Worked from home today. Connected to the day job network and did some various things, mostly having to do with stuff that won’t make much sense to anyone not using the particular piece of proprietary content management software that we do, but it kept me busy.

I re-heated some of last night’s pasta bake for lunch (yum), and did some much needed administrivia on divers projects. Still much to do, but a little bit has been done so we continue in the right direction.

And now the girls are out at a playdate, and I’m home reading on what has become a cold, darkening wintry afternoon. I’m half way through Leviathan and loving it. I can tell how much because I find myself not wanting to read some of the bad stuff. It’s a captivating joy ride. I wish I had all three volumes now, but I can tell you this much: this one’s special.

I don’t usually post lots of links or stuff here, largely because I sort of look at stuff online, go ‘uh huh’, and move on to what I have to do during my day. But a couple things did show up online that I thought were worth pointing to.

First, as everyone has noticed, Gollancz has signed Alastair Reynolds to a ten book deal for lots and lots of $$s. This genuinely delights me. I first met Al in San Jose when he was being interviewed by Locus.  I’d not long been appointed reviews editor of that journal, and had covered all of his books for the mag.  I’ve loved his work, and we’ve kept in touch since, sharing our love for the music of Springsteen and Mark E’s Eels., and he’s also written some wonderful stories for me (and will be again soon).  I can’t wait to see what the new deal will being, and am excited to get a chance to see his next one, Terminal World.

Second, venerable critic John Clute discusses Jay Lake’s novel Green over at Sci Fi Wire.  Clute is always an interesting critic and he has some typically sharp things to say about Lake’s novel (which has a beautiful opening).  I see Jay’s working on the sequel now, and look forward to talking to him about when we meet up for breakfast in Canada later this year.

Third, my very favorite poster on Tor.com, Jo Walton, discusses my very, very favorite Ian Banks novel, The Crow Road.  As Jo rightly points out, it starts with one of the greatest first lines ever (“It was the day my grandmother exploded.”) and only gets better from there.

Well, the girls are at grandma’s and Marianne’s off at BC, so I’m down in Mt Lawley at a cafe trying to work. Of course, this never works. The area is drenched in distractions, and the power on the laptop is unreliable. I’m hoping it’ll hold out for another half hour, but we’ll see. I have worked productively in cafes, but not often, so we’ll see.

Rain finally came to Perth this weekend, and it brought wind, hail and (relative) cold along with it.  That affected some plans. Being soft and weak, girliejones and I cancelled our plans for a long walk and instead (sensibly) drove to a nearby cafe for a chat and general catch up.  We discussed life, conventions, science fiction, and the finer points of flop.  I then headed home, where I gathered up the family and headed out for a shopping expedition.  It went well enough, with Jessica spending some birthday money and collecting her new spectacles, while they all checked out some bling. I then dropped them home, headed over to the mecca that is JB HiFi to do some completely unnecessary shopping, and then home via the local.

We had intended to have a few friends over on Saturday, but that didn’t quite eventuate. One was sick, one wanted to stay home, and the rest of us quietly rescheduled. This meant Family Movie Night (which had transformed into Family Movie Matinee) with Beverly Hills Chihuahua went ahead early.  The rain swept in, the skys darkened and so we did what made sense. Turned on the heaters, closed the curtains, dialled out for pizza, and hunkered down. All should have been good and quiet and nice, but girl trouble followed the movie, and it took awhile for girls to get to bed.

Sadly, they significantly harshed my mellow (which with the aid of a glass of a very nice Cock + Bull Merlot was very mellow indeed), so it took some time for the evening to settle down again. Marianne and I futzed around and eventually decided to watch Flashdance, which I’d seen when I was 19 yrs old and Marianne hadn’t seen at all. I think Marianne enjoyed it, but as part of my trawl through trashy movies of the 80s it was a fail.  I was bored, and after a while started chatting online rather than rely on it for entertainment.  I then headed to bed, having been unable to decide what else to watch.

And now, Sunday. It’s almost breakfast time. The girls have football today, and then are most likely going to their grandma’s house for a bit. Marianne has Barbie Club, so I should be home working (yes, this means you can drop in unannounced, if you read this).  What will I be doing? Well, the last 48 hours has dropped a new Elric novellete by Michael Moorcock into my inbox along with intros to two collections and a bunch of other stuff. I also need to push some contracts and copyedits out the door, so that’s a possibility,  Or, if it rains, I must just play some old Simon & Garfunkel albums and read Leviathan. We’ll just have to see.

PS: And yes, I couldn’t get to the real blog this morning, so here’s this.

ETA:  The server here was dead for a while, so this was posted at the LJ back up.

The Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Artists have announced the nominees for the 2009 Chesley Awards.  I am delighted to see Shaun Tan up for Best Artistic Achievement and for  Best Interior Illustration for Tales from Outer Suburbia. I was also thrilled to see two of my pals, co-editor Lou Anders and publisher/co-editor Bill Shafer up for Best Art Director.  Incredibly well-deserved.  Congratulations to all of the nominees of course, but extra good luck to these three.