'...the pleasure of storytelling is palpable.'

So says Delia Falconer in the Australian this morning, of Yellowcake.

...the overwhelming strength of Lanagan's writing is its pungent physicality. Like good animation, these stories are feats of magical imagining that live through their precise feel for objects' movement and weight. In 'Night of the Firstlings'...the mephitic wind that kills the unprotected first-born brings death with all its terror and smells, while the Red Sea parts to reveal an uneven and terrifyingly naked ocean floor.

That's nice, eh?

I'm up to my ears re-revising the selkie novel at the moment, so haven't got a lot to say—except, hey, writing is hard, but fun, but maddening, but so satisfying when it's going well (as it sometimes is). I will come up for air in May to go to New Zealand, and preparations are also in train for the Clarion West trip in June and July.

I hope you're all sleeping well, eating lots of fresh food, and finding plenty of good reading, online and elsewhere.