• Location: Kayne Crater
• Mood: productive
• Music: Brian Eno, "Julie With...."

undernearth a sky that's always falling down

So, yes. Today I can make the Second Big Announcement (you will recall Beowulf was the first). In the spring of 2008, Subterranean Press will release the 3rd edition of Tales of Pain and Wonder, as trade and limited hardbacks. I am more excited about this than I have been about any project in quite some while. The book will include all the stories, etc. from the Gauntlet (1999) and Meisha Merlin (2002) editions, plus a new story and a new author's introduction. All Richard Kirk's interior illustrations will be reprinted, and my great thanks to Rick for tracking down good scans these thirteen images, as he long ago sold the original artwork to collectors. There will be a new cover (artist to be announced). It is my intention that this will be, at last, the true definitive edition of the text, and all the horrid errors that somehow crept into the Meisha Merlin edition (despite my painstaking copyediting) will be excised.

That said, many will be asking what then is to become of my plans for a free electronic edition of the book? In short, those plans have been shelved, at least for the life of the subpress edition. In the meanwhile, I will be releasing a free electronic edition of The Dry Salvages instead, under a Creative Commons license. Regardless, my thanks to everyone who volunteered, months ago, to do the annotations for an e-version of Tales of Pain and Wonder.

Yesterday almost felt like a "normal" day. The Beowulf page proofs went back in the mail to HarperCollins (well, back in the UPS). I tried to write, and spent most of the day trying to write, but in the end scrapped everything I'd done. Sometimes that happens. I spoke with my lit agent about contracts, as we have contracts in the works for my next two novels with Penguin, the new edition of Tales of Pain and Wonder, and The Dinosaurs of Mars. We had a very good walk at sunset. The sky was filled with swallows, and when we reached Inman Park, Spooky spotted the slimmest silver-grey rind of the waxing moon, just visible in the western sky. Back home, I read more of Chris Beard's book on early primates. I napped and bathed. Later, we spent two or three hours in Second Life, erecting the glass and steel walls of the Palaeozoic Museum's atrium in New Babbage. I'll post some images here soon. It is going to be amazing. blu_muse ("Cerdwin Flanagan") dropped in while we were building, and much virtual silliness ensued. Later still, I crawled away to bed, and Spooky read me Chapter Seven of The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket, which we have long neglected (bad kids). So, yes, a "normal" day. And I even got a good night's sleep.

Spooky just returned from the p.o., and the platypus is chomping at the bit. So I will wrap this up. Oh, my thanks to everyone who bid and bought in the latest round of eBay auctions. Okay. Onward, platypus.

Postscript (3:50 p.m.): Spooky's trying to get back into the eBay habit, as the boxes of my books are beginning to take over the house (and the money's always nice). She had relisted The Five of Cups (trade hardcover, PC), along with one of my last five copies of From Weird and Distant Shores (trade hardcover, PC) and a copy of Daughter of Hounds. Regarding the latter, I have only a very few of these to sell, so there is no "buy it now" feature. All books can be signed and personalised at the buyer's request. Just click here for auctions! Thanks.