Graham Sleight has an interesting review of Howard Waldrop’s Other Worlds, Better Lives at Strange Horizons.  I think he makes a lot of good points, though I liked “You Could Go Home Again” better than he did.

I guess an obvious companion set of posts to Books I’m looking forward to… is something on what I’m reading right now. This is the kind of thing I probably won’t stick with, but who knows?  Right now I’m going through a phase of starting a lot of books and not finishing them.  For some reason, around the 100 page mark, I just fade out and lose interest.  I think it says more about me than it does about the book in question, though who knows?  For instance, I started Charles de Lint’s The Mystery of Grace a couple weeks ago.  I like de Lint’s work and was delighted to see that he wasn’t writing about Newford in his new novel. The book starts well, but I got distracted.  Same for Cherryh’s Regenesis which, admittedly, is heavier going.   I got to around page 250 on that.  Anyway, I’m not going into too much detail on what’s wrong with things here and, in some instances, will just report that I’m reading a book because that seems appropriate.

First up, I’m reading Sharyn November’s third ‘Firebirds’ anthology, Firebirds Soaring. Like it’s predecessors it’s a mixed SF/F anthology aimed pretty much at the YA market and features writers who contribute to the Firebirds publishing imprint along with others. I’m reading it for my year’s best, and it includes very good stories by Margo Lanagan, Ellen Klages, Louise Marley and Jo Walton.  I still have about five stories or so to finish, but I think it’s a very good book. It’s out in March.
On the plane home from Calgary in November I flicked through Felix Gilman’s Thunderer. It’s a fantasy, his first, and, as I mentioned below, was recommended by Katie Menick who told me it’s terrific. I believe Katie, so it’s currently sitting in my office on my desk. I’ve read the opening chapter, which is intriguing.  If all goes well, I hope to really get into it over the next week or two.

I’m also thumbing through James Enge’s first novel, Blood of Ambrose. I’m going to talk about this more when I get to the April instalment of Books I’m looking forward to…. I have all sorts of conflicts of interest recommending it. It’s edited by my good friend and collaborator Lou Anders and Enge has written a terrific short for Lou and my anthology, Conquering Swords, but I am interested to see what he’s done with the novel. It has the same lead character as the one in his Conquering Swords story so I’m intrigued.

And finally, the postman yesterday brought me a galley of China Mieville’s new novel, The City and the City. I started reading this on my Sony Reader last week and am about four chapters into it.  I know China would prefer that details about the book don’t get out yet, so I’ll just say it has a much cleaner, tighter style than his previous novels, and that it’s a new stand-alone.  It also, as you’d imagine from the title, focusses on his love of cities and is reminiscent of his short story “Reports of Certain Events in London” (from McSweeney’s). I’m not going to say much more till closer to its June publication, but it looks very good so far.

A lot of books get announced, and a lot of them don’t come out, or come out late. I have no idea whether Threshold and Power & Light, respectively the first and second volumes in NESFA Press’s six-volume The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny, will be out in February as promised. If they are, they’ll feature prominently in next month’s Books I’m looking forward to. Regardless of that, though, they’re exciting, essential books. You can’t order the books yet, but keep an eye on the NESFA site and be sure to grab ’em early. I know I will be.

I spent an hour or two yesterday looking back over the blog, refreshing my memory before I tackled any of the year in review tasks that await.  On a day when I had a lot of fun – the girls and I had a swim at Bayswater Waves, the family played golf and bowling on the Wii, we had dim sum and went shopping at Planet and JB Hi Fi – I found myself reading a lot about stress, ill-health and projects in various states of chassis.  Not fun.

It got me to thinking – I should talk more about what’s going on in my life that’s good and talk a lot less about projects as they’re in progress.   With that in mind, first, something positive about 2008.  It was easily my most successful year at pretty much any kind of stuff. I got my first promotion at my day job in far too many years (in truth, the only one I’ve applied for in a decade or more so that’s my fault, but still…), I won (or books I worked on won) a Ditmar, a Tin Duck, a Locus Award (!), and was nominated for the Hugo Award (!!!!).  I traveled to Denver for WorldCon and Calgary for World Fantasy.  I had an almost idyllic time at Lancelin for my mother’s 70th birthday, and then spent a lovely week in Dunsborough with the my brother-in-law and his family.  To be crass about it, I’m earning more money than ever before and am still fortunate enough to have a good day job and be reasonably successful at my editing.

On the downside: in 2008 I was diagnosed with high blood pressure and then spent five months putting weight on, I hurt my right shoulder (which still isn’t quite right), I cracked a rib which continues to bother me four months later, I got ridiculously overstressed about things like cover debates and so on, and generally handled stress and strain poorly. There were also health scares for both kids, which was pretty terrifying, but they’re both okay at the moment, which is good.

And yet…I’m optimistic about 2009.  Why? Well, firstly because my editing continues to work out.  While details have to be finalised, I’ve just sold a new book that I’m very happy about.  I have a wonderful family, who contribute to the craziness but are still the best part of everything I experience.  And I feel like I’ve had something of an epiphany when it comes to managing me and my stress etc.  If that proves true, if I can work on that, then 2009 will be much more enjoyable which is what I need.

With that in mind, I might make New Year’s resolutions, but if I don’t, I do feel like I know what I need to do to make 2009 a good year.

I’m taking Christmas off.  I have a handful of editing-type things I should be doing, but with Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and now Boxing Day, I’m focussing on the family and taking it easy, so copyedits and lists and all sorts of other things will have to wait till Saturday or Sunday.

Woke up this morning more than somewhat worn around the edges from a very pleasant and relaxed Christmas Day.  The girls came in and we had a snuggle (something that will surely stop soon as they’re both getting to that sort of age), then I was up for breakfast and a nice hot shower (with the stupid water volume limiter removed!!).  And now, I’m listening to the true sound of summer for me: Australia are batting in Melbourne and there’s the constant roar of the crowd in the background while Tony Greig and Richie Benaud talk the day away.  It’s kinda perfect.