Richard Graeme Cameron has written in Amazing Stories online a glowing review of the collection:
“There is a lot of excellent genre fiction being written in Canada. May this series become the definitive annual sample. If all are good as this one, I can see them becoming textbooks for high schools and universities...You owe it to yourself to purchase it for your bookshelf.”
The praise for the collection is richly deserved, but what he said about “A New Brave World” put a lump in my throat:
“Proof that the hard science genre is still capable of enjoyable originality, especially in the capable hands of excellent writers such as Eric Choi. I found the story exhilarating. It reminds me why I fell in love with science fiction in the first place.”
I am surprised and humbled that my story “A Sky and a Heaven” is sharing the 2023 Sidewise Award for Best Short Form Alternate History with “A Dream of Electric Mothers” by Wole Talabi. Thank you so much to this year’s Sidewise jury of Eileen Gunn, Matt Mitrovich, Olav Rokne, Kurt Sidaway, and Steven Silver. Here are the acceptance remarks that Nebula Award winning writer William Ledbetter delivered on my behalf at the 2023 World Fantasy Convention with one very important update in [square brackets]:
“If Bill Ledbetter is reading this at the Sidewise Awards, then I will be both astonished and honoured. I am sorry that I cannot be with you to give these remarks in person, and I thank Bill for accepting on my behalf.
“The threads of ‘A Sky and a Heaven’ have been coursing through my life for two decades. I was there in February 2003 at the Kennedy Space Centre when the Space Shuttle Columbia was lost. Thirteen years later, in July 2016, I was at the session of the International Space University in Israel and I was deeply moved by the enduring legacy of Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon and the strength with which his memory is being kept alive.
“But it was the invitation by Andrea Lobel and Mark Shainblum to their anthology Other Covenants that motivated me to weave these threads into a story, and for that I am very grateful to them. Thank you Andrea and Mark for bringing Other Covenants into our timeline. Their remarkable collection produced two of this year’s Sidewise Award short form finalists, ‘A Sky and a Heaven’ and Gillian Polack’s extraordinary story ‘Why the Bridgemasters of York Don’t Pay Taxes’. I am honoured to have shared the Sidewise shortlist with Gillian and Michael Cassutt and Paul Levinson, [and I am absolutely delighted that ‘A Dream of Electric Mothers’ by Wole Talabi is sharing this year’s short form Sidewise Award.]
“Thank you to the Sidewise Award judges for this tremendous honour. This recognition is particularly meaningful because it comes on top of feedback I have received from people at NASA, people who were involved in some of the events portrayed in the story that have told me what it means to them. The story also appeared in my collection Just Like Being There and for that I thank Angela Lahee my wonderful editor at Springer Nature.”
The watch I’m wearing belonged to my late dear friend Leslie Gelberger who first introduced me to the stories of that master alternate historian Harry Turtledove. I want to believe there is an alternate timeline in which Leslie is sharing all this with me.
My new story “Beware the Glob!” about a dangerous extraterrestrial creature that is unleashed from its frozen Arctic slumber by climate change appears in the September/October 2023 issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact. This is my third publication this year, my fifth appearance in Analog, and my first illustrated Analog story. Thank you to Trevor Quachri and Emily Hockaday for buying the story, Julie Czerneda and Peter Watts for their biology help, and K.A. Teryna for her artwork.
Update: Mina’s review in Tangent says “Beware the Glob!” is “fun but not fluffy” (which is exactly what I intended).
Voting for the 2023 Aurora Awards begins on June 17 and closes six weeks later on July 29. The awards ceremony will be held online on August 19 starting at 7:00pm EDT and will be hosted by Mark Leslie Lefebvre and Liz Anderson.
I will be moderating an online panel called “The Relevance of Speculative Fiction in a Real Scary World” that will be taking place on June 4th as part of Origins, the annual conference of the Writers’ Guild of Alberta. Why is speculative fiction an ideal genre for exploring real-world issues? Can exploring alternative worlds, histories, and possibilities enhance our ability to understand and make our own world better? Join the discussion with Jacqueline Baker, Deborah Willis, and R.M. Olson. The panel is sponsored by EDGE Science Fiction & Fantasy Publishing.
Life Beyond Us, the new astrobiology-themed science fiction anthology from the European Astrobiology Institute and Laksa Media Groups, has arrived on planet Earth! Edited by Julie Novakova, Lucas K. Law and Susan Forest, Life Beyond Us features twenty-seven stories, each accompanied by an essay written by a scientist in a relevant field. My new story “Hemlock on Mars” opens the collection with the accompanying science essay “Planetary Protection: Best Practices for the Safety of Humankind (And All Those Aliens Out There)” by Giovanni Poggiali of Observatoire de Paris. Also check out the latest post on John Scalzi’s Whatever blog in which Julie, Lucas, and Susan explore The Big Idea behind the anthology and discuss my story “Hemlock on Mars”.
Thank you Julie, Lucas, and Susan for the honour of being included in this ambitious and beautiful anthology!
My contributor copies of the anthologies Life Beyond Us and Extraordinary Visions, under the watchful visage of an extraordinary terrestrial lifeform.
Life Beyond Us is the new astrobiology-themed science fiction anthology from the European Astrobiology Institute and Laksa Media Groups, edited by Julie Nováková, Lucas K. Law, and Susan Forest. The book features twenty-seven stories, each accompanied by an essay written by a scientist in a relevant field. Opening the collection is my new story “Hemlock on Mars” with the accompanying science essay “Planetary Protection: Best Practices for the Safety of Humankind (And All Those Aliens Out There)” by Giovanni Poggiali of Observatoire de Paris. Life Beyond Us will be arriving to our planet on Earth Day (April 22).
Extraordinary Visions is the first-ever fiction anthology presented by the North American Jules Verne Society, edited by Steven R. Southard and Matthew Hardesty. The book featuring thirteen stories inspired by the writings of Jules Verne including my story “Raise the Nautilus” which closes the collection. Extraordinary Visions is available now in paperback and hardcover. Check out the review on the Nerds of a Feather website.
While their themes are different, these books have much in common. Both are beautiful, with gorgeous cover art by Dan O’Driscoll and Amanda Bergloff respectively, and vividly illustrated interior designs. Both are ambitious, with terrific stories brought together by visionary editors who are passionate about the respective themes of their books. I am grateful and proud to be a part of these anthologies.
