My friend and former editor Andy Wheeler spends some time musing on Eclipse One. I don’t agree with everything he has to say, and I don’t disagree with it all either, but I do respect the heck out of his opinion and appreciate his discussing the book at such length.  Are Lou and I jump-starting the original antho series market? I don’t know. I know there should be at least three Eclipse volumes, depending on the support of you the reader, and I like and respect what Lou’s doing enough to want to work with him on a book or two. I think our approaches would complement one another really well.  I’d also throw George Mann’s hat into the ring.  I thought his fantasy antho last year was patchy, but both volumes of The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction are excellent. I also suspect there’s some hope that Ellen’s Inferno and Del Rey Book anthos may turn into series, which would be a cool thing.

Enough. This must be ‘go to the doctor’ week. I’ve put this off and put this off, but I’m three weeks or so into a mild sniffly thing, my right arm is still quite sore, my left is beginning to bother me, and so’s my back. I’m sure it’s a case of two non life-threatening things combining: some kind of mild infection and a musculoskeletal thing that is having flow-on effects, but I’m just over it. I can’t read. I’m too uncomfortable. I can’t sit comfortably. And it’s not excruciating. It’s just uncomfortable, unless I’m trying to pick up something heavy with my right arm extended, when it is damn sore. So, doctors. No more whining. *

What else? Watched the Irish music film, Once, on the weekend. It’s terrific. I wasn’t familiar with either of the musician/actor leads, but thought they did a great job, and the music was actually good. Went out on Saturday night for dinner with Stef, Janet, Nick and Amanda for Polish food. I didn’t like the food much, but the company was great, which it always is, though Rob and Toula were definitely missed. We had enough fun that we’re actually talking about going away for a weekend together, which should be fun.

I did try to read, but not much came of it. I’m reading (still!, though it’s not the book’s fault), Ellen Datlow’s Del Rey Book of SF/F, and so-far it’s my favorite of her recent anthologies. Four other anthologies came in through the email, and I need to get to them. What else? Looks like Gardner and I just bought the first story for The New Space Opera 2, while The New Space Opera is coming out in French in about a year. Jack Dann and I killed one antho project on the weekend, but another is now all set. I’ll announce news here shortly. I also spoke to CHARLES, who seems to be doing well and reading a lot. Maybe I should ask him to be a reader for the year’s best?

I’m also progressing through the Eclipse Two subs, but nothing much so far. I’ve got a couple stories I’m considering (two I NEED to re-read), but the book isn’t coming into focus yet. I know it’s early days yet. The open reading has another few weeks to go, and the solicited subs aren’t due in for a while (though I do have a *very* good Nancy Kress story for the book), but I’m getting to the point where I want to have a better feel for it. Mainly, I know it should have a lot more SF in it, and absolutely no slipstream stuff at all, no way, no how, uh uh. But, we’ll see. Submissions processes are weird.

Hmm. I also did an SF Signal Mind Meld thing, which was fun. It’s a great project. And…well, stuff. Tomorrow is proposal writing day. At last. That means our book, Lou, at last! Sorry for the delays.

Oh, and did I tell you that apparently Jeff’s new collection is going to be called The Drowned Life, after his Eclipse One story?  I was damned chuffed when I heard. And he’s writing me a space opera story, which still makes me smile every time I think about it.
* No, Nick. This is WordPress, not an LJ.

The latest upgrade to the iPod Touch is nice,  but doesn’t really cut the mustard. What does it take to get me to break out my check book? Well, if you were to slap the iPod Touch interface onto a 160gb iPod Classic and hook it up to a the internet in a similar way to Amazon’s Kindle, then my money is yours.

Yrs truly,

Jonathan Strahan

I’m trying to think if I’ve ever had a true ‘open reading’ period for an anthology before. Obviously Eidolon magazine was always looking for new work, and Jeremy Byrne and I did have a reasonably long open period for the Eidolon anthology. Books like The Starry Rift, Eclipse One and Godlike Machines, though, were all invitation only. Assembling any kind of anthology has different challenges, but when I posted the information about an open reading period for Eclipse Two and Three, I’m not sure I’d really thought it through.

I certainly had clear reasons for having an open reading period, but I don’t know that I ever actually worked out what it would mean. As those who are interested know, the reading period runs for the month of February (1-29), which seemed reasonable last Thursday. Since it began I’ve received just over 100 submissions, and could well be on target to get 400 or so submissions. That’s potentially four million words of stories (don’t laugh Charles). I’m more than a little overwhelmed.

At the moment I’m also reading through Ellen Datlow’s The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy, which so far is my favorite of her recent anthologies (Inferno is great, but I’m not a true horror fan and this one is better than Salon Fantastique, which was good). Traveling through the stories while occasionally reading submissions seems to be giving me some kind of barometer as I go. I find myself comparing, checking in, and so on.

I am, for what it’s worth, trying to respond quickly too, even though the reading period doesn’t officially start till 1 March. I figure it’s best, rather than letting things build up. This means, usually, that the longer it takes to hear from me, the better things are. Also, if you hear from me very quickly, this doesn’t mean I didn’t fully consider your story. For example, I was at work yesterday, having my lunch break. I had nothing to read with me, but five new submissions had come in that morning and were sitting in my web-mail account, so I read and responded to them all. Hopefully, if I can, I’ll keep things going at that pace.

As to whether I’d hold another open reading period in future – I don’t know. This is almost certainly the only one for Eclipse for the next few years. We’ll see about other things as time goes on. Oh, and a special note to Eclipse invitees. I still want your stories, desperately. Please don’t think ‘he has 400 stories and doesn’t need mine’. I do.

Well, the truth is I haven’t nominated and I haven’t worked out what I’m going to nominate, but nominations for the Ditmar Awards close on Friday. If you are a member of the Australian SF community, you should take the opportunity to nominate.  Please don’t let yourself be discouraged by the fact that you haven’t seen or read everything. Only Bill Congreve and the people at Last Short Story on Earth have done that.  Just nominate something that you think is good and worthwhile.  I certainly will be.