Ever have one of those days where you’re busy all the time but never seem to get anything done? I’ve had a few weeks like that. Possibly because I have so many things on the go – and a day job as well – that though I chip away at each individual one I don’t actually get close to the finish on any of them. Such as…

Editing
Rocket Science – so far this has not proven as time-consuming as I had expected. But reading submissions, making decisions on them, and then replying to the writers does take time. As does posting regularly to the Rocket Science News blog.

Writing
I’m still waiting for word back on my hard sf space opera novel treatment, Hard Vacuum. That’s never much fun. Fingers crossed.

I have four stories due out in anthologies before the end of the year, or early next year:

‘Dancing the Skies’ in The Monster Book for Girls, edited by Terry Grimwood (theExaggeratedPress)
‘Wunderwaffe’ in Vivisepulture, edited by Andy Remic (Anarchy Press)
‘Far Voyager’ in Postscripts winter 2011/2012 (as yet untitled), edited by Peter Crowther and Nick Gevers (PS Publishing)
‘The Way The World Works’ in Where Are We Going?, edited by Allen Ashley (Eibonvale Press)

‘Dancing the Skies’ is the Spitfire/ATA story, for those who remember my tweets on the topic (see also here). ‘Wunderwaffe’ is about Nazi occult science – well, sort of. ‘The Way The World Works’ is the infamous bathypunk story, inspired by this. And ‘Far Voyager’ is the third in a series of stories exploring alternate histories of the Space Race. See also ‘Barker’ in the British Fantasy Society Journal Winter 2010 and ‘The Old Man of the Sea of Dreams‘.

I’m also working on a further two alt space stories, one about a mission to Mars and another sort of about the Mercury programme. Also currently being worked on is a Marxist space opera, rejoicing in the title of ‘Spatial Cultural-Historical Units of Great Importance’, which I stole from a Wikipedia article I found while reading up on on spomeniks (someone keeps on chopping and changing the articles on the monuments of the ex-Yugoslavia, which makes it difficult to link to them).

I have another anti-capitalism story – see ‘Through the Eye of a Needle‘ and ‘The Contributors‘ – that really needs revisiting as the current draft doesn’t quite work. Not to mention at least half a dozen stories in the “bottom drawer”, which will need revisiting at some point. I’m also working on a series of flash fiction pieces: the first has already been bounced by three magazines, and the second is almost ready to start sending out. I have two stories currently sitting on editors’ desks, waiting for a response. And one of these days, I really must write another Euripidean Space story – see ‘Thicker than Water‘ and ‘A Cold Dish‘.

Finally close to a final draft is the notorious moon base novella, ‘Adrift on the Sea of Rains’, which has taken humungous amounts of research – the bibliography currently stands at twenty books and five DVDs. I once described it as “Cormac McCarthy meets Neil Armstrong”, which sort of kind of maybe fits. I have another novella also plotted out, but have yet to start writing it. As soon as ‘Adrift on the Sea of Rains’ is done, I will.

Poetry
Unfortunately, I’ve let this lapse over the last few months. I really need to go back to some of the poems I posted to sferse, and see if they can be cleaned up and submitted. I think I’ll wait until Rocket Science is put to bed first, though.

Reviewing
SF Mistressworks – I’m having to chose what I read carefully since at least once or twice a month one of the books must be suitable for a review on SF Mistressworks. This is not a hardship.

Space Books – on the other hand, has not been updated in a while. I have three pieces that I need to work on for it, but have yet to squeeze in time to do so. Soon, I hope.

SFF Chronicles – I’ve posted two new reviews there recently: the excellent Solitaire by Kelley Eskridge (here), and the not-so-good Heaven’s Shadow by David S Goyer & Michael Cassutt (here). I have several other books already lined up for review there, including Engineering Infinity and Leviathan Wakes.

Interzone – every couple of months, a book drops through the letter box which I have to read for Interzone. At the moment, it’s Debris by Jo Anderton, the first of a space opera trilogy from Angry Robot. It looks quite interesting.

It Doesn’t Have To Be Right… – well, there’s this year’s reading challenge (see here), which has been going well. August’s book was Spin State by Chris Moriarty, which I thought very good. Review to appear here soon-ish. I also have a piece on Lyda Morehouse’s Resurrection Code lined up. And one of these days I really must gather together my notes on L Timmel Duchamp’s Marq’ssan Cycle and write something on the books.

It’s fortunate the day job is only four days a week, though I’m often busier on the three days I’m at home. And I do this by choice. Someone please tell me why…