Today was supposed to be dad-and-daughter adventure day, but it didn’t quite work out that way. My beloved is away for the weekend, and it falls to me to take care of the girls and to find things to do that would be fun. Well, I’d thought it would be a great idea to go to the zoo and had recruited a willing uncle to go along. While Jessica, Sophie and I were up and packed early, and had practised for the zoo by stalking around the family room crying out “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” – we know our WizWoz here – the travel group had grown somewhat to encompass granma and some visiting relatives.

Now, these were very welcome folk and lots of good fun, but the dynamic changed. Instead of being a small group of hit-and-run adventurers with the flexibility to disappear home at the first sign of a droopy eyelid, we were tourists. We did see tigers, giraffess, elephants having a bath (which made a big impression on Sophie), monkeys and all kinds of other cool stuff, and go on cool old carousel, but it took five hours or so on warm day. By the end of it Jess (4) and Sophie (3) were too pooped to pop, and things were a little cranky at home. Still, they’re in bed now, I just watched When Harry Met Sally for the 451st time, and am now listening to the Jon Butler Trio cd I picked up on Friday, which is pretty cool, and will probably fade off to bed soon. No idea what we’re going to do tomorrow, but hey, that’s another day. I gotta read some SF and write some proposals soon!

Oh, and a sincere congrats to Terry Dowling. Good reading is found on SciFiction every week, but you should check out his story “Clownette”, which will be over there on December 15. Cool stuff.

I heard a while ago that Rob Gerrand, who among many other things was a partner in Norstrilia Press, was to edit a retrospective collection of Australian science fiction. This struck me then, and strikes me now, as both an interesting and a good thing. For some reason, though, I had the impression that the book was coming out in 2005, but word reached me today that it would be out before Christmas.

The book is called The Best Australian Science Fiction Writing: A Fifty Year Collection, and is published by Black Inc, who do a number of ‘year’s best’ type projects in Australia. According to the PR material I’ve seen so far, it includes stories by Jack Dann, A. Bertram Chandler, Sean McMullen, Peter Carey, Greg Egan, Philippa Maddern, Norma Hemming, George Tuner, Jack Wodhams, David Lake, Erle Cox, Lucy Sussex, Randal Flynn, John Baxter, Frank Bryning and others. When I have a full listing I’ll post it here, but till then you can see the PR material on the Pan Macmillan website,

I’ve read enough Australian science fiction, and been involved in the field long enough, to be fascinated in what choices Gerrand makes and why. It’s the kind of book that I wish well, and want to be terribly successful. I also like it because it becomes a talking point. I can imagine a number of conversations at conventions and similar places that will start with “he chose that Dowling story, and not that one!” and continue from there. The one thing I hope Gerrand didn’t do, though, is try to avoid famous stories. There’s nothing worse than a best of that avoids the best stories because they’re familiar or easily accessible. Kind of kills the point. I’ll post more here when I have it.

On a more typical note for this blog, it’s been a minor (well, very minor actually) ambition of mine to attend both a World Fantasy Convention and a World SF Convention in the same year. I’d been holding out hopes for 2006, with Melbourne bidding for the WFC that year. News to hand (well, just noticed by me, actually) reveals that the 2006 convention will be held in Austin, Texas, which I am sure will be spiffy. That means the ’06 conventions are WorldCon in Los Angeles (armpit of the Western world) and WFC in Austin. I imagine I’ll be in Texas in October, and should have a great time. As to ’07, I almost certainly won’t attend the WorldCon in Japan, so I’m hoping for somewhere wonderfully exotic for WFC that year. At this rate, though, I doubt I’ll make both in a single year during this decade. We’ll have to see.

Blogs always tempt rash, ill-considered comments. I’ve certainly done that, here and elsewhere, and up to a point I accept that as what happens. I do, however, want to make a serious point about the recent US election.

I have read a lot of comments from despairing American citizens who are struggling to come to terms with the results of yesterday’s election. After all, by any measure it is an overwhelming endorsement of President Bush and his policies. I’m struggling too, but I would encourage those people not to despair. Why? Because the rest of the world needs you, each and every one of you. Again, why?

Well, writing as someone living outside the United States, it feels very much like we non-Americans are at your nation’s mercy. Your nation overwhelms us with cultural exports, influences our domestic politics, dominates our economies, and invades us when, and as, it sees fit.

Realistically, the only protection we have is a sane American electorate, a body of voters who will eventually turn back the political tide. Sure, it is possible to talk about historical precedents for the rest of the world eventually rising up and overthrowing nations that act the way the United States is currently acting, but that is unlikely, violent and too long term. The best solution is for American citizens who want a better life for themselves, their children, and for the rest of the world to appreciate that they can still make a difference, they can still organise and vote. We cannot not, and we need you to do it.

My colleague at Locus, Rich Horton, is a far more productive soul than I. In addition to all of the many things he does, Rich writes ‘year in review’ overviews for most of the major magazines in the field each year. He’s just started posting them to his newsgroup, and so far he’s written about Asimov’s, Analog, and F&SF.

For what it’s worth, I found myself agreeing with Rich about Asimov’s, especially his comments about the novella length fiction, not quite as sure about F&SF (I think it had a very good year, but not quite as good as Rich did), and less convinced about Analog. Actually, to clarify about F&SF, I thought that Sci Fiction was the best magazine in the field in 2004, but I would say that F&SF was the best print magazine in the field.