Yesterday I got a phone call I knew had to come one day, and yet hoped would never arrive. My friend – curmudgeonly uncle, older brother, second father, best friend – Charles Brown died in his sleep. We were ‘guys’ together. We shared a love of science fiction, music, scotch, and so much more. Like the science fiction field he loved (more than anyone else I knew), I have lost family.

Dang. The whole ‘burnt out’ thing is bringing things down here a bit, yes? Meh! That’s what I say to being burnt out. I spit in its eye. We shall find the fun, and get ready for Sydney, San Francisco, Montreal and Melbourne with a glint in our eye and smile on our faces.

The weekend was mega-meh. Spent time with the most beautiful girls in the world, which was good: serious, important time where we threw a ball around the garden, sat outside in the sun and read stories, and stuff like that (see how I omit several truly impressive tantrums etc to, instead, focus on the family building stuff?).

Did I get work done? Honey, I go work done. Eclipse Three introduction – done! Not very interesting, but done! Story notes for same – done! Story note format for Conquering Swords – done! Budget review for Eclipse Three – done!  Subterranean special issue stuff – done! I’m waiting on a few details to come together, but I should be finished with Eclipse Three and have it delivered by 24 July (a week before it *has* to be in). When it’s done and sent it I’ll post the groovy Richard Powers cover and the table of contents here.

Did I get to relax? Well, not so much. Watched a little cricket, grabbed dim sum on Saturday with the family, and that was about it. Of course, for me, that’s doing pretty well these days. I intend to split next weekend between family and project completion, and the following between trip prep. and family. Get some time in before the plane.

Let me tell you how emotionally drained I have become of late, how perilously close to total burn out that I am.  I am listening to old Dr Hook songs for laughs. No. Seriously. I really think that puts it in context, yes?

The weekend is upon us and I’m diving into the finishing touches for Eclipse Three which must be finished very, very soon. That means sitting down and writing the introduction (have I told you how I dislike writing anthology introductions?) and the author notes for the book. It also means doing the line edits and formatting.  How am I going? Well, if I had to, I could hand in the book tomorrow. I’m not going to because someone who is totally worth waiting for is supposed to get me a story any second now. I’m also vacilating on some legal / copyright  stuff that I’m discussing with the publisher which, frankly, has me very worried. We’re too small to get a lawyer to check things, so we’re trying to be as careful as we can.

Other than that, I’m now less than three weeks away from a plane to Sydney.  I’m developing pre-trip tunnel vision. I know what I need to get done before I go, and I’m parsing the tasks to be sure they’re completed.  I’m also checking budgets, balancing this and that, and all in all going nuts. I’ll be cool though.

I also got a new PC this week. Big, fast and beautiful which frankly runs like a complete piece of crap.  Beautiful screen. Great TV reception.  Can’t run spellcheck in Word without dying. This is not the time I need to be messing with such things. sigh.  I’ll remember for next time.  More soon!

Just delivered the manuscript of Walter Jon Williams’ new collection, The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories, to the publisher Night Shade Books. It’s a peach of a book.  The best of Walter’s recent stories, which are some of the best he’s written in his career and some of the best to appear anywhere of late, alongside an introduction by Charles Stross and some terrific afterwords from Walter.  All in all, a topnotch book, and one I’m proud to have edited. Look for it early next year!

Today I’m working on the day job at the office in West Perth, trying to get a business plan down on paper for a new project.  It’s for a new version of a project that I’ve been involved with for more than twelve years, and considerable emotional fatigue has set it on the subject. Still, ever onwards. It is, as I’m wont to say, a bear hunt.

We’re in the first week of school holidays here, which means chaos at home, a stressed wife, and kids who are just a little crazy. Every afternoon this week has been a mild form of madness, which seems to be ensuring I don’t get much done when I get home. That wouldn’t be a problem, were it not for the fact that I need to deliver Eclipse Three in three weeks (still waiting on one [!] story) and need to get it finished. I also want to get the special issue of Subterranean finished by then too, but realistically Eclipse is the only thing I have to get done. Hopefully it’ll work out (it should).  Oh, I’ve seen a rough of the cover for Eclipse Three. It’s by Richard Powers and its very ‘Sixties’, very cool. I’ll post it and the table of contents here when it’s done.

Speaking of Eclipse Three, Nnedi Okorafor has a wonderful story in the book. She also has some great news. She’s going to be writing a Disney Fairies book!  Yay! There are a million reasons this is great, but one of them is that a terrific writer whose work I admire is going to write something that my two girls will be thrilled to read.  Can’t wait for Iridessa and the Fire-Bellied Dragon Frogs!

Malcolm Gladwell (of Blink, The Tipping Point etc) reviews Chris Anderson’s Free: The Future of a Radical Price at The New Yorker. It’s an interesting review, if only because it questions the almost evangelically-expressed view that ‘information wants to be free’.

Well, back to listening to old Church and Simon & Garfunkel tracks while trying to work out critical timelines on this project. More soon!