Wonderful news! The nominees for the 2013 World Fantasy Awards have just been announced and I am delighted to report Under My Hat has been nominated for Best Anthology.  It’s nominated alongside some wonderful books, and there is a lot of terrific stuff on the ballot. The other nominees in the Anthology category are:

• Epic: Legends of Fantasy, John Joseph Adams, ed. (Tachyon)
• Three Messages and a Warning: Contemporary Mexican Short Stories of the Fantastic, Eduardo Jiménez Mayo & Chris N. Brown, eds. (Small Beer)
• Magic: An Anthology of the Esoteric and Arcane, Jonathan Oliver, ed. (Solaris)
• Postscripts #28/#29: Exotic Gothic 4, Danel Olson, ed. (PS Publishing)
• Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron, Jonathan Strahan, ed. (Random House)

Congratulations to my fellow nominees, and to everyone else on the ballot. It’s a terrific bunch of work, and a lot of my favourites from 2012 have been acknowledged. I’ve made special nods elsewhere, but especial congratulations to my fellow Aussie nominees Kaaron, Anna and Kathleen, and my own editor Jon Oliver.  Also to Bill Schafer, who isn’t recognised enough for his incredible work.

I would like to acknowledge the incredible work done by the writers who provided the stories and poem for the book, the artists and designers who’ve worked on it., the editors and copyeditors, the publishers, the audio people, my agent Howard, my daughter Sophie (who helped edit it), and the incredible people at Random House (Jim Thomas & co) and Hot Key (Sarah Odedina & team) without whom the book wouldn’t have been possible. There efforts were never less than stellar, and are deeply appreciated. Together we’re a small village, and this nomination belongs to all of us.

A red letter day here at Case del Coode Street. After a long and arduous selection process, today we were advised that Miss 11 has been accepted into the WA Gifted and Talented Program, and has been offered a place at John Curtin College of the Arts. This is simply a huge thing! Miss 11 has been studying drama for several years now, and has been desperately hoping to get into this fine program. We’re very, very proud of her. She’ll start there in the 2015 school year, when she commences high school. We have till then to work out the logistics!

it’s the middle of August. This is a bit shocking, really.  It was only April ten minutes ago. I am in no sense prepared for the year to start its endgame, but it seems I have no choice. Taxes, birthdays, a One Direction concert, a trip to the UK, and lots and lots of other things stand between here and the Christmas break. I feel weary just thinking about it. Along the way, projects to deliver.

The main thing on my plate is finalising details for the UK. I’m flying Singapore Airlines, which should be fine, and am all settled for the Brighton part of the trip. Not set for London, though. I think I’ve allowed too much time for holiday, and am trying to reconcile the details. I’m sure it’ll all be set soon, but it’s another thing.

Along the way, I’m listening to the Eels, still reading Sofia Samatar, podcasting like a bandit and not thinking about San Antonio or many, many other things. Busy times. How are things with you?

It’s a long time till June 2014. That’s when Reach for Infinity, the third volume of what I’ve come to think of as the “Infinity Project” will be published by the totally brilliant team at Solaris Books. It follows on from Engineering Infinity and the Locus Award winning Edge of Infinity, and which I think will be a worthy successor to that book.

Where Edge focussed its attention on an industrialised pre-starflight Solar System, Reach concentrates on that period when we’re trying to get off Earth and into space. Stories aren’t due in until January, so it’ll be a while before I have a table of contents to announce or even a final lineup. I do have a list of people who have agreed to write for the book and some of their names appear on the incredible cover mockup that Solaris just sent me.  While the names are subject to change without notice, the cover design is final and Adam Tredowski‘s cover art is definitely the beez neez.  Hope you all love it as much as I do!

Too many things to think about right now.  It’s only two and a half months till I’m going to London to attend the 2013 World Fantasy Convention. I know the time’s going to fly by between now and then, and one thing I have to do is find an economical hotel solution.

While I’ll be in Brighton from Oct 30 till November 4 staying at the convention hotel, I haven’t settled on where I’ll be staying from Oct 24 (when I arrive) through to Oct 30, when I expect to head down to Brighton. The plan is to travel to Brighton with Ellen Klages and Gary Wolfe, and definitely to see other friends who’ll be in town (Garth, Sean etc), but where to stay? Any recommendations for reasonable London accommodation?