As promised, here’s the table of contents for Wings of Fire, the mammoth reprint anthology of dragon stories that Marianne and I delivered to Night Shade Books recently. There’s a lot of feverish work going on in the background so this book can make it’s late-April print date and June pub date, but we’re very happy with the final book. You can pre-order it now, should you be so-inclined. [Please note: the cover at right is not final.  The image is – and it’s awesome – but author names and editor credits etc need to be updated.]

Wings of Fire
Jonathan Strahan and Marianne S. Jablon eds.

Introduction, Jonathan Strahan and Marianne S. Jablon

1. Stable of Dragons [poem], Peter S. Beagle
2. The Rule of Names, Ursula Le Guin
3. The Ice Dragon, George RR Martin
4. Sobek [original to the book], Holly Black
5. King Dragon, Michael Swanwick
6. The Laily Worm, Nina Kiriki Hoffman
7. The Harrowing of the Dragon of Hoarsbreath , Patricia A McKillip
8. The Bully and the Beast, Orson Scott Card
9. Concerto Accademico, Barry Malzberg
10. The Dragon’s Boy, Jane Yolen
11. The Miracle Aquilina [original to the book], Margo Lanagan
12. Orm the Beautiful, Elizabeth Bear
13. Weyr Search, Anne McCaffrey
14. Paper Dragons, James P Blaylock
15. Dragon’s Gate, Pat Murphy
16. In Autumn, A White Dragon Looks Over The Wide River, Naomi Novik
17. St Dragon and the George, Gordon R. Dickson
18. The Silver Dragon, Elizabeth A. Lynn
19. The Dragons of Summer Gulch, Robert Reed
20. Berlin, Charles de Lint
21. Draco, Draco, Tanith Lee
22. The Dragon on the Bookshelf, Harlan Ellison & Robert Silverberg
23. Gwydion and the Dragon, C.J. Cherryh
24. The George Business, Roger Zelazny
25. Dragon’s Fin Soup, S.P Somtow
26. The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule, Lucius Shepard

I’ve not posted about this book much of late (well, I’ve not posted that much of late), but Jack Dann and I have, along with the good folk at HarperSydney been putting the finishing touches on LEGENDS OF AUSTRALIAN FANTASY.  We’ve just got the final cover in from Greg Bridges, and it’s a peach. The book features some terrific stories by some of Australia’s best known fantasy writers and will be out in June 2010.  The table of contents for the book is:

Introduction: Homegrown Legends, Jonathan Strahan and Jack Dann

1. To Hold the Bridge: An Old Kingdom Story, Garth Nix
2. The Mad Apprentice: A Black Magician Story, Trudi Canavan
3. ’Twixt Firelight and Water: A Tale of Sevenwaters, Juliet Marillier
4. The Dark Road: An Obernewtyn Story, Isobelle Carmody
5. Crown of Rowan: A Tale of Thrysland, Kim Wilkins
6. The Spark (A Romance in Four Acts): A Tale of the Change, Sean Williams
7. The Corsers’ Hinge: A Lamplighter Tale, D M Cornish
8. Tribute to Hell: A Tale of the Tainted Realm, Ian Irvine
9. A Captain of the Gate, John Birmingham
10. The Magic Word, Jennifer Fallon
11. The Enchanted: A Tale of Erith, Cecilia Dart-Thornton

About the Editors

I also note that, over at the Subterranean site, they mention that stocks are running low on Mirror Kingdoms: The Best of Peter Beagle and that they expect to be sold out on publication. If you’re interested in this book (and I can’t wait to see my copies) then order now!  Subterranean often don’t reprint books so this may be your only chance.  I also see that they’re taking pre-orders on the other Beagle project I edited, “Return“.  The book edition of this looks very handsome and worth ordering too.

I have been lax in updating you all on various projects of mine that are slowly wending their way to publication. Last year I spent some time working with Walter Jon Williams editing his new collection, The Green Leopard Plague and Other Stories.  I’ve loved Walter’s work for a long time, and was fortunate enough to get to publish several of his stories in anthologies I’ve worked.  The brief for this book was simply to collect Walter’s best recent work, and the book does that. Of course, that means you have some of the best short fiction written in the field in the past five years or so.  And all with a spiffy introduction by Charlie Stross.  It ships April, and if you order it right now you can get a 50% discount I believe.

The last week or three has been a little frustrating.  As I’ve mentioned here, I’ve been struck by some kind of vertigo-related inner-ear condition that has been a constant pest for three weeks and, on a couple of occasions, has pretty much completely knocked me out.  Last Wednesday, and again this, I was struck by intense vertigo, cold sweats, soaring levels of tinnitus, and convulsive vomiting. Not so nice. I’ve seen doctors on both occasions, and we’re slowly working out possibilities on what might be the cause. Viral infections seem out, as does fluid on the ear etc.  We’ve considered Meniere’s Disease, which isn’t out of the picture, but seems long odds. The latest candidate is some kind of benign positional vertigo (or something that sounded like that when the doctor told me yesterday).  Whatever it is, it pretty much wipes me out for the day, and I suffer a kind of hangover the following day where I’m worn out and a bit dubious health-wise. I do feel on the mend, though. My right ear feels as good as it has at any point in the past three weeks, but I’m not through whatever this is yet.  If it doesn’t clear up in the next week though I’m off to an ENT doctor quick-smart.

Why am I telling you this? Partly because I’d like to apologise for any delays in correspondence anyone dealing with me may be experiencing, partly because this is my blog and I’m allowed to whine if I want to (I checked, it’s in the blogging terms and conditions). I do know there are people out there with a lot of serious medical problems, and I’m not equating my position to theirs: I’m just not really very well right now.