Hi. No, not dead. Just busy.

The run up to the 2012-2013 Friends of the Merril Short Story Contest can take a large chunk of the blame for that. There’s quite a fair amount of prep work to be done in advance of the opening of the reading period on November 15th (see what I did there?), and along with all the other things I have to attend to on a regular basis it means that the work going on around here continues … slowly.

However, the 2012 listings are up and underway (with content and everything), and I add in bits and pieces of new information as I come across them or am notified of them. Won’t be doing the full year-to-date read throughs of all the magazines on my list for a few weeks yet (might be sooner, might be later, we shall see), but if anyone has individual information to add to the list, by all means send it and I’ll post it.

In other news (but not really), the updating of the 2011 list goes ever on, and if you have information I’ve missed why aren’t you sharing it?  No, seriously, if you have any additions to make to the 2011 list, give me a shout. And there’s a decidedly appetizing list of 2011 novels sitting on the Sunburst Awards site that I still need to sift through. All in good time …

Also, I’m beginning to suspect that there will be monthly updates on the site’s progress. This is not planned, it just makes sense given that I posted a status update in September, and I’m now posting one in October.

What can I say? The bar is set kind of low right now.

Though, speaking of bars, I will be at both World Fantasy 2012 (Nov. 1st-4th) in “Toronto”, and SFContario 3 (Nov. 9th-11th), also in Toronto – this is largely because local conventions are easier to get to (funny how that works out), and more importantly these are both my equivalent of local (one somewhat more local than the other … ) – so if you also are local, or are coming out to either of these anyway, you may feel free to avail yourself of the opportunity to seek me out and inform me, in person, of information I should add to these lists. Or just talk to me in general. Whatever.

And while I will be at other events surrounding and/or related to these conventions (related Friends of the Merril Collection events, etc.), it is worth mentioning that I will also be at the 2012 SpecFic Colloquium on Oct. 28th. If you are able to come to this you absolutely should. Robert Shearman (!) is headlining the day of lectures that will include talks by Peter Watts, Helen Marshall, Robert Runte, Scott Bakker, and Karin Lowachee. I understand there are still some tickets left, but they’ll go fast.

So, all that being said, if, as ever, you have information to be added to any of the sections of the list send me a shout. You can do so in the Comments below, or at fomsscontest@gmail.com / canspecficlist@gmail.com (this second address doesn’t seem to work for everyone – not sure why yet).

And you can probably expect another update sometime in November.