First, some sadness/frustration: Cheryl Morgan, three-time Hugo award winner, non-fiction editor for Clarkesworld magazine, and an all-around terrific person, was denied entry to the US yesterday and deported back to the UK. As she explains in her blog, it seems to have been the result of an idiotic bureaucratic snafu completely beyond her control – and yet, it’s likely she’ll never be allowed a visa to return to the US. This will also almost certainly make Cheryl’s participation in SFF fandom incredibly difficult, since her ability to travel has been crippled (not just to the US). Cheryl has been a friend and a great supporter of CG, contributing to the LGBTQ issue and aiding us with blog posts, retweets, advice and overall awesomeness. Unfortunately it seems like there isn’t anything we can do to help her, but we’ll keep our ears open just in case.

Now some happier news: Barbara Ann Wright’s short story Damaged On Every Level, which first appeared in Crossed Genres issue 11, was included in the Tangent Online 2009 Recommended Reading list! Congratulations to Barbara for the well-deserved recognition.

As I mentioned on Wednesday, Kay and I decided to turn over the operation of our erotic SFF zine The Little Death of Crossed Genres. With all the various projects we have, there just wasn’t any way we could give it the attention it needed and deserved. Fortunately, Jaym Gates and Chris Fletcher agreed to take over as co-editors! We’re very thrilled to have Jaym and Chris aboard, and we expect they’ll have Little Death chugging along in no time.

The print edition of Issue 17 is just about complete. I’m just waiting on a couple of print-ready photos that we’re including with the non-fiction article in the issue. After that I’ll be able to finalize it and submit it to the publisher immediately. The digital editions are in a similar place – I need the photos before I can get them any further along. Still, we’re in a good place with the issue.

And it’s a good thing, because the 2nd half of March is going to be mad – MAD I say! Why? Well I can’t tell you yet, but the big announcement is coming next Sunday the 21st. We’ll be at Vericon in Cambridge, MA that weekend – anyone who’s around should come, it’s a really fun convention! Any con that has Timothy Zahn and Randall Munroe as their two main speakers has gotta be good! (We’ve been the previous two years, so we know for a fact that it’s a fun con.) Find us at Vericon and mention that you saw this post, and we might just give you a free copy of the Crossed Genres anthology!

WE NEED SUBMISSIONS! The Eastern issue has received frighteningly few submissions… and for some reason a number of them have not been set in Eastern cultures like the guidelines say. Please send in your Eastern submissions, and spread the word that we’re in real need!

Meanwhile our latest endeavor, the Science in My Fiction blog, has been developing well. There are four posts up so far, which have spurred some great discussions – everything from dolphins-as-persons to quantum mechanics to the significance of water in spec-fic writing. Go take a read, and join the fun!

Post title is from “Leaving On A Jet Plane” by John Denver