prepping for reading

I've started to print out the submissions to date for the new spec fic antho, coming out in December (which means we print the book in November). I haven't read of them yet (I have to schedule time with Nikki so we can both read and deliberate) but couldn't help look at the titles and scan the first pages as my printer churned them out. Everything looks exciting - except there seems to be a dearth of scifi submissions.

Deadline is still midnight this Saturday - so where's the scifi, people?

I also have better insight into a question I asked a few years ago, when I noticed that anthos and magazines tended to have a lot of the same authors year after year, issue after issue. Take a look at S&SF and you'll note writers like Robert Reed who seem to have stories in almost every issue. Or in the Year's Best anthos where Ford, Rosenbaum, Lanagan, Gaiman, Hand and others seem to come back year after year, with new interesting stories.

Anyway, business life is rather stressful these days (my partner is off for 5 weeks in Europe and I'm running the show myself), what with multiple conflicting meetings (which would be actually be funny if I had the energy to laugh, thank goodness for Nina, my PM) and a cascade of new projects (yay, of course, but OMG just how will we do this - the solution? Hire people. Which I just did) - it will be great to read through stories to unwind.

It just occured to me now, between all the LitCrit stories each week, plus these story submissions, plus the stories I need to judge for competitions, it would seem to suggest that I ought to be jaded or worse, averse, to reading short fiction by now.

It's quite the opposite, actually. It makes me happy.