I haven’t spoken to Jack about this, but it turns out that the cool people at Eos are the ones publishing the US edition of Margo Lanagan’s Black Juice. Don’t know if there are any plans to do White Time – though an Ace Double style hardcover would have been really cool – but you need this book. It’s coming out in March, so order it now and get ready to devour it when it comes out.

If it helps motivate you any further, Ellen Datlow’s said she’s taking the opening story for her next year’s ‘Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror’, which is great. I’m particularly happy that Margo’s agreed to write a story for my young adult SF anthology, and hope she gets a chance sometime soon to finish that novel!

There are all sorts of interesting conversations happening all over the web, and unless you know where to look it’s easy to miss them.

I just stumbled across Niall Harrison’s discussion of the early list of the year’s best short fiction that I posted here a while ago (it’s over at LiveJournal, but you can only post if you’re a LiveJournal subscriber). It’s interesting to see what he and others think of my list (for example, Niall didn’t like John Kessel’s “The Baum Plan for Financial Independence”, though I still do), and the other comments they have. The one thing I’d respond to is that if readers are interested in Margo Lanagan’s story collection Black Juice it’s due to be published in the US in March by HarperCollins. For my money, it’s pretty much the best collection of 2004 and I expect to see stories from in it most of the year’s bests. Hopefully the World Fantasy Award judges will get to see and consider it next year.

A rose of many petals…
As 2004 draws to a close it’s become clear that one of the most engaging new fantasists to emerge over the past few years is Boston-based writer Theodora Goss.

Goss has published just a small handful of stories, several of which have been collected in year’s best annuals, and all of which are quite beautifully written. Often opting for retelling fairy tales or at least adopting a fairy tale feel, Goss writes stories of women finding strength in difficult times, and of people transcending their circumstances.

Her early story “The Rose in Twelve Petals” received a lot of acclaim, as did semi-surreal tale “Professor Berkowitz Stands on the Threshold”, but arguably her most accomplished tales are appearing now. Her Victorian-toned story “Miss Emily Gray” from Alchemy 2 is a beautifully structured tale of love, governesses and wishes gone astray, while “The Wings of Meister Wilhelm” is a deceptively powerful, and slightly whimsical, tale of coming of age in difficult times.

The indefatigable Small Beer Press has just published a chapbook of Goss’s best short fiction, The Rose in Twelve Petals and Other Stories, which costs only a little more than a cup of coffee. If you have any thought at all of keeping up with the field, or just want to read some beautiful fiction from a writer who’s getting better with every story, then you should grab a copy before they’re all gone.

2004
“The Wings of Meister Wilhelm”
“Miss Emily Gray”
“Her Mother’s Ghosts”
2003
“Lily, with Clouds”
“Sleeping With Bears”
“In the Forest of Forgetting”
“Professor Berkowitz Stands on the Threshold”
2002
“The Rapid Advance of Sorrow”
“The Rose in Twelve Petals”
2001
“The Tile Merchant’s Garden”
2000
“Hyacinth”

For those trying to contact me via email, I’ll be out of touch for about 24 hours from Friday afternoon. Why? Marianne and I are headed off to celebrate her birthday, and we’re going here. It’s a special occasion, and it’s the first night that we’ve been away together by ourselves since Jessica was born back in June 2000, so we’re both looking forward to it. I will, though, make a point of catching up on email when I get back.