Pondering, again…

So, I’m trying to work out where I’m at, two years into the 2010s. Back in 2002 I was a parent of two very young children, three years married, was a new homeowner, working a day job that I enjoyed and tinkering around with working at Locus. Ten years later I have two near teenage daughters, am thirteen years married, am living in the same house which now needs maintenance, have been acting in a job for 18 months that I don’t enjoy but feel I can’t escape, have been reviews editor at Locus for a decade, have edited over 50 books in one capacity or another, have been podcasting for two years, and am pretty tired out and stressed.

I’ve touched on this before, but I’m not really listening to much new music, not getting to do things I enjoy, and am even struggling to focus on reading because of my commitments.  I know I need to change, but I can’t work out how I want to/need to restructure what I do to make things work out.

Episode 106: Live with Gary K. Wolfe & Kij Johnson!

With the Locus Awards weekend in full swing in Seattle, Kij Johnson joined Gary in the official Coode St Suite and Jonathan in his office at home via the magic of Skype to discuss her amazing new Small Beer short story collection, At the Mouth of the River of Bees, transgressive fiction, gender, life and other stuff.

The conversation was intriguing and engaging, and one we intend to revisit in coming weeks. A small warning: the Gods of Skype were not on our side and there are some audio difficulties with the recording, though things do improve. Our apologies for the problems, but we feel the conversation was interesting enough to justify releasing as is.

As always, we hope you enjoy the podcast!

Episode 105: Live with Gary K. Wolfe!

Episode 105, in which Jonathan joins Gary in achieving ConventionFail by failing to record a single podcast at Continuum 8 (the Australian National Science Fiction Convention), but instead gets to discuss the convention, the Writer & the Critic podcast, the Tiptree awards and Jonathan possibly having said too much elsewhere, and the recent death of Ray Bradbury.  All in all, an episode we hope you enjoy. We will be back this weekend with #106, where we hope to have Kij Johnson join us as a guest.

Busy, busy

Wednesday morning was all about being up and out. I had breakfast then met Cindy for coffee and a catchup, before strolling into the city. We ended up at the Art Gallery walking through the rather lovely Fred Williams exhibit. An hour or so later, dim sum in Chinatown before another stroll through the city and up Swanston Street for a quick visit to Readings and more coffee. After more chat we parted ways and I ended up having a short rest and an early dinner before heading out to record The Writer and the Critic. Kirstyn and Mondy were buckets of fun, and I hope the podcast turned out ok. It ended up being a late night, but a terrific one. This morning was breakfast with Justin, and now shopping. The convention’s around the corner and I think I might need a rest already!