Feeling a bit low and out of it. Listening to old Little River Band tracks because of something Bob Lefsetz wrote about visiting Australia. He waxes about “Home on a Monday”, not knowing that the Hoodoo Gurus‘ “1000 Miles Away” is the best song ever written about coming from Australia and finding yourself on the other side of the world. There’s a kind of melancholy in both songs, though, and that feeling carried through my reading a Vanity Fair article about Arthur Miller’s son, who was born with Downs Syndome and sent to an institution. It’s very sad, though it says something that his son has grown into the person he apparently has.
Other than that, I’m measuring days to see how they fit the schedule I have. Travel is mostly booked and done, barring some fiddling with details about connecting flights to Canberra and hotels here and there in the US. I’m reading, reading, reading, though apparently nowhere near as fast as the Not if You Were the Last Story on Earth crew, who are trying to find everything published in 2007, or as near as they can. I’ve been reading for year’s bests for a few years now, and what I’ve learned is that no one can read everything (you can’t find everything!) and that no-one agrees what’s good. Still, I am reading some great stuff, often in odd places. I need to tell you about Steve’s So Fey, and will soon. I also want to recommend a handful of odd but interesting things. It’s a good year for science fiction and fantasy, for what it’s worth. More soon.
Locus has just reported that the World Fantasy Convention has released the names of the recipients of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Awards. The recipients are Diana Wynne Jones and Betty Ballantine. I don’t know Betty, but I do know about her career, and she’s an extraordinarily deserving recipient. As for Diana, we were judges for the WFAs a few years ago, and I’ve read a lot of her work. She’s a wonderful, wonderful writer, and was a great correspondent. I’ve long hoped I might get to publish her someday. Whether or I do or not, though, I couldn’t be more delighted about her being acknowledged in this way. Definitely a major nod of approval to the judges and administrators for making a great pair of decisions.
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.
