Ending the year with a bang

 Any year that sees two of my books newly released? That's a banner year. Which 2021 turned out to be, what with the publication of novel Déjà Doomed and collection The Sherlock Chronicles & The Paradise Quartet. I even had the pleasure mid-year of announcing a new novel under contract to be written: (working title) Mars: The Great Race. So, this year -- pandemic aside -- couldn't get any better. Right?

Wrong. This month, I signed contracts for two other books. 

The first is a novel, On the Shoals of Space-Time. This is a first-contact adventure such as -- trust me -- you've never seen. (For those of you who find the title somehow familiar, it's the novelization of a story arc that's been running behind the paywall at The Grantville Gazette. With expanded and new material.) 

The second addresses what have to be any author's least favorite questions: "What's your favorite from among your books?" And "If I want to try one of your books, which should it be?" Questions like, for a parent, "Who's your favorite child?" 

You see, new book #2 is the collection The Best of Edward M. Lerner, offering fourteen career- and topic-spanning works at every length from flash fiction to novella. None of these pieces are excerpts from novels -- I don't believe in those -- but many of them did give rise to sequel stories, or novels, or are illuminating in some way about one of my novels. As appropriate, my per-story authorial reminisces explain these happy events. In short, soon, I'll have my answer to those pesky questions (except about my children).

Do you sense I'm ending 2021 on a happy note?

MacGuffins and starships and aliens, oh my!

 Alternate title: Of tropes, and (interstellar) trips, and sealing wax

Okay, that's enough semi-obscure references for one day. 

I was pleased recently to revisit Sci-Fi Saturday Night, one of my favorite genre podcasts. Whereas on my first visit, we discussed my latest novel, Déjà Doomed, this time the topic was my nonfiction book, Trope-ing the Light Fantastic: The Science Behind the Fiction.

Amazon page

(Trope-ing takes an in-depth look at genre tropes -- science used other than literally -- such as faster-than-light travel, time travel, general AI, and the like, including the science that could someday make such technologies possible. The book also offers literally hundreds of examples (from written SF at every length between flash fiction and novel series; from dramatic SF on screens large and small) of the genre using -- and abusing -- science. Here's my original announcement of Trope-ing.) 

Today's post is to share our delightful, roughly half-hour, chat: Irrational Numbers for Rational Science Fiction. I join the conversation at about 6:50 minutes into the podcast. 

Until you have a half hour to spare, the takeaways include, "A trove of wonderful information about the why and how of the science in the fiction. … a must read for any science fiction fan.” and "One of the most important books I've read in a hell of a long time."

(As for the perhaps still-cryptic subject line(s): those were the topics -- among many covered in the book -- on which our latest conversation mainly focused. Well, except sealing wax.)