On the day following the Writers of the Future event at the end of August, Rebecca and I appeared at the newly reopened Columbia Memorial Space Center in Downey, California at a launch party for the new Star Challengers series. This educational center, space museum, and Challenger Learning Center is an extensive complex on the site where some of the original Apollo Program work was done. June Scobee Rodgers (founder of the Challenger Centers for Space Science Education) was the keynote speaker at the Writers of the Future ceremonies, and Dan Barstow (Challenger Center president) was a guest presenter. It...
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Since 1996 I’ve been a judge and guest instructor for the annual Writers of the Future Contest; Rebecca became a judge in 2007. It’s one of the most gratifying things we do each year—teaching a dozen or so of the best new writers to emerge from the many thousands of submissions received each quarter. Recently, as I described in previous blogs, I worked with Galaxy Press to put together a heavily illustrated, comprehensive coffee-table book celebrating the first 25 years of the Contest. (You can see more about the anniversary book at the Writers of the Future website.) The week-long...
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I just received my editor's copies of Blood Lite II: Overbite, the second volume of humorous horror stories, just in time for Halloween. The book should be in stores by next week. Great funny stories by Heather Graham, LA Banks, Kelley Armstrong, Allison Brennan, Sharyn McCrumb, Kevin J. Anderson and Janis Ian, Mike Baron, Edward Bryant, Mike Resnick and Leslie Robyn, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, J.A. Konrath, Scott Nicholson, Jordan Summers, Sam W Anderson, Amy Sterling Casil, Derek Clendening, Don d'Ammassa, Brian J. Hatcher, Nancy Kilpatrick, John R. Little, Mark Onspaugh, Aaron Polson, Daniel Pyle, Jeff Ryan, D.L. Snell, Lucien Soulban,...
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Two great Rush concerts in one week and summiting a 14,264-ft peak; it’s tough to decide which part I enjoyed most. (On the other hand, I don’t have to decide.) It’ll come as no surprise to my fans that I have long enjoyed the music of Rush. I’ve been going to their concerts since 1983, and Neil Peart’s lyrics have inspired a great many stories and scenes in my writing. My first novel, Resurrection, Inc., is closely based on the Rush album “Grace Under Pressure.” (It’s been out of print for a while, but we’ve just made it available in...
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