Bruce Chrumka points out that there’s a new Howard Waldrop story “Kindermarchen” available to read for free (free!) over the Lou Antonelli’s Sentinel Science Fiction. You need to go check it out. So do I. Damn I wish Howard was on email.

I forgot that Sterling was fuh-nee! The Leggy Starlitz stories are f*cking hilarious. I love them. Even though they’re out of date, pointing back to some bygone moment just after the Russians tore down the wall, they’re still the most up to the moment thing Sterling’s ever written. There’s lots more to say on this. The Shaper/Mechanist stuff is a hipper version of Baxter’s Xeelee stuff, but out of date. Gone daddy, gone. “Dori Bangs”, though, will never date. Nor will the fantasy stuff. And, how did I miss that “Taklamakan” was what brought it all full circle? Suddenly, there is it is: Leggy Starlitz meets the Shaper/Mechanists. A Russian scam about star travel buried deep under some crazy-ass Asian steppe. Awesome stuff. More on this soon, but (a) you need to buy this book when it comes out – the collections are no substitute; (b) you have to read from the beginning to the end – no skipping; and (c) I need to write the goddamn flap copy.

Oh, and anyone got ideas for the title for an original antho series? It’s getting ridiculous.

PS: I love the interwebs when proofing. Sterling refers to ‘kawai’ as Japanese cuteness in a story. Google says 3.8 million hits, if you spell it ‘kawaii’. Neat. You need to be cautious, but how useful is that?

I stumbled across this on amazon.com. It’s the cover for Neil’s YA collection, M is for Magic. I’m very curious to see what stories are in the book, if there are new ones, and to get a chance to read it when it’s out (in July). Always more books to look forward to.

It’s the awards silly season, or at least the beginning of it. The Australian National Science Fiction Convention has just released the nomination form for 2007 Ditmars. All seems pretty much as usual, with nominations closing 27 March 2007. And Nippon 2007, this year’s World Con, has released the nomination form for the 2007 Hugo Awards. There may be some problem with this though, with Patrick Nielsen Hayden pointing out that there appear to be errors with the nomination form.

With some hesitation, and an awareness that you can step over the boundaries of good taste in these matters, I simply point interested nominators to this page.

Care package in the mail today. Five books from my San Francisco publisher: Al Reynolds’ Zima Blue; Jay Lake’s Trial of Flowers; Liz Williams’ Demon and the City; Matthew Hughes’ Majestrum; and Alex Irvine’s Pictures from an Expedition. Damn but these guys do pretty books, and good books. You need to go check out their site, I suspect they’ll have something for what ails you. They’re doing my year’s best in a couple months, and another project in October. I’m pretty happy about that.

Oh, and it’s Ditmar nomination time (via Russell) and there’s a good newsletter you can sign up for at Peter Beagle’s website. I just got the latest instalment today, and it’s worth it for Peter’s piece on winning the Hugo. Nice segue from the previous post, hey.