It had to happen.  The good folk at Locus HQ have decided to start a blog.  The Locus Roundtable launched today, and will feature discussion from many of the Locus regulars, plus others.  Locus Executive Editor Liza Groen Trombi kicks off the blog with an introductory post, but a year-in-review roundtable will follow soon.  And, if I can get my act together there should be some stuff on short fiction soon.

I mentioned that I spoke to the lovely Erica Vowles from ABC Radio’s The Book Show the other day about the Aurealis Awards, reviewing, science fiction and so on.  Well, that went to air this morning and is downloadable as a podcast here.  Erica also speaks to Aurealis SF Novel award winner K. A. Bedford and fantasy novel award winner Alison Goodman, both of whom sound smart, clever and beautiful. I sound, sadly, much as I usually do.  I would like to thank Erica for helping me sound no worse than I usually do.

Today was a strange day.  I’m tired and sore these days, most likely because of some horrible problem I don’t want to see the doctor about because it’ll probably be a tumor (or, more likely, a combination of weird bruised rib, blood pressure medication and who knows what else).  It means I’m in a bad mood a lot, which also means I’m not motivated to get the work done I need to.  I have to get maybe half a dozen story contracts out to various people, get the monthly reviews edited, do some stuff for the soon-to-be-launched Locus blog, write proposals, and tidy up a lot of email.  All this while getting ready for house stuff that needs doing and taxes.

Anyhow, there was some nice stuff today. I was interviewed for ABC Radio’s Book Show, discussing Alison Goodman, Adrian Bedford and the Aurealis Awards.  Erica from the ABC was terrific, and we’re now discussing some more regular work which could be fun.

Got home late, made dinner, and am now grabbing a quick moment to use the new stereo.  Of course, I need to be in my office using the computer there, so …. argh.

I don’t normally post this kind of thing, but I just noticed that Amazon.com are offering The Starry Rift at the rather preposterous price of $US6.99 (a 65% discount)! I have nothing to do with such things, and have no idea how long the offer will last, but I doubt you’ll get the book any cheaper till the paperback arrives. This is the prettiest book I’ve had done, and one I’m incredibly proud of – if you like SF, I think it’s a good deal.

The February issue of Locus is about to hit the streets, and will probably hit these parts in the next couple weeks. In the meantime, the 2008 Recommended Reading List has been released over on the Locus website.

The list always generates a lot of discussion, and I’ll be curious to see how people respond to it this year. I had almost nothing to do with the book list, but did spend some time working on the short fiction part of the list, which I think is pretty strong. Many thanks to those who helped with compiling the list this year.