The latest offering from Ellen Datlow’s SciFiction, Jay Lake & Ruth Nestvold’s “The Canadian Who Came Almost All the Way Home From the Stars” is a tale that recalls the pastoralist science fiction of the late Clifford Simak. Six years after launching a self-funded starship on a mission for Barnard’s Star, a wealthy Canadian astrophysicist ‘telephones’ his wife to tell her he’s on his way home. Soon after, a large depression appears in the middle of a lake in a Canadian national park. It immediately becomes the center of intense investigations by the Canadian and US governments. However, when those investigations provide no real explanation for what has happened, interest wanes and eventually the astrophysicist’s beautiful wife and a government agent are left to maintain a long vigil to discover the nature of the anomaly and the fate of the astrophysicist. There’s a lot to like in this nicely understated novelette. The characterisation is spot in, the tone is maintained perfectly and all in all it’s probably the most accomplished story I’ve seen from either writer. Well worth checking out.

Sorry for being away. I half-wrote several posts, but never quite got to finishing them (the story of my last few weeks). Since last we met there has been glorious sunshine, dancing, visits to the zoo, drenching rains, cleaning of houses, and that darn mouse.

Along the way, I meant to write to you about how short story collections are a form in themselves (and how surely Bradbury and Le Guin are amongst the finest exponents of that art), how intrigued I am by snatches from the new My Morning Jacket cd Z, my delight at the announcement of the impending re-release of Springsteen’s Born to Run, to enthuse even more about Neil’s “Sunbird” (which I like more and more), and a bunch of other good things.

Most of all, though, this morning I woke up and things didn’t seem so bad for the first time in a while. I’ve got to email some folk about heading out for drinks this weekend, and draft a short speech for one of my very best friend’s wedding. And then there’s my Sophie’s fourth birthday. It’s easy to get caught up in the grind of the day-to-day, and to forget how delightful such things are. I can’t believe it’s been nearly twenty one years since I met Robin (about time he found a nice girl and settled down), nor can I believe it’s been four years since Sophie was born. It seems like yesterday. And it’s only twenty-six days till I head off for the States. Too much to do, which makes it too easy to overlook how good life is, but life is good.

There are mice in the kitchen pantry, and I’m not sleeping well. Two nights running, I’ve either woken by myself or been awoken by children at around 2.00am, and struggled to get back to sleep. I still have to be up for work at 5.00am, so you could argue I’m a bit jetlagged, and this post may not be as sprightly as it could be.

First, books I’m waiting for rather eagerly. In amongst all of the other stuff being talked about, Margo Lanagan has mentioned she’s almost finished her novel Little Peach, set in the same world as ‘Singing My Sister Down’, and I can’t wait to see it. Then, I note from Jeff Ford that Small Beer will be publishing Alan DeNiro’s collection Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead, next year. Given that Jeff’s saying good things about it, and that Gavin and Kelly are publishing it, I’m pretty excited about checking it out. I also see that Bill over at SubPress is publishing a new Tim Powers story, ‘The Bible Repairman‘. For all sorts of reasons, the only way you’ll see this one is in the SubPress chapbook (which will be way cool), so go order it. I did.

Second, I wrote and lost a post about anthologies. To quickly synopsise: where are all of the fantasy anthologies this year? I’ve not seen a really top-flight mainstream fantasy anthology this year, and I’d have expected to by now. That said, I did like Marvin Kaye’s The Fair Folk, which has very good stories by Kim Newman and Megan Lindholm. It’s only available from the SFBC, so go join. The best SF antho of the year, so far, is Pete Crowther’s Constellations. It’s from Pete, so it’s as good as you’d expect. I have read some good slipstream, mixed, oddball, or whatever anthologies as well. Polyphony 5 stands out, as does Nova Scotia, and I know there are others. More, in detail, when I’m more awake.

Third, things are moving on the year’s best front. The first contracts for stories for the year’s best SF and the year’s best fantasy volumes should be winging their way to authors around the globe by now. I’m some time away from announcing any contents, but there’s some good stuff around and I think the books will be strong. The only problem will be leaving things out.

What else? It’s only four weeks till I leave for World Fantasy. Still have to get an ms. together for the YA book, finalise the year’s bests contents, write story notes for everything, do this crazy Australian SF catalogue, and get started on Locus’s recommended reading. All on top of cool, fun life stuff like a best friend’s wedding and a daughter’s birthday. Busy, busy.

Oh, and Clive Barker is now doing weird kids toys….

There was a time when I would have told you that I loved pretty much everything that Jonathan Carroll had written. Way back in the day, when the world was young, he produced a remarkable body of work, including novels like The Land of Laughs, Sleeping in Flame, Bones of the Moon, and A Child Across the Sky, all of which I think remarkable, and recommend unhesitatingly.

I have, in all frankness, been a little less seduced by the handful of novels he’s published in the last four or five years, including those featuring Vincent Ettrich. Still, I note that a new one, Glass Soup, is due shortly, and a website is up. Even when imperfect, Carroll’s novels are always worth checking out.

Perhaps more to my taste, I also note that Carroll has published his story “Home on the Rain“, from Conjunctions, on his website. I may be alone, but I liked it a lot.

I’ve been meaning to post something about anthologies, but every time I try to something else comes along. In this case the distraction is the welcome news that Night Shade Books will be publishing Tim Pratt’s second short story collection, Hart & Boot and Other Stories. This is very cool news. I think 2005 has been a remarkable year for short story collections, but with next year promising new collections from Tim, Theodora Goss, Jeffrey Ford, M. Rickert, Bruce Sterling, and Paul Di Filippo amongst others, it could be just as good. Why is it, when faced with evidence like this, that people still question whether or not these are good times for the short story?