Last night I finished reading Amelia Beamer‘s The Loving Dead and I really enjoyed it.  It’s a romantic comedy (sort of) featuring zombies, zeppelins, and employees from a popular U.S. retail chain. There are all sorts of reasons I liked it so much. Some are probably unique to me, but some aren’t. The book is funny, sexy and a bit off-putting at times (there are flesh-eating zombies here, after all). It’s also, for me, a real trip down memory lane. Part of the story is set in a friend’s house where  I used to spend a lot of time and part of it in an area of Oakland where I lived for a year. It’s also told in Amelia’s voice. I can hear her reading this out loud, telling the jokes that her lead character tells, and being brave and kick-ass in pretty much the same way.  Those personal things only add, though, to what is a very good first novel.  Even if you’ve never been in the Oakland hills, wandered through Piedmont, or worked in a retail outlet, The Loving Dead has a lot to offer you.  Highly recommended. (You can read the book online for free now at ameliabeamer.com, but you’re going to want to own your own copy – trust me.)

The full table of contents for my special Guest-edited issue of Subterrean magazine is now online. I was approached to do this some time ago and had a real ball doing it. It drifted a lot from the initial concept, which was very hard SF, but I think in the end it works really well. I have favorites, of course, but I’m not saying which ones are which.  Every story has its strengths. I will point out that Peter Beagle’s fabulous ‘Inkeeper’ novella “Return” will also be published as a stand-alone book late this year, while the whole issue will remain online for you to enjoy. So, check it out!

• Fiction: The Naturalist by Maureen McHugh
• Fiction: Under the Moons of Venus by Damien Broderick
• Fiction: Brownian Emotion by Tom Holt
• Fiction: Elegy for a Young Elk by Hannu Rajaniemi
• Fiction: Return: An Innkeeper’s World Story by Peter S. Beagle
• Fiction: The Bodhisattvas by Gord Sellar
• Fiction: What We Take When We Take What We Need by Daryl Gregory

Oh, and many thanks to Shaun Tan for letting us use his gorgeous cover art from the Australian edition of Margo Lanagan’s Tender Morsels. It’s a wonderful image and suits the issue well.

Goddamn.  Up far too early for a public holiday Monday. It’s just after 6am and really I could do with another hour or two’s sleep. Still, circumstance has me up and awake, and so be it. With yesterday’s podcast safely recorded (it’s been reasonably mentioned I should annotate them which I guess I will, though it means working out some reasonable way to do so without listening to a whole hour’s worth of podcast), today will be all about Engineering Infinity and reading. Things are definitely moving towards a conclusion on the book, so now’s the time.

It is on my list of things to do to call a couple of my editing colleagues to discuss projects. Jack and I have wound up Legends to our great mutual satisfaction, so we need to see what might be next. Lou and I have been kicking an idea around too. Much too early to say more about that, though I think it has promise, and Gardner and I still need to come to a conclusion on something.  In amongst those all, there’s another project or two around.  None of these, of course, are really at the solid proposal stage so work, work, work is needed.

How does this overlap with the books I’m actually doing? Well, as I say Engineering Infinity is almost done. Copyedits for Godlike Machines should be through soon, and also last page passes on Life on Mars. From there I move on to working on the cyberpunk book with Marianne, the year’s best, Eclipse Four, and The Best of Joe Haldeman.  I also need to do the first round of follow-ups on Under My Hat. I know that sounds like enough to be getting on with, but by April of next year (not that far away) all of these books will be delivered and moving in to various states of production, so we’ll see.

I did notice, when reading Fred Pohl’s blog, that Gateways is due out next month. This is a tribute volume where various writers influenced by Pohl contribute new stories. I admit to being vaguely aware of this book coming together – just as there are a couple others out there happening at the moment – but for some reason this one really crept up on me. An SF anthology with new original stories by Vinge, Bear, Benford, Doctorow, Gaiman, Niven, Wolfe and others?!?  How did I let this slip past? It’s out in July and I’ve seen no galleys, heard no whispers. It has every chance of being THE SF antho of the year. I need this.

While emails have gone off to New York about Gateways, I continue apace through the early stages of The Dervish House.  Gary and I discussed it briefly yesterday. McDonald can write like an angel when he wants to.  Someone should do a new collection of his.  I mean, really. Anyway, on to morning emails and so on…