I believe in truth in advertising. If you advertise something, you should attempt to deliver. I’m in the middle of working on my year’s best fantasy and year’s best science fiction volumes with Karen Haber and, while the end is in sight, that thought is on my mind.

We’ve read a lot of excellent stuff, and have some very fine stories earmarked for both books, but…. A book called year’s best SF or year’s best fantasy should contain stories that readers would recognize as SF or fantasy. I’m confident that the SF book is going to do that, but I’m a little worried about the fantasy book. The stories we have slated for it are terrific, top notch, but there’s not much in the way of dragons, fairies, elves, or quests. You won’t fit much quest into a short story, but dragons, fairies, and elves are definitely within the scope of the project. So, I have a request. If you, as a reader of this blog, have seen a terrific story featuring a traditional fantasy trope, let me know. I may have seen it, but who knows, and it would be really appreciated.

I have found, by trial and error, that I do not really pick my favorite albums of the year. It seems more like they pick me. The year before last it was The White Stripes Elephant, and last year it was Belle and Sebastian’s Dear Catastrophe Waitress. There was a lot to like, and enough not to, with both albums. They both passed a key test, though. When I thought back across the year, it was the sound of those albums that I could best remember amongst all of the thousands of things I’d listened to.

This trip around the sun the prize goes to the latest set from Mark E and his various cohorts who form Eels for the odd, double cd extravaganza that is Blinking Lights and Other Revelations. For all that I’ve loved the Magic Numbers debut, I haven’t been able to escape the beautiful, mournful music that fill up these two cds. The refrain from “Suicide Life” – ‘I’ll go none too bravely, Into the night, I’m so tired of living, The suicide life” – while not very cheery, goes round and round in my head. Superb.

Just yesterday, Chris Rowe posted a bunch of opening lines from some short fiction on this blog, and asked people to name the stories. Well, here’s just ten opening lines from some SF and F novels. How well do you know this stuff…

1. A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct.
2. Once upon a time there was a Martian named Valentine Michael Smith.
3. Five hours’ New York jet lag and Cayce Pollard wakes in Camden Town to the dire and ever-circling wolves of disrupted circadian rhythms.
4. Everyone knows how to find the meaning of life within himself. But mankind wasn’t always so lucky. Less than a century ago men and women did not have the easy access to the puzzle boxes within them.
5. I did not see my first “zombie” until my second day at Tulane when Ezawa permitted me to witness an interview.
6. Coming into New York City from the north, off the New England thruway, Oliver drove as usual. Tireless, relaxed, his window half open, long blond hair whipping in the chilly breeze.
7. Milena boiled things. She was frightened of disease. She would boil other people’s knives and forks before using them. Other people found this insulting.
8. My name is Robinette Broadhead, in spite of which I am male. My analyst (whom I call Sigfrid von Shrink, although that isn’t his name; he hasn’t got a name, being a machine) has a lot of electronic fun with this fact.
9. Throughout the past thousand years of history it has been traditional to regard the Alderson Drive as an unmixed blessing.
10. It was the day my grandmother exploded.

A clarification about the World Fantasy booklet. If you would like your book(s) listed in our free booklet, then you need to provide the following information, as requested below:

Title:
Author:
Blurb (inc. quotes, advance review extracts etc.):
Jacket Pic: a 150 dpi image in jpeg format ( 75 mm x 105 mm)
Extent (no. pages):
Publication Date:
Publisher(s) and Territories:
Agent or rights holder contacts:

If you can’t provide an image, that’s ok, but the information must be provided in this format if it’s to be included. Because we intend this to be similar to a catalogue, a simple list of titles won’t be sufficient. Also, because of limited time, I’m not able to follow up with someone else for this information. I’ll need it sent, ready to use, to jstrahan (at) iinet (dot) net (dot) (au).

A sample of what you could send would look like this:

Title: Eidolon I
Author: Jonathan Strahan & Jeremy G Byrne eds.
Blurb (inc. quotes, advance review extracts etc.): An exciting new anthology from Eidolon editors Strahan & Byrne, with classic new stories from Simon Brown, Chris Lawson, and others.
Jacket Pic: eidolon.jpg (attached)
Extent (no. pages): 420pp
Publication Date: November 2005
Publisher(s) and Territories: Eidolon Books (Australia), Prime Books (USA). Other world English language rights available.
Agent or rights holder contacts: Contact Jonathan Strahan at jstrahan (at) iinet (dot) net (dot) au.

If you have any queries about what you should provide, please don’t hesitate to email me. We want this to be a success, and to help promote Australian writers and their work.

My buddy Jack Dann has a new website over here at www.jackdann.com. Check it out.