Holy crap, I accidentally Sylared Jeremy Lassen!
Here's how it went down. There was a biggish box from Night Shade Books in the post office box, and, unlike most times when there's a box of books, it was addressed to me! My immediate assumption was that Gwenda had surprise gifted me as congratulations for the Stats midterm that I aced last week by buying me the gotta-have-'em hardback Malazan novellas by Steven Erikson that Night Shade puts out.
So naturally I ripped into the box and accidentally took off the top of Jeremy's head, supervillain like. Sorry, Jeremy!
As it turned out, what was inside the book was not the novellas, but something else very, very shiny. This year, Night Shade, who, if you didn't know, are the hippest kids on the street, have launched a new series edited by Jonathan Strahan, who would be the coolest kid on Coode Street, except that I'm pretty sure Coode Street is in the middle of a desert. Or in Australia at any rate, which I believe amounts to the same thing.
The new series is The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, this is volume the first, and you can order it direct from that link or probably pretty much from anyplace that sells new American books. You can also check your local library system's website for a form for inviting suggestions for books to purchase and see if they'll buy it for you (and all your neighbors). Hell, you could do both.
I guess that I should mention that the reason they sent me copies is that my story, "Another Word For Map is Faith," is included, along with a big bunch of other stories by some very fine writers indeed. I'm on page 93, right between Ellen Klages and Margo Lanagan.
Anyway, check it out. Pretty, eh?
