Well, this is the scary part.  One or two things to sort out, but this week I’m reading through a stack of paper to see what kind of book the stories I’ve accepted for Eclipse Two actually will make.  They’re a disparate bunch.  I like them all, and I really love a few, but this book is a different beast from its predecessor – a lot more science fiction, less fantasy, less slipstream.  It’s not going to please people who weren’t happy with the first book, but it’s not going to ring the bells of everyone who loved the first one. I think a lot of other people may love it, though  Hmm. Wish me luck.

Up too early.  Marianne was away for the weekend. Spent the time taking the kids here and there, and doing family stuff.  I thought we had a good time. The youngest then assures me, on her mother’s return that the entire weekend was boring.  She even had her mother re-read her a chunk of the book we’d been reading together.  Hey man, now we’re really living.

I read Mr E’s beautiful book, Things the Grandchildren Should Know, over the weekend too.  A wonderful book. It looks like it should have been published by McSweeeney’s, which is probably Dave Eggers’ real influence on the world. It’s smart and scary, but beautiful and filled with sentences that read like the greatest opening lines to novels you’ll never see.  Check it out.

Well, Marianne’s away for the weekend.  I cleaned the fish tank, which was smelly, slimy and cloudy.  The fish all seem fine, but I think the filter isn’t coping.  Took the girls to Sizzler for dinner, which Jess loved.  Came home and I read the girls the opening chapters of Enid Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree, which delighted Sophie at least.

It occurs to me that, both as a way of being a little even handed, and to keep track myself, that Night Shade are not the only publisher not based in New York or Sydney that I love. Pete Crowther’s PS Publishing is a wonder, and Bill Schafer at Subterranean keeps putting out books I want to have. Here’s my currently list of must have SubPress books for the rest of the year. Bill owes me a copy of the Shepard, but the others look great too:

• Black & White, Lewis Shiner
• Subterranean: Tales of Dark Fantasy, Bill Schafer ed.
• The Adventures of Langdon St. Ives, James Blaylock
• Conversational Hearts, John Crowley
• The Chronicles of Master Lu and Number Ten Ox, Barry Hughart
• The Best of Lucius Shepard
• The Best of Michael Swanwick
• Worlds of Weber, David Weber

Just opened the morning email, and there’s a newsletter from Jeremy over at The Shade letting me know about a 50% off sale that they’re having at the moment.  They have some incredibly cool books just out, or just over the horizon, including new novels from Walter!, Greg Egan, Graham Joyce, Harry Turtledove and others, alongside some very cool anthos from John Joseph Adams (the editor to watch at the moment, IMHO) and the VanderMeers (whose pirate book includes a great Garth Nix novelette).  All you’ve got to do is slap in an order by midnight May 25, and you’re away.  Now, I know the skeptics amongst you are saying, it’s all very well for him to recommended the Shade, but he works for them and is a reviews guy, so he scores all of the books for nix.  Not so, my little droogies.  I have handed over the cold, hard just recently for the new Walter! novel and the new Paolo Bacigalupi collection, and wouldn’t hesitate to do so again.  I’m definitely going to get the Joyce novel, and I’m one behind on those Glen Cook omnibuses (I don’t even read ’em, but they look so cool I want them).  Anyhow, this is a great sale. Go forth and order!