Last Saturday I’d decided I wasn’t going to go to the Denver WorldCon. This was not a decision which seems to have taken well. On Sunday I was talking to CHARLES, and made a just-in-case room reservation because all of the hotels for WorldCon are filling up.  On Tuesday I decided I’d go.  There are lots of reasons, but it became a very good idea all of a sudden.  This morning I booked and paid for my flights, in what seems to me to be unprecedentedly short period of time.  Maybe it was last year’s experience of booking without a travel agent, but I’m done.  I fly into Denver with the Locus crew just after lunch time on Tuesday 5 August and fly out just around dinner time on Monda 11 August.  All I need to do now is buy my membership, and I’m done (though I wouldn’t mind switching my room res. for one in the main hotel).  I’m actually a little shell-shocked.  If you’re going to be in Denver for the big crazy fest, drop me a line and we can try to get together.  I’m eager to see as many people as possible.

Tired.  I was just thinking about what kind of metrics I’d post on this blog, if I were a metrics-posting type: stories read, words edited, books completed? I dunno.

This week is turning into a good news week, mostly stuff that I’m not getting round to telling you about. Monday I came home to a finished copy of The Starry Rift. It feels like I have been working on this project forever.  My memory is notoriously crap, but I’m pretty sure that it was at Noreascon in September of 2004 when I met up with Sharyn November to sign the contracts and toast our newest venture.  That means we probably were discussing the book in February of 2004 – four years from proposal to book. God!  Well, it’s here and it’s beautiful. Viking have done a lovely job with it, and it will be headed out into the world over the next month or so. Reviews are starting to trickle in: they’re mostly very positive, which is lovely, but you keep waiting for them to kick your baby.  A review comes along, and you’re smiling and wincing at the same time.  Well, whatever happens out there, I’m proud of the book and feel like I’ve done all that I can on it.

That, of course, means that it’s time for Sharyn and I to discuss our next venture.  I’ve got a proposal for a book with her now, and I’m betting if we can get things worked out we could have it in shops in 2010. That’d be cutting two years off the process, which would be swell .

The other news is that my travel plans for the year are becoming clearer.  After lengthy discussions here at the home office, I’m going to be headed to Denver for WorldCon after all.  While World Fantasy will always be my first love, and while I will be in Calgary, I’ve persuaded the family to do without me for the ten days that it’ll take to make the journey to Oakland then Denver, and home. It should be a lot of fun.  I’m hoping to catch up with everyone, though I may miss a few people. If you’re going to be there, let me know and maybe we’ll get to catch up.

I’ve read some books lately, listened to music, watched a few things, and basically been busy, so more soon…

This is the book that I mentioned reading a couple posts back. I don’t want to spoil anything, but it’d be interesting if someone were to post the story “The Witch’s Headstone” online so you could get a taste for it. Or, you could read it in Jack and Gardner’s Wizards or my own year’s best, which is just out.  I like the book a lot, and can’t wait to see McKean’s illustrations.

I know I haven’t handled an open submission reading period for some time, but this surprised me. Turns out there are a lot of people out there who are confused by writer’s guidelines. Seems terms like ‘deadline’ and ‘word limit’ just throw them into a tizzy.

As you all know, the ‘deadline’ for Eclipse Two and Three was midnight on 29 February, 2008. What this means is that I wouldn’t look at anything sent to me after that date and time. Now, some folk were reasonably and legitimately thrown by the fact that I live in Australia and that, as a result, the deadline was Australian time. I understand that, and this is not directed at them. But a whole bunch, over forty people, sent stories in up to a week after that, or sent queries asking if I’d make an exception for them because they were, for some reason, special. This just took me aback. I’m all up with the specialness thing, but when you’ve sent back stories unopened by 40-odd people you can’t make exceptions – it’s not fair. And it’s not professional to ask. Similarly, if the upper limit for a book is 10,000 words, then don’t send in 15,000 word stories and be surprised when they’re bounced unread. It’s just not okay.

Now, you might say, how are new writers to know this, and what can they do about it? Well, first thing: read the guidelines and assume, just for a minute, that the editor or publisher means them. Generally there’s a good reason for the guidelines. Sometimes not, but it’s not your call. In the case of Eclipse, I capped the word limit at 10k because the publisher wants me to keep the book at about 100,000 words, and I want at least a dozen stories in there, so that means long stories eating up a big chunk of the book are, for the most part, out. It’s possible I might make an exception for a solicited story, but even that’s unlikely. Second, the deadline. The deadline is there because it runs on into other things. I have to deliver Eclipse Two in the first week of June. If I don’t, the publisher will, rightly, smack me hard. But I need time to read the 450 unsolicited submissions, write all of the letters that go with them, and then edit the stories. I also need to time to read the solicited submissions and deal with them, all before writing the volume intro and the story notes and assembling the manuscript. This stuff takes time. I also happen to have other book projects, a day job, and a young family. Hence deadlines.

So, what if you have to, have to, have to be late or long or something else? Well, try asking long before the deadline hits and you might get lucky. I opened Eclipse on 1 February, and announced it a few days before that. I might have discussed deadline and length then, but not after the deadline.

I meant to mention: the sun’s almost gone and the cricket is down to the wire.  A courier arrived just before dinner. Copies of The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume 2. It looks swell, indeed, with a lovely John Berkey cover.  These will be a Swancon in a couple weeks.  Many, many thanks to Jer for arranging to get it delivered. A very fine thing indeed.