The Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists have announced the nominees for the 2009 Chesley Awards.  I am delighted to see Shaun Tan up for Best Artistic Achievement and for  Best Interior Illustration for Tales from Outer Suburbia. I was also thrilled to see two of my pals, co-editor Lou Anders and publisher/co-editor Bill Shafer up for Best Art Director.  Incredibly well-deserved.  Congratulations to all of the nominees of course, but extra good luck to these three.

The first book review I wrote, back in 1985, was of Terry Pratchett’s The Color of Magic. It ran in a bookstore newsletter and was signed pseudonymously as by  ‘Mycroft XXX’.  As everyone knew (and knows), Mycroft (or Mike) is the name of the computer in Robert A. Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.  It was first published in 1966, and went on to win the Hugo Award for Best Novel the following year.

To say that Moon was one of my favorite novels of all time is almost an understatement. I first read it some time in the early 70s. I had a battered old New English Library edition with a fairly dull cover which I read and re-read, revisiting the adventures of Manual Garcia O’Kelly Davis, the one-armed computer tech who finds that a computer has become self-aware and gets caught up in a rebellion on the moon in 2075.

You can read all about the book on Wikipedia, but I loved Mannie, Mike, Wyoh, and the Baker St Irregulars.  Of course, like many of us, I’ve hit that age where I don’t read the old books anymore. You can’t trust that old memories hold true, and there’s always the fear that you can destroy and old love simply be revisiting it.  For that reason, I was interested to see that Charles Brown of Locus has just re-read the book, and still loves it.  He’s right to say that Heinlein’s reputation has waned over the twenty years since his death, and issues like his depiction of women, his politics and so on are real ones. But, maybe, I might go back. I’m certainly tempted to visit old friends again.

Were you sending me a story for Eclipse Three? That thing that just went whooshing by was the deadline! Of course there’s still a little time – don’t despair – but if you’re planning on it, let me know that something’s on the way. This new book is going to be a good one, though very different (to me at least) from Two.

I’ve been very tardy mentioning this, but the gang at Night Shade are having a sale. All of the details are here. Basically, if you order by this Sunday you can get 50% every time you order 4 or more books. This includes all of their ‘in print’ titles (like Eclipse One, Eclipse Two, and the Year’s Bests), and all of their announced upcoming titles (including Eclipse Three, Wings of Fire, and The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year:  Vol. 4).  For all sorts of good reasons, I’m reluctant to play favorites with small presses, but I have a lot of respect and affection for The Shade. If any of their books appeal to you – and how could they not? – now’s a great time to get your order in.

The year is rushing by and, as always, I’m failing to take stock as often I should of all of the great things that are happening. With June almost over, we’re half way through 2009 and I’m about to have three books come out in a rush.

Each is different, and I’m very proud of them for similarly diverse reasons. First up is The New Space Opera 2. As regular readers know, it’s the second in The New Space Opera series of anthologies that I am co-editing with Gardner Dozois. This volume is different from the first – lighter and more adventurous and perhaps even pulpy. There are great stories from many cool people, and you should check it out.

Next up is Wild Thyme, Green Magic. This is the third of the four books of Jack Vance’s work that I’m co-editing with Terry Dowling. This one collects, at its simplest, the rest of Vance’s best short fiction (think of it as the Treasury Vol. 2). Lovely cover, and just out from Subterranean.

And finally, the year’s best. It seems like a year ago that I finished this one (I delivered it in October, I think). Beautiful cover (thank you Jeremy and Fred!) and some wonderful, wonderful stories. It was a good year and I think you can see that in this book. I’m very happy to have signed up to do the next two volumes in the series and am slowly getting down reading for the next one.

Where to next? Well, this is just the first half of the year, however wonderful. Godlike Machines IS coming, as is my special issue of Subterranean and Eclipse Three, all before the end of the year. Not sure what else. Busy, busy.