Via Charlie’s Live Journal, a map of the States I’ve visited in the US. I think I’ve spent nearly two years in the US now, in bits and pieces…and I’ll be coloring in a middle bit when I go to World Fantasy later this year. Also, I did change plans in Chicago, but that seems like it shouldn’t count.

Following on from my comments below, I’m delighted to be able to announce that Gardner Dozois and I have sold an new original anthology, The New Space Opera, to HarperCollins US and HarperCollins Australia. The book is supposed to be BIG and we’ve got all sorts of way cool writers, from M. John Harrison to Dan Simmons, Greg Egan to Charlie Stross on board to write for it. I’m really excited about this book. I started playing with the idea for doing it back in the mid-90s and now it’s finally going to happen. I’m particularly happy about being able to do the book with Gardner. I’ve been a fan of his fiction since reading “Dinner Party” in Mike Bishop’s Light Years and Dark, and his editing since the first Year’s Best. It’s privilege to do a project with him.

Anyhow, enough of my gushing. If all goes to plan the book should be out in early 2007. We have all of the contributors lined up and it should be a joy to do. Can’t wait to see the first stories…

Well, everyone else seems to be falling for the ‘ten things’ meme, so below ‘Ten Things That I’ve Done, That You May Not Have’ (unless you were with me at the time):

1. Taken a shower in a Sydney train station, before spending 12 hours on a train from Sydney to Brisbane.
2. Created my very own science fiction award out of a squeezable rubber cane toad (Mark, the interactive Ditmar), and then taken it on a series of adventures, photographing it at important (well, cheesy) Australian landmarks.
3. Tossed my last twenty pence into a charity tin, before going to an ATM in a Paris airport and finding out that all of my remaining funds had been eaten by creeping exchange rates and that I was broke and a long, long way from home.
4. On a cold and windy morning in the middle of winter, gotten into a rowboat and, before the disbelieving eyes of locals, rowed across a lake to see the ruins of a 6th century abbey in Innisfallen in the south of Ireland.
5. Made love in a sunny glade on a warm day on a hillside in the Catskills.
6. Handed your favorite writer in the world a copy of his brand new book which you are about to publish, literally only hours off the presses, when he’d only the day before told you that it would NEVER be ready in time (hi Howard).
7. Stood on a mountain top in British Columbia and watched a man carve enormous animal totems out of trees with a chainsaw.
8. Accepted a Hugo Award for a friend AND got to tell another friend they’d won a Nebula.
9. Stood in both the Indian and Southern Oceans in one day and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in another, both in the same year.
10. Celebrated three Christmas Days, all in the same year, and all on December 25th – one in Perth, one in Sydney, one in San Francisco.

The good folk at the Science Fiction Book Club have just sent me the cover rough for the second volume of the ‘Best Short Novels’ anthology series. I think it’s very cool, very sci-fi, dark, and a bit of fun. Just as a reminder, the final table of contents for this volume, in running order, is:

Introduction, Jonathan Strahan
“Men are Trouble”, James Patrick Kelly
“Mayflower II”, Stephen Baxter
“Sergeant Chip”, Bradley Denton
“The Garden: A Hwarhath Science Fictional Romance”, Eleanor Arnason
“Under the Flag of Night”, Ian McDowell
“Shadow Twin”, Gardner Dozois, George R.R. Martin and Daniel Abraham
“The Concrete Jungle”, Charles Stross
“The Gorgon in the Cupboard”, Patricia A. McKillip
“The Fear Gun”, Judith Berman
“Arabian Wine”, Gregory Feeley

I’m already keeping my eye out for stories for Best Short Novels: 2006. We’re obviously a long way from contracts for that book, but I’m hopeful. So, if you see anything, let me know. I’m looking for great stories that are 15,000 words or more in length published during 2005. I’d also encourage you, if you like the series, to join up with the SFBC and buy a copy.

I feel like I’m leading a freelancer’s life, without actually being a freelancer. Last week I sold a new anthology that I’m going to be co-editing with Gardner Dozois to publishers in the United States and Australia. It’s a project I’m really excited to be doing. I first came up with the idea back in about 1994 and now, at last, I’m going to get to do it, and it’s going to be BIG. It’s an all-original, and I’ll post details as they get finalised. This means that I’m now working on two different original science fiction anthologies, which is a whole other thing from doing reprints, and a real joy.

I also delivered Best Short Novels: 2005, which was an enormous relief. I don’t think I’d realised how stressed I’d been feeling till I hit the point where I wrote the last piece to go into the book, sealed it up, sent it off, and then just relaxed. It’s a book I love working on, so I’m hoping everyone will like it and that I’ll get to do it again. Actually, with that in mind, I should mention that ibooks will be reprinting Best Short Novels: 2004 sometime ’round October, I believe. They’re changing the title (I didn’t have any say in that), but it will be more generally available, which is neat.

Which takes us on to the next thing. I’ll be sending out something soon enough but, while I’m yet to contract to do any more year’s bests (the contracts always come later in the year), I’d encourage anyone who sees any short fiction to drop me an email or post something in the comments for the blog, and if you’re a writer and have a story coming out which isn’t in one of the major venues (i.e. SciFiction, Asimov’s, Analog, F&SF, RoF or major online venues like Strange Horizons) please feel free to email me any stories you’d like me to see.

What else? I had an enjoyable, if exhausting weekend. I took Friday off work. It was a beautiful day, cool with blue skies. Marianne had her hair cut in the morning (the girls were at school), so I took the laptop and went and sat in one of Mt Lawley’s many fine cafe’s. Had breakfast, noodled around with the intro to Best Short Novels, then met up with M. We then went into the city, picked up a friend of ours, Garth, who was in town, and headed down to The Red Herring Restaurant in Fremantle. M & I had been there with Charles back in January, but it was much nicer for lunch. We sat, watched the ocean tides sweep up the Swan River, ate, drank and enjoyed ourselves. Saturday was catch up day, before heading out to see Bill Bryson in the evening, which was fun. We had drinks with Garth afterwards, and then home again to find that our new air conditioner had been under attack from well-intentioned but undertrained grandmas. For a moment things looked dire, but I think everything’s fine. Sunday was kids and stuff and now back to work. I’ve got about six proposals to write, a lot of paperwork, and this never ends.

I did have one realisation on the weekend, though. This freelance stuff is working out. It’s fun, and it’s making money. The business side gives me the heebee-geebees, but that apart, it’s good. If I could ever get to the point where I didn’t need a day job…