I am panicking now. Please don’t be concerned. This is normal for this phase of the process. We are eight weeks from delivery, so (1) I believe that I’ll never get everything read, and (2) my ability to recognise a good story has completely deserted me. Both of these are true, of course, but I’ve developed strategies to cope. Please free to ignore any irrational burblings here on the blog between now and October 24. Anything after October 24 will be genuine panic, and can be treated with judicious applications of single malt scotch.

Well, reading for The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Vol 2 stops on 1 October.  That gives me 28 days to nail the contents for the book. I’m very, very happy with the fantasy that I’ve read, and I’ve even read some great horror, but I’m reading SF eagerly looking for great stories to round out that part of the book. If you have any suggestions, drop me an email. I know it’ll come together, and overall I think it’s been an excellent year, but this is where I need to focus. Of course, it’s crazy time at the zoo here, with more things going on that you can shake a stick it, but that’s how it goes. I’m mostly trying not to think about it.  Basically, the work schedule from here is read for three weeks (except for the mildly terrifying notion of a pile of proofreading dropping through the front door), go to Conflux, come back and assemble the final manuscript for the book. That gives me from October 2 to October 21 to write the story notes and main intro, before I get on the plane for the US. If I can do that, I can read over the interstitial stuff in San Francisco, and leave it with the Night Shade guys when I head for Manhattan. The key here is that there’s no wiggle room. The book must be finished by the day after World Fantasy. No wiggle room at all. Yay. I’m feeling very relaxed .

The Hugo results are online at Making Light. Enormous congratulations to all of the winners, but especially to CHARLES and my colleagues at Locus who well deserved their award, to my Locus colleague Tim Pratt for his first Hugo win, to Ian McDonald (who wrote an even better story for my book The Starry Rift!), and to Gordon van Gelder and Patrick Nielsen Hayden, two enormously fine editors. A terrific set of results.

Publisher’s Weekly reports that CHARLES N. Brown has been presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Writers of the Future weekend. I literally could not be happier.  I can’t imagine anyone who deserves such an award more than CHARLES, and am delighted that someone else agrees with me. He’s been a vital part of science fiction and fantasy for more than 40 years, and we’re very lucky to have him working our field. He also makes a great turkey stuffing, has fantastic taste in scotch, knows some awful jokes, and is exactly the kind of friend you want when things get tough.  Mazel tov!

Eclipse continues its race towards publication. The Night Shade posse have just given me permission to give you a peek at the cover of Eclipse 1. There may be a tweak or two, but essentially this is it. Nice, huh? I am very happy.