Yesterday was, as Shaun himself said, a bit surreal.  As everyone knows, he and the team who worked on his short film The Lost Thing, won the Academy Award for best animated short film of the year.  I can’t speak for anyone else, but I was literally shaking when I watched his acceptance speech at work yesterday. It was stunning, unbelievable, amazing and everything else that everyone has said.  Inari looked stunning, he was poised and classy.  The only thing it wasn’t was surprising.

I first saw Shaun’s art when he asked if we were looking for artists for Eidolon back in about 1992. He went on to be our art editor for most of the ’90s, and we stayed friends. I’d visit him in Farnley Street and see the work he was doing, and like everyone else, followed his books. I remember seeing the initial work done for The Lost Thing, uncolored and untextured tests he showed me in hotel rooms at different World Fantasy Conventions around the US and if, at any time since I first met him you’d said he would one day hold up an Oscar, I don’t think I’d have been surprised.  A lot of hard work, an enormous talent, and above all an incredible personal vision all lead to what happened in LA yesterday. It wasn’t really surprising at all. Wonderful, yes. Definitely.  And to think, he’s still only 37. I wonder what he’ll do in the next 10 or 15 years. I can’t wait to see. Congratulations, my friend! Well deserved.

It’s a podcasting Sunday morning.  I’ve been awake for a little while, and shortly I’ll do the breakfast thing before firing up Skype and connecting with Gary and today’s special guest.  I think we’ll be talking about the state of book publishing/book selling, entry books for science fiction readers, and some other cool things, but I don’t really know. Gary and I determinedly keep it casual, so mostly we’ll likely just chat.

Today will very much be a work day. If the timing’s right I’ll go swimming with the girls, but then I need to get on with taxes, editing and other stuff. I have a story ms. that popped through my mail to read, proposals to turn around, and general prep.  Busy, busy.  We did have a lovely visit from Robin and Toula last night, and that gave the weekend some shine. Much better than sitting around watching TV.

I should likely report in on what I’ve been reading, but that continues to be all over the place. I’m going back and forth between Garth Nix & Sean Williams’ Troubletwisters and Michael Swanwick’s Dancing with Bears, two very different novels that I’m enjoying for very different reasons, while alternately being engaged and annoyed by a bunch of anthologies. Busy times!

Well, since I’m working on the copyedits with the authors, it must be okay to release the table of contents for Eclipse Four. There were all sorts of dramas, but I’m very pleased with the end result. The final ToC is:

Introduction, Jonathan Strahan
“Slow as a Bullet”, Andy Duncan
“Tidal Forces”, Caitlin R. Kiernan
“The Beancounter’s Cat”, Damien Broderick
“Story Kit”, Kij Johnson
“The Man in Grey”, Michael Swanwick
“Old Habits”, Nalo Hopkinson
“The Vicar of Mars”, Gwyneth Jones
“Fields of Gold”, Rachel Swirsky
“Thought Experiment”, Eileen Gunn
“The Double of My Double Is Not My Double”, Jeffrey Ford
“Nine Muses”, Emma Bull
“Dying Young”, Peter M Ball
“The Panda Coin”, Jo Walton
“Tourists”, James Patrick Kelly

You can see the subtle but classy cover (and incidentally pre-order the book) over here. I should also add that I am already reading the first stories for Eclipse Five (heck, I’ve bought one!)

To say that I’m both gobsmacked and delighted to report that The Coode Street Podcast has been nominated for the BSFA Award for Best Non-Fiction (full shortlist here) hardly begins to touch on my reaction.

Gary and I started recording the podcast very much on the spur of the moment, and have kept it very simple and straightforward which in turn helps to keep it fun. And it is fun. Getting nominated for an award for it is a little like being nominated for going on holidays, really.

I’ve not had the chance to talk to Gary about the nomination, but no doubt we will do so this weekend. Until then, my thanks (and I’m very sure Gary’s too) to the BSFA and my congratulations to our fellow nominees, Paul, Abigail, Adam and Francis.  I wish I could be at Eastercon to buy you all a drink to celebrate!