The year is hurtling to a close, and with it the reading period for Science Fiction: Best of 2004 and Fantasy: Best of 2004. With a little luck, Karen and I’ll have final tables of contents for both books in a week, and I can then get down to the job of writing introductions and story notes, and debating sequencing. Once that’s done, it’ll be on to Locus‘s annual recommended reading, which I need to get under way shortly, back to my own reviewing (ha!), and some work on other anthology projects. In the mean time, a call to readers of the blog. If you have any 2004 stories to recommend that we consider for the year’s bests, now’s the time. Drop me an email using the address on the right side of this page, post to the comment field, or post to my NightShade message board. I will follow up on recommendations. I’d also like to thank everyone who’s helped so much this year, letting us see material early and so on. It’s never easy meeting these deadlines, and we couldn’t do it without your help.