2023 was a year when I edited two original anthologies, two Tordocom novellas, eleven of Tor.com’s short stories, and acted as reviews editor for Locus for the 21st consecutive year. As a podcaster, I co-hosted and produced a total of 19 episodes.

Fiction edited in 2023

Anthologies

• The Book of Witches, Harper Voyager
• Communications Breakdown: Twelve Tomorrows 2023, MIT Press

Novellas

• The Crane Husband, Kelly Barnhill, Tordotcom Publishing
• Untethered Sky,  Fonda Lee, Tordotcom Publishing, 2023

Novelette

• Here Instead of There, Elizabeth Bear (Communications Breakdown)
• The Counterworld, James Bradley (Tor.com)
• What I Remember of Oresha Moon Dragon Devshrata, P. Djèlí Clark (The Book of Witches)
• John Hollowback and the Witch, Amal El Mohtar (The Book of Witches)
• FORM 8774-D, Alex Irvine (Tor.com)
• The Witch Is Not the Monster, Alaya Dawn Johnson (The Book of Witches)
• What It Means to Be a Car, James Patrick Kelly (Tor.com)
• Less Than, Lavanya Lakshminarayan (Communications Breakdown)
• The Passing of the Dragon, Ken Liu (Tor.com)
• Cuttlefish, Anil Menon (Communications Breakdown)
• At Every Door a Ghost, Mohamed (Communications Breakdown)
• Company Man, Shiv Ramdas (Communications Breakdown)
• Detonation Boulevard, Alastair Reynolds (Tor.com)
• The Luck Thief, Tade Thompson (The Book of Witches)
• The Locked Coffin: A Judge Dee Mystery, Lavie Tidhar (Tor.com)

Short story

• What Dreams May Come, C.L. Clark (The Book of Witches)
• As Wayward Sisters, Hand in Hand, Indrapramit Das (The Book of Witches)
• Noise Cancellation, S B Divya (Communications Breakdown)
• Moral Hazard, Cory Doctorow (Communications Breakdown)
• Orphanage of the Last Breath, Saad Hossain (The Book of Witches)
• Catechism for Those Who Would Find Witches, Kathleen Jennings (The Book of Witches)
• Met Swallow, Cassandra Khaw (The Book of Witches)
• Nameless Here for Evermore, Fonda Lee (The Book of Witches)
• The Liar, Darcie Little Badger (The Book of Witches)
  Good Spells, Ken Liu (The Book of Witches)
• The Excommunicates, Ken Macleod (Communications Breakdown)
• Night Riding, Usman T. Malik (The Book of Witches)
• My City is Not A Problem, Tim Maughan (Communications Breakdown)
• Sigh No More, Ian McDonald (Communications Breakdown)
• Just a Nudge, Maureen McHugh (The Book of Witches)
• So Spake the Mirrorwitch, Premee Mohammed (The Book of Witches)
• The Job at the End of the World, Ray Nayler (Tor.com)
• The Unexpected Excursion of the Murder Mystery Writing Witches, Garth Nix (The Book of Witches)
• The Nine Jars of Nukulu, Tobi Ogundiran (The Book of Witches)
• Déjà Vue, Tochi Onyebuchi (The Book of Witches)
• The Academy of Oracular Magic, Miyuki Jane Pinckard (The Book of Witches)
• In a Cabin, In a Wood, Kelly Robson (The Book of Witches)
• Through The Woods, Due West, Angela Slatter (The Book of Witches)
• Her Ravenous Waters, Andrea Stewart (The Book of Witches)
• The Star-Bear, Michael Swanwick (Tor.com)
• The Cost of Doing Business, Emily Teng (The Book of Witches)
• Mask of the Nautilus, Sheree Renee Thomas (The Book of Witches)
• Salt Water, Eugenia Triantafyllou (Tor.com)
• The Three O’Clock Dragon, John Wiswell (Tor.com)
• Witchfires, E. Lily Yu (The Book of Witches)
• The River and the World Remade, E. Lily Yu (Tor.com)

Editor, Short-Form (Hugos)/Professional Achievement (WFA)

• Jonathan Strahan (The Book of Witches ; two Tordotcom novellas;  11 Tor.com stories;  Locus [reviews editor]

Best Fancast/Podcast

• The Coode Street Podcast [19 episodes] [co-hosted with Gary K. Wolfe.]

I hope you’ll consider supporting the talented people that I’ve worked with during the year.

2022 was a year when I edited two original anthologies, five novellas published by Tordocom, eight of Tor.com’s short stories, and acted as reviews editor for Locus for the 20th consecutive year.

As a podcaster, we managed a total of 50 episodes, including the Coode Street Advent Calendar, which was fun.

Fiction edited in 2022

Anthologies

• Someone in Time: Tales of Time-Crossed Romance, Solaris
• Tomorrow’s Parties: Life in the Anthropocene, MIT Press

Novellas

• A Mirror Mended, Alix E. Harrow, Tordotcom
• Kundo Wakes Up, Saad Z. Hossein, Tordotcom
• Pulling the Wings Off Angels, K J Parker, Tordotcom
• These Prisoning Hills, Christopher Rowe, Tordotcom
• January Fifteenth, Rachel Swirsky, Tordotcom

Novelette

• After the Storm, James Bradley (Tomorrow’s Parties)
• Of All the New Yorks in All the Worlds, Indrapramit Das (Tor.com)
• Victory Citrus Is Sweet, Thoraiya Dyer (Tor.com)
• When the Tide Rises, Sarah Gailey (Tomorrow’s Parties)
• Once Upon a Future in the West, Daryl Gregory (Tomorrow’s Parties)
• The Place of all the Souls, Margo Lanagan (Someone in Time)
• The Chronologist, Ian R. MacLeod (Tor.com)
• Burning Books for Pleasure and Profit, K.J. Parker (Tor.com)
• Do You Hear the Fungi Sing?, Chen Quifan (Tomorrow’s Parties)
• I Give You the Moon, Justina Robson (Tomorrow’s Parties)
• Seven Vampires: A Judge Dee Mystery, Lavie Tidhar (Tor.com)
• Judge Dee and the Mystery of the Missing Manuscript, Lavie Tidhar (Tor.com)
• The Difference Between Love and Time, Catherynne M. Valente (Someone in Time)

Short story

• D.I.Y, John Wiswell (Tor.com)
• The Lichens, Nina Allan (Someone in Time)
• The Past Life Reconstruction Service, Zen Cho (Tomorrow’s Parties)
• Romance Historical, Rowan Coleman (Someone in Time)
• Crisis Actors, Greg Egan (Someone in Time)
• Drone Pirates of Silicon Valley, Meg Ellison (Tomorrow’s Parties)
• The Golden Hour, Jeffrey Ford (Tomorrow’s Parties)
• I Remember Satellites, Sarah Gailey (Someone in Time)
• A Letter to Merlin, Theodora Goss (Someone in Time)
• Roadside Attraction, Alix E. Harrow (Someone in Time)
• The Ferryman, Saad Z. Hossain (Someone in Time)
• Bergamot and Vetiver, Lavanya Lakshminarayan (Tomorrow’s Parties)
• First Aid, Seanan McGuire (Someone in Time)
• Unbashed, or: Jackson, Whose Cowardice Tore a Hole in the Chronoverse, Sam Miller (Someone in Time)
• Choke, Suyi Davies Okungbowa (Someone in Time)
• Legion, Malka Older (Tor.com)
• Timed Obsolescence, Sameem Sadiqui (Tomorrow’s Parties)
• Down and Out in Exile Park, Tade Thompson (Someone in Time)
• Dead Poets, Carrie Vaughn Carrie Vaughn (Someone in Time)

Editor, Short-Form (Hugos)/Professional Achievement (WFA)

• Jonathan Strahan (Someone in Time: Tales of Time-Crossed Romance; five Tordotcom novellas;  eight Tor.com stories;  Locus [reviews editor]

Best Fancast/Podcast

• The Coode Street Podcast [28 episodes] [co-hosted with Gary K. Wolfe.]

I hope you’ll consider supporting the talented people that I’ve worked with during the year.

The future is not evenly distributed. I’m no longer surprised that when Gary Wolfe and I try to talk to people for the podcast they simply don’t have the internet connectivity to record as we usually do.

Landline recording is always a bit fiddly, and just became fiddlier because the Skype add-on (Call Recorder) I used for many years to record the podcast is not compatible with Macs using Apple silicon. Which means it’s lucky I haven’t re-homed the old MacBook yet, but this next episode (to a distant Welsh valley, I believe) will likely be one of the last to a landline.

Garth Nix’s 2021 novel The Left-Handed Booksellers of London was a delight in a challenging year, a compelling tale of mythic Britain filled with terrible danger and the intriguing magic of the eponymous  booksellers. Although it was far more than that, it felt like comfort food right when you needed it most.

This coming May Susan Arkshaw, Merlin, and the booksellers return in The Sinister Booksellers of Bath, this time for an adventure set in Bath that sees Susan (again) in great peril faced by mysterious machinations of the Ancient Sovereigns, and the growing pull of her own heritage. There’s magic, intrigue, lemon drizzle cake, and, just perhaps, hints of the next big change in Susan’s life.

I don’t know if there’ll be a next book in the series, but I hope so.

I am ridiculously sentimental and have a real weakness for silly and romantic things. Christmas has always been a favourite time of the year, even though it only seems to become more stressful and complicated with time. One thing I really love is a good Christmas song, and so I thought that since this is my blog and these are days of self-indulgence, I would repeat my list of my Top 5 Christmas Songs, which is unchanged since I first posted it back in 2009.

Because I’m older many of these are a little melancholy, but they’re all ones I’ve come to love.

1. Fairy Tale of New York, The Pogues with Kirsty MacColl

This one’s the gold standard in indy Christmas songs. MacColl and McGowan are perfect, even if the story they tell is a sad one.

2. How to Make Gravy, Paul Kelly

Another sad Christmas song. A man calling from prison to make contact with his family. Probably my favourite Australian Christmas song ever.

3. White Wine in the Sun, Tim Minchin

Though this one is a close runner-up. The image of the family drinking white wine in the sun is one that resonates when you live in a place where Christmas Day itself is often blisteringly hot.

4. Happy Xmas (War is Over), John Lennon and Yoko Ono

One of the first great rock/pop Xmas songs, and a Lennon song I like better than “Imagine” these days.

5. Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, Bruce Springsteen and the (mighty mighty) E Street Band

But most great Xmas songs aren’t sad. Every now and then you have to turn to the hard-rockin’ E Street Band to kick out the jams and party at year’s end.