As I’ve largely been on web mail this last couple of weeks, blogging has had to take a back seat, especially as the new issue of The Specusphere goes live on Tuesday and I've been nose-down-tail-up with writing and editing. In this issue you’ll find over a dozen reviews, including one of Dreaming Down Under, a new anthology of Australian short spec-fic edited by the inimitable Jack Dann. There are interviews with several prominent spec-fic authors, too, including Glenda Larke, Alison Goodman and Alistair Reynolds.

I’m currently house-sitting for my friend Juliet, who has temporarily abandoned her lovely old cottage in Guildford (site of one of the earliest settlements in Western Australia) in favour of a tour of the Baltic countries. Now a suburb of Perth, Guildford snuggles within an elbow on the Swan River so it’s almost an island. Having so much water around has given the town its own micro-climate. Oak trees, for example, do not generally grow well in this part of the world, but I came across quite an impressive little stand of them while walking the dogs by the river.

Three dogs and a cat share this house with me. One dog is on loan from a pet rescue centre and I admire Juliet for taking on such a task. It is hard to have a temporary pet, knowing that if you send it back to the shelter it stands a pretty good chance of being put down. I don’t think anyone will be putting Sarah down, though. She’s a Bichon Frise; a fluffball with a cuteness factor that’s off the top of the scale. Being old and almost blind doesn’t stop her trying to lord it over the two resident dogs, both of whom are bigger than she is. In fact, she’s almost got Outlaw the Kelpie bluffed into giving up his bed for her when she growls.

All the dogs, however, give Sonia the Cat a wide berth. Sonia is a law unto herself and will take any bed she chooses, knowing that a smart swat on the nose will send any dog whimpering away. She’s a tortie-and-white long hair. They are not, in my experience, usually so pretty, but Sonia, being a lady of a certain age and an aristocrat to boot, knows that she needs to take care of herself properly. She seldom needs grooming because she does such a good job of it without assistance from human hands, and she sports a magnificent tri-colour ruff that would put Queen Elizabeth the First to shame. I’ll try to get a photo of Sonia for next time I post.