Welcome to Tuesday.  No notes from Monday, mostly because it was a day at work, and not much more. I woke at 2.30am and couldn’t get back to sleep, so the whole day was less than completely functional. I did, however, get the best piece of mail EVER when the wonderful folk at HarperUS (thank you Kim!) sent me an ARC of Terry Pratchett’s I Shall Wear Midnight. This makes me happier than I can possibly explain, so I won’t attempt to other than to say I’m very happy indeed.

The weekend itself was a mixed bag, to be honest. I was to meet a friend who does some work for The West Australian newspaper so he could interview me about the Hugos, but we missed one another and had to reschedule.   When we did meet up it was fun, though the day was a bit thrown off-balance by it all. We then watched Nanny McPhee: The Big Bang for family movie night, which went down well.  Sunday was very quiet. Both girls have bugs of some kind, so we kept things low key, heading out to see Toy Story 3 in the afternoon (which was loved, in different ways, by one and all).

I did spent a lot of time talking to Gary over the weekend, too. We chatted in a non-podcasty way on Saturday, the recorded podcast #11 on Sunday.  I’ve been really enjoying doing these and appreciate all of the kind comments we’ve been receiving. It’s an interesting experience. A friend, Tansy, made a very perceptive comment about the podcast that I’m grateful for – she pointed out the importance of Charles to the podcast and how it’s like this part of Gary and my grieving process, as we try to figure out SF in a post-Charles world.  I think she’s right.  Hopefully it’s not always on the surface of the podcast, but it’s there.  Interesting…

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.

Look what showed up when I got home today. Yes, the advance reader’s copies of Life on Mars! I’m delighted with them. Many, many thanks to the fabulous Sharyn November, and to Stephan again for that cover!

I’m delighted to hear that Karen Joy Fowler’s wonderful story “The Pelican Bar” has won the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Short Story. It was one of the highlights of Eclipse Three, and a real joy to publish.

Other winners included Victor LaValle, Nick Antosca, Stephen King, Robert Shearman, Kevin Wilson, and Ellen Datlow. Sincere congratulations to them all.