jonathanstrahan

Rain finally came to Perth this weekend, and it brought wind, hail and (relative) cold along with it.  That affected some plans. Being soft and weak, girliejones  and I cancelled our plans for a long walk and instead (sensibly) drove to a nearby cafe for a chat and general catch up.  We discussed life, conventions, science fiction, and the finer points of flop.  I then headed home, where I gathered up the family and headed out for a shopping expedition.  It went well enough, with Jessica spending some birthday money and collecting her new spectacles, while they all checked out some bling. I then dropped them home, headed over to the mecca that is JB HiFi to do some completely unnecessary shopping, and then home via the local. 

We had intended to have a few friends over on Saturday, but that didn't quite eventuate. One was sick, one wanted to stay home, and the rest of us quietly rescheduled. This meant Family Movie Night (which had transformed into Family Movie Matinee) with Beverly Hills Chihuahua went ahead early.  The rain swept in, the skys darkened and so we did what made sense. Turned on the heaters, closed the curtains, dialled out for pizza, and hunkered down. All should have been good and quiet and nice, but girl trouble followed the movie, and it took awhile for girls to get to bed.

Sadly, they significantly harshed my mellow (which with the aid of a glass of a very nice Cock + Bull Merlot was very mellow indeed), so it took some time for the evening to settle down again. Marianne and I futzed around and eventually decided to watch Flashdance, which I'd seen when I was 19 yrs old and Marianne hadn't seen at all. I think Marianne enjoyed it, but as part of my trawl through trashy movies of the 80s it was a fail.  I was bored, and after a while started chatting online rather than rely on it for entertainment.  I then headed to bed, having been unable to decide what else to watch.

And now, Sunday. It's almost breakfast time. The girls have football today, and then are most likely going to their grandma's house for a bit. Marianne has Barbie Club, so I should be home working (yes, this means you can drop in unannounced, if you read this).  What will I be doing? Well, the last 48 hours has dropped a new Elric novellete by Michael Moorcock into my inbox along with intros to two collections and a bunch of other stuff. I also need to push some contracts and copyedits out the door, so that's a possibility,  Or, if it rains, I must just play some old Simon & Garfunkel albums and read Leviathan. We'll just have to see.

PS: And yes, I couldn't get to the real blog this morning, so here's this.

The projects are blurring right now. It's 6.45am on a Monday morning in June.  My mother's seventy-one today - as full of energy and fire as she's ever been. Sophie and I went out to dinner with her and the rest of the family last night to celebrate - Jessica's been sick so she stayed home with Marianne.  I was filled with delight at Sophie's seven-year-old poise and intelligence and sense of humor, charming the family all over again, as if it were necessary.  She was smart and funny and charming, and the evening was pleasant.

I woke this morning, planning to have a quiet early coffee, maybe read a little, and work through some things I have to do.  I opened my email and there was a story submission from C.J. Cherryh. I don't know if I can articulate quite how it made me feel. I started reading Cherryh's work back in the mid-1980s, probably 1984 (25 years ago!). I dove into her work, and read it obsessively until just a two or three years ago, when life began to demand my attention more obsessively. I've loved her work, been provoked and stimulated by it, and now here I am (well, here Lou and I are <g>) with a story of hers.  I'm almost -- *almost* -- afraid to read it.  And it comes on top of some great stuff that's come in this week from Nicola Griffith (you've read Slow River, right?) , Caitlin Kiernan (you're reading her, right?), Chairman Bruce (I don't have to say it, do I?), Pat (Synners!!!), and others.  My head's turning.  All at once I'm reading, buying, and editing stories for the steampunk short book, Conquering Swords, Eclipse Three, and Subterranean.  I'm loving this!  I'll post more about some of these soon, but I'm too busy, struggling to keep track of exactly what goes where and when, but getting there.

Well, I guess this one's for everyone over at LJ who'll actually see it.  No progress on fixing the blog, mostly because I've not done much. Instead went off and saw the doctor today, to follow up last week's plumbing excursion. Having now had the all-clear on my cardiovascular system and my alimentary system -- which is good -- it seems I now need to focus on other things.  Happiness.  Still, if I can get the weight down and the stress managed, that would be good.

These are, as always, busy times at Merton Way.  While Marianne focuses on child-rearing and replacing broken toilet seats and clotheslines, I'm trying to get myself moving forward again. We have a birthday this weekend, then I'm off to Adelaide next weekend, which should be fun. Before then I have to do the editing on the review columns for what my friend Tim politely calls 'A Certain Magazine'.  I also am trying to get contracts and so on moving for the various projects,  That seems to be happening, which is good. I'm also test driving the new earphones - a bit big alas, but I'm hoping to fix that with eartips.  Will see.

In happy news, I bought a wonderful story from Ellen Kushner the other week for Eclipse Three. We've had some very interesting exchanges about the story and I'm delighted to have it. And then, yesterday, I was very excited to buy another story, this time from Nicola Griffith. I loved her book Slow River, so this was definitely a GOOD thing.  Lou and I pushed ahead with Conquering Swords, this time buying a very good new story from Tim Lebbon. We also got some very encouraging confirmations that stories are coming from C J Cherryh, Michael Moorcock, and Gene Wolfe, amongst others, which was very pleasing.  I also pushed ahead significantly with The Best of Larry Niven and Mirror Kingdoms: The Best of Peter Beagle. I seriously need to focus on a couple other projects, like the Subterranean special issue and the Best of Leiber, but was happy to make sure these were on track.

Other than that, I've been reading Joe Abercrombie's Best Served Cold - my first of Joe's books and really good (wait till you read his Conquering Swords story) - and listening to Son Volt and Beth Orton.  The weather out there is beautiful.  These are not bad days.

Well, dear readers, it seems the problems with the main blog continue. Although I've become an increasingly peripatetic blogger of late, I do want it to be functional and hopefully interesting and useful, so the fact that it's dead again is a matter of some great concern. The main problem right now, though, is that I don't really want to devote the time to fixing it. I'm trying to spend less time online right now, and more time either with the family or getting projects done. So, a quandary for the moment.

The dedblog ate several fascinating posts about the weekend, which I'm not motivated to reconstruct. Suffice to say, a good time was had by all. I spent time with the family on Saturday, did the family movie night thing, talked to Charles and had a lovely afternoon with girliejones at Mia Cafe. We chatted, we laughed - it was relaxing and fun.  Now, on to the week. We have line edits to do Lou!! And I owe you manuscripts and stuff, Bill.  And lots of other stuff. Busy busy.

This is just a quick test crosspost. Got myself a dreamwidth account - thanks Sharyn! and will now most likely go back to posting regularly at the regular places.

Well, I didn't expect to end up back here. Is there anyone out there? I think this is syndicated. Maybe. Hmm. Anyhow, something has temporarily killed the main blog at www.jonathanstrahan.com.au/wp.    Please don't give up on it, it can still come through. I'll do some database surgery tonight or tomorrow and hopefully all will be well.

In the meantime, if you spot this let me know. I have an itching to do some posting.

I don't quite know how to describe this weekend. It's supposed to be the post-craziest period in my life wind-down, where I take it wasy before heading off to WorldCon.  Instead there was a disturbing doctor's visit which has left me paranoid and completely thrown for a while.  Very scary, really.  And then the family were lovely and I got to spend some time catching up with girliejones, which was very cool.  We got to talk about short fiction, Australian SF and stuff, and I was distracted from my thoughts for a while, which was a good thing.

It was a weird weekend, tiring, disjointed and kind of unsatisfactory. I read some stories that left me completely puzzled and unsure whether I knew a good story or not, and a couple very good ones. I started Al Reynolds' Pushing Ice, but set it aside when I realised that I just wasn't ready for it. Instead, Tim emailed me The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl on Sunday morning and so far I'm about one-fifth of the way through. Very interesting book, and I'm really enjoying it. Almost certainly back to the Reynolds when I'm done, but so far it's hitting the spot.

Poor livejournal account, sitting here all unused. No way I'm ever going to use it more, because it would require more mental compartmentalisation than I'm currently capable of. If I can, though, I will try to hook up a livejournal feed for Coode St. Jeremy asked for it, so I shall obey.

Well, for some reason blogger is being difficult this morning. Don't know why, but pfeh. I feel like blogging though, so I thought I'd pop over here and babble on for a moment. I actually got some sleep last night, interrupted sleep (but over six hours of it!), so I'm feeling a bit better than yesterday.

Things here at Coode Street haven't actually been bad of late. I haven't been getting enough sleep (kids up in the night), but other than that it's good. The local convention, Swancon, was held over the Easter long weekend, and was ok. A small affair, with maybe 200 attendees, I'd guess. I always have mixed feelings about going. I have family and work commitments, but if I don't go it feels like I'm missing something (a weird kind of phantom limb syndrome). Pretty much everyone was nice, and the Swancon people were lovely, giving me my official badge for having attended 20 consecutive Swancons (gah!). I did get to see people I don't usually, had a lovely dinner on the Thursday before the convention (with Justin, Theresa, and Glenda), had an interesting lunch on Friday (with Grant, Cat, Shaun and Terry), and a fun one on Sunday (with Russell, Deb, and Liz). I think Marianne enjoyed them all too.

What else? Kim is in Japan to work, and is writing about it. We saw Shaun of the Dead on video, which was pretty good. I got a book signed by Charles de Lint. Didn't really get to talk to him, but going through the whole process reminded me how much I'd enjoyed his work over the years. Maybe I'll see him in Wisconsin for World Fantasy and talk then. And now, back to work. Life does keep keeping on.

This has been a frustrating weekend. We have a convention in town and for most of the past 20 years I've immersed myself in the whole convention experience. Now that there are kids in the equation that doesn't happen, and it's also a much smaller event. Charles de Lint is the guest, and I guess I'd really hoped to meet him, but it hasn't worked out. I got to within two people of him at a signing session, before it was ended when he had to go to a panel. sigh. I don't think I'll get back to the convention before it ends, and that means I won't meet de Lint while he's here at all. Maybe in Wisconsin.

I don't write about it much, because why bother, but this sort of thing really ties into the depressive side of my nature. I need to pep up, but pfeh.

I wanted to be able to post to some Live Journal comments fields so I created this here journal. Don't know if I'll use it much. We'll see.