It’s a long time till June 2014. That’s when Reach for Infinity, the third volume of what I’ve come to think of as the “Infinity Project” will be published by the totally brilliant team at Solaris Books. It follows on from Engineering Infinity and the Locus Award winning Edge of Infinity, and which I think will be a worthy successor to that book.

Where Edge focussed its attention on an industrialised pre-starflight Solar System, Reach concentrates on that period when we’re trying to get off Earth and into space. Stories aren’t due in until January, so it’ll be a while before I have a table of contents to announce or even a final lineup. I do have a list of people who have agreed to write for the book and some of their names appear on the incredible cover mockup that Solaris just sent me.  While the names are subject to change without notice, the cover design is final and Adam Tredowski‘s cover art is definitely the beez neez.  Hope you all love it as much as I do!

Too many things to think about right now.  It’s only two and a half months till I’m going to London to attend the 2013 World Fantasy Convention. I know the time’s going to fly by between now and then, and one thing I have to do is find an economical hotel solution.

While I’ll be in Brighton from Oct 30 till November 4 staying at the convention hotel, I haven’t settled on where I’ll be staying from Oct 24 (when I arrive) through to Oct 30, when I expect to head down to Brighton. The plan is to travel to Brighton with Ellen Klages and Gary Wolfe, and definitely to see other friends who’ll be in town (Garth, Sean etc), but where to stay? Any recommendations for reasonable London accommodation?

Panels. If you have ever attended a science fiction or fantasy convention you’ll be familiar with them. In an ideal world a panel is a discussion that lasts for 45 minutes to an hour during which a group of informed people circle around a topic of interest nominated by the convention programming committee.

Some panels, of course, are less than ideal. Some run too long; some suffer from lack of organisation or chemistry. Sometimes panellists don’t always gel or interact in an ideal manner. And there are other issues. Who should or should not be on a panel? What are good topics? Should panels have moderators? How long should a panel be? Should the list of panellists be gender-balanced? All of these are interesting and worthy of discussion, but they’re not what I’m interested in here.

Continue reading On “Year in Review” panels and me…. →

I have been listening to a little new music of late, much of it highlighted to me by the ever curious and interesting James Bradley. In addition to getting me reading fascinating books about the Third Golden Age of Television, he pointed out this recording of Ola Gjiello’s choral works to me a few weeks ago. Floating, ethereal and gorgeous, it’s been the perfect start to more than a few stressful days, and has made focussing on work a lot easier. I’m almost sorry I bought this one on iTiunes, as I may need the SACD. Beautiful, and recommended.