I thought I would get something useful done – at least get some reading done – but this week has been a bleurgh. After my previous Covid post I had a few pretty unpleasant moments, but everything now is similar to a mild-ish case of the flu.
I still am yet to decide about voting. I may call today. Who knows?
I have now completed reviewing submissions for The Book of Witches. There were some wonderful stories sent to me, and after a lot of thought and angst, I was able to winnow them down to a final list of three.
I’ve written to the writers of those stories and am waiting to finalise agreements with them. I’m not sure when we’ll announce what those stories were, but I’m very happy to have them in the book.
I have also received a number of queries from writers about the status of their stories, mostly because of updates published here saying I was running behind. Although it was not my initial plan to do so, I’ve now written to almost everyone updating them on the status of their stories.
I really didn’t seriously think I was going to get COVID anytime soon. Most of the people around me weren’t getting it, and it felt a bit distant. Then the youngest came up with a positive test last week. She went off to hide in her room, and we started being super careful about masking and such.
And then on Saturday I began to feel a bit unwell. Not terribly unwell, but a bit. I took a test. The result was negative. I went about my business, while masking everywhere I went. That night I woke up coughing and took another test. Weird ambivalent result. Took two more over the next hour — clearly negative.
The next morning I had errands to run so I took another RAT. Negative. The weird test result bothered me, though, so even though I’d had three negative test results in a row, off I went to get a PCR test. I then went home to self-quarantine until I got the results. Got the results on Monday — positive. I think technically the 7am Saturday test was positive, looking back at the photo (luckily I was isolating and masking), so I’m just trying to work out when I’ll get out of quarantine – seven days from Saturday or Sunday. The main issue is voting. Need to get out and vote and play my part in kicking the current government to the curb.
PS: On day four of my COVID, so far the symptoms have been fairly mild. Fingers crossed that holds up, and that Marianne doesn’t get it too.
Earlier this week, we were all stunned by the news of the tragic death of World Fantasy Life Achievement Award winner Patricia McKillip, whose luminous works have influenced and moved generations of readers and writers for nearly half a century.
Jonathan and Gary are joined by McKillip’s longtime friend, Ellen Kushner, herself a winner of World Fantasy, Locus, and Mythopoeic Awards, and by Campbell Award winner E. Lily Yu, We talk some about Pat’s personal modesty and sharp wit, but mostly about her astonishing body of work, not only in fantasy but (as Lily points out) in her less familiar forays into SF. Like all tributes, it’s probably inadequate to the work, but it’s deeply felt by all of us.
Thank you again to everyone who submitted work to the open reading period for The Book of Witches. My apologies for taking so long to respond to everyone. I have now written to all of the writers whose stories sadly did not make the book. There were so many of them, and they were all great, but now have a final shortlist.
I will be spending the weekend cutting the final shortlist down to the final group of three or so stories, and those writers will hear from me by Monday. I can tell you that the stories on the shortlist are terrific and I’m confident The Book of Witches is going to be fantastic.