Power at Clarkesworld HQ is still out. Last night, the cold drove us to make a hasty retreat to my parent’s house, which only regained power yesterday. The slushpile is backing up and I apologize for the delays, but they are inevitable at this point. Some of you might wait a whole week. 🙂

After several months of health-related distractions, it was a real pleasure to spend the weekend in Toronto while attending the World Fantasy Convention. I have to give a big thanks to Lisa for letting me go and to Kate Baker for driving us (Genevieve Valentine and I) up there. It wouldn’t have been possible any other way. The drive up and back was much longer than I ever like to be in a car, but time just flew. It’s rare for me to be anywhere with people that share common interests and musical tastes, so it worked out wonderfully. Along the way, we saw a tornado made of birds and Niagra Falls (Canadian side).

The Con itself was also great. My panel on ebooks was on Friday, so I was able to enjoy a mostly obligation free weekend the rest of the time. Sean offered some space for the Clarkesworld chapbooks on his table in the Dealer’s room, so I hung out there a lot and spoke with a lot of people. Among the Clarkesworld authors I ran into there were E. Lily Yu, Suzanne Church, Mari Ness, Cat Rambo, Holly Phillips, Lavie Tidhar, Tony Pi, Brenda Cooper, Aliette de Bodard, Mary Robinette Kowal, and (of course) Genevieve Valentine. The chapbooks attracted some nice attention and sold well. If I could have fit more in my bag, those probably would have sold too. Several people asked me about print subscriptions, but the cost of mailing creates some pricing concerns. One of the things we may do is offer a subscription plan that bundles issues together in quarterly bundles. I’ll start making copies and bundles available for sale on the website once we get power back at the house.

As you know, Kate, Cheryl, Sean and I were up for a World Fantasy Award this past weekend. We were hoping that the third time would be the charm, but it wasn’t to be. We lost to Tartarus Press (who claimed their third win). I have to admit to being somewhat disappointed, even though I never expected to win. (Heck, I never expect to be nominated. This is still a very surreal experience for me.) Thanks to the judges and voters for thinking us worthy of being nominated!