I am a very fickle reader. It’s rare book that, if I’m not in the mood, can pull me along regardless. For some reason, right now I feel a need to read something with starships in it. I do not have anything with starships in it on the ‘to read’ shelf. I’m hoping to see Al Reynolds Pushing Ice pretty soon, which should hit the spot. In the meantime, I’m reading Gwyneth Jones’ Band of Gypsys and not really doing it justice. Similarly, I just dipped into Hal Duncan’s Vellum. Tried the first forty or so pages, and it seems cool. But, there’s something about the structure, will all of these italicised section headings, that is really putting me off. I think when I hit it in the right mood I’ll love it, but right now…I know to wait. So, I’m guessing it’s either Jeff’s The Cosmology of the Wider World, or short fiction tonight. Hmmm.

The latest issue of Ticonderoga Online came out a while back, and somehow I missed it. Given that it includes a rather dubious interview with me, which I somehow blocked from memory I guess that’s understandable. Still, Russ Farr and his crew are doing a cool job. You should check it out.

It’s been pretty widely reported that Amazon.com have started up their new Amazon Shorts program, which allows you to buy and read previously unpublished short stories and essays for just $US 0.49 each. They have some really fine writers involved, including people like Terry Bisson, Lucius Shepard, Jack Dann, James Morrow, Robert Silverberg and others.

A few people have suggested that, if successful, the program could grow into something to rival Ellen Datlow’s SciFiction. While I hope the program is a huge success, I’m not entirely sure how it will go. Why? Well, first, I’ve not heard much about who’s editing the program. Something like SciFiction has an editor like Ellen Datlow, who has both the skills and the smarts to do a great job. There are cool people running Strange Horizons and other fiction sites, but there’s no information on who’s actually editing for Amazon.com. This is supported by the information that Amazon has released about the program. It seems that once Amazon have okayed you, you can pretty much add anything you want. Hmmm.

There is another thing that I’m not sure about. If you sell a story to SciFiction you get paid (something like twenty cents per word I think). If you place a story on Amazon.com you get no payment up front at all, and split the 49 cents with the big A. Now, I think that could work fine for a Stephen King or someone like that, but I’m not sure how it will work for writers with smaller followings. I hope it works for them, but…. Oh, and for those interested, there’s a discussion about this over at Asimov’s.

Here’s a photo of little Sophie, just out of bed, who has been sick these past two days. She’s getting better.

I almost missed this, but… You might have noticed that the folk over at Conlan Press recently produced a limited edition of his new ‘Last Unicorn’ novella “Two Hearts”. Well, it seems that it is only the begining of their publishing work with Beagle. Over at their website, Conlan announce:

PETER S. BEAGLE: THE DEFINITIVE SET
When we first started talking to Peter about producing books and audiobooks of his work, he came clean and shared a long-held secret fantasy. “I’ve always wanted,” he said, “to be a boxed set. To have all my different titles available in one unified edition.” To that end Conlan Press is launching a program that will eventually release all of Peter’s books exactly as he has dreamed. Each Definitive Edition volume will be in a carefully-designed, set-matched archival binding, and will be fully illustrated by Peter’s choice of artist. The Definitive Edition series will begin with Peter’s new novel, Summerlong. Other books in the run will be released as they are completed.

Sounds cool to me. The books, mostly, are set to appear between now and mid next year. If you love Beagle’s work, as I do, it’s worth checking out.