It’s been a productive last few months, and I have some big news to share.

New Anthology Coming Soon.

The first piece of news is that I’ve just had a sci-fi short story accepted in a reprint anthology titled Final Frontier. The editor, C. Stuart Hardwick, reached out to me a while back to see if I had something to contribute. The anthology will be released in time for the 50 year Anniversary of Apollo 11, and Stuart requested I submit a story that “celebrated the indomitable spirit that carried mankind to the Moon.”

I did have just such a story in mind, one featuring a test pilot, a new kind of space craft, lots of danger and excitement, and lots and lots of science. I submitted “Icarus Drowned,” a short story published previously on this site.

The anthology will feature short stories and other works by award-winning authors including Mike Barretta, Marianne J. Dyson, Sean Monaghan, K. B. Rylander, Matthew S. Rotundo, Ronald D. Ferguson, Martin L. Shoemaker, Nancy Fulda, David D. Levine, Patrick Lundrigan, David Walton, C. Stuart Hardwick, and lastly, Spider Robinson, a winner of Campbell, Hugo, Nebula, and Heinlein Awards among others. If that wasn’t an impressive collection of authors already, the Forward will be written by Astronaut Stanley G. Love.

I will be sure to post another update as soon as the book is published. The expected release date is Friday, April 19^th, 2019.

Completion of my new Science Fiction book.

For my second piece of news, I’ve recently completed my latest science fiction novel! The working title is Grounded, and it rounds down to about 100k words. I’ve still got quite a lot of editing and proofing to do before I send it out to agents or publishers, but I’m very pleased with it so far. If you are interested in becoming a beta-reader, feel free to reach out to me. See the Beta-reader edition cover image and book blurb below (Note: This is a working cover just for the Beta-reader Edition. The final, published version will be much more professional, i.e. not put together in less than an hour.)

Working title and cover for the Beta-reader edition

Working back cover and blurb for the Beta-reader edition

Blurb:

Hundreds of lives were lost to the sky during the Fracture, the result of an experiment gone wrong. In seconds, everything and everyone within a mile of the research facility became completely and irreversibly weightless.

In the aftermath, Kyle and the other survivors are given the chance to join a new space program. With New Heights, they will embark on an expedition to the sky and beyond without gravity to hold them back.

But to make it through training, Kyle must contend with a diverse and inexperienced crew, some of whom want nothing more than to see him fail.

I’ve planned for this to be the first book in a series, with subsequent books taking Kyle and the crew of New Heights to Earth’s upper atmosphere, the Moon, Mars, and even to float on the clouds of Jupiter and Venus. I mean, why not? If you no longer felt the pull of gravity, where would you go?

Until next time, Write Well and Science Hard.