Courtesy of Tim Pratt, the latest journal meme thing where interviews are done, questions are asked. It’s kind of fun. If you want to do it, you’ve got to:

1. Leave me a comment saying, “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by asking you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your livejournal/website with the answers to the questions and leave the answers as comments here (or at least provide a pointer to your site).
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

(If by chance a bunch of people want to be interviewed, I reserve the right to only ask questions of the first two or three)

1.) What’s so bad about American coffee, anyway?

There are two different kinds of wrong with American coffee. The first kind of wrong is when the coffee is weak, watery, and tastes burnt. I’ll never forget walking through Los Angeles International Airport the first time I went to the States and seeing coffee on sale in these enormous cups, and thinking everyone must be off their heads with all of the caffeine. The second kind of wrong is when the coffee is over-done, overdecorated, all flowery and prissy. It’s all No-Carb Grande Mocha Almond Caramel Fudge Latte with a Hickory Stick. What’s with that? Can’t they just serve a simple cappuccino, latte or long black? I feel like every time I visit the US I have to relearn the coffee vocabulary just to get a flat white.

2.) I read this book one time that said Australia was a very dangerous place — poisonous snakes, lethal sea life, Prime Ministers who go swimming and disappear into the ocean. Ever had a near-deadly Australian experience?

Australia is a terrifyingly deadly place – nine of the world’s top ten most poisonous creatures live here, and dedicate their time to culling the population. That said, though I have seen enormous deadly red-back spiders and thought I’d been bitten by a horribly poisonous sea-dwelling creature when I was about eight (I hadn’t been – it was just a crab), I’ve basically gotten though unscathed. Broke my head open once, but that’s another story.

3.) Howard Waldrop vs. Joe R. Lansdale: Which is more Texan?

Lansdale hissownself. Waldrop is god, an amazing writer with a gift for constructing tales that no one would even think of, but Lansdale has the voice, the attitude, and the tall tales. The only competition would be Neal Barrett.

4.) God calls you up and asks you to edit the first annual Afterlife SF Annual, with all new stories by ten deceased SF/fantasy writers. Just name the writers, and God will get them to write something for you. Which authors do you commission?

Ooh. That’s a cool idea. The problem with compiling the book would be deciding whether you aim for a consistent, coherent book or just go for the writers you’d most love to work with, or see new work by. I think I’d probably go for the latter, because it’s too irresistible. Allowing that I could re-write this list a hundred times, I’d go with:

1. J.R.R. Tolkien
2. H.P. Lovecraft
3. Edgar Rice Burroughs
4. Cordwainer Smith
5. Robert A. Heinlein
6. Philip K. Dick
7. Theodore Sturgeon
8. Fritz Leiber
9. James Tiptree Jr
10. Avram Davidson

I think it would make for a brilliant, weird hodge-podge of a book.

5.) Name one novel, one collection, and one anthology coming out later this year that you’re really looking forward to reading.

I hate this question, hate it, hate it, hate it. I could name six novels, and five collections, and four anthologies, and not scratch the surface. I’m really eager to read The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl and Mothers and Other Monsters and too many others. But, if it has to be just one, then allowing for what I’ve already read this year, then:

Novel: The Girl in the Glass, Jeffrey Ford
Collection: Magic for Beginners, Kelly Link
Anthology: One Million Years A.D., Gardner Dozois

I noticed that over on Neil Gaiman’s journal he talks about a perfect news story, and wondered if it would seem less perfect if he knew the details of the case. The baggage handler is suspected of interfering with a passenger’s luggage by placing 4 kilos of marijuana in her luggage. The passenger is currently on trial in Indonesia and is facing the possibility of the death penalty.

Edit 13 April: In fairness to Neil, while I seem to recall news reports linking the two cases (more directly than it simply being same airport, same airline, same city etc), I can’t seem to find them online at the moment. It might be child-induced fatigue. Either way, a step back on my part. The story is funny on the surface, but at the least resonates unfortunately when more info is available.

It’s interview week over on Ben Peek’s LiveJournal. I’ve done the five questions thing, which show up pretty soon. There is also this, which is flattering and kind, and much appreciated.

44 King Street 26/03/05

Let’s ramble. Cat Sparks has put up her latest batch of Swancon photos. I hope she’ll send one of the Daikaiju launch to Locus. Sadly, the photo of me (above) is pretty much what I look like right now (note the strategically placed double-chin hiding hand). I’ve been stacking on the weight, which I can desperately ill-afford to do, so I’ve got to do something before World Fantasy or I won’t fit on the plane. I’ve also got to get refocussed on what’s important. My big mea culpa for 2005 is that I’ve hardly read anything at all. Haven’t been reading the short fiction that much, and only really looked at the books listed on the sidebar of this page. That means, from January to April, I’ve basically read some great YA fiction, a few interesting novels, a handful of stories, and watched a lot of Buffy at home. I’m hoping to use the arrival of Marianne’s mum on Saturday (she’s flying in from the US to spend three weeks visiting) to snap me out of this. Get exercising, dieting etc, and get back onto working.

And with work in mind: a new project. It’s not official (or won’t be for about a week), but I’m taking a step in the wayback machine and doing a project with an old friend that I’m really excited about. It’s a purely for the love of it job, which seems right at the moment. This doesn’t mean that I don’t love The Starry Rift, The New Space Opera, or any of the other books. It’s just different. Actually, one of the great things about blogging is that it gives me a chance to run through the things that are happening, and that makes me appreciate them more. I’m loving doing this anthology stuff. It might not last, I don’t know if it will make money, but damn it’s fun.