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It feels like I’ve been in whirlwind since the plane touched down in Perth and the Toronto trip came to an end. There have been parties, celebrations, book projects to start, and book projects to finish. I’m working on the Locus Recommended Reading list while also trying to edit reviews, give the day job due diligence and spend some time with the family.

In amongst all of that, I’ve found some time to finish the table of contents for The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Seven, which will be published by Night Shade Books in March 2013.   I still have the introduction to finish and the running order to finalise (this is simply an alphabetical listing), but I’m very happy with it.  As always, there were stories I would liked to have squeezed in, ones that permissions weren’t available for and so on, but that’s always the case.  I’m actually a bit stunned that this is my 36th anthology! Anyway, without further ado here is the table of contents!

1. “The Woman Who Fooled Death Five Times”, Eleanor Arnason
2. “Great Grandmother in the Cellar”, Peter S. Beagle
3. “Immersion”, Aliette de Bodard
4. “Troll Blood”, Peter Dickinson
5. “Close Encounters”, Andy Duncan
6. “Blood Drive”, Jeffrey Ford
7. “Adventure Story”, Neil Gaiman
8. “The Grinnell Method”, Molly Gloss
9. “Beautiful Boys”, Theodora Goss
10. “The Easthound”, Nalo Hopkinson
11. “Mantis Wives”, Kij Johnson
12. “Bricks”, Sticks”, Straw”, Gwyneth Jones
13. “Goggles c 1910”, Caitlin R. Kiernan
14. “The Education of a Witch”, Ellen Klages
15. “The Color Least Used by Nature”, Ted Kosmatka
16. “Significant Dust”, Margo Lanagan
17. “Two Houses”, Kelly Link
18. “Mono No Aware”, Ken Liu
19. “Macy Minnot’s Last Christmas on Dione”, Ring Racing”, Fiddler’s Green”, the Potter’s Garden”, Paul McAuley
20. “Swift”, Brutal Retaliation”, Megan McCarron
21. “About Fairies”, Pat Murphy
22. “Nahiku West”, Linda Nagata
23. “Let Maps to Others”, K.J. Parker
24. “Jack Shade in the Forest of Souls”, Rachel Pollack
25. “Katabasis”, Robert Reed
26. “What Did Tessimond Tell You?”, Adam Roberts
27. “The Contrary Gardener”, Christopher Rowe
28. “Joke in Four Panels”, Robert Shearman
29. “Domestic Magic”, Steve Rasnic Tem & Melanie Tem
30. “Reindeer Mountain”, Karin Tidbeck
31. “Fade to White”, Catherynne M. Valente
32. “A Bead of Jasper”, Four Small Stones”, Genevieve Valentine

My special thanks to Marianne Jablon who has worked heroically on this book to help me get it finished. If I make the deadline it will be thanks mostly to her hard work.

Jetlag is slowly fading. I got out and exercised a little yesterday, and more this morning. Definitely collapsed last night and actually had a fairly unbroken sleep for the first time in several weeks, so things may be heading in the right direction. Still only 80%, though.

Time, however, does not wait for me to recover from jetlag and what may be residual con crud. Part of yesterday was sent tinkering with the table of contents for The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Seven, which is due at the publisher in mid-December. I have perhaps four short story slots I’m tinkering with, and the remaining 30 are set. There are writers I’d love to have had in the book, but permissions or other practicalities have prevented me from doing so. Still, I think the core of the book is coming together nicely. I still have the dreaded introduction to write, but that can wait till December.

At the same time I’m launching a bunch of new projects that will fill the second part of next year, while also desperately looking for new stories for Eclipse Online. I probably need another four or five stories pretty quickly, so I’m looking for them quite urgently. Also trying to work out the structure of a possible new Infinity book and a magazine project. Lots to do.

And reading? I think I’ve abandoned the new Ian McKewan, which hasn’t held my attention. I have some short stuff to read, and the first of the 2013 magazines (!!), but I think some Mike Harrison is next. Busy times, with lots to do between now and year’s end.

I am so jetlagged. Maybe more jetlagged than I have ever been, but I am home from Toronto and World Fantasy 2012.  It seems like somewhere between a few days and forever since Alisa Krasnostein and I boarded an Emirates flight for Dubai, and then Toronto, so its even stranger to think that it’s all over for another year.

How did the convention go? It was terrific. Preceded by a bit of tourism and sightseeing, as well as wonderful lunches with Peter Watts and Guy Kay on the Tuesday and Wednesday before the event, World Fantasy really kicked off on Thursday morning with breakfast with Karen Lord, followed by a podcast recording with Guy Kay (more of which later), and a fabulous dinner with Liza, Garth, Sean, Rob, Ellen, Alisa, Gary, and Stacie at Sarpa. A fine time was had by all.  Friday was an early breakfast with Farah Mendlesohn, then a Locus AGM, lunch with my fabulous Solaris editor Jonathan Oliver, another podcast (this time with Graham Joyce), and the dinner with Gary, Peter, Graham, Stacie and Ben.  Saturday was breakfast with Bill & Yanni from SubPress, a podcast with Jo Walton on why C J Cherryh deserves a SFWA Grand Master Award, a panel on the best of the year, drinks with my buddy Jack, then dinner Ellen Klages, Alisa and  bunch of other pals.

By now you’re getting a feeling for it. Talking, drinking and celebrating for a week covers it. Sunday was a brief chat with Ann VanderMeer, then brunch with Liza, to talk recommended reading lists and so on, a terrific meeting with Steve Saffel from Titan, and then the WFA’s. I was delighted to see KJ Parker won, and very happy to accept on her behalf.  Dinner than night with Jack, Janeen, Dina, Joe and Gay, back at an oft-visited Indian Restaurant, before a late night in the bar.

And then it was Monday. Breakfast with Graham and Alisa (and the oft-eaten Fritata), then lunch with Rani and Gili, before heading to the airport for the long flight home.  Alisa was a terrific traveling companion and the convention itself was a delight.

Then disaster struck.  I staggered home at 3.30am on Thursday morning, tired and ready for bed. When I woke I had kid stuff to do and a tux to return, but that afternoon I decided to edit the podcasts we recorded. An ill-fated decision. During the synching process all give podcasts recorded were wiped from the iPad and the face of the Earth. That means brilliant conversations with Guy Gavriel Kay, Graham Joyce, Jo Walton, Ellen Klages & Robert Shearman, and James Blaylock & Tim Powers now only exist as sparkling, ephemeral memories.

I’m trying a last ditch recovery effort this morning, but the chances really are minimal, and I continue to struggle with my reaction to events. Why? Well, losing the podcasts was almost enough to persuade me to stop. I’m the producer/engineer, so the loss is my responsibility. I should have set up earlier and found a more rigorous way to back  recordings up (when we record at home we always do two parallel recordings, a main one and a safety, but didn’t in Toronto) from the iPad. I didn’t, and it’s both hurt Gary and I and squandered some terrific recordings.

What encourages me, though, is that those recordings were good, some of the best we’ve done. I think Gary and I are getting better at this, and I’m committed to continuing and improving. I do think I’d like to find a new producer for Coode St, so if you know anyone who’d like to volunteer for an unpaid position to work on a Hugo, BSFA, and Ditmar nominated podcast, we’d love hear from them.  But I think the best is yet to come. I want to find a new energy to expand and improve the podcast in the coming year, and with Gary on my side, I think we can.

More soon.

The days are blurring already, dear reader. I hardly mentioned to you that I am attending World Fantasy Convention in Toronto next weekend, but I am. I have a fairly busy schedule, where “schedule” means wining and dining with friends interspersed with one or two business meetings, also with friends. It’s a hard life.

Where am I now? Somewhere over the North Atlantic, about 15 minutes West of the United Kingdom, as the A380 flies. A lightning stop in Dubai, accompanied by Twelfth Planet Press publisher Alisa Krasnostein is already far behind us. We failed Dubai Tourism 101 in our 21 hours on the ground, though we did see the Burj Kalihfa through the hazy desert sky piercing the sky like Stephen King’s Dark Tower (it’s quintessentially SF close up, but mythic from a distance), and a dock full of dhows. We also tried the worst Irish pub in the world. It was a great stopover.

The flights have been terrific so far, and Emirates have impressed. The plane was 25% full out of Perth, and we have an empty seat between us here, so the long flights have been comfy. I’ve watched some movies, mostly stupid ones, and tried to do some work. Ahead lies Toronto, WFC, then home to job application hell. The end of the year is going to be insanely busy, so I intend to enjoy this.

Oh, and if you ever wondered if we live in the future, we do. Tucked Miss 11 into bed from 38,000 feet two weeks after a man dove to Earth from space like one of Heinlein’s space marines. Strange times!
Is Toronto.