And so to bed...

Another issue of Æon SF put to bed, and this one was like a three-year-old after a cotton candy and three rides on the roller-coaster; for a while there we didn’t think it was going anywhere. It just stood there screaming, and we wished we were three so we could scream, too. I’ve spent the last few weeks trying to keep my brains from leaking out my ears, and I can’t imagine what the Seattle crew must’ve been going through. It’s a relief, I can tell you. Now go out and buy a copy. It’s a brilliant issue – our seventh – and has a wonderful Alan M. Clark cover and lots of superb stories and articles and columns and poems.

I’m pretty sure we decided on quarterly publication because it was so long between issues, but it doesn’t seem that long anymore, and now it’s time to finalize the contents of the next one. But first, a day off. Maybe two.

I remember the days when I could put in seven 16-hour days a week for weeks on end before hitting a wall. We were building a publishing company from scratch with no experience but lots of ideas, most of which turned out to be surprisingly good ones. I think Æon was the most brilliant one of all, but by the time it came along I was finding 12-hour days plenty of work for anyone, and allowing myself a lot more downtime. Lately I’ve almost forgotten how to spell downtime, but I think I can just about remember again if someone will write it down for me. My next communication will treat on some delightful feature or other of England’s teeming capital city. I have a list.