Slow Friday Morning

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Whoops! I almost forgot to blog. Above, standing in front of Philadelphia's Poe House (one of only seventeen places in four cities, if my calculations are correct, where he wrote "The Raven") are (l-r:) Laird Barron, Gregory Frost, Ellen Datlow, and John Langan. The guys all have stories in Ellen Datlow's acclaimed new anthology of original fiction Poe, and Ellen is of course Ellen.

The photo, of last Saturday's promotional event, is courtesy of the quite brilliant Kyle Cassidy.

It's a slow day. I spent the morning writing a review of TH.2058 at the Tate Modern, adding new information to my slim-book-length critical biography of Hope Mirrlees, Hope-in-the-Mist (coming this summer from Temporary Culture!), and penning a couple of one-page essays. This afternoon, I should write down my reminiscences of meeting Will Jenkins (who, writing as Murray Leinster, invented the Alternate History/Parallel Worlds story and much else as well) and then come up with something graceful to congratulate Science Fiction World on their forthcoming thirtieth anniversary.

After which I hope to get some serious writing in on the still-unnamed novel. Surplus is about to meet Anya Pepsicolova -- and this is going to be difficult to write because she still refuses to reveal her heart to me. Russians! The least obedient people on Earth.

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