"We've got a schedule to keep."

Earl Bassett: We gotta run. We've got a schedule to keep.
Valentine McKee: Yeah. See, we plan ahead, that way we don't do anything right now. Earl explained it to me.

- Tremors

As we edge up on our wedding date, it's obvious that  Karli and I have chosen Tremor's Earl and Valentine, two of the great minds of the 20th century, as our spirit animals.*  With nine days to go, all of the large planning tasks are long since taken care of, and we have a rapidly shrinking list of minor things that had to be left until more or less the last minute.

And yes, I am counting down the days in happy anticipation of being married to Karli.  I feel that the people who are describing this as "my last days as a free man" suffer from a fundamental lack of understanding about the nature of our relationship, if not relationships in general.

- Sid

* My apologies for cultural appropriation.

Truer words.

As a bit of an introvert myself, I have never heard a better description of the role that science fiction plays in my life.

And thanks to Karli for another great pin!

- Sid

P.S. We are sorry to hear that Jasmine, the owner of My Cat Is People, has recently lost her cat person Mickey.  It's sad, they leave such a big hole in our lives when they're gone...

Science fiction. Fantasy. The universe. And related subjects.

We are an odd rocket, veering our way through a universe full of epic fantasy rereads, lists featuring our favorite musical horse videos, deep dives into the history of military fantasy, nakedly open personal essays, Game of Thrones recaps, rankings of the kloo horn players in Star Wars, and more. How do you contain that into a singular voice?

We needn't have worried.

In my eagerness to post about my friend Joe's Apollo 11 gift, I have been remiss in not acknowledging - and celebrating - the 10th anniversary of tor.com, which also took place on July 20th.

I can't remember what originally prompted me to join the Tor Books mailing list - I suspect it was a link on one of the geek news sites that I sometimes visit.  Regardless, it was well worth the click of a mouse and a typed e-mail address. The tor.com site, represented by its mascot, Stubby the Rocket, has proven to be a valued source of genre news updates, excellent free short fiction by both established and new authors, and well-written and thought-provoking opinion pieces from the tor.com staff.

The opinion postings are perhaps the best part of the site. They're thoughtful, well-informed, personal, passionate, but most of all, concerned.  Concerned with the state of the genre, concerned with where it's been and where it's going, concerned with questions of race, gender and hierarchy in science fiction, fantasy and horror, concerned with the roles played by people of colour, women and LGBT characters, concerned with how genre writing has dealt with these characters over time, and concerned with how they will deal with them going forward - pivotal questions for both creators and fans at this point in time.

Obviously they're a bit partisan in promoting their own publications, but for the most part I've been pleased with the Tor books that I've purchased. Tor has a well established track record in the genre which is reflected in their professional recognition:  as of 2015, Tor became the most nominated and awarded publisher in the science fiction, fantasy and horror field, with a March 2018 score of 579 nominations and 111 wins.  As an example, looking at the 2018 Hugo Award nominees, eight of the 24 nominated novels, novellas, novelettes and short stories are from Tor, twice as many as any other publisher.*

In conclusion, congratulations to the tor.com team, please keep doing what you're doing, and here's to the next ten years.  Or ten thousand, after all, science fiction should always look to the future.

- Sid

P.S. If you'd like to sign up for their newsletter - which I strongly recommend -  visit:

https://read.macmillan.com/tordotcom/newsletter-signup/

* They did better in 2017, 13 out of 24.