Associated Press have reported that Sir Arthur C. Clarke has died aged 90.  Clarke was one of the last of the giants of our field who was still alive and working well into the 21st Century.  Having read Childhood’s End and loved it, been moved by “The Nine Billion Names of God”, and awed by Rendezvous with Rama, I can only say that I think it’s a very, very sad loss for our field.  It also shows how important it is that we treasure Frederik Pohl, Philip Jose Farmer, Ray Bradbury, and the few others who remain from that rich, golden age when science fiction came of age.

So, I know you’re wondering how today is going. Well, the shoulder that I damaged somehow six weeks ago is unrepaired. The ankle that began to act up a couple weeks after that is similarly intermittent. I also seem to have picked up a flu bug, leaving me ideally prepared for a four day long weekend with convention. I got to work this morning to receive an email from my air carrier of choice to tell me that my much-heralded trip booking of last week had gone pear-shaped. This was resolved with some help from Oakland HQ, and some unnecessary stress.

Have I done anything productive? Well, I processed someone else’s HR paperwork at the office so they won’t lose their pay rise. I also bugged a (very nice) publisher about a book proposal, and got a copy of the latest issue of my very favorite magazine in the whole world. Got picked up from work by Marianne and Sophie, and am currently sitting blogging and feeling under the weather and sorry for myself in that “I know it’s not terribly serious, no one died, and the things that were problems can be fixed but I still feel rotten” kind of way.

I want to tell you that I did something productive in a science fictional sense, but I’d be lying. Today I did not read stories in magazines and anthologies. I did not get one inch further through my Eclipse reading pile. Nor did I read a single novel (though I did read Cory’s Little Brother last weekend and loved it). What I did do was buy a new novella for Godlike Machines, which I am very pleased about.  I still think I can get the ms. for that done in time.  I also spent some time worrying about only having bought one story for Eclipse Two, so far. I’ve been getting some lovely email from people about the first Eclipse, telling me how they can’t wait for the second one.  I love that, but I don’t have any idea what the final book will look like.

Anyway, enough of this post.  If I whine any more I’ll have to move this blog over to LiveJournal.  I’m sitting here, waiting for the girls to get home from school and listening to the latest and extremely terrific Shelby Lynne album.  If only I had something I really wanted to read.  Hmmm. Maybe I should start nagging Garth to write another “Sir Hereward” story, just so I can read it …

I cadged this one from Commodore Andrew Wheeler over at Antick Musings:

Everyone has things they blog about. Everyone has things they don’t blog about. Challenge me out of my comfort zone by telling me something I don’t blog about, but you’d like to hear about, and I’ll write a post about it. Repost in your own journal if you are so inclined.

Today was not a great day.  We’re three days out from Swancon and I’m coming down with a bug.  Yay.  Also I was at work and found out that an allowance I’ve been receiving comes to an end at the end of the month.  That means a significant drop in pay.  The best outcome for this is that I get my job reclassified or am the successful applicant for another related job in the same area.  This means a drop in family income for at least two months, and possibly for quite some time.  What does this mean? Well, suddenly the entire 2008 calendar is under review. Things we were going to do definitely have been moved to the maybe list.  The maybes are probably gone altogether.  I had planned to take four months of work, starting in July and continuing to early November.  That’s now very much under review.  I’d also planned to go to WorldCon in Denver and World Fantasy in Calgary.  Denver is definite, but Calgary has been moved into the maybe column — something I’m not happy about.

Where to from here? A lot of HR paperwork and keeping my fingers crossed that some book proposals that are out there find a home.   Joy.

I seem to have sent out an awful lot of email over the past week, to which I have received no response at all. Very odd.