Sunday morning in Cardiff
zorinth has gone up to Lancaster. I haven't heard anything, but if he hadn't arrived, I expect I would have. AM and I went to Hay yesterday, where I (inevitably) bought some books.

I hear rumours that the September issue of Asimov's is out, with my "Cendrillon at Sunset" poem. This marks my first appearance in a Big Three SF magazine, partly because I never write short things, and partly because even when I do, I hate printing things out. Anyway, it's cool. It's silly to kind of miss the instant gratification of seeing it and being able to link to it that I get with Lone Star Stories.

The Best of Baen's Universe book is definitely out, with my short story "What Would Sam Spade Do?" aka the Jesus clone story. I haven't seen this either, but rysmiel assures me that I have copies at home.

And a Farthing review here and an interesting discussion on Farthing and why it's easier to write negative alternate histories than positive ones here. (Of course, it's easier to write negative anything than positive, for the same reason it's easier to criticise than help.) This leads me of course to the inevitable necessary fixing of Half a Crown I'll have to do when I get home and can't do until then... I've been reading all the comments, and some of them will have to be acted on.

Meanwhile, because I've been missing spaceships recently, a cheerful positive SF sonnet:

Down there the planet in its skim of sky
Wavers and wobbles round its long ellipse.
Secured in sunlight, safe gravity grips,
Life thrives and strives to crawl and swim and fly.
Up here the stars stand sharp, their distant dance
The fire of suns burned cold, and very far.
Life keeps between ruled lines, no error bar,
Bound, limited, and never left to chance.
But Earth must mind her place, and we fly free.
Here life spreads out where life has never been,
Through thin steel shells, against necessity.
We'll see the sights no eye has seen.
We'll roam the cosmos, learn what we can be,
And one day make another planet green.