Hoist on my own prolificness :-)

At about this time last year, I was pleased to post (Faster than a speeding photon) about the recently awarded Analog Readers Poll awards, aka the Analytical Laboratory awards, aka the Anlabs.

Down the rabbit (er, worm) hole

Why pleased? Because my 2012 article ("Faster than a speeding photon: The Why, Where, and (Perhaps the) How of Faster-Than-Light Technology" had won in the science-fact category. After decades as a regular Analog reader and years as a regular contributor, the honor meant a lot to me. The year previous (i.e., two years ago), I'd tied with myself for second place in that same Anlabs category.

And this year's Anlabs?

Per Analog's latest (July-August) issue, for 2013 I had again produced two finalists -- twice! One pair was in the science-fact category, the second pair was in the novella category.

The fact pieces ("Alien Aliens: Beyond Rubber Suits" and "Alien Worlds: Not in Kansas Anymore") are installments three and four of my science-behind the-fiction article series -- in which the first installment was one of those 2012 runners-up and the second was the 2013 winner. I'm delighted that the series continues to be well received. Time will tell how this year's continuations -- "Alien Dimensions: the Universe Next Door," "Alternate Abilities: The Paranormal," and (come the October issue) "Alien AWOLs: The Great Silence" -- fare.

Earlier installments

And the finalist novellas? My first was the standalone time-travel story "Time Out" (blogged about as A Time Foreclosed), about a down-and-out disgraced mortgage clerk who must save the world. "The Matthews Conundrum" -- the first addition in years to my long-running InterstellarNet universe -- reveals how the one thing more puzzling than the Fermi Paradox could be discovering we have alien neighbors ...

Both novellas also made it onto the 2013 recommended reading list of short-fiction review site Tangent Online.

And a bit of an announcement: this latest InterstellarNet story arc continues in Analog's September issue in "Championship B'tok."

More than meets the eye

All that said ... my modest successes this cycle should not detract from the year's Anlabs winners. For the complete list, see, from SF Site, "Analog and Asimov’s Readers Polls."

Brad Torgerson's Anlab-winning novella "The Chaplain's Legacy," about human/alien conflict and personal redemption, a profoundly good story, is also a finalist for this year's Hugo awards. On the fact-article side, Michael F. Flynn's winning article "The Great Ptolemaic Smackdown and Down-and-Dirty Mud-Wrassle" -- showing why, given the astronomical observations available at the time, the Copernican model of the Solar System wasn't a slam dunk -- entertained and informed. 

Now an unsolicited plug for the magazine ...

To any visitor to SF and Nonsense who doesn't subscribe to Analog ... consider it! Analog is the oldest (continuously published, under one name or another, since 1930) and the largest circulation English-language magazine in the SF genre. It publishes science fiction, with nary an orc, vampire, or zombie to be seen. Plus (as we've seen) each month it includes a science article or two of special interest to genre readers.

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