Time out(s)

I've opined on this blog that time travel is a science-fictional trope -- but that doesn't mean I disapprove. Tropes endure in literature (and not only in SF) because they support great storytelling. And so, on occasion, I indulge ...

If you visit here from an interest in my SF writing -- or if you're curious about it -- I thought I'd mention my new time-travel novella. (A few years ago I did a time-travel novel: Countdown to Armageddon.  Before that, my time-travel short story "Grandpa?" became the award-winning short film "The Grandfather Paradox.")

Anyway ... "Time Out" will appear in the January/February issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact.

(Or is appearing. Apropos of time travel, we Analog subscribers already have this issue in hand or e-reader. The cover date is the latest you might expect to encounter the print edition at a bookstore. To further muddle the timeline, in e-book outlets the issue will linger for months after the cover date.)

And apropos of this being a double issue (Analog publishes ten times per year but calls itself monthly; both the January/February and July/August issues are longer than other issues, and count as two), I have a second story, a short-short, in the issue. Merely knowing that you're on the net, I'll venture the guess that "Unplanned Obsolescence" will speak to you.

THE time machine

But back to time travel ... the quest for some old snaps for a family photo project turned up, quite accidentally, my high-school yearbooks. That hair! (In the day, I had hair. Lots of it.) Those clothes! (What were we thinking?) And those scribbled notes from old friends and classmates! All in all, quite the blast from the past.

Would you go back to your high-school days if you could?

*****

And in a different sort of time out -- recognizing that this post already verged on being a commercial announcement -- I'll also mention:

Tor Books is -- for a limited time only -- sharply discounting the Kindle edition of Fools' Experiments (my 2009 AI novel). For however long, it's priced at $2.99 instead of the typical $7.99. The updated Kindle edition also includes a sneak peek at Energized (last summer's new alternate-energy thriller). Click here for Fools' Experiments on the Kindle.

And I'm pleased to announce that over the next few months several more of my books will become available in audio format. The novels of the first batch -- released today -- all begin with elements of a SETI or first-contact tale -- and then each takes that premise in a quite unique direction. For the downloadable audio versions at Audible, click:

• here for Probe (1991, re-released in 2011),
• here for Moonstruck (2005, re-released in 2011), and
• here for InterstellarNet: Origins (2010).

For more about these (or any other book title), click its cover thumbnail on the right.

(June 21, 2013 update)

"Time Out," retitled (at the publisher's excellent suggestion) as "A Time Foreclosed" is now available in several ebook formats and as a POD chapbook. For more on that topic, see my recent post, A Time Foreclosed.