I's dotted. T's (and fingers) crossed

A recurring theme of my posts for a while has been the disappearance and sometimes the reemergence of several of my (mainly older) books. Long story short: in 2021 and 2022, eight books, originally from three publishers, went out of print (and electrons). Even shorter: publishing is a hard business. 

Keeping my titles in print is important to me, so placing these titles at new homes has been a priority. As I type (and for those who have not been keeping score at home), five of the eight orphaned titles are recently back in print and electrons:

• Creative Destruction (a cyber-themed collection, first published in 2006)

  

  The new cover

  
  
• Countdown to Armageddon / A Stranger in Paradise (a short time-travel novel plus five shorter SF works, first published in 2010)
• Frontiers of Space, Time, and Thought (mixed fiction and nonfiction [in both cases, SFnal] collection, first published in 2012)
• The Company Man (SFnal/noir novel, first published in 2019)
• The Sherlock Chronicles & The Paradise Quartet (back-to-back unrelated SFnal novellas, first published in 2021*)

(*) I did mention publishing is a hard business. Best stated by Anonymous: "The best way to become a millionaire is to start as a billionaire and then start a publishing company."

Original cover

Today's news (drumroll please) ...

 

Columbus discovered a new world (here's your chance to top him)

By discovering new worlds of the imagination, of course. You won't even need the support of a deep-pocketed Spanish queen.

(If you hadn't guessed, this is a commercial announcement. But you'll want to read on ....)

Replica of the Nina

In recognition of the upcoming Columbus Day holiday (or my pending appearance October 12th at DC area con Capclave, or just because), FoxAcre Press is running a special through October 17. During the promotion, each of my FoxAcre SF novels and my FoxAcre collection -- in ebook formats only --  is reduced to $2.99.

What titles? Both InterstellarNet-series novels, InterstellarNet: Origins and InterstellarNet: New Order. First-contact novel Moonstruck. Technothriller Probe. Mixed fact and fiction collection Frontiers of Space, Time, and Thought.

As for my freestanding time-travel novella, A Time Foreclosed, it's only $0.99.

Which ebook formats? Kindle, Nook, and iTunes. Check their respective storefronts. (And if a price reduction hasn't yet rippled through for a particular title or format ... check back. The change should be in the works.)

Care to learn more about any of these books (or any other Lerner title)? Over in the right-hand column, click the book-cover thumbnail. Or jump straight to the list of all Edward M. Lerner titles at Amazon.

If you've ever wondered about my writing, now is the time to indulge your curiosity.

As for Capclave, it's among my favorite cons. This year's GOH is George R. R. Martin, of Game of Thrones fame.)

Capclave: where reading isn't extinct

Faster than a speeding photon

I'm just home from a trip to California -- at no point traveling at anywhere near the pace suggested by the subject line. I went for SFWA's annual Nebula Awards. (This year's Nebula winners here, courtesy of SFScope.)

I wasn't in the running this cycle for a Nebula, but I am delighted to have come home with a different award.

Regular visitors here at SF and Nonsense will remember that I write frequently for Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Mostly those Analog appearances are fiction, but (as befits a physicist and computer engineer with thirty years experience in IT and aerospace) I also sometimes contribute science and technology articles.

In the Analog Readers Poll for 2011, I came in second place -- tied with myself! -- for best fact article. Those runner-up pieces were for "Lost in Space? Follow the Money" (about the retirement of the space-shuttle fleet and the dawning era of commercialized spaceflight) and “Say What? Ruminations About Language, Communications, and Science Fiction” (a title that explains itself).

"Making Appearances Frequently In Analog"

For 2012, I'm pleased to say that in the fact-article category, my “Faster Than a Speeding Photon: The Why, Where, and (Perhaps the) How of Faster-Than-Light Technology" took first place in the readers poll. I suspect the scope of that article is pretty self-evident, too.

Eclectomania

Dunno that that's a real word, but it should be. If enough of you pass it on, it will be.

Buy a Kindle (Beauty not included)

All of today's eclectic topics are writing-centric. We'll start with "Sci-fi publisher announces Tor and Forge will go DRM-free with all e-book titles." Tor has published the majority of my titles, so if DRM is an issue for you ... hang in there.

And in other breaking news: "Microsoft buys stake in Barnes and Noble’s Nook e-reader." Maybe there will be longterm competition in ereaders despite the DoJ's best efforts.

Last October, I posted (see "Inspiration") on the question most often directed at authors. Colleague Michael Flynn recently interviewed a host of SF authors -- including Yr. Humble Blogger -- on that very question. For Mike's take, see "Where Do You Get Your Ideas?"

Move 'em on. Head 'em out. Rawhide!

You got it: a round-up post. Three newsworthy (not to mention, eclectic) observations on matters of science and technology ...

Circuses (we're out of bread)

Last May I ranted about the slow, lingering death of any American space program (see "Crocodile cheers"). In particular, I admitted, "I've progressed from bemused to troubled to angry at the spate of breathless headlines heralding some 'final' activity of a space shuttle." Last week saw new breathless coverage about the Washington DC flyover bringing the shuttle Discovery to its final resting place at the Smithsonian.

Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer gets it. From his essay last week, "Farewell, the New Frontier," here is the opening passage:

As the space shuttle Discovery flew three times around Washington, a final salute before landing at Dulles airport for retirement in a museum, thousands on the ground gazed upward with marvel and pride. Yet what they were witnessing, for all its elegance, was a funeral march.

The shuttle was being carried — its pallbearer, a 747 — because it cannot fly, nor will it ever again. It was being sent for interment. Above ground, to be sure. But just as surely embalmed as Lenin in Red Square.

Is there a better symbol of willed American decline? The pity is not Discovery’s retirement — beautiful as it was, the shuttle proved too expensive and risky to operate — but that it died without a successor ....

The full essay is spot-on, eloquent, and well worth the read. 

And now on to a completely different topic ...

Frontiers of Space, Time, and Thought -- an odyssey

Updated July 29 2023 -- back in print and electrons. Updated links below.

Practically the first thing I did after declaring an end to day jobs -- apart from the occasional shout of joy -- was write "The Day of the RFIDs." That was in 2004.

An RFID chip

The next year, when I sold my first short-fiction collection, TDotR was its opening story. Most stories in Creative Destruction -- though not TDotR -- had first appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, so I asked Stanley Schmidt, the editor, if he'd consider writing a guest introduction. He graciously agreed -- and then, to my surprise (and delight), also based an editorial on TDotR. Story and editorial alike addressed the threat to privacy implicit in the radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips more and more often finding their way into garments, shoes, and tires. (You did know -- didn't you? -- that your Nikes could be ratting you out.)

That editorial brought in readers' letters, on some of which Stan invited me to comment. I did, but a letters-to-the-editor column can hardly accommodate in-depth discussion. And so I offered Stan a science fact article. My first. "Beyond this Point Be RFIDs" ran in Analog in 2007.

(I'd researched RFIDs for TDotR, of course, but writing the article led me to do more digging. As a bonus, the musings stirred up by that the second round of research led to a second story, "The Night of the RFIDs.")

And by such circuitous means, I took my first step down the slippery slope of also writing science and technology nonfiction. Bringing me at last -- while segueing to a commercial announcement -- to this post's subject ...