i’m slowly getting round to reading for all of the various projects i’m supposed to be working on. i’ve spent the last couple nights picking through deborah layne & jay lake’s polyphony 5, neil williamson & andrew J. wilson’s nova scotia: an anthology of scottish speculative fiction, browsing some magazines, and reading new submissions for the starry rift and eidolon. while it’s been a very idiosyncratic meandering, it’s been fun and each anthology has already turned up some great stuff.

i’ve been enjoying jeff vandermeer’s short fiction more and more these days, and his ‘the farmer’s cat’ in p5 is a delight. it’s so early in the piece, with the book not due for months, that i don’t want to give too much detail about the stories, but ‘the farmer’s cat’ is apparently the first in a sequence of twisted fairytales, and i really loved it on first reading. the other story i liked, so far, is heather shaw’s ‘single white farmhouse’, with is a … how do you describe it? a surreal tale of the search for love and how it impacts on those around you. i haven’t read much of heather’s stuff, but from this one, i can see why her story opens the book. i’d wondered whether deborah and jay could match the quality of p4, but so far, so good.

i’ve taken a look at a couple stories from nova scotia, which i think should be out for the scottish worldcon. jane yolen has a really top-notch fantasy novelette in the book, “a knot of toads”, which has a really wonderful and dark sense of place, all built around what feels like a fairytale kind of story, while charlie stross has a funny encounter with the devil story, “snowball’s chance” that isn’t his absolute best work, but is fun. neither writer is, of course, actually scots, so i’m pushing on with the book to see what scottish speculative fiction is.

as to the anthology reading, i received new subs over the past week from ken macleod, walter jon williams, and jeff ford for the starry rift. on days when those kind of things show up in your email box you know that life is richer and more interesting than you ever could have expected. the book continues to grow and change, and if it’s not quite what i envisaged, it is coming together. i need to get some acceptances out shortly, and some contracts to people, and send out a few more follow-ups, and i think i should make the deadline fairly easily. eidolon is coming together too, though more slowly. i’ve already got one story ear-marked for my year’s best fantasy, which is a good sign. need more stories though. hmmm.

So, the car is back among the living, with new timing chains and such, which is cool. It looks like everything is going to work out, with even the possiblity of the iPod suddenly back on the agenda. Life is a funny thing, and I get stressed way to easily. Depending on things, this weekend is build bookcases, install new pc network, and do some reading time. I also need to sort out some contracts and write a proposal for a new book project, which I’m pretty excited about. Busy busy.

Sean is in Nagoya, worrying about tsunamis and enjoying being a giant. He’s set up a journal to talk about it. Maybe he can hook up with American SF writer Chris Barzak, who’s also doing the living in Japan thing.

so, bills came in. book bills, tax bills, sudden dead car bills. ipod cancelled. sigh. tv card for pc cancelled. sigh. next time.

Bangladesh defeated Australia in a one-day game last night. There’s no way to sugar coat it. They played well, and Australia, who strode arrogantly towards this UK summer, is somewhat in disarray. While all the early talk was whether the Aussies would finish the summer undefeated, it’s all now of whether they can get their acts together. I don’t know what happened. It’s mystifying. On paper the Australians are the best team playing in the UK right now. I’m hoping everything right’s itself, but tonight’s game against England is sure to prove a real test of character. I’m betting Symonds will play, and I even wonder about Lee.