The information’s up on Bill Crider’s Pop Culture Magazine. Scott Cupp and Joe Lansdale are co-editing an anthology of stories inspired by Robert E. Howard and his work. To be published as a joint venture between FACT and Chris Roberson’s very fine Monkeybrain outfit, it will feature stories by Howard Waldrop, Neal Barrett Jr, Bradley Denton, Gene Wolfe, Michael Moorcock and others. See a list here. I’ll post ordering details when I see ’em.

Note: Any Locus reviewers reading this post should note that I’ll arrange review copies of I can. No need to contact me directly.

While I wasn’t watching, John Joseph Adams mentioned that The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction has just acquired new stories by Ted Chiang and Bruce Sterling. I’m hoping both will make it out in 2006. Regardless of that, though, you have subscribed, yes?

Well, I’m sitting, hungover, in the departure lounge of the Canberra Airport (possibly the only airport I’ve been in that doesn’t sell coffee. On Wednesday morning I got an unexpected opportunity to get on an airplane, fly to Canberra, spend two days seeing friends, attending the Conflux science fiction convention, and party. It’s been terrific. Highlights include unexpectedly sitting next to Sean Williams on the flight from Melbourne to Canberra; a too brief, but still great, conversation with Nick Stathopoulos (who does the best Red and Blue impression EVER) on Thursday; seeing Garth; a great dinner on Thursday night with Justin, Sean, Deb, Garth, Ellen Datlow, Jack Dann and others. Friday was running around bumping into people, seeing Magic Trevor, doing convention stuff, unexpectedly doing a panel on the best fantasy of the year, and lots of drinking. I think the only thing I didn’t get to do was sleep. I had a wonderful room, but I think I averaged three or four hours per night.

And, after too brief a stay, I’m now headed home. Pretty soon I’ll be in Perth getting ready for Jessica’s sixth birthday tomorrow. I’ll try to do a brief report on Conflux for Locus, though I doubt anything will convey the magic of Jack Dann and Jim Frenkel standing on a stage in front of a bunch of people enjoying the fruits of a free bar talking about that good sheep lovin’. Somewhere in there, I dealt briefly with email, saw a great concept sketch for the cover of the Vance Treasury, and saw a Shaun Tan print called The Waterfbuffallo that I have to have. All in all, a memorable sojourn.

Happily, unexpectedly I find myself on the other side of the country. This morning I kissed Marianne, Sophie and Jessica goodbuye at 7am. Went to the airport too early, got a good seat for an uneventful flight to Melbourne. Bumped into Sean Williams at the airport gate, and shared a flight to Canberra with him. It was great to see him. Then met Garth Nix at the gate, drove into the city and checked into the hotel. Tomorrow Conflux, but first had a great conversation with Nick Stathopoulos who I hadn’t seen in five years. It was great to reconnect. Then time with Garth, before dinner with Garth, Jack Dann, Sean Williams, Deb Biancotti, Ellen Datlow, Justin Ackroyd and others. A good time. They came back to the suite for drinks, then bed. Great to see Russell too, and David Coe. Tonight was worth the trip itself. More tomorrow.

Way back when I attended a party at WorldCon in San Jose. It was to launch the first volume in an ambitious but untested new anthology series from a new publisher. The publisher was Wheatland Press and the series was Deborah Layne and Jay Lake’s extremely well-received and all round kinda wonderful Polyphony. The party was good but the book was better, and Deborah and Jay have gone on to edit a series that does what ever series should: get better with each volume.

While we’re all currently waiting for Polyphony 6 (yes, six!) to appear, Deb has decided to make it even easier for people to pick up a copy of Polyphony and see what all of the fuss is about. If you pop over to the Wheatland Press website and order any title before 30 June, you’ll get a Polyphony of your choice free!

Now, this is an exceptionally good offer, given that you can choose between great books like All Star Zeppelin Stories, Steve Utley’s The Beasts of Love, Howard Waldrop’s Dream Factories and Radio Pictures, or Jay Lakes’s Greetings from Lake Wu. There is a veritable feast of coolness to choose from. How could you resist? Why would you resist? Go buy a book: buy one for a friend and get one for yourself for nothing! You get to look good by giving someone a present and still score a book for yourself. It doesn’t get much better than that.