Back (exhausted!) from Capclave

Capclave is the DC area's annual con, held every fall. For 2019, the con was held the weekend just past, October 18-20.

This year, like most years, I took part. This year, unlike many years past, I was able to clear my schedule for the full three days. And Programming kept me hopping. I was a panelist for:

• SETI
• Does size matter? (As in, story lengths. Get your mind out of the gutter ;-)  )
• World-building
• Murderbots and Terminators
• Exoplanets

while moderating three of those panels. Also, I did a reading (two bits of flash from the newly released Muses & Musings: A Science Fiction Collection). Joined in the mass autograph session. Attended other panels. Cruised the hucksters room. Dropped by a bid party for the 2023 Worldcon. Chatted with readers -- this is a very literary con -- and editors, publishers, and other authors. Caught up with friends (too many of whom I only get to see at cons) and made new ones.

Rob Sawyer & Ed Lerner

And because every post requires at least one picture, here I am on the con's opening day at lunch with co-GoH -- and good buddy -- Robert J. Sawyer.

(And yes, the glare is astonishing.)

Kudos

"Nobel Prize in physics awarded for research on exoplanets and the structure of the universe."

'Nuff said.

The Company Man

Updated July 29, 2023

Back in print and electrons. Updated links below

I am pleased to announce publication of my latest novel, The Company Man.

(Also a bit frazzled. This is my second new-book release in less than a month, the previous one being the short-fiction collection Muses & Musings. No way do -- or could -- I write two books in a month; it's a matter of different publishers getting different books into production at different paces. But I digress.)

The Company Man, in a very few words, is a near-future, space-centric mystery. Think: Dashiell Hammett meets Andy Weir. In a few more words, borrowed from the cover:

The Company Man, lowly accountant for the filthy-richest business in the Asteroid Belt, has modest aspirations. Air and water not endlessly recycled. Food that had not been freeze-dried and re-hydrated. A few quiet days at home. And, if he can figure out how, pilfering a bit from the company.

Alas, working as he does for evil geniuses, that final ambition seems impossible -- until, at the end of an interminable trek among remote company mining asteroids, a mysterious emergency preempts his return flight. Someone has discovered a flaw in the company’s legendary security, even if people must apparently die to exploit it.

That ... isn’t necessarily an obstacle. Or even the least of the consequences, in the Belt, elsewhere in the Solar System, and across Earth itself. With the body count rising, even the vast fortunes at stake cease to matter -- and only the Company Man has a chance of averting interplanetary disaster.

If he survives ....

For the Grantville Gazette readers among you, TCM is the novelization of a six-part story arc that ran in recent years (between May 2017 and May 2019) in the Universe Annex (non-1632) department.

This being a commercial announcement, here are the Amazon links for The Company Man for the Kindle and The Company Man in trade paperback.

*Another* cover reveal :-)

And not just any cover. That's a Bob Eggleton cover.

Coming next month ...

Muses & Musings: A Science Fiction Collection

Last updated September 2, 2024. Copies are temporarily unavailable. New editions to come.

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I am delighted to announce the release of Muses & Musings, my first short-fiction collection since 2010.

Muses & Musings offers seventeen never before collected stories at every length from flash to novella, chosen from four separate magazines and three original anthologies. And as a bonus, there's a guest intro from every-conceivable-award-winner Robert J. Sawyer

Quoting from the cover copy:

Best known for his SF novels – including the InterstellarNet series and (with Larry Niven) the epic Fleet of Worlds series – Edward M. Lerner is also a prolific author of short fiction. This collection showcases many of his finest stories, featuring works selected from over a decade’s output.

Alternate history. Parallel worlds. Rogue artificial intelligences. Alien invasion. Biting satire as to where the Internet is leading us. A Sherlock Holmes for the next century. Deco punk. Deep thoughts about, well, deep thoughts. In this book, you’ll find these – and more – together with Ed's reminiscences as to what led him to create these seventeen gems in the first place. 

This being a commercial announcement, here are the Amazon links for Muses & Musings for the Kindle and Muses & Musings in trade paperback. (M&M is also available in a plethora of other ebook formats -- check your favorite site.)

If your preferred bricks-and-mortar bookseller doesn't happen to have the print edition on its shelves, the staff will happily order you a copy (for which, as a convenience, you might want to offer the publisher, Phoenix Pick, and the ISBN: 978-1612424408). 

To my Kindle-inclined readers

Updated September 5, 2019 Pre-order discount on the Kindle edition ends at midnight (ET, I believe) tonight.

Muses & Musings, my first short-fiction collection since 2010 -- and whose cover I was first able to reveal just yesterday -- won't be available till September 6.

Click to enlarge

But here's the (good) thing: in advance of official release, Amazon is offering -- in Kindle format only -- a "pre-order special." Order before September 6, and wake up that day to find a discounted (from $6.99 to $3.99) copy on your Kindle.

(And if you're not a Kindle reader? On the 6th, the print edition and more ebook formats will be released. I'll post again then with updated links.)

About the book: Muses & Musings offers seventeen never before collected stories at every length from flash to novella, chosen from four separate magazines and three original anthologies. And as a bonus, there's a guest intro from every-conceivable-award-winner Robert J. Sawyer

Cribbing from the cover copy:

Best known for his SF novels –- including the InterstellarNet series and (with Larry Niven) the epic Fleet of Worlds series –- Edward M. Lerner is also a prolific author of short fiction. This collection showcases many of his finest stories, featuring works selected from over a decade’s output.

Alternate history. Parallel worlds. Rogue artificial intelligences. Alien invasion. Biting satire as to where the Internet is leading us. A Sherlock Holmes for the next century. Deco punk. Deep thoughts about, well, deep thoughts. In this book, you’ll find these – and more – together with Ed's reminiscences as to what led him to create these seventeen gems in the first place. 

End of commercial announcement :-)

Cover reveal

Coming soon to a bookstore (whether physically or virtually) near you ...

A collection of what? From where? Thanks for asking. Stories from the zines: Analog, Darker Matter, Galaxy's Edge, and Sci Phi Journal. Plus stories from original anthos: Deco Punk, Impossible Futures, and Science Fiction by Scientists. (Both lists are merely alphabetical Infer nothing from the order.) Seventeen works of fiction in all. Plus a guest intro by Robert J. Sawyer.

More news as it happens ....

Returning (whether or not by popular demand). Also, astronomy.

Regular visitors will have noticed a recent lack of regular posts. Sorry about that, but the past few weeks have just been ... busy. Not in a bad way, but still. And a particularly Good Thing recently taking up my time will, I expect, soon be the subject of an announcement post.

With that mea culpa out of the way, on to things that should prove more interesting ....

How do planets form? How quickly? A recent study of neon isotopes distribution in ancient basalts suggests accretion from the protoplanetary disc happens quite rapidly (i.e., in a few million years). See " 'Nebular neon' confirmed deep inside the Earth."

How planets are born

And it's become possible to (sorta) see planets form. As in "Existence of circumplanetary discs confirmed: Australian astronomers see for the first time a critical piece in the formation of a planet."