There was a bandwidth issue with the domain that result in the site being knocked out from about 2am – 9am Perth time. My apologies to anyone trying to get to the blog, or to the podcast.  We’re back and all should be fine now.

It’s getting towards that time. If WorldCon were being held anywhere else in the world I’d be rushing around checking my bags, my passport, my clothes, my carry-on, my schedule etc etc, and getting ready for WorldCon.

Usually I’d be aiming to fly to Oakland some time in the week before the convention so I could have a chunk of time with Charles, before heading to the convention. The last time I did, or will, do that was for Denvention in late July 2008 (see earlier post). We had enormous fun, and I sold three books to Jeremy Lassen over beer on Charles’ back deck.  This time is so different.

Everything seems calm. There are five of us going to WorldCon – Marianne, Jessica, Sophie, my mother (!!), and me. It should be fun, even if a completely different kind of fun.  We’ll do stuff, see friends, and try to balance our social schedules for the five days we’re there. It’s likely to be a bit crazy, but also excellent. I can barely believe, though, that it’s only fourteen days.

Once we get back from Aussiecon I’ll make my final, final decision about Columbus and World Fantasy. Right now I’d say I’m at 10% for going/90% for skipping this year, but anything could happen.  If I don’t go this year, I’ll definitely attend the Reno WorldCon (Charles did ask me to go), and the San Diego World Fantasy next year, so it would be a win of sorts.

Other than that, my apologies for the delays with the podcast. It normally comes out Sunday, but we’ve been delayed by some issues, but hope to have something up shortly.

I’ve been meaning to do this for my own reference for a while. Mark Kelly at Locus Online publishes the annual Locus Recommended Reading Lists each year, and I’m always having to search for them. So, here’s a list:

• 2009 Recommended Reading
• 2008 Recommended Reading
• 2007 Recommended Reading
• 2006 Recommended Reading
• 2005 Recommended Reading
• 2004 Recommended Reading
• 2003 Recommended Reading
• 2002 Recommended Reading
• 2001 Recommended Reading
• 2000 Recommended Reading

You can look at is a Locus Recommends the 1st Decade of the 21st Century.

So I have the office iPad at home for the weekend again, and I find myself still in the like-not-love stage with it. The keyboard is ok, but I find myself not really wanting to type too much with it, and every now and then I come across something in flash, which it won’t play with, which is a nuisance. Still, it is pretty. If I owned the iPad I’d persist, but having the luxury to occasionally pla means I do just that. I may fall in love, but not yet.

In other news, had a nice day yesterday. Got out and socialised a bit, which I needed. Saw Alisa for lunch, then the dinner gang evening. Today is podcasting, column edits, and proposal sort of stuff. I’m behind, but still swinging.

I’m sitting on my patio at my sister’s patio table, which we are housesitting (erm….tablesitting?) till she returns from her sojourn to Melbourne. She left for three years a couple weeks ago, so it’ll be here a while.  It’s been a bright, sunny winter’s day, but the sun is going down and it’s slowly turning colder. The Bureau says it’s about sixteen degrees centigrade.

I’m sitting out here, drinking beer and goofing off on the internet while Jessica (aged 10) sits beside me and doesn’t write in her diary. I think she wants to write in it, but she struggles with her writing and with getting her ideas down.  She still loves the idea of it, though.  Marianne and Sophie (aged almost-9) are both off on a walk with some of Sophie’s friends, so it’s quiet here.

I’m drinking beer because all of the preparations for Aussiecon 4 are weighing on me a little.  While I usually do these things solo, this time I’m taking a whole caravanserai of family to the big event.  This is a good thing, but I’m sufficiently immature that I feel responsible for everyone’s good time.  What are we going to do? How far from everything is the venue? And so on and so on.

I’m also, I confess, in something of a down-cycle confidence-wise. Today has for me been driven by self-doubt, worry that the publishing cycle may finally be ready to pass me by and so on.  The evidence for this, the driving motivators are sleight, and I’m sure the people around me would be surprised that I see it that way. I think everyone else thinks I think I’m more successful than I think I am, which is probably way too circuitous a construction. Still, I’ve always tried to let the work speak for itself (perhaps not the most 21st C sort of thought).

Where are things at and how do I feel about them? Well, Life on Mars, Engineering Infinity and Godlike Machines are all in and done (for variations of ‘done’). I think they’re all good books. Strong stories from good writers.  I’m not sure which the world will love the most, but they all have strengths.  I’m currently tussling with Under My Hat and Eclipse Four, and on the cusp with both the year’s best and a couple other things.  I’m probably most confident about ‘Hat’ and most worried about the year’s best, but they’ll all come out in the end.

So why the crisis of confidence? No real reason. I think I need to spin some ideas, see some people and just move through the conversation that is the field in flux. Maybe, for all of it’s accompanying issues, I really need the upcoming con. Flush the cylinders a bit, get back on track. We’ll see.