Dark Secret ... now less of a dark secret

"Gripping. Impossible to put down."
-- Jack McDevitt, Nebula Award-winning author
    of The Devil's Eye (on Dark Secret)

In January I was happy to report that Arc Manor, through their Phoenix Pick imprint, had picked up my novel Dark Secret. (The Analog readers among you may remember that epic interstellar adventure in its 2013 serialized appearance.)

A dark super-Earth ... but is it Dark?

Today's update: the novel has been scheduled for release. Soon, even. Set your calendars for June 29th (and your phasers on stun?).

June 14, 2016 update: the release date has slipped. See A dark turn to events = a turn to Dark events . The short version: now predicting release by late summer.)

Before then, I hope, we'll get a preview of the cover.

Keeping the pipeline filled

I'm pleased to report two upcoming publications.

Cogito ergo sum

First, in my ongoing "The Science Behind the Fiction" essay series in Analog about SF tropes: a two-issue look at artificial intelligence. That's "A Mind of Its Own." Part I, tentatively scheduled for the September issue (which in publisher-speak, means released in July) covers all the basics of AI up to and including human-level intelligence. Part II, to run one month later, explores the opportunities and dangers inherent in a cascade of ever-more intelligent AIs possibly culminating in a Singularity. As always in the SBtF series, I illustrate the concepts with a plethora of examples from written and video SF.

(And if you've missed it, Analog is currently running -- that is, in the May and June issues -- another SBtF two-parter. This one is "Here We Go Loopedy Loop: A Brief History of Time Travel.")

Post haste

Time flies! It's five years to the day since I first compiled a list/overview of what were then the most visited posts here at SF and Nonsense. To my surprise, Postscript (or is that post post?) was itself instantly popular. It remains third on the all-time list.

Let the annual tradition continue.

Some rough posts :-)

Here's another year's all-time top-ten list, which I've assembled from data captured a few days ago. The format is: title/link; posting date; last year's rank in parens (if it was in the top ten); and a few words about the post content.

Can't make this stuff up

In any event, I shouldn't (and didn't) make this stuff up. Why? Because the "stuff" at issue is a guest editorial and a science article.

I contributed both of these nonfiction pieces to Analog's current/May issue. The editorial is "The Dread Question" and the article is Part I of "Here We Go Loopedy Loop: A Brief History of Time Travel. ("Loopedy Loop" will conclude in the June issue.)

Over the years, I've had the occasional Analog two-fer -- including, as it happens, the immediately preceding issue (as I posted in "Double Jeopardy") -- but till now at least one such overlapping appearance was a work of fiction.

None of which is to imply that I've given up on fiction. I learned a few days ago that my short story "Paradise Regained" has been accepted into the zine's queue.