Last October I said on Jeff VanderMeer’s blog that I’d be holding an open reading period for Eclipse Two and Three in February or March of this year.  Jeff has quite rightly called me on this a couple times, and I’m definitely not going to let that commitment slip. I’d preferred to have made the announcement earlier, but I’m going to read for Eclipse Two through February, and will accept stories via email.  The announcement is above, and I’d encourage everyone to forward it to anyone whom they think might be interested.  I’ll also get it to Locus, and try to get it to the relevant market news places.  I hope anyone interested, including Jeff, will send stories.

Taking into account the lateness of the announcement, I will also consider stories for Eclipse Three, though  that mostly will be if I receive too many outstanding submissions. It’s my preference, on reflection, to have a separate E3 reading period next year.

Have been for about a week, and it’s been slowly getting worse every day.  I’m kinda hot, fluey, with a cough. Yech.  I’m also tired, because I was woken at 4am, and am taking the girls out this morning because Marianne has an Australia Day performance. I would like to crash, die, and maybe watch cricket. Instead, we’ll be out till round 1.30pm with commitments.  Ah for a second car.

We all get lost in a tangle from time to time, or so it seems to me.  Somewhere or other I got caught, addicted to following the ‘new’ in all the stuff that I consume. Which movie or book or song was the next best thing.  There’s nothing wrong with this, except you end up with a house full of review copies of books that you can’t quite persuade yourself to get rid of, a shelf full of cds that got 5 stars in some magazine that you never listen to, and can’t really remember the last movie you really loved.  You can end up feeling, as I do sometimes, quite lost in amongst the clustering, cluttering piles of stuff.

And yet…some of the old stuff still resonates, and some of the new has promise.  I listened to Madman Across the Water this morning and it doesn’t age, and I watched Raiders of the Lost Ark a few weeks ago, and it still delights.  And there is new stuff, too. Last year I found The Weepies, whose album say i am you, was my favourite new recording of 2007 and am waiting for the next eagerly. And though I almost never get to the movies these days, Hairspray was a surprising lot of fun. And books? Well, I have favourites from last year, and am part way through Iain Banks’ Matter.  It might stack up.

…since I posted, which at this time of year is kinda weird.  Very mixed couple days.  Had two major writers drop out of a book project, and one possibly drop out of another.  This is a thing that happens, and I cast no aspersions at the writers in question, but it really does focus one on what’s happening.  What else? We watched Stardust last night. It was good, but I couldn’t help feeling that it wasn’t tight enough and that Robert DeNiro’s character just didn’t quite fit. The girls will love it in about four years, though.  Been chased by some weird bug or illness or condition or thing all week. Felt blech, and haven’t read much.  Got to see one story that I liked very much (not for a project, just let see it), and browsed through some magazines.

What else? Oh, having lost track of it somehow, I found myself with no time to do my year in review essay. This is because I was dumb as a post and forgot to do it.  Turned it around in a day and a half, and moved on.  Now it’s all 2008, I guess.  Busy, busy. There has been some big news here at home, but I feel like it doesn’t quite fit here. Not sure why, but suffice to say in amongst feeling moderately horrible, one good thing was happening. We bought more fish today, and a snail (!). Whoever thought we’d end up buying a snail? Life if weird.  The tank – The Hacienda – is now full. I shan’t relate all the names here, but Orangey (formerly Courtney) and Goldy are now one of a handfull. They seem busy in there.

And here’s a picture!