Athena: (on my computer, playing a video game) Daddy, I left my pineapple juice in my room. Could you get it for me?

Me: (retrieving the pineapple juice and handing it to her) You are unbelievably spoiled, you know.

Athena: I was hoping you’d say that. That’s the image I’m going for.

Over at By The Way, the 2007 series of Author Interviews kicks off with a fun interview with Duane Swierczynski, whose latest crime novel The Blonde I enjoyed the hell out of (as you may recall). Come find out how Duane avoids crime fiction cliches, what being the editor-in-chief of the Philadelphia City Paper brings to his novel writing (and vice-versa), and why he will inevitably write a novel that takes place over the span of eight seconds. You know you want to know.

Oh, and look: Duane’s got a blog.

You know what’s fun? Reading the 10-Qs of cereal manufacturing companies. That’s fun. Crispy, golden flakes of fun. Yum.

Having said that, apparently you can make a lot of money selling corn flakes (and other cereals). Maybe it’s not a cutting-edge industry, but hey. People gotta eat.

I’m reading the 10-Qs as research for a magazine article I’m writing, incidentally. I’m not the sort of fellow who reads quarterly financial statements from major companies just because they’re entertaining.

For those of you with a science fiction bent, the Nebula Long List has been announced; from these ten books (and varying numbers of short fiction), the short list will be formed, after which the authors can truly call themselves Nebula nominees. For now, they can say “Dude! I’m on the Nebula long list!” I’m happy to say a number of my pals have hit the long lists. Yay! I have talented friends! I’ll especially note Toby Buckell, who’s on the Novel prelim list for his debut novel Crystal Rain, which is a nice feather in his cap.

The preliminary Norton award list (that’s SFWA’s award for YA novels) is particularly interesting, because it’s entirely made up of Scott Westerfeld and Justine Larbalestier novels, and I of course approve of that. Scott and Justine also now go down in history as the first married couple to have simultaneous appearances on a Norton list of any sort. I should note that (if memory serves) this year there is also a married couple in which both spouses are on the Nebula long list (although unlike Scott and Justine, not in the same category); I wonder how often that happens. I can’t imagine it happens often.

I have some structural grumbles with the Nebulas in general, none of which have anything to do with the fabulous writing that gets nominated, but I’ll save those grumbles for when the final slate of nominees is announced. In the meantime, congratulations to all the folks on the long list.

Also in the last week, the nominees for the Philip K. Dick Award (which focuses on new SF originally published in paperback) were announced, and I’m pleased to say they include Mark Budz, whom I interviewed recently, and also Elizabeth Bear, who is continuing her conquest of all known forms of writing. This is a reminder to you all that Bear’s novella “Lucifugous” is continuing its serialization at the Subterranean site — it’s up to Chapter Seven or thereabouts. You could be reading it right this very instant.