The Leiber collection that Charles Brown and I co-edited just got a PW star:

Fritz Leiber: Selected Stories Edited by Charles N. Brown and Jonathan Strahan. Night Shade (Diamond, dist.), $24.95 (364p) ISBN 978-1-59780-180-5

The versatility of SFWA Grand Master Leiber (1910–1992) is ably demonstrated by these 17 superb stories, each of which has “wonder blazing at its core.” “Smoke Ghost” places a classic ghost story in a modern urban setting, while the dread in “Coming Attraction” reflects the uneasiness of the cold war. The powerful “Gonna Roll the Bones” explores man’s compulsion toward self-destruction, while a different archetype is revealed in “The Girl with the Hungry Eyes,” which reveals the vampiric seduction of modern consumerism. There are three tales of adventurous rogues Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, including the Nebula Award–winning “Ill Met in Lankhmar,” in which youthful derring-do leads to heart-wrenching tragedy. Longtime fans and new readers alike will treasure this accessible and wide-ranging collection. (June)

I worked it out a little while ago. I started working for Locus in 1997, took a short break, and then resumed in 1999.  I became Reviews Editor in 2002. In 2004 I started editing freelance in earnest, and have so far completed thirty-nine books and am working on eight more.  All of this while holding down a full-time day job with a State government department and helping raise two daughters, one born in 2000 and the other born in 2001.

We took the girls to the US to visit relatives in 2002 and again in 2006, and spent a week with visiting inlaws in Dunsborough about two years ago. But other than that, we’ve not taken a simple, no hassles holidays since the girls were born, and I’ve not had a break without some kind of editorial work to do since 1999. Eleven years. That’s too long.

So, for the next week I’ll be gone, incommunicado, offline and unavailable. I’m not taking the laptop with me, and I don’t plan to check email. If you need anything to do with my editing please contact either my agent, Howard Morhaim, or the people at Locus .  I’ll be back in a while, refreshed and ready to go, but for just a little while I’m kicking back and taking it easy. See you soon!

Note: This doesn’t mean the house will be unattended. We have a housesitter and my mother will be here all the time overseeing maintenance etc.

The good folk at Aussiecon 4 have released the final 2010 Hugo Awards nominations.  It’s a terrific ballot – full of well deserved nominations and wonderful surprises – and I am just thrilled to be nominated for Best Editor, Short Form.  My sincere thanks to everyone who nominated me – it’s humbling. I’m joined again in the category by the formidable Ellen Datlow, Gordon Van Gelder, Sheila Williams, and Stanley Schmidt.  I genuinely am honored to be in their company. I’m also delighted beyond words that Peter Watt’s novellette “The Island” from The New Space Opera 2 and Nicola Griffiths’ novelette “It Takes Two” from Eclipse Three are nominated.

I am also over the moon that Tony C Smith’s Starship Sofa is up for Best Fanzine. I love the podcast and dug myself out of bed at 4.30am this morning to appear on their Hugo Special. Go check it out. We had enormous fun and Tony is a very deserving nominee (the first ever podcast!).  Oh, and congratulations to Fred Pohl and Jack Vance for making the ballot again! It’s really exciting. So much fine work, so many wonderful nominees, and so many friends involved (apologies to any I didn’t mention, but congratulations!!!)

As promised, here’s the table of contents for Wings of Fire, the mammoth reprint anthology of dragon stories that Marianne and I delivered to Night Shade Books recently. There’s a lot of feverish work going on in the background so this book can make it’s late-April print date and June pub date, but we’re very happy with the final book. You can pre-order it now, should you be so-inclined. [Please note: the cover at right is not final.  The image is – and it’s awesome – but author names and editor credits etc need to be updated.]

Wings of Fire
Jonathan Strahan and Marianne S. Jablon eds.

Introduction, Jonathan Strahan and Marianne S. Jablon

1. Stable of Dragons [poem], Peter S. Beagle
2. The Rule of Names, Ursula Le Guin
3. The Ice Dragon, George RR Martin
4. Sobek [original to the book], Holly Black
5. King Dragon, Michael Swanwick
6. The Laily Worm, Nina Kiriki Hoffman
7. The Harrowing of the Dragon of Hoarsbreath , Patricia A McKillip
8. The Bully and the Beast, Orson Scott Card
9. Concerto Accademico, Barry Malzberg
10. The Dragon’s Boy, Jane Yolen
11. The Miracle Aquilina [original to the book], Margo Lanagan
12. Orm the Beautiful, Elizabeth Bear
13. Weyr Search, Anne McCaffrey
14. Paper Dragons, James P Blaylock
15. Dragon’s Gate, Pat Murphy
16. In Autumn, A White Dragon Looks Over The Wide River, Naomi Novik
17. St Dragon and the George, Gordon R. Dickson
18. The Silver Dragon, Elizabeth A. Lynn
19. The Dragons of Summer Gulch, Robert Reed
20. Berlin, Charles de Lint
21. Draco, Draco, Tanith Lee
22. The Dragon on the Bookshelf, Harlan Ellison & Robert Silverberg
23. Gwydion and the Dragon, C.J. Cherryh
24. The George Business, Roger Zelazny
25. Dragon’s Fin Soup, S.P Somtow
26. The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule, Lucius Shepard