Sitting in the front room on a cool, cloudy July afternoon listening to Jackson Browne’s Late for the Sky – my album love affair of the moment, I think, though I am somewhat taken by that Richard & Linda Thompson cd I got the other day – and thumbing through the latest issue of The Word which arrived in the mail today. Apart from what is either arthritis or RSI in my left thumb, and an aching suspicion that I’m ignoring something on my ‘to do’ list, all seems reasonably well with the world.

I’m reading, which is cool. Jeff VanderMeer’s The Third Bear arrived from bookdepository.co.uk yesterday and has an original story in it, so there’s some extra reading coming. I actually loved the title story and am happy to see his story from Eidolon 1 reprinted, so I’m looking forward to this one. I’m also in the early pages of Hannu Rajaniemi’s The Quantum Thief which I’m quite excited about. Of course, I just heard that ARCs are out in the world (somewhere, not here) for Terry Pratchett’s I Shall Wear Midnight so I’m seriously jonesing about that.

Other than that, I’m toying with ideas for anthologies (nothing concrete yet – all I can see are the ideas that won’t work), avoiding writing reviews, playing with podcasts and keeping busy.  WorldCon is coming up like a freight train.  For the first time in several years I don’t think it looks like I’ll be on programming, though I did volunteer. I’m actually reasonably cool with that – having the family at the convention will keep me pretty busy, so it might be a good thing. I also feel like I’m coming down to the pointy end of having to make a decision about World Fantasy.  It’s not until October, but I should talk to Liza and see what she thinks about it. I’m still torn. Too far to go this year? Maybe.