Pornokitsch

On Saturday, I achieved some sort of impossible life dream when I got to be a guest on Mahvesh Murad's "89 Chapters" program on CityFM89. We chatted about books, blogging, awards, mummies and all sorts of fun things (per usual, her questions were better than my answers). In an attempt to alienate her loyal listeners, Mahvesh let me choose the show's playlist. My taste being what it is, I may have just done irreversible damage to US/Pakistan relations. (Sorry.)

The program is up here. (Also, check out her amazing interviews with Joey Hi-Fi, Jenni Fagan, Naheed Hassan, Growly Benjamin Percy and many, many others!)

Submissions - we're still looking for contributions to three different books:

Pandemonium: The Rite of Spring (Deadline: 15 December) - short-short fiction set in 1913, part of the shared world of Pandemonium (but that shouldn't throw up too many problems - see the brief), etc. Please feel free to spread the word to your writerly friends.

Irregularity (Deadline: 7 November) - "Age of Reason"-punk, I suppose. 1660 - 1860, in partnership with the National Maritime Museum. The curator of next year's exhibition on Longitude has put up a helpful blog post about this, plus there's a hefty brief. It is a tricky topic but there's lots of wonderful inspiration out there - good luck!

Speculative Fiction 2013 (Deadline: January) - It is worth flagging up that submissions are open for the year's best online reviews and essays. I spoke to Ana, one of this year's editors, recently, and she said they've been getting tons of stuff, but they need more, especially with new people, new voices, new facets of genre fiction. Don't be shy about nominating your own best work, plus those of others!

Selling out (in a good way):

The Book of the Dead limited edition is down to the last few copies - if you want one, you'll need to grab yours through Spacewitch in a hurry.

Four answers to questions that have come up:

• If you're coming to the launch, you can reserve your copy through Spacewitch and pick it up on the night (and save on shipping - there's a "Reserve" option at checkout).
• Also we'll have "external" signing sheets, one for each book, so you can collect signatures (if you're so inclined) without breaking open the mummified book. (If you're not interested in signatures, think of it as a bonus limited edition print.)
• And there will be books for sale on the evening - the paperbacks of both The Book of the Dead and Unearthed, plus whatever copies of the limited edition remain.
• Costumes not necessary, but we certainly won't discourage them. My suggestion is "Egyptological flair", which you can interpret however you like (within the bounds of good taste, of course). It promises to be a great evening.

Get your copy here. Details of the launch party are here.

And, finally, the Secret Histories event with Tim Powers, Lavie Tidhar and Kate Griffin is down to a handful of tickets. This is going to be a full house - and I, for one, look forward to watching Anne wrangle three of SF/F's most phenomenally brilliant (and outspoken) authors.

Book here. (The £3 ticket includes a coupon that's good on the evening!)