Well, I have just emailed the signed PDF of the relevant section of the contract to my agent (it’s the 21st Century here in Perth), so I guess it’s true.  I have committed to edit the next two volumes in The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year series for Night Shade Books. This means I’m reading stories published in 2011 for the book to appear in March 2012 (Vol. 6) and will read 2012 stories for the 2013 volumes (Vol. 7).

I have to say I’m delighted to get to continue working with Jason, Jeremy, Ross and the team at Night Shade. They’ve been fantastic collaborators on this project since we started work on the first volume back in mid-2006, and I look forward to continuing the series for many years to come.

This coming weekend Gary Wolfe and I will celebrate the first anniversary of The Coode Street Podcast, which we launched here on May 8, 2010 with very little forethought or preparation.  It’s proven to be a weekly pleasure for us both, discussing the literature we love and interacting with the growing Coode St community.

When we realised the anniversary was coming up we planned to do all sorts of things, but as is pretty much our trademark, we haven’t quite gotten to it. We still might. But in the interim, should you be motivated please feel free to leave any questions or subjects you might like us to discuss, or just birthday wishes, in the comments thread to this post.

And, importantly, thank you to all of you who have listened, commented, or guested on the podcast.  We’re looking forward Coode St Year 2.0 already.

For those of you not in the know, Eclipse Four hit the bookstore shelves over the long weekend and to celebrate Gregory Wilson and Brad Beaulieu I have been looking at the book in great podcasty detail.

It started a few weeks ago when:

• they spoke to Kij Johnson about her writing;
• then they reviewed the book; and
• finally they interviewed me!

Coming up next time will be a discussion with Jim Kelly and Mike Swanwick about their stories from the book.

I’m really grateful to Gregory and Brad for doing this, even if I’ve been too much of a coward to listen to the review :)