Back in 1997 I co-edited a book for HarperCollins Australia and was lucky enough to have the fabulously wonderful Anna McFarlane as my editor. She was terrific to work for, great fun to talk to, and possessed of much better taste that your humble correspondent. When someone is as good at what they do as Anna they inevitably move on to bigger and better things, and Pan Macmillan were sensible enough to recognize this, and she now works for that venerable firm in a suitably senior position.

I mention this because several years ago, not long after joining Pan, Anna recommended a book Feeling Sorry for Celia to Marianne and I, and when Anna suggests you check something out you really should. The book was every bit as good as she suggested, so when I was in the city on Sunday with Jessica and Sophie and noticed that the author of Feeling Sorry for Celia had a new book out, I Have a Bed Made of Buttermilk Pancakes, described as ‘a fairy tale for grown-ups,’ I didn’t hesitate to hand over actual cash money for a copy. I’ve just started it, and it looks like it’s going to be great. It actually, in the 10 pages I’ve read, reminds me of what I think a Kelly Link novel might be like, should she write one. Now, it almost certainly won’t be like that – it’ll probably be just like a very good Jaclyn Moriarty novel – but Anna’s in the acknowledgements which is a good sign.

Our VanderPal Jeff has added several interesting short interviews to his blog under the title “Justify yourself…”. They’re cool and worth checking out. Of course, we here at Coode St couldn’t help but notice the interviews are all with people who wouldn’t struggle overly with the challenge. ‘Justify yourself, Peter Straub!’ just doesn’t seem like a real threat. Now, justify yourself George Bush or Condy Rice or Tom Clancy would be interesting.

Today was supposed to be dad-and-daughter adventure day, but it didn’t quite work out that way. My beloved is away for the weekend, and it falls to me to take care of the girls and to find things to do that would be fun. Well, I’d thought it would be a great idea to go to the zoo and had recruited a willing uncle to go along. While Jessica, Sophie and I were up and packed early, and had practised for the zoo by stalking around the family room crying out “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” – we know our WizWoz here – the travel group had grown somewhat to encompass granma and some visiting relatives.

Now, these were very welcome folk and lots of good fun, but the dynamic changed. Instead of being a small group of hit-and-run adventurers with the flexibility to disappear home at the first sign of a droopy eyelid, we were tourists. We did see tigers, giraffess, elephants having a bath (which made a big impression on Sophie), monkeys and all kinds of other cool stuff, and go on cool old carousel, but it took five hours or so on warm day. By the end of it Jess (4) and Sophie (3) were too pooped to pop, and things were a little cranky at home. Still, they’re in bed now, I just watched When Harry Met Sally for the 451st time, and am now listening to the Jon Butler Trio cd I picked up on Friday, which is pretty cool, and will probably fade off to bed soon. No idea what we’re going to do tomorrow, but hey, that’s another day. I gotta read some SF and write some proposals soon!

Oh, and a sincere congrats to Terry Dowling. Good reading is found on SciFiction every week, but you should check out his story “Clownette”, which will be over there on December 15. Cool stuff.

I heard a while ago that Rob Gerrand, who among many other things was a partner in Norstrilia Press, was to edit a retrospective collection of Australian science fiction. This struck me then, and strikes me now, as both an interesting and a good thing. For some reason, though, I had the impression that the book was coming out in 2005, but word reached me today that it would be out before Christmas.

The book is called The Best Australian Science Fiction Writing: A Fifty Year Collection, and is published by Black Inc, who do a number of ‘year’s best’ type projects in Australia. According to the PR material I’ve seen so far, it includes stories by Jack Dann, A. Bertram Chandler, Sean McMullen, Peter Carey, Greg Egan, Philippa Maddern, Norma Hemming, George Tuner, Jack Wodhams, David Lake, Erle Cox, Lucy Sussex, Randal Flynn, John Baxter, Frank Bryning and others. When I have a full listing I’ll post it here, but till then you can see the PR material on the Pan Macmillan website,

I’ve read enough Australian science fiction, and been involved in the field long enough, to be fascinated in what choices Gerrand makes and why. It’s the kind of book that I wish well, and want to be terribly successful. I also like it because it becomes a talking point. I can imagine a number of conversations at conventions and similar places that will start with “he chose that Dowling story, and not that one!” and continue from there. The one thing I hope Gerrand didn’t do, though, is try to avoid famous stories. There’s nothing worse than a best of that avoids the best stories because they’re familiar or easily accessible. Kind of kills the point. I’ll post more here when I have it.

On a more typical note for this blog, it’s been a minor (well, very minor actually) ambition of mine to attend both a World Fantasy Convention and a World SF Convention in the same year. I’d been holding out hopes for 2006, with Melbourne bidding for the WFC that year. News to hand (well, just noticed by me, actually) reveals that the 2006 convention will be held in Austin, Texas, which I am sure will be spiffy. That means the ’06 conventions are WorldCon in Los Angeles (armpit of the Western world) and WFC in Austin. I imagine I’ll be in Texas in October, and should have a great time. As to ’07, I almost certainly won’t attend the WorldCon in Japan, so I’m hoping for somewhere wonderfully exotic for WFC that year. At this rate, though, I doubt I’ll make both in a single year during this decade. We’ll have to see.