I’m delighted to hear that Karen Joy Fowler’s wonderful story “The Pelican Bar” has won the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Short Story. It was one of the highlights of Eclipse Three, and a real joy to publish.
Other winners included Victor LaValle, Nick Antosca, Stephen King, Robert Shearman, Kevin Wilson, and Ellen Datlow. Sincere congratulations to them all.
Gary Wolfe checks in from Readercon in Burlingham MA and brings guests Elizabeth Hand and Peter Straub to the table. This time we discuss:
We hope you enjoy it as always and will see you next weekend!
A little bit late, for which all apologies, a second instalment in the “Books I’m Looking Forward to” series of podcasts. I look at July and discuss:
Had a good party last night. The eight of us – my mother, brother, sister, her partner, Marianne, the girls and I – all headed to my mother’s place for a farewell dinner for my sister Barbara and her partner Bec, who are moving to Melbourne tomorrow. As I said yesterday, we’re a small group, so it’ll make a huge difference, but we ate and drank and enjoyed each other’s company one last time for a while. It was a good thing to do, and for some reason the cold, rainy evening held at bay outside made the perfect backdrop.
I meant to read when I got home, but we were in late and it took a while to get the girls into bed, so I goofed around on the web a little, then slept, if a little fitfully. It’s a rainy morning here now and I’m sitting in my front room and listening to a little more of the Neko Case. I have some things to do and some things I’d like to do today, so I’m not sure what will get done. Sophie’s got a playdate at 1pm, which sort of sits bang in the middle of lunch and such, but I’d like to get down to Mt Lawley if I can, maybe stop in to Planet or something like that, grab a coffee – who knows?
There is a podcast to do, and I’m waiting to hear from Gary on that. There might be a special guest – Gary’s at Readercon and I told him to surprise me – so we’ll see how that goes. That’s the only solid commitment. Still the day awaits. I’m going to approach it slowly.
Strange but productive day here in the chilly Far West. Spent part of the morning breakfasting and blogging, then left the still-in-pajamas family to head out for a reconnoitre at JB HiFi. Came home with Neko Case’s Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (playing for the first time as I write) and Richard and Linda Thompson’s Pour Down the Silver. I did look for some Ray Lamontagne, after watching him on Spectacle, but that was to no avail. Brought some lunch home for the mini-horde, and then worked on Engineering Infinity. It’s basically complete. I have other work to do related to the project, and one more look over it tomorrow before I send it in to the publisher — I’m waiting on a comment from Marianne and am messing about with a couple minor details – but it’s basically done, which is very pleasing. Before anyone asks, I won’t be releasing the table of contents before the manuscript is accepted by the publisher and I get a go ahead from them. This could take some weeks. However, the moment I have the go ahead and hopefully a near-final or final cover, I’ll get the information here.
This evening we’re off to my mum’s house for a farewell party for my sister and her partner. They’re moving to Melbourne for three years, which means apart from Aussiecon, we won’t be seeing them much, which is an enormous thing because we’re a very small but very close family. Christmas is going to be a small affair, but I’m happy for them. It should be a great experience.