A certain amount of a year’s best editor is being a detective. I’ve written (far too many times) in introductions to anthologies that stories are coming out in a greater range of outlets than ever before. I just found out today, for example, that UK publishers Serpent’s Tail Press are publishing a series of anthologies of short stories ‘inspired’ by certain independent bands. The first two books in the series, Perverted By Language: Fiction Inspired by The Fall and The Empty Page: Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Sonic Youth, are both due in the first half of 2007. Anthologies are also planned that cover The Smiths, The Ramones, Joy Division and The Velvet Underground. And of course genre writers are involved, so there are stories by people like Jeff VanderMeer and Paul Di Filippo. They could be very cool books and may be great stories, but they’re not easy to stumble across. Still, this is one of the reasons we do it I guess.