This coming May the incredible team at Rebellion Publishing will release my next book, Someone in Time: Tales of Timecrossed Romance. It’s a collection of stories about love and romance through time, inspired by some of my favourite stories.

The table of contents is below. You can pre-order the paperback here and the ebook here.

Even time can’t unravel love

Time-travel is a way for writers to play with history and imagine
different futures – for better, or worse.

When romance is thrown into the mix, time-travel becomes a passionate tool, or heart-breaking weapon. A time agent in the 22nd century puts their whole mission at risk when they fall in love with  the wrong person. No matter which part of history a man visits, he  cannot not escape his ex. A woman is desperately in love with the time-space continuum, but it doesn’t love her back. As time passes and falls apart, a time-traveller must say goodbye to their soulmate.

With stories from best-selling and award-winning authors such as Seanan McGuire, Alix E. Harrow and Nina Allan, this anthology gives a taste for the rich treasure trove of stories we can imagine with love, loss and reunion across time and space.

Including stories by: Alix E. Harrow, Zen Cho, Seanan McGuire,  Sarah Gailey, Jeffrey Ford, Nina Allan, Elizabeth Hand, Lavanya Lakshminarayan, Catherynne M. Valente, Sam J. Miller, Rowan  Coleman, Margo Lanagan, Sameem Siddiqui, Theodora Goss, Carrie Vaughn, & Ellen Klages.

Introduction, Jonathan Strahan
Roadside Attraction, Alix E. Harrow
The Past Life Reconstruction Service, Zen Cho
First Aid, Seanan McGuire
I Remember Satellites, Sarah Gailey
The Golden Hour, Jeffrey Ford
The Lichens, Nina Allan
Kronia, Elizabeth Hand (classic reprint)
Bergamot and Vetiver, Lavanya Lakshminarayan
The Difference Between Love and Time, Catherynne M. Valente
Unbashed, or: Jackson, Whose Cowardice Tore a Hole in the Chronoverse, Sam J. Miller
Romance: Historical, Rowan Coleman
The Place of all the Souls, Margo Lanagan
Timed Obsolescence, Sameem Siddiqui
A Letter to Merlin, Theodora Goss
Dead Poets, Carrie Vaughn
Time Gypsy, Ellen Klages (classic reprint)

Following on from the award-winning success of The Book of Dragons, Harper Voyager will publish an exciting new anthology, The Book of Witches, edited by Jonathan Strahan in the Fall of 2023. Like The Book of Dragons, The Book of Witches will be a big, inclusive, illustrated anthology of fiction and poetry, this time looking at “witches” (more specifically your witch and what it means to you).

So far writers who have agreed to contribute to the book include Linda Addison, S.A. Chakraborty, Zen Cho, P. Djèlí Clark, Indrapramit Das, Amal El Mohtar, Andrea Hairston, Millie Ho, Nalo Hopkinson, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Cassandra Khaw, Fonda Lee, Darcie Little Badger, Ken Liu, Karen Lord, Usman T. Malik, Tochi Onyebuchi, C.L. Polk, Rebecca Roanhorse, Kelly Robson, Angela Slatter, Rivers Solomon, Andrea Stewart, Sheree Renée Thomas, and Tade Thompson, and we are reserving up to three spots in the final book for new BIPOC writers.

If you are a BIPOC* writer – regardless of whether you’re widely published or just starting out – and would like to see your work appear in a major anthology like The Book of Witches, we’d love to hear from you. Just check out the submissions guidelines below and send us your story.

* Black, Indigenous, and other People of Colour

Guidelines for open submissions

• Submissions must not have been previously published in any form, whether by digital-only publisher, traditional publisher, or self-published.
• Submissions must be in English and be between 1500 and 6000 wordsin length.
• Submissions must be in a standard word processor format (MS Word or similar). No PDFs.
• Submissions should be accompanied by a short author bio (no more than 200 wds). You are welcome but not required to share any identity information which you would like to share. This information will not be published without consultation with you.
• Agented submissions are welcome, but agents are not required. If you do have an agent you should indicate so with your submission and provide contact information for their representatives.
• Submissions will open on Monday, 14 March 2022and close at 5pm Australian Western Standard Time on Friday, 18 March 2022.
• Submissions should be sent to thebookofwitches@gmail.com 
• You will be contacted ONLY if your submission is accepted for inclusion. All responses will be sent no later than Saturday, 30 April 2022.
• Simultaneous submissions are acceptable. Please do not send multiple submissions.
• Payment will be a minimum 8cpw and we will be looking for World rights to the story in English and foreign languages for print, ebook, and non-dramatic audio (ie standard audiobook), as part of the anthology only. This will be exclusive for a period of eighteen months from first publication of the book.

2021 was a year. COVID played hell with production and publication, and things that might have succeeded didn’t. That impacted books of mine, like 2020s Made to Order, and it means books that I had hoped would come out in 2021 did not.

Still, it was a busy year and with the end of the year it’s time for an eligibility post.  During 2021 I was lucky enough to work on what I think are some really excellent works of fiction that are worthy of your awards consideration.

It was a year when I edited one anthology (one other got delayed), seven of the 19 novellas published by Tordocom during the year (and there could have been more), nine of Tor.com’s short stories, and acted as reviews editor for Locus for the 19th consecutive year.

As a podcaster, I think 2021 was a move back to normal life, with just over 26 episodes published during the year, after the rather wonderful madness of our 150+ Ten Minutes with… episodes . We did win a Hugo for the podcast, which was lovely.

Fiction edited in 2021

Anthologies

• The Year’s Best Science Fiction Vol 2: The Saga Anthology of SF 2021 (Saga)

Novellas

• Fireheart Tiger, Aliette de Bodard, Tordotcom
• The Album of Doctor Moreau, Daryl Gregory, Tordotcom
• Inside Man, K J Parker, Tordotcom
• The Past is Red, Catherynne M. Valente, Tordotcom
• In the Watchful City, S. Qiouyi Lu, 2021, Tordotcom
• Comfort Me With Apples, Catherynne M. Valente, Tordotcom
• A Spindle Splintered, Alix E. Harrow, Tordotcom

Novelette

• “The Red Mother” by Elizabeth Bear
• “Questions Asked in the Belly of the World” by A. T. Greenblatt
• #Spring Love, #Pichal Pairi” by Usman T. Malik
• “Judge Dee and the Poisoner of Montmartre” by Lavie Tidhar
• “Judge Dee and the Three Deaths of Count Werdenfels” by Lavie Tidhar

Short story

• “The Station of the Twelfth” by Chaz Brenchley
• “Let All the Children Boogie” by Sam J. Miller
• “Annie Without Crow” by Michael Swanwick
• “Small Monsters” by E. Lily Yu

Editor, Short-Form (Hugos)/Professional Achievement (WFA)

• Jonathan Strahan (The Year’s Best Science Fiction: Volume 2; seven Tordotcom novellas;  nine Tor.com stories;  Locus [reviews editor]

Best Fancast/Podcast

• The Coode Street Podcast [28 episodes] [co-hosted with Gary K. Wolfe.]

I hope you’ll consider supporting the talented people that I’ve worked with during the year.

What a discombobulated day today has been. This is the fourth day of painting, the second day staying in a hotel, and the second day off work. All is in chaos, though that overstates it. The painting looks great, but smells less great. The mess is all-pervasive because there’s painting done here and there, and the re-ordering will go on for some time, but it’ll have been worth it. Especially if we can get phase 2 and 3 under way. That’ll be up to me and Marianne, because it involves both deciding on a patio option and hoping we can get it done before the summer, and deciding on colours and designs for the family room. Essential, though.

If we can do this, it’ll be a big step forward.  In the meantime, I’m not reading at all beyond a submission or two. I have done a pile of edits, which are good, but have paperwork to do, which is less good. And I’m hoping to steer us through to other side and to some relative calm.

All in all, the second year of the latest pandemic has been hard, but having set aside any plans at all for travel makes it easier to focus on other plans, I suppose. So it goes.

Well, it’s a week of upset and change here. We’ve basically neglected most basic change and maintenance at home since we moved in, way back in 2002, and it’s past time for that to end. So this week we have a painter in the house – just a bedroom, the bathroom, and some ceilings.

The “some ceilings” part seems to have necessitated a lot of crap being moved around and looked at a second time, which is good, but disruptive. Especially since, due to some small leaks (now patched), they need sealant and oil-based paint. So for the next couple of days, we’ll be doing our best to avoid paint fumes while Gwen-the-Cat takes  a break elsewhere.

This should disrupt the rest of the week, while I try to attend to edits, copyedits, and book pitches. Hopefully, we’ll get some carpet down in the painted bedroom too, then everything needs to be put back, and we move on the phase 2.

Yup, renos and upgrades are turning this into the MRU – Merton Renovation Universe. First, this painting and bedroom. Next, a new patio. Then a refit of the family room and hallway. Hopefully by December. And then on, next year, into bathroom and kitchen. Should see the house totally refreshed by this time next year, depending on our tolerance for chaos and near bankruptcy.

Still, needs to be done. Haven’t been reading this past few days and no idea if I will over the next few. Still, we’ll find out.