I’ve been pondering this blog in the odd quiet moment, this past few weeks.  I arrived home from Oakland last Thursday.  Marianne headed off to Staten Island that Sunday, and I’ve been taking care of the family stuff since.  Hence, the occasional lack of timely responses from my corner of late.  Anyhow, I was thinking that the blog has very few readers.  This is entirely fair.  I don’t post here much, and when I do, it’s not of the greatest import, so other things make for better reading (like everything else in life, you get out of a blog what you put into it).  I’m not interested in generating faux controversry, as some of the younger bloggers seem to like to, and I don’t really want to gossip or air the details of my business.  So,  I’m continuing to ponder.   Having few readers is a kind of freedom, though. If I get interesting, then I’d have to keep being interesting.  Who needs the pressure…

And how are things here?  I just abandoned C.J. Cherryh’s Cyteen sequel, Regenesis.  I’d read about 250 pages of its closely detailed interpersonal relationships and couldn’t find the desire to continue.  I’d taken a break to read Ken Scholes’ second novel, Canticle, which I really enjoyed (you need to read this guy – buy his collection and snap up his first novel when it hits the stores early next year), and was more interested in reading the new Dan Simmons, which had just fallen through the door. I might come back to it.

On the work front, Eclipse Two should be on the shelves very soon. I’ve seen reviews from Locus and The Fix, all of which were gratifyingly positive, but none of which I agreed with completely.  I’ve just finished The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume 3 and most of my work on The New Space Opera 2 for the moment. I’m currently reading a terrific John Kessel space opera and a story from Conquering Swords.  I’m also negotiating a couple other books, so busy.

The first reviews are coming out.  Here’s one from The Fix.

Well, Marianne left Sunday morning early.  I think I’m still being hit over the head by jetlag, but the day went smoothly.  Swimming in the morning, playing with friends in the afternoon, Sizzler for dinner. An easy day. Today, Monday, was all about school. I’d got clothes and lunches done the night before, so the morning was easy.  Everyone up and dressed, breakfast done, and time for a bit of The Little Mermaid before off to school in time for Sophie’s early tutoring.  The day for me was a mix of talking some stuff over with my mother, who was over to help with the cleaning, while I tucked into the work.  Locus editing done for this month — tick.  Tomorrow, year’s best intro and story notes.   If I can get that done on schedule, I can draft the NSO 2 intro on Wednesday and complete the years best ms. by Thursday.  That’ll give me Friday, nominally, off.  It’s a nice thought :)

PS: The deadline for the year’s best and the NSO 2 manuscripts is 1 December, but I’m desperate to get  the year’s best done ASAP.  Much else to do, and NSO2 might be trickier than I think.  Still need a running order on that, and a couple late stories.

Many thanks to everyone for the great time I had in Canada and California.  I’m tired, jetlagged, and probably have picked up some kind of bug from the trip, but I hope to be up and running by Monday.  Email responses will exist, but will be slow over the next day or so. Marianne’s off to the US Sunday, and it’s going to take me a day or two to find my feet.  However, I will be in touch.

It’s 5.15pm Tuesday 4 November.  Three hundred million or so United States citizens are voting or not voting or whatever their conscience determines (incidentally fundamentally affecting the short term future of much of the Western world).  I know a bunch of people who’re voting for Barack “Bazza” Obama and one who’s voting for John “Emperor Palpatine” McCain.  I think it should go Obama’s way, but who knows?  I hope so.

Truthfully, though, as I sit here in the Mission Bar & Grill in the San Francisco International Airport’s domestic terminal I’m mostly concerned with whether I can score an aisle seat with an empty seat beside it.  I have an hour and a half long flight down to LAX, have to switch terminals, then get through security and see if I can change my seat allocation, before getting on the 14 hour plus trip to Sydney. Then two hours in Sydney (again with the changing terminals), and on to Perth.  I’m basically 26 hrs from home, and I can imagine every minute.  All I ask is that it’s moderately comfortable.