Well, I’m reading my way towards the end of The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year. Technically I shouldn’t really consider anything that arrives after today, but realistically speaking I’ll look at anything that arrives over the next week or so.  I’ve got the skeleton of the book in place, though the fantasy side continues to worry me.  I’ve seen some terrific stories, but there’s definitely been less really stand out fantasy that there was last year (and news that Sharyn November’s Firebirds Soaring has been delayed to 2009 is particularly disappointing).  This isn’t to say there haven’t been terrific stories, just less of them, or that the genre is in trouble (the whole annual thing is fairly artificial), but it’s a little disappointing.  It has, on the other hand, been a banner year for great SF.  Such are the vagaries of editing this book.

I have come across several good stories that are essentially mainstream that I’d love to use. One, Jonathan Carroll’s “Nothing to Declare“  is particularly good. If there’d been even a whisper of genre, it’d have been in my annual. sigh.

All of a sudden it seems like every second book coming out is either about zombies or superheroes.  Why do I have this feeling that these are two sides of the same coin?  That they are a response to some kind of uncertainty in our current political and economic climate, with one responding to our dread and the other our need for  hope and certainty.

I’m sitting in my living room, occasionally deriving an almost ridiculous amount of pleasure from my four foot tall lava lamp, and listening to some old Van Morrison on the stereo.  I had a friend, Gordon, visiting who’s been recommending some new stereo gear to me, and I’m seriously considering it.  I bought my current setup (a Rotel system with Lin speakers) about 12 years ago, and I’m feeling it might be time.  He’s recommending some Consonance cd players and amps, and I might go that way.  They’re bodaciously ugly, but he seems pretty confident. Of course he showed me these (http://www.supratek.biz/gallery.htm), which are cool, but aren’t in production any more, which is sad.  There are too few beautiful things in the world, to see something pass out of it.

What else? I’m going through a “Oh my god, don’t make me read science fiction” phase this past couple weeks.  Just seeing it makes me shudder, though I know this will turn around.  It always does.  It is, of course, convenient that this happened six weeks or so out from handing in the year’s best!  On that score, do you have a favorite 2008 story?  I have a bunch, but would like to hear yours.  On that score, I’m waiting for the new Interzone, which should be here any idea.  My pal Jetse told me it has a work of genius in it, and that’s plug enough for me.

Oh, and Margo’s Tender Morsels came in the mail today.  Yay!

That earlier portrait is pretty rough looking so, by way of compensation something a little more pleasant.  Herewith, young Jessica who chose to stand on one leg, for reasons best to known to her.

I fear I have been less than sociable of late.  We’ve started serious work on the new lounge room and, other than that, I’ve not felt much like chatting.  Read some good stories (including a very good one by Gregory Feeley in Otherworldly Maine called “Awskonomuk” which isn’t genre enough for the year’s best, but is well worth checking out), started Justine’s How to Ditch Your Fairy, and am enjoying that.  Went out to a Sean Williams’ bookstore appearance where we didn’t really get to catch up (which was fair enough) and heard a lot about Star Wars (which was fair enough too).   We have dinner tomorrow night, so that should be good.  And then a busy, busy weekend. I’m also beginning to think about returning to work, and Calgary.

Via catsparx: Take a picture of yourself right now. Don’t change your clothes. Don’t fix your hair. Just take a picture. Post that picture with no editing. (Except maybe to get the image size down to something reasonable. Don’t go posting an eight megapixel image.) Include these instructions.