Locus Recommended Reading, Poll, and More!

The Locus Recommended Reading list for books and stories from 2004 is up at the website, as is a form for Locus Poll and Survey, which you should fill out.

Thanks to bribery and blackmail, I have secured an unedited transcript of the interview with Neil Gaiman that appears in the February Locus, and I was surprised to see that the editors cut out a section that goes a long way toward explaining Neil's stance in the cover photo:
I've always had an interest in the decathlon, actually, but the only event of it that I've ever excelled at is discus throwing. My record so far is 113 feet, 2 inches, but I still practice a lot, whenever I can. In fact, something people generally don't know is that there is a lost Sandman story, and the whole thing revolves around discus throwing. I wasn't ever able to fit this particular episode into the whole frame of the Sandman, though, so it's still unpublished. I told Dave McKean we should do a children's book about discus throwing, because it's really good exercise, and what with all those kids hurting themselves on broomsticks after reading Harry Potter, I think it's the responsibility of fantasy writers to ground the sports they write about in actual, real activities, rather than things like flying broomsticks, because, okay, sure you can pull a muscle throwing a discus or even dislocate your shoulder, but those are minor injuries compared to the kind of groin trouble kids are causing themselves these days with brooms. But Dave's not convinced. Tori Amos has gotten quite interested in discus throwing recently, though, and she's thnking of making it a part of her concerts....

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