Last week Gardner Dozois and I sold The New Space Opera II, a sequel anthology to our recently published book The New Space Opera, to HarperCollins Publishers. I’m delighted about this for all sorts of reasons.  First, it was a joy working with the Harper team on the first book, so having the chance to continue working with them is very welcome indeed. Second, The New Space Opera was fun to edit, and I’m sure that working with the eighteen or so authors involved in book 2 will be just as much fun. Third, working with Gardner was a privilege, and getting to do it a second time is even more so. And, finally, the first book has only been out for a month and a half, so I’m guessing readers must be warming to it somewhat, if the publisher is willing to risk a second book. All good news.  And, before you ask, we’re about two years away from publication. Given deadlines and such, I’d guess you’ll see The New Space Opera II in-store sometime in the second half of 2009.

Time, as Steve Miller reminds us, keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future. Today is phone calls to the States and finishing up the copyedits for Eclipse. Then I’m back to reading for the year’s best for a while. I’m guessing I’m a week or so away from copyedits for The Starry Rift, and then it’s all ‘year’s best’ all the time, until I leave for the US (with a welcome sidestep for Conflux).  So, I guess I should be making notes for the introduction for the year’s best and working up story notes for the writers I’ve not used before. Busy times.

In amongst all that, I’m reading. Last week brought a package from Amazon.com containing Barry Malzberg’s Breakfast in the Ruins and Deborah Noyes’ anthology The Restless Dead. The Malzberg is a much expanded edition of his earlier The Engines of the Night, and really deserves to pick up the Hugo for Best Related Work next year. It’s one of the best books on science fiction published in the last 25 years, and is essential reading. I’ve only dipped into the Noyes’ anthology so far, but there are a couple very good stories in it. Of course, there are some novels that have shown up in the past week that I really want to read, but they may have to wait for World Fantasy and beyond.

Well, I hummed and ha’d until I had driven just about everyone I know mad, and then booked my flights for World Fantasy. It’s still  not a ‘done’ done deal, because I paid electronically and it hasn’t gone through yet, but by tonight it should be. So, Wednesday, 24 October I fly off to Saratoga Springs via Sydney, San Francisco, Manhattan, and then home via Oakland (and a relaxing stop with CHARLES and crew). Hopefully I’ll see you somewhere along the line. There’ll be a party in Saratoga you should come to, and a reception-thingie in Manhattan that’ll be interesting. I think I’m almost looking forward to this.