find that they've got a keen appreciation of just how much computers are used to control them -- to spy on them, to sell to them, to track them, and to fink on them. I can see a day where kids give up altogether on computers and networks as tools for changing the world and come to regard them with nauseous dread. I wanted to write a book that helped kids take back the computers around them.

Little Brother stars mostly teenagers; did you approach writing younger characters any differently than adult ones? How did you make them all sound perfectly real and of their time?

CD: To be frank, I didn't sweat it too much. I know lots of teens and like them as people more than sources, so I let their voices fill my head when I wrote. It's kind of you to use "perfectly real" to describe them!

Where you ever worried about preaching, when writing the book, that is-- was there a concern in being too heavy handed with the material?

CD: Nope. This is an explicitly didactic book, written from the POV of a preachy character, the kind of know-it-all teen who assumes (usually correctly) that no one else appreciates the technical and social details of his obsessions (I was that kid.), so it's absolutely in character for him to bang on about it.

When do you suggest parents start talking to their children about security and encryption?

CD: I think it's never too early to talk to kids about security -- real security, that is. Helping kids ask critical questions about the control measures around them is the key to making them security literate -- and security literacy is the key to safety and freedom.

Who is your hero of freedom, if you have one?

CD: There's a section in the book's acknowledgments that talks about my heroes: “For the heroes: Mitch Kapor, John Gilmore, John Perry Barlow, Larry Lessig, Shari Steele, Cindy Cohn, Fred von Lohmann, Jamie Boyle, George Orwell, Abbie Hoffman, Joe Trippi, Bruce Schneier, Ross Dowson, Harry Kopyto, Tim O'Reilly”

You've offered your fiction for free at craphound.com for years now. How has that helped change and/or shape your reader base?

CD: See [this article at forbes.com].

When you were young, what were the books that changed how you saw the world?

CD: The most transformative books, hands down were Daniel Pinkwater's, especially Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy From Mars, which is a fantastic YA novel about social status, science and mysticism, autonomy and humor. There were plenty of others, but Pinkwater opened my mind.

When did you start writing?

CD: When I was six -- I'd just seen Star Wars, and I went home and wrote and illustrated my own Star Wars fanfic story. I announced that I wanted to be a writer when I was twelve and sold my first story at seventeen.

Do you listen to music when you write? If so what?

CD: Indeed I do, when I can. I have a huge, extremely eclectic library of music that I listen to on a permanent, modified shuffle: my daily playlist consists of high-ranked music that hasn't been played in thirty days or more, that way I get through the whole collection every month. I listen almost entirely to up-tempo music with lyrics. There's a lot of swing and boogie woogie, a lot of old cowboy jazz, tons of novelty music, very fast hip hop and contemporary dance music (especially Brazilian Techno Brega, 1990s Dancehall reggae, and modern reggaeton). Also: Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, and a lot of old punk (Black Flag, Dead Kennedys, early Beastie Boys). 8-bit video-game music, especially big orchestrated cover versions. Oh, and everything David Byrne has ever touched -- solo albums, Talking Heads, the Luaka Bop catalog...

Do different books or stories have specific soundtracks for you? If so, what was on the Little Brother soundtrack?

CD: Not really: I'm an inveterate music shuffler. Right now, I'm playing The Dillards' "Dixie Breakdown," just before it was Glenn Miller's "Little Brown Jug," and queued up is The 5678s's cover of "Wooly Bully."

What books are you reading these days?

CD: I'm working on a novel that's partially set in India and China, in special economic zones. I have a yard-long shelf of recommended books about both places, along with a ton of books about economics and video games. I've just finished Maximum City, a brilliant, Pulitzer-nominated memoir about Mumbai, that was breathtakingly good.

What upcoming books are you looking forward to reading the most right now?

CD: I've got my head down on this novel, so I'm not paying a giant amount of attention to the field. I always look forward to the year's Pratchett novel, of course, and I'm eager to read the third book in Jo Walton's Farthing/Ha'penny series.

You served as the Director of European Affairs for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), what was that experience like?

CD: Exhausting, challenging, and rewarding. I traveled three plus weeks a month, held blow up treaty negotiations, helped convene new ones, changed technical standards, won victories, faced defeat, and was often the only guy in the room on my side. Everyone should try it for a while.

You serve on the boards of a number of groups, including Technorati and the Open Rights Group; what kinds of things do you find yourself involved in as an activist and advisor?

CD: I make myself available to the companies and orgs for specific questions as they arise -- I usually end up talking about issues of copyright liability, fair use, and privacy, as well as questions about how to frame issues for maximum public impact. I often make introductions to people and orgs that can help the groups I work with.

As a co-writer at Boing Boing you help create content that millions of people read every day. Has the growing scale of the site changed the content or the fun of the site for you?

CD: Nope -- I still write exactly what I care about, only what I care about. The only serious difference today is that there is a small number of new readers who haven't figured out that blogs aren't magazines, the latter being institutions that try to write that which will please an audience, the former being institutions that publishes that which please their authors.

What is a normal day like for you?

CD: These days I get up around five to change the baby and burp her after her feed, then try to get her to lie down for a bit while I fix breakfast. If she'll sleep long enough, my wife and I will eat and do some yoga, then I go into the office. I spend a couple hours every day working on correspondence, a couple more blogging, and the rest of the time in meetings, writing, or researching. Head home, play with the baby, have dinner...

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You can find Cory Doctorow at boingboing.net and craphound.com, where you can also download most of his fiction for free.

ALSO as a special partnership with SFReader.com, we are pleased to present a link to them with a full review of Doctorow's latest novel: LITTLE BROTHER!