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?