Just heard the news that my pal Jeffrey Ford has just won the Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original for his wonderful novel, Girl in the Glass.  It was one of my very favorite novels last year. If you haven’t read it already, don’t hesitate. It’s fantastic.

When sending email, always doublecheck the address you are pasting into the address field before sending the email. It makes life so much…simpler.

Bill Schafer at Subterranean Press has just launched a redesigned, all-new cool looking website. Go check it out. It even has a brand new, free (!) Joe Lansdale story. Why aren’t you over there yet?

So, we’re multi-tasking here at Coode Street. I’ve spent the last couple days proofreading the PDF of Best Short Novels: 2006. It’s due back in the capable hands of Kathy at the SF Book Club next week, so I think that’s working out ok. I also spent some time making photocopies and compiling the manuscript for Ascendancies: The Best of Bruce Sterling. That should go in the mail to the publisher and the introducer early next week. I think it’s coming out some time in the first half of 2007. This weekend will be proofing Science Fiction: The Very Best of 2005 and Fantasy: The Very Best of 2005 for the wonderful Liza at Locus Press. Hopefully that’ll go off to them mid next week. I’m also getting ready to edit this month’s Locus review columns, and am finishing the submission manuscripts for the YA anthology. I’ve got all of the stories now (well, except for one), so yay that! I’ve been putting off finishing the intro till now, so it’s a quick review of running order, a proof, and then off to the fabulous Sharyn. Right after that, I’ve got a bunch of proposals to do, and am running a month late on taxes and have to get some travel booked.

And what then, you ask? Well, stories are coming in for the new space opera anthology I’m doing with Gardner. They’re looking terrific, and by the time I’ve cleared the decks for most of the above it’ll be time to sit down and write the main intro for that, and perhaps start to discuss sequencing etc with Gardner. Then there’s a long overdue project with Jack, and another project that I think will happen that I can’t say anything about. And with a little luck, and some way to avoid a total meltdown, I’ll then have cleared the decks for August and the trip to Worldcon. Which should be extra super fun because Garth, Sean, Amanda and Simon are all coming too. I think we’re sharing accommodation, though I don’t know how we’ll all fit. And after that, New York, the family place upState, and some downtime. That will be sweet. And did I mention reading? I’ve been reading novels (which I shouldn’t). Busy, busy.

There are some days when working in the science fiction field, however peripherally, is a joy, a challenge and a privilege. There are other days when, however much of a privilege it is, I ask myself what the heck I’m doing. I could simply poke my eye out with a stick for fun, which would at least have the advantage of taking less time.