Our faithful correspondent over at The VanderWorld Times admits to having surrendered to the inevitable. Overwhelmed by the need to both maintain a household and indulge in the creation of claustrophobic secondary worlds peopled with insane sub-humans’ he has had to abandon his plans to blog about the majority of his reading. In doing so, he mentions his sympathy ‘for any poor bastard who tries to take the length and breadth of the short fiction published in the field over the past year…’ Ahhh, yes (sob). I am currently engaged in preparing a rough draft of a short fiction recommended reading list for what Tim refers to as a certain magazine which extends to over 300 stories. It needs to be reduced by two thirds, and it is a large task. Interesting, though.

I used to post stuff about Australian SF over at the old Coode Street news site, which I reluctantly had to stop working on because of time and other commitments. However, information does still trickle in.

First, Terry Dowling has a fine new story, “Clownette”, over at Ellen Datlow’s SciFiction. Go check it out. Second, the 2004 Aurealis Awards nominees were announced recently. I’ve posted a single list of them here.

Did you read The Phoenix and the Mirror or Vergil in Averno? If so, you will be heartened by the news that you can now order your copy of The Scarlet Fig. I doubt, if you aren’t already familiar with these names that you’ll be enormously interested, but I honestly hope for the sake of the brave and steadfast publisher that at least 550 of us can be found who would like to know how the tale ends. Oh, and should you be curious, you definitely need to own this.

And Ursula Le Guin continues to discuss her great pleasure at the scifi.com mini-series adaptation of Earthsea over at Slate. I wonder if the producer regrets putting words in her mouth now?

The lyrics for Jessica’s favorite song at the moment. She’s always pretty happy to sing it, and appallingly, seems to like it when her mother and father sing it to her. Sophie doesn’t mind either, but I think she has her eye on the presents…

Oh, you better watch out,
You better not cry,
You better not pout,
I’m telling you why:
Santa Claus is coming to town!

He’s making a list,
Checking it twice,
Gonna find out who’s naughty or nice.
Santa Claus is coming to town!

He sees you when you’re sleeping,
He knows when you’re awake.
He knows if you’ve been bad or good,
So be good for goodness sake!

Oh! You better watch out,
You better not cry,
You better not pout,
I’m telling you why:
Santa Claus is coming to town!