In ancient days (last October, that is), I teased, just a tad, in Of world-shaking events, about my then recently delivered Mars-centric novel. I still can't offer a release date -- the publishing process, alas, takes time. But here's one bit of progress. I have the final (versus, merely a working) title.
So: you may want to look forward to Life and Death on Mars. Meanwhile, be thankful you're not my protagonist ...Wednesday, February 1, 2023
Monday, January 9, 2023
SF antho with a twist
I'm ambivalent about theme anthologies. They can be great -- but limited to a specific topic, all too often an antho's stories, however excellent individually, begin to blur.
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Looking for a great SF antho? Check these out |
Whether your taste runs to hard SF or soft, horror or fantasy, IMO you're apt to find much you'll enjoy in this series. I certainly have, for three anthos running.
(Obligatory disclaimer: I was recently a guest on the podcast. If the series continues long enough, well, I might have a story in it, too. If so, I'll be in good company.)
Saturday, December 31, 2022
Ending the Year with a Big(gish) Bang
(Small detail: as I type, only Amazon offerings have appeared. I'm assured the remaining ebook formats will have percolated to other sites and ebook formats within a few days.)
The three reissued books being ...
Thursday, December 22, 2022
A gem of an anniversary
This month, IEEE (the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, of which I am a longtime member) is observing a milestone we should all be honoring: the 75th -- diamond -- anniversary of the transistor.
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Cover art, December 2022 IEEE Spectrum |
The Intel 4004 microprocessor, introduced in 1971, had about 2300 transistors. Today's Intel i9 processors have more than three billion.
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One snapshot of progress |
Beyond general admiration for what this industry has accomplished, and the related industries (including, certainly, anything to do with the Internet), I feel a personal affinity.
- As a teen in the Sixties, I marveled at the first truly portable personal music device, that wonder of the age: the transistor radio.
- In university classes and summer jobs, I studied and experimented with the first, primitive integrated circuits. (Oh, the terror when, on a college summer job, I accidentally fried an op-amp chip costing $50! Much inflation later, op amps cost ... a few pennies each.)
- My first job out of university was at Bell Labs, where the transistor was invented. My first assignment there dealt with upgrading telephone switching equipment (specialized, ultra-reliable computers) from magnetic memory to semiconductor (i.e., transistor-based) memory.
- In succeeding assignments and at succeeding employers, I moved with industry from mainframes to minis to micros, and to ever more capable microprocessor families.
Now try to imagine what marvels new versions of the transistor will enable by the device's 100th anniversary. I, for one, can't wait.
Monday, December 12, 2022
Of soft spots ... and fleeting opportunitities
Updated January 2, 2023: the InterstellarNet series is temporarily out of print and electrons
Authors are frequently asked, "Which of your books is your favorite?" This is (as I've opined before) among our least favorite questions. It's about like asking a parent, "Which is your favorite child?"
With this year's release of The Best of Edward M. Lerner I've at least gained an answer to the related question, "Which of your books should I try?" -- and yet, that career-spanning short-fiction collection isn't the authorial "soft spot" of my subject line.Hence, the "fleeting opportunity" also mentioned in my subject line. Unavoidably, this is a commercial announcement. While I'm confident these books/ebooks will be reissued sometime, I can't speak to when.
Each InterstellarNet novel offers an entirely different take on First Contact -- and yet, all three novels interrelate. Perhaps the essential reason for my attachment to InterstellarNet is the obvious one. A story premise whose first glimmerings shaped a single novelette had such potential that I couldn't set it aside until three novels later.
Along the way, precursor stories to two of the novels collected, among their recognitions, my first appearance in a year's best anthology and a Hugo Award nomination. One precursor was serialized -- as the lone work of fiction -- in the proceedings of a conference of the UN's International Telecommunications Union. (And aptly so. The ITU was inspiration and role model for my Interstellar Commerce Union.) Oh, and InterstellarNet: Enigma, the third and concluding novel of the series, was a Prometheus Award nominee and winner of the inaugural Canopus Award for a novel "honoring excellence in interstellar writing."
Until year's end, when InterstellarNet begins its unanticipated hiatus, these are the novels (the titles link to Amazon):
InterstellarNet: Origins. We are not alone. Now what? (Other than a cascade of crises, ever more daunting, to bedevil an expanding number of interstellar civilizations for generations.)InterstellarNet: New Order. Humanity is about to discover that meeting aliens face to face is very different -- and a lot more dangerous -- than long-distance chicanery.
InterstellarNet: Enigma. Humanity once feared that we might be alone in the universe. Now we know better -- and there are far worse things than being alone.
InterstellarNet: Complete. All three novels in a bargain ebook omnibus.
“Lerner’s world-building and extrapolating are top notch.” -- SFScope
“An excellent series.” -- Galaxy’s Edge
“… A well researched hard science fiction series. Building from today’s technology into a believable tale of the not-so-distant future of characters, ships and planets, I really enjoyed it.” -- Abyss & Apex
Monday, November 21, 2022
Buy-A-Book Saturday ... redux
Times flies. (Like an arrow, though that's an irrelevant obscurity for today's post.) Meaning Buy-a-Book Saturday is once more almost upon us.
Regularly since 2010, shortly before Thanksgiving, I've posted about Buy-a-Book Saturday. That's my personal variation on Small Business Saturday: the day (specifically, the second day after Thanksgiving, and one day after retail's infamous Black Friday) on which holiday shoppers are especially encouraged to patronize small businesses. The big-box stores and Internet giants will do fine this holiday season. But will neighborhood stores, non-chain shops, and boutiques?
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Rara avis! Is that a book store? |
Why do I promote the buy-a-book variant? Because what business is smaller than the author toiling away by him- or herself? Because, as I (and many others) post from time to time, the publishing business keeps getting tougher -- especially for authors. Because more than likely you're a reader, else you wouldn't have stopped by this blog.
So: I'm here to suggest you give serious consideration to books -- whether print or electronic or audio -- for some of your holiday gifting. Friends, relatives, coworkers, your kids' teachers and coaches, the local library you support ... surely there's a book that's right for each of them. And at least one book for yourself, of course ;-)
Wednesday, November 9, 2022
Best Reads of 2022
Once again, I concede that a year's-best posting this early in November might seem, well, early. OTOH: lingering pandemic. Supply-chain woes. Labor shortages. Postal/UPS/FedEx slowdowns. Not to mention the countless stores that had up Christmas displays well before Halloween. Especially if you (or your reading giftees) prefer material in paper and ink, you may want to undertake your holiday shopping early rather than late. In any event, Black Friday and Cyber Monday will soon be upon us.
If you find none of that convincing? The way 2022 has been, surely anything meriting the label "best" is welcome. Distraction via the books that follow certainly helped me cope with this dreadful year.Not to mention that if ever there were a year to support one's favorite authors, 2022 (again! sigh) is it. So: on to the latest installment of this annual feature.
As always, I read a lot: as research, to keep current with the genre in which I write, and simply for enjoyment. Before the annual holiday shopping onslaught, I've taken to volunteering a few words about the most notable books from my reading (and sometimes re-reading) thus far in the current year. And a (very small) celebratory woohoo: this compilation is my tenth such post in the series.What's impressed me so far this year? Read on ....
Monday, November 7, 2022
A most enjoyable podcast
Writers of the Future recently hosted a podcast aimed at aspiring science-fiction writers: a conversation with old hands Alan Smale (as it happens, a former WOTF winner), Jeffery A. Carver, Edward Willett, and (because two Eds are better than one ... I'll pause while you groan) Edward M. Lerner. John Goodwin as MC ably herded us SFnal cats.
It was a fun conversation. Here 'tis, if you're inclined to listen.