I’ve just been trying to work out what I need to do in the next week or so if I’m going to actually meet my deadlines and other commitments. In addition to playing my part in getting things ready for Sophie’s birthday party (cleaning up, doing some gardening, organising etc), I’ve got a bit to do.

First, I’ve finished the story notes for Science Fiction: Best of 2004 and have done most of the notes for Fantasy: Best of 2004. I need to finish those, and write the main volume introductions, by the end of the weekend. I also need to follow up on permissions for the books.

Second, I’ve got to deal with some financial stuff. It’s tax time here, and I need to keep on top of that.

Third, I’ve got to send out email reminders to all of the potential contributors to The Starry Rift. I wrote to all of them a while ago, but a follow-up now seems about right. This is only slightly complicated by having sporadic email problems. I also need to get in touch with Sharyn (hi Sharyn!) to discuss the book.

Fourth, I’ve got to finish proofing the December Locus, edit the columns that are coming in for the January issue, and get a real start on recommended reading. It’ll run in the February issue, but we do all of the to-and-fro-ing between now and the end of December. Charles is flying out to Perth for New Year’s and we’ll finalise all of the lists then.

Fifth, I’ve got to do some follow-up emailing for review material for myself, some of the review staff and the magazine.

Sixth, I’ve got to do some reading. I’m half-way through the January F&SF, finished the Gwyneth Jones novel (which was excellent) and am currently toying with a few other choices. I also need to read a bunch of potential contenders for recommended reading listing.

Seventh, get some new tyres for the car.

Once that’s all done – and most of it must be done before month’s end – I can get on to some general pre-Christmas house organisation, help my mother with her soon-to-arrive visitors, write a couple long-overdue book proposals and generally try to get my act together before summer gets here. I tend to slow way down in the hot weather, so I need to be on top of my schedule by New Year’s. Also, I need to get our computer problems dealt with before then, because as the weather heats up, the computer tends to die more often.

Over on his journal, Tim Pratt suggests we should all post a poem on our blogs or sites. And so, I proffer this one:

There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry —
This Traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of Toll —
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears the Human soul.

Just as I would urge you to subscribe to F&SF, Asimov’s, Interzone or any of the fiction magazines, I’d urge you to subscribe to Locus. I’ve worked on it for a while and read it for a lot longer and think it’s a worthwhile magazine. Mark has just fixed the online subscription form, so it’s pretty straightforward to do.

There’s an article about Anne Rice’s response to Amazon.com reader’s reviews over at the New York Times. In the piece she re-iterates her comments about editors and editing, saying “People who find fault and problems with my books tend to say, ‘She needs an editor,’ When a person writes with such care and goes over and over a manuscript and wants every word to be perfect, it’s very frustrating.” The point that most people seem to be missing is that she’s saying this is the best she can do. She’s worked hard on Blood Canticle and does not know how to make it any better. It’s a little sad, really, but rather plucky to admit to it when you think about it.

William Gibson started blogging back in 2003 to help promote his novel Pattern Recognition. At the end of the publicity tour, faced with beginning work on his next novel, he wrote that he was taking a hiatus from blogging while he was writing the new book.

Locus Online reports that yesterday he started blogging again. Anticipating the obvious question, he wrote: “Why? Because the United States currently has, as Jack Womack so succinctly puts it, a president who makes Richard Nixon look like Abraham Lincoln. And because, as the Spanish philosopher Unamuno said, ‘At times, to be silent is to lie.'”