Alex has a recipe for a chocolate cake you can make in a coffee cup in five minutes using the microwave.  Cake 4 One?  I’ve not tried, but I know you needed to know.

Just a quick note, following on the good news about Eclipse Two.  Gardner and I just delivered The New Space Opera 2 – it’s a day for twos – to Diana at HarperUS and Stephanie at HarperAustralia (two of my very favorite people) for a July publication.  I won’t publish the table of contents here because we’re hoping to add a late story, but there are some terrific stories in the book.  I’m grateful to everyone who stuck with the book, especially those who were stressed by other deadlines, and can’t wait to see it come out mid next year.

I got home from the office today to find a large box full of copies of Eclipse Two, fresh from the printer, waiting for me.  This book has been such mixed experience to work on over the past year, that I was surprised at how pleased I was to finally hold it in my hands.

I finished Eclipse One in June of 2007 and pretty much immediately jumped into working on the follow-up volume.  I had several long discussions with Jason Williams about where the second book should go and, as I’ve discussed here before, decided to make this new book very much a ‘science fiction’ anthology.  That affected who I invited, but I was, as I always am, surprised and humbled by the array of talented and generous people who agreed to write for the book.  I then sat back to wait and see what stories would come.

And they did come: first one, then another.  Slowly at first, then more quickly.  At the same time. there was an open reading period where more than 400 stories came in during February.  It was a mixed success, but if nothing else had me reading a number of writers I’d not experienced before.  As is always the case, as time went on and the June deadline approached, some writers dropped out, and others came on board.  I don’t remember which story first really impressed me, and I hate to mention favorites, but the book had really come together by the beginning of June and had developed its own character.

On June 16 I delivered the book to Night Shade, about a week late.  I posted the table of contents and the book sort of exploded before my very eyes, or at least it felt that way.  There was a long passionate debate, which regular readers would be well aware of, that centered around gender equity in the book. I have nothing more to say on the subject, other than to say it very strongly soured me on the book. I was eager to get it done, get it published and move on.

Time then did what it does, and passed.  I was waiting for a clearance on one story – a very good alternate history/time travel tale by Harry Turtledove.  Harry was wonderful to deal with, but copyright clearances are long and complicated things, and sadly we couldn’t find a way to run the story in the book (hopefully it’ll appear elsewhere before too long).  I posted something to that effect here in late August, and suddenly Ted Chiang and Margo Lanagan appeared with the final two stories for the book. Last minute additions, they changed the tenor of the book, and really began to make me feel a lot more positively about it.

With the final version of Eclipse Two done, we raced through copyedits and other things, saw the cover design and waited for the book.  Sadly, for reasons beyond my control, the book didn’t make it for its intended World Fantasy launch date (I think it would have been the toast of the convention), but advance reviews began to trickle through and they were extremely positive.   It also became clear that several stories were going to make year’s bests and hopefully might make awards listing.

But, until today, no book.   I’d honestly wondered if it would come out in 2008, but it has.  Eclipse Two is done, and I hope you’ll check it out.  I’m incredibly grateful to the authors who sent me their stories, to my friends and family who supported the book, and to Night Shade who’ve published it.  It’s a book I’m very proud of.  I wish contributors all had their copies today too, but I’m guessing they’ll go out soonish and should trickle through during January.  I hope they are as pleased with it as I am.

And now I’m hard at work on Eclipse Three.  I’ve already bought a story or two, but I’m not going to tell you from whom.  I think this one will be a bit more like the first volume, though that’ll depend very much on what stories come in.  I’m very aware that you can’t predict that, though there are some people I’d kill to have in the book.  It will, almost certainly, be the last book in the series, so I want to make it even more special.  The one thing I do know is that these books are always an adventure, so it’ll be interesting to see what the book we launch in San Jose at World Fantasy is like.  I hope you’ll be there to see.

The nominations for the 2008 Aurealis Awards have been announced. They’re not on the web yet, though they should be on the Aurealis Awards website fairly soon.   I’m delighted to say, though, that my anthology The Starry Rift, has been nominated in the inaugural ‘Best Anthology’ category.  I’m very grateful to the judges, and want to also congratulate my fellow category nominees Jack Dann for Dreaming Again and Bill Congreve and Michelle Marquardt for The Year’s Best Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy.  I’m honored to share their company.  My sincere congratulations, too, to all of the nominees int he the other categories.

And so this is Christmas.  I’ve spent most of 2008 either reading short fiction, working on anthologies, or doing Locus stuff.  I’d meant to read a lot of novels, and I started quite a few that I found surprisingly easy to drop at the 100-page mark (I’m not sure if this says more about my year or the books, but there you go).

Anyhow, here are four books that I’ve read, that I’ve loved and that I would unhesitatingly recommend to you as possible gifts for the ones you love:

1. The Knights of the Cornerstone, James Blaylock (Ace)It has been more than ten years since James Blaylock, one of my very, very favorite writers has given us a new novel, and this one is a peach. It’s a dark contemporary fantasy that features a typical Blaylockian reluctant hero faced with much weird magical stuff. I couldn’t ask any more.
2. Little Brother, Cory Doctorow (Tor)
   This is the book where Cory found his voice.   The first three novels are good (and each one is an improvement from the last), but this is where he really managed to write SF for the 21st Century, and really showed how YA SF should be done. It’s got infodumps and backstory and all kinds of stuff that should drown his tale, but they don’t.  I figure they’ll be reading this one in thirty years.  Definitely read it now, though.
3. The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman (HarperCollins; Bloomsbury)
   The reason I love Neil Gaiman’s prose is that his writing voice is warm, welcoming and intimate. He brings you into the story, makes you feel a co-conspirator in its telling, which is a remarkable gift. The Graveyard Book is Kipling’s Jungle Book recast as the story of a young boy growing up in a graveyard.  It’s enchanting and left me wanting to re-read Coraline just so I can see which I love more.
4. Tender Morsels, Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin; Knopf)
   I love Margo Lanagan’s stories, but this is the first novel of hers that I’ve read.  I’d wondered if she could bring the power of her short fiction to something at novel length and this dark, weird recasting of the Brother’s Grimm resoundingly proves that she can.  I don’t know if it’s the best novel of the year, but it’s so darned close it doesn’t make much difference.

And there you have it. Four treats for Christmas.  Please buy books for the ones you love. If you can, buy local from a favorite bookstore. Great local book stores are a gift in themselves, and we need to support them. My local is Planet Books, which is wonderful and I recommend it unhesitatingly and frequently.  My favorite mail order book supplier is Justin Ackroyd’s Slow Glass Books. Either would be a good place to get any of these books.  Of course, I’ve linked here to Amazon so you can check them out, and Amazon is a fine place to buy, but I’ll always feel that your local is the place to start if you can.