Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house, there was plenty of stirring, it scared off the mouse! Children were giggling, parents were wrapping, food it was bubbling, and no-one was napping! Presents were ready, children were too – it seemed it was Christmas, though it looked like a zoo!

Hope you and yours have a special, wonderful holiday season. We don’t mind if you’re naughty, we don’t mind if you’re nice, we just hope you’re having fun, and most of all that you’re safe. See you in the New Year!

It seems every time I pick up a newspaper or look at a news website human researchers have made another breakthrough in improving the health of mice. Following on from recent news that researchers had cured Alzheimer’s in mice, I now hear that a vaccine against heart disease is on the horizon. Cool.

Mark Kelly points out that Margo Lanagan is interviewed over at Arte Six, which is a cool thing. You should go read the interview and the book excerpt. I was particularly pleased to hear that she’s “nearly finished first-drafting the stories in the next collection, Red Jam, which is very much the same type of science fiction/fantasy/horror mix as White Time and Black Juice.” She also mentions that “I’m also rewriting the first novel of a YA fantasy quartet, which I hope to complete the remaining three volumes of in 2005.” Definitely happy-making news. If Lanagan isn’t the next big thing, there ain’t no justice in the world.

Sometimes your interests push up against the edges of what the world is willing to permit. In this case, my interest in a new James Blaylock novel. Over on the Blaylock forum they mention that he has finished a young adult sequel to The Digging Leviathan, and enjoyed writing it so much he is working on another. Both books are unsold. By rough count it’s been about four hundred years since the last Blaylock novel was published. Enough already! Cry mercy, give us surcease. Won’t someone publish it?

It is Christmas (well, almost) – something Elizabeth Hand seems to know pretty well. She has just written an interesting piece for the Washington Post. More importantly, and even more interestingly, a couple years back she wrote one of the best Christmas stories I’ve read in a long time. It should be a book. Oh, and as Matt Cheney points out, China Mieville has written one too.