So, I think I’ve developed an irrational fear. Last year, through no one’s fault (and pointing the finger at no-one), more than half of the writers who had committed to writing for Eclipse One spontaneously dropped out during the last week before the deadline. I had to get an extension to the deadline, find new writers to be involved, and so on.  Anyway, the deadline for Eclipse Two is May 18.  That’s not so far away. Now, I’ve bought some stories for the book and have my eye on a couple more, and a bunch of people have said they should have stories in, but I think I’m going to be edgy about this one until it’s been put to bed.

A reasonably positive review of The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume 2 over at The Fix. Obviously I like the book a bit more than the reviewer did, and I calculate the SF/F split a bit more evenly.  As to whether readers will find it too diverse or not, time will tell. I tend to believe in the idea that there are readers who are short fiction readers first and then sf or fantasy readers second.  I also think there are a lot of readers who happily will read both.  Still, interesting to see another view.

I don’t remember when I read a book or story by Gwyneth Jones for the first time. I was certainly aware of her work in Interzone, and I recall seeing the Allen & Unwin editions of some of her novels, but I never got around to picking them up. I also clearly remember having her ‘White Queen’ series of novels recommended to me. For whatever reason – perhaps I just wasn’t ready – I didn’t start reading her work until Bold as Love was published.

Hopefully all readers of this blog are familiar witht he five novels that make up the ‘Bold as Love’ sequence. The first book in the sequence is simply one of my favorite books. A barnstorming political rock ‘n’ roll fantasy, I loved it from the first and eagerly consumed the next four books as they came out. I dismissed then, as I do now, that the books are too British to find an American audience, and I’ve never been convinced by those readers who don’t find the idea of rock stars becoming political figures plausible.

Lately, though, I’ve fallen in love with her short fiction. She sent me a wonderful story, “In the Forest of the Queen”, for Eclipse One. I think her story in The Starry Rift, writing as ‘Ann Halam’, is possibly even better. And then there’s the story she did for The New Space Opera. You can see some of Gwyneth’s thoughts on space opera over at MindMeld, and I think they clearly underpin “Saving Tiamaat”, which is one of my own favorite NSO stories.

The reason I’m mentioning this now is that Gwyneth has posed four stories in her “Buonarotti” sequence on her blog. You can read:

1. The Tomb Wife
2. Saving Tiamaat
3. The Voyage Out
4. The Fulcrum

If you’re not familiar with her work, you should really try these. It’s a wonderful mini-collection of great science fiction. And, if you’re as impressed as I am, you’ll be as excited as I was to hear that she’s finished a new space opera novel, The Princess of Boi Dormant, for Gollancz which hopefully will be out soon.

Update:

I should have mentioned that PS Publishing, one of my favorite small presses, has scheduled a new collection of Jones’ stories, Grazing the Long Acre, which is set to appear before year’s end. It should be an amazing book.

A quick apology to all of the people who sent their stories in for Eclipse Two and are still waiting for a response. I had intended to respond to everyone by the end of March, which was the official end of the reading period.  A few things have delayed me, though, and I’m still pushing forward.  Of the 450 submissions I receive, I still have 27 to decide on. I should do that this week, and everyone should have heard back from me by this coming weekend. I am sorry for the delay, though.

…it’d be easier.  Marianne’s away this weekend, having her respite which she deserves. I’m with the girls, which is great.  Saturday we had to be up early to get Jessica to her Unigym physio on the other side of the city, we then grabbed a dim sum lunch and went to SciTech.  All of which was swell, except Jess woke me at 1am and I couldn’t get back to sleep. We got home at 4pm, having gone out at 8.15am, and Sophie then proceeded to have a near hour-long crying fit over dinner and the DVD we were going to watch.  Stephen popped over and left around 11pm, just in time to have Jess up with a sore ear.  She was up till about 1.30am, at which point I got to sleep. Sophie was in at 6.30am for a snuggle.  Today we have swimming, then the Autumn River Festival. It would all be great, were it not for the fact that I’ve had no sleep and am exhausted.

SF stuff is on hold for 24hrs.  Will write to you then. Oh, and columns to edit. Tonight.