Short stuff

I've largely spent 2015 completing InterstellarNet: Enigma, serializing it, supporting the publisher's launch efforts, and attending the latest Nebula Awards weekend (plus bunches o' personal activities -- all good, just not relevant here). But don't take that emphasis to mean there's no other writing going on ...

Are you done with steampunk? (That's SF re-imagined as though progress ended with Victorian science and technology.) Editors Thomas A. Easton and Judith K. Dial were ... and they put out the call for SF stories set in a later, but still retro era. The result -- and see the gorgeous cover nearby -- was Deco Punk: The Spirit of the Age. My contribution to the anthology was "Judy Garland Saves the World (And I Don't Mean Oz)."

I had so much fun with that foray into the era between the World Wars that I tried my hand at another such story. That became "Soap Opera," in an upcoming (but as yet unscheduled) issue of Analog.

Analog, of course, is a frequent home of my shorter writings. So you'll likely not be surprised that I have more things in their pipeline:

On the fiction side, there's "A Case of Identity," scheduled for the December 2015 issue. (But don't hold me to this or any other forecast -- publication dates are out of any contributor's control.) The Holmesians among you will recognize the title -- and it's not a coincidence. But neither is this story a Victorian-era throwback. If I've intrigued you, well, you'll just have to read it.

And on the nonfiction side, I've continued with my "the science behind the fiction" essay series. (A perhaps-worth-noting aside: for 2014, the fourth year in a row, an entry in this series was a finalist in the annual Analog readers poll.) Up next in the series, in the October 2015 issue, is "Alien Adventures: Rising to the Challenge." This article considers what might be involved in getting to the stars sans FTL capability, drawing upon last year's 100 Year Starship Symposium. (For a little about my participation in that and other 2014 events, see "Nanotech and starships and fusion, oh my!")

The following article in the series, as yet unscheduled, will cover transhumanism. That's a topic so broad that Analog editor Trevor Quachri asked me to expand it into a two-parter. I happily obliged. Keep your eyes peeled for "Human 2.0: Being All We Can Be."

I mentioned on FB but not IIRC here, my debut appearance in Sci Phi Journal (July 2015). "There's an App for That," a fun bit of flash fiction, got me top billing in the zine. (That isn't my chimp, just so ya know.)

And the latest news: two more pending appearances in Sci Phi Journal: the poem "I Clink, Therefore I Am" and the short story "Catch a Falling Star."

(You read that right: a poem. "I Clink, Therefore I Am" being my second poetry sale -- my first appeared in Analog, back in 2009 -- I'm forced to add professional poet to my already eclectic CV.)

There's yet more in the works, but -- chalk it up to belt, suspenders, and Krazy Glue caution -- I don't announce anything till the contract is in hand.