The ballot and survey for the 36th Annual Locus Awards is now online. It covers works that first appeared in 2005. You can vote for up to five works in any category, and are not restricted to works contained in the drop-down lists on the ballot (which correspond to the Recommended Reading List). For what it’s worth, I think voting really is worth your time. When CHARLES first set up the awards, his intention was to positively affect the Hugo awards. After 36 years, the Locus Award has become an important award in its own right.

Well, this is definitely weird. I have just confirmed news that I received yesterday. I’ve just had my first book of 2006 published – I just didn’t know it. The anthology Best Short Novels: 2004, which was published by Andy and the gang at the SFBC, has just been reprinted by iBooks under the title Modern Greats of Science Fiction: Nine Novellas of Distinction. I’ve not seen it, have no idea what it looks like, and need to chase up contributors’ copies and such, but I’m happy to see it get a trade release. I always hoped this series would do really well for the SFBC and then sell on to a reprint market.

Well, today is a big day at our house. Jessica starts at her new school, Noranda Primary School, this afternoon, while Sophie starts there tomorrow. Jessica is doing the final year of pre-primary, while Sophie is starting kindergarten. What makes this such a big deal is that, not only is it the start of a new school year, it is Jessica’s first day in a mainstream school. Up till now she’s been outside the mainstream, so…fingers crossed it all goes well. A big day.

I’ve just received the following from Robert N. Stephenson of Altair Books. It definitely looks like a worthwhile cause, and one deserving of our support.

A fund to raise money to publish Kurt Von Trojan’s last book
Long-time supporter and writer/author in the speculative field in Australia, Kurt von Trojan, has been struck down with kidney and bone cancer. The long-term prognosis is that he has only a few short months to live…

Continue reading A worthwhile cause →

The 125th issue of Cheryl Morgan’s Emerald City is now online. It features a Jeff VanderMeer essay, a year in review overview and all kinds of other reviewy goodness.