Four months into my sabbatical from the 9-to-5 grind, I’m pleased to announce two short story sales!

“Those Brighter Stars” will be appearing in a forthcoming issue of online magazine LIGHTSPEED MAGAZINE.  This one is about two generations of mother-daughter relationships and humanity’s reaction to an approaching alien starship.  I’ve written numerous stories about First Contact, but this may be my favorite. 

“Unreeled” will be featured in an upcoming issue of ASIMOV’S SCIENCE FICTION.  This one is noir-ish SF horror and explores how a marital relationship is affected by one partner’s absence during an exploratory mission into a black hole.  I revised this one too many times to count with the help of my writers’ group to create just the right tone, so I’m glad it found such a great home after all the work I put into it.

The Wergen Sequence:  I’m putting the final touches on a new Wergen story, just as I’m starting to write the grand finale in the Wergen Sequence.  This will allow me to tie together all 8 Wergen stories into one big, juicy novel about First Contact, space colonization, intergalactic war — and unrequited love, of course.  There’s an arc that cuts through all the tales, so putting them together should create a satisfying story tracking the ups and downs and final resolution in the relationship between humanity and the Wergens.  I’m presenting the novel to the Starry Coast writing workshop in September for feedback.

Miscellaneous Stories:  Three stories — one an intergalactic treasure hunt story, another the return to the horrific near-future of my World Fantasy Award-nominated Tu Sufrimiento Will Protect Us, and the third set in the post-apocalyptic setting of The Scent of Their Arrival — are all in the incubator.  First drafts are complete, with revisions in the works.

Back to work!