I just got the news. I have to email all of the book’s contributors when I get home tonight, but The Starry Rift has been picked up by The Junior Library Guild in the US.  This is terrific news!!  The publisher is delighted, I’m delighted. It’s great.  And it follows on from last week’s announcement about The New Space Opera selling into France.  Good times, indeed.

I’d love to tell you that I’ve been too busy to post, but I’ve mostly been distracted and apathetic, which doesn’t sound good. I got a lot done before I went to Saratoga Springs for World Fantasy, had a great trip, came back, and really didn’t much want to think overly about things science fictional. Looking back over the post-WFC stuff here, you can see that I keep saying I’m going to focus on things. I just…haven’t.

So, what have I been doing? Well, I’ve pretty much finished re-watching The West Wing, which has been great. I’m at the end of Season 6, and probably ready to move on. There are a few DVDs, including the new version of Blade Runner, about to hit the shops, so I might watch something else over the Christmas break. I’ve also been reading, though not what I should. I read the opening story in an anthology which shall not be named (so don’t even ask), and it stopped me dead in the book. Rather than fight it, I went off and bought some new books.

On CHARLES Brown’s recommendation, I’m reading K.J. Parker’s Devices and Desires, the first book in the ‘Engineer’ trilogy. I rather wish I’d waited to buy the spiffy US edition, but am hooked nonetheless. I’ll definitely be hitting the bookstores shortly to buy volumes two and three. I also picked up Iain Banks book about scotch, Raw Spirit, which is both a hoot and a great read about Scotland. It got me all fired up about single malt scotches again (as did a meeting up with Russell Farr for coffee last weekend, where we actually got to sit down and chat for a while). All of a sudden I was checking out Laphroaigs, Lagavulins, Ardbegs, Oband and even Caol Ilas. There’s some magic out there, if it suits your palate, as it does mine.

And then, to prove that book-wise it’s definitely an Orbit kind of month, Marianne finished her latest Charlaine Harris book and moved on to the next Jim Butcher ‘Harry Dresden‘ novel (I love the Orbit UK packaging on these), and the advanced reader copy of Iain M. Banks’ next Culture novel, Matter, arrived from Nicola Pitt and the good folks at Orbit here in Australia. A great Christmas present, and definitely what I’m going to be reading over the next few days.

What else? Well, following the news, I’m guessing we can expect Peter Jackson’s adaptation of The Hobbit after all. He’s set to produce, New Line will fund and distribute. No mention yet of who will direct, but what’s the bet?

Oh,and just a plug. With the exception of galleys, all of the books mentioned as being bought recently all were purchased at Mt Lawley’s Planet Books, which  gets my vote as easily the best bookstore in Perth, and very easily the best source of new science fiction and fantasy in the State.