I apologise for recent silence around here. On top of various bits of Life, I was thrown by the resignation of Martin McGrath.
If anyone could have been said to have been doing too much for the BSFA, it was he, inasmuch as he was single-handedly dealing with a good half of the organisation’s day-to-day business, from editing Focus, to storing any extra publication copies, to mailing out new member’s packs, to doing all design and layout for all of the BSFA’s publications and liaising with the printer. (And that’s not all.) It’s far more than any one person should need to do for one organisation, and it’ll take at least three new committee members to replace him!
Insofar as Vector is concerned, his resignation meant that the publication schedule for the next issue (due out in June or early July) was put in doubt, as at least some of its contributors are aware.
The good news is that we now have a volunteer, as a one-off, to do layout for this next issue of Vector: so this issue definitely happening, and on schedule too at this rate! And I’m excited about the contents – this issue has articles from an exciting group of contributors! (To whom I still owe many edits – coming soon, now that the issue is back on track!) (This is no guarantee that the following issue of Vector will be coming out on time, however. That depends on one or more additional, as yet not-found, volunteers.)
However, as a caveat, it’s up to me, as features editor, and any other willing volunteers, to track down, volunteer, and recruit any and all images to be used in this issue, from the cover art to all the interiors. Without imagery, the issue can still go ahead – but it will look notably image-free!
The theme of this forthcoming issue is “London & SF”, as proposed by James Bacon, as a tie-in to the London in 2014 Worldcon bid.
The cover art will be in full colour, but otherwise, reproductions will be in black and white. Do you have drawings, photographs, and paintings you’ve made yourself and can grant permission for their use in this one issue of Vector, whether in print or PDF? Suggestions of artists who might be willing to contribute to this issue? Ideas of other legal and appropriate ways to illustrate this issue?
Can you help?
vector-bsfa.com 
On the subject of SF in London, I’m sure if you were interested in reproducing Cécile Matthey’s lovely drowned Trafalgar Square illustration (see the photo at the very bottom of http://futurefire.net/2009.16/fiction/recycled2.html) she’d be happy to give permission for that. Let me know if you’d like me to put you in touch.
AS long as they’re attributed, NASA photos are free to use, and there’s a nice high-res ISS photo of London docklands here: http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/1000/1633/ISS002E6638_lrg.jpg
LInked to from here: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=1633
You can distinctly see the proposed site. Not sure if it’s good enough in itself, but perhaps someone could use it as a backdrop.
I had a thought that original illustraions for War of The Worlds might show London and be out of copyright. I found some, but nothing that shows London. Might be a useful avenue to pursue, though.
Maybe you could find something interesting in my flickr photostream: http://www.flickriver.com/photos/iguanajo/tags/london/
I know, there are no space/robot/quantum/nano picture, still some of these picture were made with some sciencefiction tought around them.
If you find some picture appropriate, just ask me for the hi-res version (if you need it!).
Ditto for my photos – those tagged London on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/coughingbear/tags/london
– they are obviously just photos of random places and things around London, but just in case!
When I’m at work on Monday I will have a look for the sources of royalty-free images we use and pass on anything that looks useful.