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Category Archives: Science fiction
Friday morning coming down
Woke to the sad news that ICFA 41 has been cancelled, that the Australian cricket team will play New Zealand will play to empty stadiums, and that the Australian F1 has been postponed. Sensible decisions all, but my thoughts go out to everyone at ICFA (for whom this could be an existential threat), to everyone who has lost money on the trip, and to all of the small business owners and staff who no doubt have lost income and possibly jobs. Strange, challenging times.
Happier news is that Kristina Ten’s story, “Tend to Me”, has been published at Lightspeed. Kris is one of the mighty Clarion West class of 2019 who have been selling stories all over the place lately and making Jack Dann and me incredibly happy.
Today is finishing binge reading the “Sean Duffy” novels, spending a little time doing some editing Miss 18 gets to work, seeing KJ for beer(!), and wondering if the world is ending. Stay safe and healthy out there, people.
Any other Thursday
Today has not been a day of focus. Woke at 4.30 am, which is becoming more and more common, and then dealt with editorial and other emails before heading to the day job which was annoying without being terrible. I have started when we’ll start coronavirus precautions but no sign yet. Lots of announcements and exhortations to wash hands, but nothing else.
This weekend will be pretty social, which is nice. Keen to undo the lack of social contact with old friends, so the weekend will kick off with seeing Keira before a Cat Valente book signing on Saturday and lunch on Sunday. I need to find some time in there to get on top of work, including reading and editing some submissions and maybe finally writing some proposals. Perhaps time to dig out the ‘to do’ software and make some lists.
I’ve actually been reading quite a bit, which you can see from my Goodreads page, but not enough SF or F really. In fact, mostly the Adrian McKinty ‘Sean Duffy’ novels James Bradley recommended during his flying visit in February. I seem to have inhaled them and am currently reading Police at the Station and They Don’t Look Friendly (another lifted Tom Waits lyric) while thinking I should be reading something else.
Two anthologies fell through my inbox this morning:Â Ann VanderMeer’s second X-Prize book, Avatars Inc., which has an impressive table of contents, and Europa28: Writing by Women on the Future of Europe, from the fabulous Comma Press, so maybe they’ll drag me back to the fantastic. Who knows?
Episode 362: The Year in Review 2019
It’s been a long time! Jonathan and Gary are together again for the first new episode of Coode Street since October!
There’s a lot to catch up on, ranging from the current climate apocalypse in Australia—and the question of whether SF has done much to prepare us for this sort of thing—to major events of 2019, such as the renaming of major awards, the dramatic growth in awareness of world SF (from Asia in particular, with important recent anthologies of Chinese, Korean, and South Asian fiction), the explosion in the market for novellas and the question of whether short fiction can be similarly profitable for writers after years of getting it for free on the web, and our own lists of major books and likely award nominees from 2019.
Our expectation and hope is that the Coode Street Podcast will return to a more or less regular schedule during the coming year, complete with brilliant guests and our own half-baked ideas and theories.
As always, we hope you enjoy the episode!
Who even blogs anymore
It’s New Year’s Eve and as a complete social failure, I’m stretching a several years-long streak of doing nothing on NYE by another year. Instead, this year I’ll drive the 18-year-old to a friend’s party, come home, and then see the new year in quietly with Marianne and Jess. I expect to do some kind of year in review blog and even to do some book stuff, but since no-one reads this thing anymore who even knows? I’ve been blogging since May 2002 and I’m not entirely sure why.
Today, so far has been a wasted say. Some 2020 reading is sitting on the coffee table, silently rebuking me for paying it so little attention, there’s stuff to do for work, and I’m not really listening to music because of my hearing these days. Fun times.