I found out this week that a story of mine has been included in the recommended reading list in 'The Year's Best Australian SF & Fantasy, Two'.

You could go to http://www.tabula-rasa.info/MirrorDanse/YearsBest2005.html if you wanted to check it out. Shane Cummings (CS05 buddy) has a story on the reading list as does Chris Barnes (fellow Thorbite). I was absolutely chuffed to get a mention.

Rju (also CS05) has a story re-published - so he's a bit of star! Well done Rju.

Also from a recent Outcast review by Lee Battersby

Susan Wardle’s “Things of Beauty” is a marked improvement (on the previous story): a fantasy tale of Fagin-like dimensions that attempts a moral underpinning to its cast of misbegotten street urchins. Like Fagin and The Artful Dodger, the lead characters are sympathetic and even likeable, especially when drawn against the shadowy and repressive society through which they slide and skulk. Like many stories in the collection I felt the ending trailed away slightly into simple wish fulfilment, but this was an engaging and sprightly story with a backdrop that deserves revisiting.

I dreamed that the world was invaded by E.Ts. A rain of them from the heavens, all with hand grenades in their mouths.

Thank God they all landed in that big aquarium. It made it so much easier for us earth types (along with the midgets and the mutants) to fight the damn things.

In other news I've noticed that it's much easier to get out of my office than in. To get in one needs a security card. To get out one just needs to go. What kind of message does that send?

On God....

I was walking down the street the other night and I passed a woman talking on a mobile phone. I couldn't help but overhear her saying 'I'm standing right outside your house.'

She was standing outside a church. How do I get me one of those phones?