I thought I’d also let you see the Table of Contents for The New Space Opera, now that we’re finished (for the moment).

1. “Verthandi’s Ring,” by Ian McDonald
2. “Saving Tiamaat,” by Gwyneth Jones
3. “Hatch,” by Robert Reed
4. “Winning Peace,” by Paul J. McAuley
5. “Glory,” by Greg Egan
6. “Maelstrom,” by Kage Baker
7. “Blessed By An Angel,” by Peter F. Hamilton
8. “Who’s Afraid of Wolf 359?,” by Ken Macleod
9. “The Valley of the Gardens,” by Tony Daniel
10. “Dividing the Sustain,” by James Patrick Kelly
11. “Minla’s Flowers,” by Alastair Reynolds
12. “Splinters of Glass,” by Mary Rosenblum
13. “Remembrance,” by Stephen Baxter
14. “The Emperor and the Maula,” by Robert Silverberg
15. “The Worm Turns,” by Gregory Benford
16. “Send Them Flowers,” by Walter Jon Williams
17. “Art of War,” by Nancy Kress
18. “Muse of Fire,” by Dan Simmons

The Alastair Reynolds, Robert Silverberg, and Dan Simmons stories are all major new short novels.

None of this is set in stone, but these are the conventions I’m planning on attending in 2007.

• Convergence 2 (8-11 June 2007)
• Conflux 4, Canberra (28 Sept – 1 Oct 2007)
• World Fantasy Convention 2007, Saratoga NY (1 – 4 Nov 2007)

The one I’m least likely to make is Convergence 2, but we’ll see.

The winners of the 2005 World Fantasy Awards have been announced. I have definite thoughts on the winners, agreeing with some and not with others. The main thing is that both the ballot and results were definitely credible, and I think the judges acquitted themselves very well indeed. Further than that I will not go, as I am bound the rules of the secret former World Fantasy Award judges cabal.

This weekend was all about finishing the first volume of The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year. I had to turn a stack of stories files into a manuscript, write the story notes, the introduction and all the other bits and pieces. Well, I’m pretty much done. There’s a file on my computer here at home that contains all of that stuff. At the moment there are twenty three stories in the final book, and I’ve got permissions etc for twenty two of them. I’ll know in the next two days about that last one, but I do have another story that I really love and that it hurt not to squeeze into the final book sitting as a pinch hitter. So, I’ll do another read over of the new stuff tonight, confirm the permission tomorrow, and the book file should reach San Francisco not long after Jeremy and Jason get back from WFC, which will be a huge relief.

And next? Well, I’ve got to do the line edit on the best of Bruce Sterling that Subterranean are doing, begin serious work on Locus’s recommended reading lists, assemble an ms. for Best Short Novels: 2007, get some invites out for two new projects I’m doing, and there’ll be some Locus proofing in there too. That should keep me busy till Christmas, I think.

James Sallis has a great review of Peter Beagle’s The Line Between and Jeffrey Ford’s The Empire of Icecream in the December issue of F&SF. You can read it online. Oh, and you can subscribe to F&SF here.

Paul Kincaid also has an interesting review of David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer’s Year’s Best Fantasy 6 at SF Site. The review’s not terribily positive, and doesn’t gel with the starred PW review the book got, but is interesting for what it says about year’s best annuals. Apparently Kincaid’s going to review my Best Short Novels: 2006, so I’d like to say a few things here before I see that review. For what it’s worth, I think Kincaid has some valid points, but isn’t entirely on the money.