This little Indian has had too little sleep, and can’t shake the damned bug that’s been keeping him coughing and spluttering for a week. Dinner’s on in the background, the offshoots are watching The Aristocats, and I’m not reading. I’m also struggling to get the goddamn World Fantasy hotel website to offer the right room rate so I can get that all sorted. Not listening much either to be honest, though I have recently realised that Faces are pretty damned fine.

I’ve been reading reviews of a couple of my books of late.  Good, well-intentioned reviews that made me grind my teeth.  We don’t respond, we don’t engage – not because the reviewers are crazy or bad or evil, but because they are not and we know we would only look foolish.  Still, we wants to precious, we really does.

There is one thing that has been brought home to me of late – it is much easier to sit back and point out what someone is or isn’t doing, than it is to do what they’re doing.  This is a kharmic thing. And so we learn.

Just got the word from Jeff Ford that Eclipse One has been reviewed by Paul DiFilippo in this weekend’s Washington Post. It’s a very good review, so my thanks to Jeff for pointing it out, and to Paul for the review.  Very good news for the weekend, indeed.

It’s happened.

I am currently reading for Eclipse Two, the second volume in the original science fiction and fantasy anthology series that I am editing for San Francisco-based publisher Night Shade Books.

Eclipse is a series of anthologies in the vein of Orbit, Universe and New Dimensions, updated for the 21st century. It’s new and it’s proudly genre. It has no theme, and there’s no such thing as an ‘type’ of story. Instead writers are encouraged to take any and all of the colors of the genre palette – be they steampunk, cyberpunk, new space opera, old space opera, fairy tale, ghost story, hard SF, or whatever – and use them as they will to create something unique and wonderful. That said, I am particularly looking for strong science fiction stories for Volume Two.

Each volume of Eclipse features more than a dozen new stories by some of the best and brightest writers working in the field today. For example, Eclipse 1, which was published in October 2007, features Peter S. Beagle, Jack Dann & Paul Brandon, Terry Dowling, Andy Duncan, Jeffrey Ford, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Eileen Gunn, Gwyneth Jones, Ellen Klages, Margo Lanagan, Maureen F. McHugh, Garth Nix, Lucius Shepard, Bruce Sterling, and Ysabeau S. Wilce.

What I’m looking for

I am looking for stories that are between 2,500 words and 10,000 words in length (with a preference for stories around 7,500 words) and that are both previously unpublished and clearly part of the science fiction or fantasy genres.

Open reading period

I am accepting story submissions between Friday 1 February 2008 and Friday 29 February 2008. I will be reading stories during March, with an intention of responding to all submissions by the end of March.

How do you submit

Given the lateness of this announcement, I will be accepting submissions via email. Please email your submission in Rich Text Format (.rtf) to jstrahan(at)iinet(dot)net(dot)au.

What about Eclipse Three?

Honestly, I’m not sure. At the moment I’m reading for Eclipse Two. If I receive too many stories that I’d like to accept then I will contact the author about holding them over for Eclipse Three. If I don’t, then I’ll most likely have a similar open submission period in early 2009.

Last October I said on Jeff VanderMeer’s blog that I’d be holding an open reading period for Eclipse Two and Three in February or March of this year.  Jeff has quite rightly called me on this a couple times, and I’m definitely not going to let that commitment slip. I’d preferred to have made the announcement earlier, but I’m going to read for Eclipse Two through February, and will accept stories via email.  The announcement is above, and I’d encourage everyone to forward it to anyone whom they think might be interested.  I’ll also get it to Locus, and try to get it to the relevant market news places.  I hope anyone interested, including Jeff, will send stories.

Taking into account the lateness of the announcement, I will also consider stories for Eclipse Three, though  that mostly will be if I receive too many outstanding submissions. It’s my preference, on reflection, to have a separate E3 reading period next year.