Coalescent

I am leaving.

Well, not really. But from now on I will mostly be co-blogging with greengolux at the shiny new Vector editorial blog. Reviews, links and such will appear there; this journal is basically going to be a friends-only personal journal. So, if you want to keep up with the actual content, you might want to friend the lj feed, torque_control, or add this to your bloglines subscriptions if you don't have an lj.

The other thing that will appear on the blog, obviously, is information about upcoming issues of Vector, and updates to the equally shiny new Vector website (designed and built for us by claire_weaver, who deserves many thanks, and possibly an award for putting up with our many niggling comments).

For instance, at the moment we have columns by Graham Sleight, reviews by Paul Kincaid and Paul Billinger, an article about manifestos and movements by Martin Lewis, and Matt Cheney's thoughts on 2005's short fiction. More soon. Enjoy!

I don't know, you wait a month for a BSFA meeting, and then two come along at once. This evening's meeting (again, open to all, just organised by the BSFA) is back in the Star Tavern in Belgravia. The guest is Ian R. Macleod, author of The Light Ages and The House of Storms, the wonderful novella 'New Light on the Drake Equation', much else, and twice-winner of the World Fantasy Award. The interviewer is, er, me. The fun starts at 7, although plenty of people will be around before that. Come along!

N.B. Yes, it's a Tuesday not a Wednesday, for this month only, because the Clarke Award is tomorrow.

Stop! Important news!

First: James Morrow (review of The Last Witchfinder) is going to be in the UK at the end of April, and will be interviewed at a special BSFA meeting on Wednesday 19th. This will not be at the Star Tavern, but instead in the Hogshead on Dering Street: turn up from six, interview starts at seven. There's a map here; nearest tube is either Bond Street or Oxford Circus.

Note this is an additional meeting. It does not replace the normal monthly meeting, which is Ian R. Macleod interviewed by me, in the Star, the following Tuesday. As always, members and non-members are equally welcome to either or both event. Tell your friends! Bring your friends!

Second: all the nominees for the BSFA Short Fiction Award are now online. BSFA members need to cast their ballots by April 11th; Concussion members have until 6pm on April 15th; the rest of you just might want to check out what BSFA members think are the best stories of the year. They are:

• 'Bird Songs at Eventide' by Nina Allan


• 'Two Dreams on Trains' by Elizabeth Bear


• 'Bears Discover Smut' by Michael Bishop


• 'I, Robot' by Cory Doctorow


• 'Magic for Beginners' by Kelly Link


• 'Soft Apocalypse' by Will McIntosh


• 'Imagine' by Edward Morris


• 'Guadalupe and Hieronymous Bosch' by Rudy Rucker

You may now go about your business.

(Remember the days when there was actual content here, rather than just links to other stuff? Yeah, me too.)

Tonight is the monthly BSFA London Meeting. This one is going to be extra fun:

Discussion of the BSFA Best Novel Award Nominees
9tail Fox by Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Learning the World by Ken Macleod
Living Next-Door to the God of Love by Justina Robson
Air by Geoff Ryman
Accelerando by Charles Stross

led by Dan Hartland
with Liz Batty and Martin Lewis

All the coolest people are going to be there (I got bored, so I'm not linking everyone), so you know you want to come along and argue with Dan too, right? Star Tavern in Knightsbridge; starts at seven, but people will be there from about 5.30. Here's a map.

P.S. In other news, Hugo nominations discussion here.

P.P.S. Doooooom!

The shortlists are out. Discussion here.

The redesigned and much-improved BSFA website is now live. Among other things, you can now join online by paypal. (and so, among other things, make sure you'll receive Matrix and Vector).

Announcements will be made on the BSFA news community, which is copied to the website but which you may want to add to your friendslist anyway. If you're not on lj, the RSS feed for this community is here.

All credit for this redesign goes to tamaranth.

Two scottish gentlemen (waistcoats and cigarettes and all), sitting in a smokey, slightly dingy cellar bar, discussing esoteric points of philosophical, political and historical theory: it sounds almost like a scene from a Ken Macleod novel, and it almost could have been, except for the fact that the event in question was an interview of Macleod himself (introduced as 'the greatest living libertarian trotskyist science fiction author', or similar), conducted by Telegraph journalist Andrew McKie, with an attentive audience all around.

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