I’ve just seen that Subterranean Press is offering 40% off a whole bunch of their forthcoming titles. And yes, it includes The Jack Vance Treasury! This means if you order in the next 48 hours it’ll only cost you $22.80 plus postage. That’s for a 220,000 word book. It’s an amazing price. You’d  be made not to! There’s also a full list of sale titles.

I think the first time that I read a story of Ellen Klages‘s was when Gordon Van Gelder published her novelette “Basement Magic” a few years ago. It went on to win the Nebula Award, and I started to hunt out her older stories and look for new ones.

One of my favorite stories of Ellen’s, and one my favorite stories published last year, was “In the House of the Seven Librarians”. I read it sitting on a plane flying from Chicago to Oakland while listening to Sufjan Stevens Greetings from Illinoise. I remember clearly that it was bright and sunny outside and that Charles was already asleep. I’d been given a galley of Sharyn November‘s Firebirds Rising (one of the top three anthologies of the year), and was working my way through it. Ellen’s tale of a young girl raised by feral librarians was charming, delightful and heartwarming. I loved it so much I’m reprinting it (along with a Kelly Link story from the same book) in my Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year.

And then Sharyn sent me a copy of Ellen’s novel, The Green Glass Sea. It’s a smart, insightful story about a young girl growing up at Los Alamos in the 1940s. There’s a great review of the book by Gary Wolfe in Locus which sums up what I think pretty well. It’d easily sit in the top ten books I’ve read in 2006, and I think it stands a great chance of still being read in twenty years time.

Jacob Weisman’s Tachyon Publications, who get my pick for the most improved independent press of the last five years, are going to publish a collection of Ellen’s short fiction, Portable Childhoods in April of 2007. When I saw Ellen in Oakland in August she said there’d be at least one, if not two, original stories in the book. I can’t wait for it. Klages is one of our best short story writers, and the book promises to be a real highlight of 2007.

I’ve not seen confirmation, but the word is that Jack Williamson has died. If so, we’ve lost both one of the greats and one of the most amazing links with out own past: from covered wagons to men on the moon, from electricity on streets to the internet, he saw it all. A sad moment indeed. Vale.

Edit: Confirmed by Locus.

My editor at HarperEos, the wonderful classy and stylish Diana Gill, just blogged about reading The New Space Opera. I’m delighted she liked it at much as Gardner and I did, and can’t wait to see it get out into the world. Keep your eyes out for a chance to win a special sneek peek copy.

I edit THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY OF THE YEAR anthology series for Night Shade Books. The first volume in the series will be published in March 2007, and the second should appear in March 2008.

I am currently reading for the 2007 volume of THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY, and am looking for stories from all branches of science fiction and fantasy: space opera to cyberpunk, fairy tales to the slipstream, or anything else that might qualify. If in doubt, please send it. Please note: This is a reprint anthology, so I am only reading material published between 1 January and 31 December 2007.

I work on a fairly tight deadline, and need to see work as early as possible. With that in mind, the submission deadline for this year’s book is 1 October 2007. Anything sent after this deadline will reach me too late. If a magazine, anthology, or collection you are in or you edit is coming out before 31 December 2007 you can send galleys or manuscripts so that I can consider the stories in time. No email submissions unless previously discussed (and I’d rather not get PDFs if possible). I strongly suggest that authors check with their publishers that they are sending review copies out to me, as I don’t have the resources to follow-up every publisher to get material.

When sending material please put YEAR’S BEST on the envelope.

Jonathan Strahan
PO Box 544
Mt Lawley WA 6929
Australia

I am also happy to receive recommendations or information on publications via email. The contact address is jstrahan (at) iinet (dot) net (dot) au.

NOTE TO PUBLISHERS

I am eager to see and be able to consider the work you are publishing. If you are producing a magazine, a chapbook, a collection or anthology with any original stories in it please let me know. While I do not accept email submissions as a rule, I am happy to talk to publishers about making exceptions where necessary. The important thing, for me, is to make sure that I get to consider the best science fiction and fantasy published during 2007.

* I do not need to receive manuscripts from authors of stories from venues that it’s likely I already receive regularly (I get Asimov’s, Analog, F&SF, Interzone, Realms of Fantasy, Postscripts etc, but not many of the smaller ‘zines and publications).

** If you are publishing online, you need only email me (jstrahan (at) iinet (dot) net (dot) au) to let me know. I don’t require print-outs of online publications.

*** Please do not send an SASE. This is not a submission per se, and I’m not able to return manuscripts or respond directly to stories sent to me.