Welcome back, dear reader, to the show that never quite ends, but rather trips along in fits and starts. Here at Chez Merton Way, ’tis the day after the Big One which was, for the most part, an enjoyable occasion of appropriate festive cheer. The family assembled. I’d say from near and far, but we are a small number, so it was mostly from quite near and almost right here. Food was cooked, a festive beverage consumed, bad jokes were told, and everyone got at least one present that they seemed inordinately pleased with (I got very nice bottles of both the 16 yr old Lagavulin and the 15 yr old Laphroaig – yum). We’re not the type of crowd that turns on one another at Christmas, so it stayed fun and nice to the end. Perhaps most importantly, as the temperature raced to 41 degrees (about 103 in the old language) the air conditioning persisted.

In truth my favorite part of the Christmas experience is Christmas night. Pleasantly just slightly overfull, kids in bed, happy relatives waved off into the late afternoon, you can sit and watch some bad TV or these days a good dvd, and unwind. Didn’t quite happen this year, mostly because I had a terrible headache, and just didn’t feel like it. Still, when I went to bed last night all was quiet, and the dishes were done. This morning will be the start of the Boxing Day test match against India. Given my druthers, I’d sit quietly and watch it unfold on the new big screen TV, but that’s not the plan. We’re going to take the little ‘uns off to see Enchanted, which should be ok, and then the family is coming back because it’s going to be hotter than yesterday(!).

There’s much I should have blogged about. Seems Nebula nominations are hard to come by at the moment. If you can nominate (I can’t), do. If you can get work into the hands of nominators, do that. Whatever problems the awards have had of late, they have a long and important history and it would be a pity to see the fall on their faces. I do wonder, though, if it might be time for SFWA to consider making them a juried award.

Still, can’t quite get enthusiastic about the reading thing. Everything I’m reading, or have got to read, looks good.  I just want to do something else.  It’ll sort itself out, though. Almost breakfast time.

Tis the night before Christmas and all through the house, nothing is stirring  – well, except for two tired parents who have just finished all of the wrapping and such.  We’re ready, well as ready as we can be for the big day in our mixed Australian / Irish / American / Atheist / Protestant / Jewish / Christmas loving / Christmas conflicted household and waiting.  Santa has done his bit.  Let the games begin!!

Wishing you and yours a very, very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!! Unless it’s not your thing, in which case, I hope all is well with you and yours as we reach the end of another swing around the sun.

I just got the news. I have to email all of the book’s contributors when I get home tonight, but The Starry Rift has been picked up by The Junior Library Guild in the US.  This is terrific news!!  The publisher is delighted, I’m delighted. It’s great.  And it follows on from last week’s announcement about The New Space Opera selling into France.  Good times, indeed.

I’d love to tell you that I’ve been too busy to post, but I’ve mostly been distracted and apathetic, which doesn’t sound good. I got a lot done before I went to Saratoga Springs for World Fantasy, had a great trip, came back, and really didn’t much want to think overly about things science fictional. Looking back over the post-WFC stuff here, you can see that I keep saying I’m going to focus on things. I just…haven’t.

So, what have I been doing? Well, I’ve pretty much finished re-watching The West Wing, which has been great. I’m at the end of Season 6, and probably ready to move on. There are a few DVDs, including the new version of Blade Runner, about to hit the shops, so I might watch something else over the Christmas break. I’ve also been reading, though not what I should. I read the opening story in an anthology which shall not be named (so don’t even ask), and it stopped me dead in the book. Rather than fight it, I went off and bought some new books.

On CHARLES Brown’s recommendation, I’m reading K.J. Parker’s Devices and Desires, the first book in the ‘Engineer’ trilogy. I rather wish I’d waited to buy the spiffy US edition, but am hooked nonetheless. I’ll definitely be hitting the bookstores shortly to buy volumes two and three. I also picked up Iain Banks book about scotch, Raw Spirit, which is both a hoot and a great read about Scotland. It got me all fired up about single malt scotches again (as did a meeting up with Russell Farr for coffee last weekend, where we actually got to sit down and chat for a while). All of a sudden I was checking out Laphroaigs, Lagavulins, Ardbegs, Oband and even Caol Ilas. There’s some magic out there, if it suits your palate, as it does mine.

And then, to prove that book-wise it’s definitely an Orbit kind of month, Marianne finished her latest Charlaine Harris book and moved on to the next Jim Butcher ‘Harry Dresden‘ novel (I love the Orbit UK packaging on these), and the advanced reader copy of Iain M. Banks’ next Culture novel, Matter, arrived from Nicola Pitt and the good folks at Orbit here in Australia. A great Christmas present, and definitely what I’m going to be reading over the next few days.

What else? Well, following the news, I’m guessing we can expect Peter Jackson’s adaptation of The Hobbit after all. He’s set to produce, New Line will fund and distribute. No mention yet of who will direct, but what’s the bet?

Oh,and just a plug. With the exception of galleys, all of the books mentioned as being bought recently all were purchased at Mt Lawley’s Planet Books, which  gets my vote as easily the best bookstore in Perth, and very easily the best source of new science fiction and fantasy in the State.

Ian McDonald has quietly announced that the good folks over at Gollancz will publish a collection of his ‘River of Gods’ stories, tentatively titled Cyberabad Days, in late 2008.  This is incredibly cool for a bunch of reasons.  First, Ian is one of the best short story writers working in the field today, and his ‘Cyberabad’ stories are some of his best and most important work. Second, it will reprint “The Dust Assassin”, his story from The Starry Rift which is simply eye-peelingly good.  And it will include a new novella, “Vishnu at the Cat Circus”. This will be one of the major collections of the year, and is a book I’m seriously looking forward to. I can’t wait for it!