Every Saturday or Sunday morning for the best part of seven years I would call Charles Brown in Oakland. The ostensible reason was to discuss reviews editing for Locus, something we did discuss.  We would talk about events of interest in the field, books we were interested in, books he had that I’d not seen yet, and books that we loved.  Again and again we’d circle around, discussing this and that: our mutual admiration for Citizen of the Galaxy, our love for the novels of  Tim Powers, and many, many other things. One book that came up again and again was The Past Through Tomorrow,  which collects Robert A. Heinlein’s ‘Future History’ stories.  It’s an essential book, a fascinating book, and one that we both loved.  When I was in Oakland I’d amuse Charles by admiring this signed first edition, and bemoan the fact that I only have a dog-eared old NEL paperback of the book. I’d hoped that the Virginia Edition might offer some good options, but that doesn’t seem like a good option. And now I’m thinking, I just might have to fork over a couple hundred bucks and get myself a first edition. If there’s a copy in the World Fantasy dealer’s room, I just might come home significantly poorer. I think I might need it.

There’s a lot of good free reading out there on the web.  Lots of people, especially the good folk at SF Signal, provide links to a lot of it.  Two stood out for me today.  Some years back I spent a very pleasant afternoon at Charles Brown’s house, chatting with Robert Jordan and his wife Harriet.  Jordan was funny, humble, and truly gentlemanly that day, where he spent some time talking about the final Wheel of Time book that he was about to write.  Tor.com have just posted the first chapter of that novel, as envisaged by Jordan and completed by Brandon Sanderson.  You can read it here.

At the same time, the incredibly awesome Scott Lynch (who has a story in Swords and Dark Magic!) is giving his readers something to tide them over till his next book – a new novel you can read online for free!!!  It’s called Queen of the Iron Sands, a pulp SF adventure set on Mars.  I should totally ask him to write me a Mars story!

What else? I read Holly Black’s terrific “The Coldest Girl in Cold Town” the other day, and followed it with Pat Cadigan’s story in Poe. Someone somewhere should do a collection of her short stuff.  Speaking of shorts, btw, I’m finally getting to work on The Best of Kim Stanley Robinson.  I’ve been dawdling and delaying because of deadlines, but I’m delighted to finally be moving this one forward.

It’s the second day of September here in cold and rainy Perth, Western Australia.  It is, nominally at least, Spring. Nothing’s springing outside though, and I’m doing my best to pay NO ATTENTION at all to how late we are in the year.   Yesterday Terry Dowling and I delivered Hard Luck Diggings, the fourth volume of Jack Vance’s work that we’ve co-edited, to Bill Shafer at Subterranean Press. It’s basically a collection of Vance’s earlier works, some a bit rougher round the edges and some not often collected.  It was fun to do, and there’s some possibility we made do another.

Delivering that book, however, hasn’t made much of a dent in the ‘to do’ list, which still includes delivering Swords and Dark Magic (the book that was Conquering Swords) and Legends of Australian Fantasy to two very patient publishers, completing that special issue of Subterranean Online , signing off on the ToCs for The Best of Fritz Leiber and Wings of Fire, following up Life on Mars and Engineering Infinity, and getting started (!) on the Robinson and Haldeman books. Busy busy. And it’s time to get some Locus editing done, with the year in review coming up in the background like a freight train, and to continue (hah!) reading for The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume 4.  Oh, and there’s the steampunk book. Need to find a replacement lead writer for it. Yay!

Still, you know, that paragraph tells you how things are going here.  Yes, it’s 7am on a cold, rainy Wednesday morning.  Yes, I’m at the office getting ready for work on the day job.  Yes, the house needs organised and the car needs replaced. Yes, I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed. But. But. I’m working. Things are good. I need to back the pace off a little (which I’ve said I’d do before) so that I can enjoy it more, but when I get to think about it I enjoy what I’m doing.   Shortly, when I get my head clear, I’m going to send out those invites for Eclipse Four and if neither of the two proposals I have in development sell, I might just leave post-Easter next year as only having that book and the year’s best to do. It might be a good survival mechanism.  We’ll see.

I bought a Sony Reader last year. It’s not a perfect device, in truth. The screen could be bigger, the software could be more intuitive, it could have backlighting, and it could even incorporate other functionality like holding all of my portable music etc, but it’s mostly been a good and faithful device.

So, how have I used this new piece of hardware? Well, I’ve not bought an e-book, even though I’ve had it for a year. I can’t imagine that I’ll ever want to do that, though it could happen.  No. I use my reader to read manuscripts of magazines, anthologies, collections and such that I need to read for the ‘year’s best’, or to preview novels that are going to be reviewed for Locus. It’s light and flexible and the screen is quite readable. It also doesn’t strain my eyes the way a computer monitor does.

I’ve used the Reader on planes, in airports, in cafes, restaurants and wherever. In fact, mostly I use it when I’m away from home. When I look back, I used to get on to planes with an absurd amount of carry-on. I’d have CD players, cds, headphones, magazines, printed manuscripts and at least three or four books.  My carry-on was *heavy*. Now it’s not. I’ve got an iPod, a pair of noise reducing headphones, and the Reader.  What else could I need?

Now, I’ve seen some folk around and about declaring that the arrival of eBook readers is the death of the printed book, or some such. I just don’t see what ever happening. I have a Reader, but I love printed books. Lovelovelove them. I recently started buying the Subterranean editions of the Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg just because they’re so damned handsome.  Same for their Powers’ books. And, damn it, if Subterranean were doing the complete Heinlein library instead of the Virginia Edition people I’d be buying those too.

My own feeling is that eBooks and printed books do not make some kind of either/or equation. You can have both. Last year I bought a brand new valve amplifier and accompanying high end cd player, and am currently lusting after speakers to make the system complete. There’s nothing like being in a room with a great sound system playing wonderful music. But.  I have an iPod. It goes everywhere with me. Wouldn’t be without it. It’s my portable music fix. I want BOTH.  And it’s the same with eBooks and printed books. I want both.  Actually, what I’d love is if print book publishers gave away the eBook with the print edition. That would be cool.

Oh, and a last note. I’m jonesing to see what the Apple tablet iPod is like. It could be the answer.

I was awakened at about 7.15am on Sunday by the two balls of joy.  Well, one.  Jessica was up first. I used the early start to get organised for futbol practice. Breakfast was made, girls prepped etc, and then we picked up my mother, who was spending some time at our place while we were out.  Futbol was fine, though I noted my own continued reluctance to refer to WorldCon or World Fantasy as science fiction conventions when talking to non-SF folk.  They’re all “publishing conferences” or some such. I guess I just don’t want them picturing me in a Star Trek t-shirt or a propellor beanie, neither of which I own (or have any problem with).  Something I need to think on.

After that, it was back to the house, pick up mum and Marianne and head off for dim sum.  Jessica was in a odd mood – angry and aggressive  – which was unpleasant and concerning. Something for parents to work on.  We had a pleasant lunch, then home.  I headed off and picked up Marianne’s re-tooled PC, along with Gordon, who helped install it.  There’s still considerable network rationalisation to be done here at Merton Way, though I’m not sure when, and Marianne noted it was slower than her old PC, which was less than good. Still, we’re moving forward.  Next steps: kids’ PC, network rationalisation, and such.

Once the PC was settled, I grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down to read. I don’t really know why – perhaps because I was reading up about the well-intentioned but ill-fated ‘Virginia Edition’ of the collected works of Robert A. Heinlein – but I picked up Citizen of the Galaxy for the first time in 20 years, or more likely 30 years when I think on it.  The story of Thorby Baslim picked me up in a way that re-trying Glory Road a few years back did not.  There’s both a real driving narrative in place and a lack of datedness.  There are a few things that seem ‘period’ – the types of technology mentioned etc – but this is a 52 year old book and it still seemed pretty fresh to me.  I’m half way through, so I’ll see how it continues.

As to today: a return to the international repository of joy (aka ‘the day job’) is on the cards, and fine.  For all the occasional grumbling, it’s a good job with a better bunch of people.