Starting off the new year with a bang(s)

Last September, I was delighted to report new ebook and print editions of four novels from comparatively early in my career -- see "Happy day (they're here)". (The new releases are lovely, if you haven't yet checked  them out.)

Today I'm as pleased to announce -- with the ink barely dry -- the signed contract to re-release two more of my earlier books. 

First-edition cover

Trope-ing the Light Fantastic: The Science Behind the Fiction: "Edward M. Lerner has produced the best-ever guide to putting the science in science fiction, and he's done it with clarity, wit, and panache." -- Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author of  The Downloaded.

First-edition title

Muses & Musings: A Science Fiction Collection: "He [that being me] is science fiction down to the bone, but he very often takes the ‘serious’ stuff not so seriously. Or he does, but he still squeezes a modicum of wit and whimsy into his subjects. He can catch a salient point in a couple of pages or explore a well-trodden road like AI with new insight." -- Galaxy’s Edge

The new publisher for both is the aptly named ReAnimus Press.

But wait -- there's more start-of-the-year good news. One of my 2024 short stories, "The Dark at the End of the Tunnel," is under contract to reappear in the upcoming  anthology The Year’s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 9. 

  
More news as it happens. Also ... huzzah!

Buy a Book Saturday ... you know you want to

Times flies. Meaning Buy-a-Book Saturday is once more almost upon us. 

Regularly since 2010, shortly before Thanksgiving, I've posted about Buy-a-Book Saturday. That's my personal variation on Small Business Saturday: the day (specifically, the second day after Thanksgiving, and one day after retail's infamous Black Friday) on which holiday shoppers are especially encouraged to patronize small businesses. The big-box stores and Internet giants will do fine this holiday season. But will neighborhood stores, non-chain shops, and boutiques?

With Black Friday somehow having begun days ago at many retailers/etailers, even to wait till close to that Saturday might not be the best of strategies.

Winchester Book Gallery
(my neighborhood indie bookstore)

Why do I promote the buy-a-book variant? Because what business is smaller than the author toiling away by him- or herself? Because, as I (and many others) post from time to time, the publishing business keeps getting tougher -- especially for authors. Because more than likely you're a reader, else you wouldn't have stopped by this blog.

Because this year has been harder on small businesses, authors included, than most. Yet again.

So: I'm here to suggest you give serious consideration to books -- whether print or electronic or audio -- for some of your holiday gifting. Friends, relatives, coworkers, your kids' teachers and coaches, the local library you support ... surely there's a book that'll be right for each of them. And at least one book for yourself, of course ;-)

Suppose you're at a brick-and-mortar bookstore and a book or author you had in mind isn't to be found on the shelf. Not a problem! Almost certainly, the store will be happy to special-order books for you. (Why? Because  they'd much rather do a special order than have you go home and order online for yourself.)

Raindrops on roses and covers on books ...

Anyway, some book covers are a few of my favorite things.

I've opined before on this blog (IIRC, most recently in Best of Edward M. Lerner) that I don't have favorites among my own literary "children." After each book's many months -- sometimes, even, years -- of gestation, I've bonded with them all. 

That said, the covers of my books aren't my children. I get to -- and I do -- have favorites. Which we'll come to. Soon.

Some covers are of the artistic school I'll call "SF Default": generic spacecraft juxtaposed against Earth or random space rock. There's nothing wrong with that. Such covers clearly identify space-based fiction, just as other generic covers (cowboy on horse; Six-Pack-Abs Guy shirtless for no obvious reason) signal other genres. But indicating an overall genre is pretty much all this sort of cover accomplishes.

My favorites are the covers that tantalize about the story(ies) to be found inside. That catch the eye. That signal the genre without being generic. I've been fortunate enough for my writing to have inspired some truly great covers. (Some of these books have been reissued; the Kindle links beneath the covers to follow in all cases point to the current editions.)

Without further ado, here are those artistic favorites. Each cover here is well worth clicking through for a larger image.