David Lee Summers's Blog, page 127

Near Future and Recent Past

I'm just back in from MileHiCon in Denver, Colorado. I had a great time and was pleased to see how many people turned out for each of the panels and readings I was at.

It was particularly nice to see how many people came out for the readings from Space Horrors, especially given that we were scheduled opposite the masquerade. Also, it was gratifying to see the number of people who came to hear my presentation on Kitt Peak National Observatory's 50th anniversary. I did want to take a moment and pass along a couple of book recommendations for people who either were there and would like more information, or wanted to make it but couldn't because of time constraints. The first book is Realm of the Long Eyes: A Brief History of Kitt Peak National Observatory by James E. Kloeppel. This book gives good information about the early history of the observatory. The other book is A Visitor's Guide to the Kitt Peak Observatories by Leslie Sage and Gail Aschenbrenner. This second book gives you a good look at the observatory as it is today. Clicking on the links will take you to the Amazon.com pages for the books. Just as a side note, Leslie Sage was a postdoc at New Mexico Tech when I was a grad student. He's now a senior editor for Nature. So, he's a science writer who really knows his stuff.

Turning my attention to the near future, I wanted to make sure people know that the upcoming anthology 2020 Visions is now available for pre-order here: http://www.mbranepress.com/2010/10/2020-visions-us-pre-order-begins.html. In this anthology, sixteen authors, including yours truly, explore the world as it might be ten years from now. There's a sneak peak at the cover art as well as more information about the book. Also, if you pre-order the book, M-Brane Publishing will throw in a free one-year subscription to the electronic version of M-Brane SF Magazine. The book's release is scheduled for November 15.

MileHiCon Schedule

Don't Panic! I'm heading to Denver the weekend of October 22-24 for MileHiCon 42. The convention is being held at the Hyatt Regency – Tech Center and you can find out more information about the convention at milehicon.org.

Here's my schedule for the convention:

Friday, October 22
6pm – Small Press & Ezines: Finding/Dealing with New Markets in Grand Mesa B/C
8pm – I'll be available to sign books at Autograph Alley
Saturday, October 23
10am – Spaceship Building in Chasm Creek B
2pm – Kitt Peak: 50 Years of Space Exploration in Grand Mesa A
8pm – Space Horrors Reading in the Avistrum Academy on the 12th Floor of the Hotel
Sunday, October 24
1pm – SF Poetry Slam in Mesa Verde A

Who Else Books in the dealer's room will have a good selection of my books in stock at the convention. I've heard they're ordering Space Horrors, Six-Guns Straight From Hell, and Bad-Ass Faeries 3: In All Their Glory — plus I know they have all of my novels in stock. Odd Child Underground stocks my Old Star trilogy and they'll be in the dealer's room as well.

One of the great things about MileHiCon is that it gives me a chance to touch base with a lot of the folks I work with in publishing. Flying Pen Press publisher David Rozansky is in Denver as is Science Fiction Trails publisher David B. Riley. Tales of the Talisman's Art Director, Laura Givens is also based in Denver. Of course, Laura is not only the magazine's art director, she recently became one of my editors because of her work on Six-Guns Straight From Hell.

The Space Horrors reading will feature Sarah A. Hoyt, Alastair Mayer, Dana Bell and Gene Mederos. There will also be a reading for Six-Guns Straight From Hell on Friday night at 10pm. I gathered I could only be scheduled for one of the readings and since I edited Space Horrors that's the one I was scheduled for. However, I hope to drop in and support my fellow Six-Guns authors — David Boop, Laura Givens, Carol Hightshoe, Nicole Givens Kurtz, and David Riley will all be there.

If you're in Denver the weekend of October 22-24, I hope you'll drop by MileHiCon and say hello.

Six-Guns Straight From Hell

I've devoted quite a bit of time here at the Web Journal talking about my latest anthology Full-Throttle Space Tales #4: Space Horrors. However, I also have a story out in another new anthology called Six-Guns Straight From Hell published by Science Fiction Trails Press.

Here's a sampling of what you'll find: Vampires robbing banks; a Werewolf Sheriff; Newfangled electric Zombies; Alchemists enslaving vampires; Ghosts posing for portraits. The west was never this wild. Saddle up for an adventure through a collection of horror and dark fantasy tales that will keep you turning the pages, though you might keep one eye peeled for any severed heads that might be rolling your way. Featuring stories by: Bill D. Allen , Sherri Dean, Matthew Baugh, Bill Craig, Lyn McConchie, John Howard, David Boop, David Lee Summers, Renee James, Don Hornbostel, Kit Volker, Sam Kepfield, Nicole Givens Kurtz, Lee Clark Zumpe, Carol Hightshoe, Joel Jenkins, Henrik Ramsager, Jennifer Campbell-Hicks and James Patrick Cobb.

My story in the collection is called "A Specter in the Light". It's set in the first year of my alma mater, New Mexico Tech. The school was founded as the New Mexico School of Mines. I tell the story of a mining engineer employed by the school who is developing Tesla Coils as a way to bring light into mines. However, it turns out there's an unexpected consequence of generating electric fields down in the bowels of the Earth. The idea for the story had its genesis from my days as a physics student at New Mexico Tech. A friend of mine and I decided to build our own Tesla Coil. We really weren't all that successful, but we did have great amounts of fun generating sparks and burning out power supplies. One professor who saw us experimenting with the coil said I was destined to be either a great empiricist or a mass murderer. Well, I'm not sure if I turned out to be either — unless you count the fictional characters I've killed off in stories! Still, it did get me thinking about how I might use a Tesla Coil in a story.

The book's official release is this Sunday, October 17 at 3:00pm in Denver at the Broadway Book Mall. Co-Editors David B. Riley and Laura Givens will be joined at the release by fellow authors David Boop, Jennifer Campbell-Hicks and Carol Hightshoe. They will be signing at the Broadway Book Mall, 200 S. Broadway, Denver. The phone number is: 303-744-BOOK

Unfortunately, I won't be able to join them for the release party. However, I will be in Denver only a week after the release for MileHiCon. If you buy a book at the release party, I'll be more than happy to sign it at MileHiCon! I'll also have copies of the book for sale at TusCon in Tucson, Arizona the weekend of November 12-14.

If you aren't in Denver or Tucson — or you just don't want to wait, you can pick up the book right now at Amazon.com. The book is also available in Kindle format.

Space Horrors – Ernest & Emily Hogan

Today we wrap up the Space Horrors guest blog series with a post by Ernest and Emily Hogan who co-authored the story "Plan 9 in Outer Space". I first met Ernest and Emily at TusCon a few years ago when the three of us were on a panel discussing dragons. Since then, I've seen them at a number of science fiction conventions and have enjoyed getting to know them and their writing better. It was a pleasure to get a chance to work with them on Space Horrors.

Since this is the last post in the series, I'll take a moment and remind everyone that Space Horrors is available at Amazon.com and BN.com.

Also, while I'm mentioning books, I just heard that the anthology 2020 Visions, which also has a story by Ernest Hogan as well as a story by me is now available for pre-order. Visit M-Brane Press's website to learn out how you can get a copy. They're also throwing in an electronic subscription to M-Brane SF Magazine with your pre-order. How cool is that!

Finally, be sure to keep an eye out for Tales of the Talisman volume 6, issue 3 this winter. The issue features Ernest's story "The Great Mars-A-Go-Go Mexican Standoff". Laying out that issue is one of the next things on my to-do list.

Now, let's turn it over to Ernest and Emily.

-DLS

THE MAKING OF "PLAN 9 IN OUTER SPACE"

I keep hearing about the dangers of getting involved in blogging and social networks. "Watch out, you'll end up wasting all your time!" Well, I'm happy to report that this has not been the case with me. Since I started blogging and got on Facebook, I've been making contacts that have allowed me to sell more stories – more often than I ever had in the past.

"Plan 9 in Outer Space" in one of these stories.

It started with a Mondo Ernesto post about a book called Bad Mags Volume 1 by Tom Brinkmann which celebrated strange men's magazines. Some of them were written and edited by none other than Edward D. Wood, Jr., creator of the immortal Plan 9 from Outer Space.

I put a link to the post on Facebook. David Lee Summers — whom my wife Emily and I had met at science fiction conventions — sent me some comments. He wasn't aware that Ed Wood's literary efforts were still available. I told him that more excerpts of Wood's writing could be found in Rudolph Grey's Nightmare of Ecstasy, and that Wood's novels, Killer in Drag and Death of a Transvestite, had been reprinted.

Not long afterwards, David invited Emily and me to send stories to Space Horrors.

We were delighted, but neither of us had any space horror stories in our files. And there was the matter of other looming deadlines.

But I mulled it over a while, thinking about what David and I had discussed . . . Ed Wood . . . sleazy magazines . . . hm . . .

With publishing in the throes of a violent, blood-spurting transformation, all writers are in a position similar to that of Ed Wood. We need to find markets in strange new places, and write for an audience whose tastes can't be predicted. Let the monsters from the id come out and play, shoot for something that will snag the attention of the distracted consumer.

"Hey!" I said to Emily. "What about Ed Wood on a spaceship? Not really Ed Wood, but a guy trying to be an Ed Wood . . . throw in some sci-fi space zombies . . ."

Emily loved it. She also asked if she could help. Why not? I wasn't really sure what I was doing at this point. It would be nice to have someone to help make sure it made some kind sense. After all, there are some things about Ed Wood I didn't want to emulate . . . I wanted the story to be good.

And at this point I hand things over to Emily (much the way I did while writing the story).

- Ernest

Emily here – I have to admit I'm not as good at coughing up short stories on demand as Ernie is. In fact, I haven't written a short story in over ten years. Writing novels sort of un-teaches you to write stories.

But Ernie and I have collaborated successfully on several projects, so I asked if I could help with "Plan 9 in Outer Space." He was struggling with other deadlines, as he mentioned – so it was pretty easy to talk him into it.

Ernie and I sometimes have vastly different expectations of the Universe, but I understand his point of view, and he understands mine. I suppose that's the best way to define a good collaboration (and possibly a good marriage). So we'll continue to collaborate, until Death Do Us Part . . .

- Emily

Space Horrors – Gene Mederos

When I invite writers to submit to an anthology I'm editing, I include a line asking people to recommend writers they think might have something special to offer the project. One of my invitations went out to a very talented writer named Trent Zelazny. Although circumstances prevented Trent from submitting a story, he recommended that I send an invitation to Gene Mederos. Gene came up with a wonderfully chilling piece called "A Touch of Frost."

I was fortunate enough to meet Gene at Bubonicon back in August. We had a great discussion while sipping an exquisite Armagnac. Sadly, I can't offer to share a bottle over the web, but I hope you'll enjoy hearing Gene's thoughts just the same.

- DLS

Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice. Can't say I've ever minded the heat.

I was born in Cuba and immigrated to the USA with my parents at the age of two. We lived in Brooklyn, in a basement apartment. Carny folks from Coney Island shared the basement apartment in the building next door, among them a bearded lady and a tattooed man, back before everybody wore tattoos. They were very nice to me, one of them even gave me my first comic book. But one winter their landlord tossed them out into the cold.

Since my father was the superintendent, responsible for the building's maintenance, we shared our basement with the utility and the boiler room. New York City is subject to temperatures well below zero, but I never felt the cold. Not with the massive boiler for an entire five story building a few rooms down from my own.

No, I never felt the cold, not until years later when, as an adult, I took an apartment in the Bronx. On the top floor of a seven story building, because it was farthest from the basement. But they don't maintain buildings as well nowadays as my father once did. The boiler broke, in winter, and the landlord wasn't in a hurry to fix it. One night the temperature dropped to minus 20 something degrees. The water in the toilet froze and so did I. Even with all three cats under the blanket, the cold was painful.

So when David asked me to write a horror story set in space, it wasn't hard to figure out what would scare me in space. Space is cold. And sometimes, so are people.

Currently I'm working on a western/ horror story and a screenplay. When I'm not writing I teach digital editing and film making at the Santa Fe Community College and run my own video production company. My next video project is an update of the famous 1970's pollution / crying Indian commercial for the Keep America Beautiful foundation with actor Wes Studi (Avatar, Geronimo) in the starring role.

- Gene Mederos

Space Horrors – David B. Riley

Today, publisher David Rozansky and I are hosting a special all-day Twitter Party for the release of Space Horrors. There are special discounts for the book, interviews with some of the contributors, and more. If you're on Twitter, follow along with hashtag #FTST

David Rozansky will also be interviewing me on Twitter as part of #scifichat from 2pm – 4pm Eastern Time.

Now, let's turn our attention to another David — David B. Riley. Of all the contributors in Space Horrors, I've probably worked with David the longest. He was a contributor to the second issue of the first magazine I edited, Hadrosaur Tales. That issue was published in 1996 and it's still available for sale at Clarkesworld Books. I have gone on to publish David's stories in a number of Hadrosaur Tales and Tales of the Talisman issues. I've also edited two of his novels, The Two Devils and The Devil's Due. Not only is David in Space Horrors, but he teamed up with Space Horrors cover artist Laura Givens to edit an anthology called Six-Guns Straight From Hell. The anthology features my story "A Specter in the Light" and is available at Amazon.com and wherever fine books are sold.

I can sum it all up by saying David B. Riley is a fine writer and editor and it has been my pleasure to work with him for the last fourteen years and I hope for many years to come. Let's hear from David.

-DLS

I have stories in three of the four Full-Throttle Space Tales books.

My story, "Salvage," centers around my Sarah Meadows character. She was in Space Pirates, in the "Claims Adjustor" and returns for another adventure in Space Horrors with a story called "Salvage."

In Sarah's world, Mars is an independent republic with an uneasy relationship with Earth. Sarah works for the Gompers Insurance Company. Gompers isn't your run-of-the-mill insurance company, as they write a lot of high risk policies and do a lot of business insuring the cargo of spaceships. That was the basis of Sarah's adventure in "The Claims Adjustor." It also is the basis of her activities in "Salvage."

In "Salvage" we learn that Gompers insured the cargo of a ship that vanished in space a long time ago. A probe recently detected the ship derelict and adrift. Sarah decides to hire a few aliens to help her salvage the ship. The problem: The aliens are at war with Earth and the derelict ship she wants to salvage is adrift in Earth's territory. Sarah and her crew soon discover that being in Earth's space is the least of their problems.

- David B. Riley

Space Horrors – Dayton Ward

I found my contributor copies of Space Horrors waiting for me when I came home last night from my "day" job at Kitt Peak National Observatory.  The book turned out very well.  Laura Givens did an outstanding job on the cover art.  I'm looking forward to giving the book another read in its printed and bound form soon!

Publisher David Rozansky is hosting a Twitter Party for Space Horrors on Friday October 8 from 9am until 9pm Eastern Time.  I'm hoping to have a few more details including hashtags to follow the conversation soon, but at the very least, you can look me up — @davidleesummers — and get details from me that day, if need be.

Now, turning to the featured event of the day — today's guest blog comes from Dayton Ward.  He was one of the authors the publisher asked me to invite to the anthology, which usually induces a knee-jerk reaction on my part of "Do I HAVE to?"  However, in addition to being the editor of Full-Throttle Space Tales #3: Space Grunts, he's also the author of a number of Star Trek novels.  I extended Dayton an invitation and was pleased that I did.  He was a pleasure to work with and turned in an outstanding story.  My only regret in the whole affair is that other commitments prevented me from writing a story for Space Grunts, which would have allowed me to meet Dayton sooner.

With that, let's hear from Dayton.

-DLS

After serving as editor for Space Grunts, the previous Full-Throttle Space Tales anthology, I was thrilled to be invited to submit a story for Space Horrors. Of course, I was also a little nervous. Aside from the odd foray into zombie territory, horror generally isn't my wheelhouse. Still, part of being a writer is stepping out of your comfort zone and experimenting with new genres and forms of storytelling.

Come to think of it, that's the same attitude which eventually compelled me to submit those "true stories" I sent to Penthouse Forum.

Wait…was that out loud?

Moving on….

My story, "Into the Abyss," took a long, circuitous journey on its way to ending up in Space Horrors. The basic notion of a space ship stumbling across an apparently derelict vessel and the subsequent hijinks that ensue is something my frequent writing partner, Kevin Dilmore, and I pitched as one of two story concepts for Constellations, an anthology published by Pocket Books back in 2006 and celebrating the 40th anniversary of the original Star Trek series. Our editor on that project preferred the other pitch we'd submitted, so this one went back into the "Idea File" for possible later use.

A year or so after that, we dusted it off, tweaked it a bit, and sent it along with a couple of other pitches to an editor at Tokyopop, which at the time held a license to publish manga based on the original Star Trek as well as The Next Generation. Due to a massive upheaval and series of layoffs there, our stuff got lost in the resulting shuffle, and Tokyopop finished its run of Star Trek manga. As before, our unused story ideas went back into The File, and we moved on to other things.

(Overemphasized writing tip #1: Never throw anything away.)

Skip to fall 2009, and the invitation letter from David Lee Summers. Write a horror story? Me? Nah. Then I remembered this idea and after getting Kevin's blessing, I set about retooling it for Space Horrors. Gone was Captain Kirk and his crew solving the mystery of a seemingly abandoned ship adrift in space–complete with all the requisite technology and technobabble, bothersome Klingons, Scotty conjuring an engineering miracle to save the day, and even a sacrificial red-shirted security guard or two. Instead, we now have a grittier, more blue-collar band of space haulers confronting a "space oddity."

Once I finished restructuring the premise and jotting some notes on my new cast of characters, I started slinging words. I was about two-thirds of the way done with the writing when I started having second thoughts and telling myself that there were things I didn't really like. Thinking about it for a day or so, I realized that the story opened in the wrong spot. Why? I'd left myself one last, lingering trap from the time when this was still going to be a Star Trek tale, and fallen right into it. Whoops! Once I had that figured out, regrouping was easy. I reworked some things here and there before pushing forward.

As I was writing my story, I realized that the backstory I hint at for one of my main characters is something I wouldn't mind revisiting one of these days. I'm hoping I get to do that once I acquire some free time, which by my calendar should be some time around July 6th, 2026, give or take a week. While I'm waiting, I hope you enjoy "Into the Abyss."

- Dayton Ward

Space Horrors – Patrick Thomas

Today we hear from Patrick Thomas, author of the story "Divining Everest".  Patrick was recommended to me by an author and editor whose work I greatly respect, Danielle Ackley-McPhail.  I took her recommendation very seriously and decided to drop him an e-mail.  I was glad I did.  Not only did he turn in a fine story for Space Horrors, he proposed writing brand new editions of his wonderful "Dear Cthulhu" column for Tales of the Talisman Magazine.  You'll find the first column in Tales of the Talisman volume 6, issue 1.  The second column should be appearing in a few short weeks in volume 6, issue 2.

My wife tells me that my contributor copies of Space Horrors arrived at home today.  Tonight is the last night of my shift at Kitt Peak National Observatory.  Looking forward to seeing the book in a little less than 24 hours!

-DLS

Be gentle. I've never done this before—blog that is. It seems odd in retrospect. I have well over a million words in print with more than 20 books and over 150 shorts to my credit, but no blogging. It's not that I have anything against it per se. It's just my writing time is always at a premium, always a deadline to meet. And some deadlines are pleasant while others can be incredibly difficult to handle, always causing trouble so to add more to my plate always seemed foolhardy, at least for my writing. At an all you can eat buffet, well that's another matter. But when David Lee Summers offered me a one-shot blog, I figured I could handle that. Better still, he said to talk about my story in his Full-Throttle Space Tales: Space Horrors.

Talk about my work. That I can do.

When David and I first chatted (technically e-mailed) about what he was looking for, I let him know about my two space faring series. The first is my Startenders tales, which take place in the future of my Murphy's Lore series. Fun, space travel utilizing a mix of magic and science. Tricksters in Space. The second is The 142nd Starborne, military science fiction set in a universe where the Earth has been destroyed by dark forces and The 142nd survived by one man—Major Hans Benedict—deciding to ignore suicide orders and do the right thing by mutinying in order to finish the job they had started. They save an endangered world while the Earth burned. Everyone except a couple of hundred of the Sway's leaders were already dead and those calling the military home were only trying to save their own skins. It's dark, moody and everything doesn't seem brighter when the story is done. Still the soldiers of the 142nd fight on, even if in the long run they may not win. They fight because someone has to and if not them, there won't be anyone else.

Mr. Summers chose the 142nd Starborne.

He also told me that the original title was going to be Space Vampires but was changed to give the book a broader scope, but the vampire part stuck with me.

That was important because the 142nd fight monsters and I don't mean just the human kind. Vampires could work.

But first I should give you a little background on how the 142nd Starborne came to be. When I first got published, 3 of my first 4 books were SF, but it was the fantasy that sold the best so I ended up doing more fantasy to the point were I rarely wrote SF. And I certainly never wrote military SF, so in a very real way the 142nd Starborne owes a thanks and it's very existence to Mike McPhail. Mike invited me to submit to Breach The Hull, the first book in his Defending The Future series. At this point I feel obliged to say the tradition things about the books like mention that it is an award winning series and even name drop—it has stories by David Sherman, Jonathan Maberry, CJ Henderson, Bud Sparhawk, and Jack Campbell but that does a disservice to those not mentioned because each story is something special. Simply put, if you haven't yet had the pleasure and like military SF you won't be disappointed.

But there was the rub. It was still military SF and I had never written the stuff. Of course I've never been one to back away from a challenge. Run away screaming, sure, but back away? Never.

It's strange how ideas come sometimes. People often ask me my process, but it's difficult for me to explain. My mind likes to think in stories. It's something that happens naturally, but can be eased along with prompting. In this instance, I had to come up with a concept for a military SF universe before I could write the story. And at the same time I had deadlines for two zombie stories. And the ideas did a mash up in my head and the 142nd Starborne was born. Or perhaps invaded my psyche would be more accurate.

The military, never one to let a good weapon go to waste, has utilized weres, vampires and zombies. The 142nd Starborne has to clean up the messes caused by the collapse of the government when these creatures get loose.

Which brings us to "Divining Everest." I prefer to write in series. For one thing, it's easier not to have to create a new world every time you have to write a story, at least for me. Plus, I enjoy the world building.   I decided to use vampires if for no other reason than my stories for DTF all involved zombies. And I got to thinking—what if the vampires weren't the bad guys or at least were the lesser of two evils. What happens when soldiers are facing two kinds of monsters and only one has fangs?

To tell anymore would involved spoilers, so I'll stop here except to say that of course I think you should get yourself a copy of Space Horrors. Is it worth it just for my 142nd Starborne story "Divining Everest"? Sure it is—and yes, I'm incredibly modest, but have been working hard to overcome it and seem to be in recovery. However the rest of the stories in the book make it more than worth it. Plus Laura Givens had done one of the best anthology covers I've seen in a long time. And as an artist I've done a few. Of course, it should go without mentioning—which of course means I'm about the do just that—that anyone who's ever read an issue of Tales of the Talisman or Full-Throttle Space Tales: Space Pirates knows, Mr. Summers is an editor supreme. He's not letting anyone in his book who's not at the top of their game. And yes, I can name drop again and mention that CJ Henderson, Danielle Ackley-McPhail and Sarah A. Hoyt and a host of other talent writers are in it. But that would be overkill.

Then again, overkill is what the 142nd Starborne is all about.

—Patrick Thomas

www.patthomas.net

Space Horrors – Dana Bell

Today marks the official "street date" of Full-Throttle Space Tales #4: Space Horrors.  I'm still anxiously waiting to hold a copy of the book in my hands.  When exactly that will happen will depend on such things as exactly when the publisher placed the order, the whims of the shipping companies and my work schedule.  However, the book is available to order.  Get your own copy at Amazon.com, BN.com or direct from the publisher at FlyingPenPress.com.  If you're one of the folks who pre-ordered a copy, or you're a contributor and you've received your copies, feel free to leave a comment and let us know what you think!

In the meantime, let's celebrate the big day with a guest blog by Dana Bell.  She's a good friend from science fiction conventions in Colorado.  It's been my pleasure to watch her writing grow and improve since I've known her.  She has several stories and a novel appearing soon.  It's definitely my pleasure to have published her in Tales of the Talisman and Space Horrors. Allow me to turn it over to Dana — or rather Dana's friend.

-DLS

Rerow. My name is Shadow or Blackie or whatever you humans choose to call me. I live with my person on a mining asteroid and I encounter one of the Chosen Ones of Bast and…well, you can read the story for yourself what happened to me.

The writer of my tale says she got the idea from two places or maybe it's three. First off, she loves writing from a cat's perspective. I'd say this makes her an advanced human. Second and third, she borrowed ideas from two of her unfinished novels. One was to be about cat… oops! Almost let out a secret!  The other was a science fiction murder mystery placed in the asteroid belt. She just combined the two ideas and look how well it worked!

She's a relative newcomer on the pro scene. See, she got laid off and used the time to get her writing career going. She's had several stories accepted for publication and is in anthologies such as All About Eve and Throw Down Your Dead. Oh, and let us not forget her novel Winter Awakening coming out next year from Wolfsinger Publications. Of course, it stars intelligent felines, plus wolves and spotted ghosts. What's a spotted ghost? Well, read the book and find out.

Space Horrors – David Lee Summers

I have to admit a certain unease when it comes to writing stories for anthologies I edit. I don't edit anthologies as a way to create a writing outlet for myself. I edit anthologies because the topic seems like an interesting one and I enjoy seeing how a variety of authors explore that topic. Admittedly, the writer in me does want to play and explore the topic, too! Still, the dilemma that often arises has to do with being objective about the story I write.

The way we have addressed that with books I've edited in the Full-Throttle Space Tales series is that I submit my story to the publisher. If David Rozansky says the story is terrible, out it goes and no questions asked.

My story in Space Horrors actually had its genesis way back in the summer of 2002. At the time, I was serving on the board of the New Mexico Center for the Book. One afternoon, I drove to Santa Fe for a board meeting. Because it's a long way from Las Cruces to Santa Fe, one of my fellow board members allowed me to spend the night at her house. That board member was Dolly Bussard, wife of physicist Robert Bussard. Robert Bussard is probably most famous for conceiving a space ship that can travel near the speed of light, using interstellar hydrogen as fuel. While staying at the Bussards' home, I had an idea about a vampire who travels on a Bussard Ramjet to get away from sunlight. That idea became a 150-word short story called "On the Ramjet" which was first published in Blood Sampler Magazine in 2002 and was recently reprinted in the collection Blood Samples that I co-authored with Lee Clark Zumpe. You can read the original story at my MySpace blog.  If you like that story, there's lots more where it came from and you can pick up a copy of Blood Sampler at The Genre Mall or Hadrosaur Productions.

In fact, this little 150-word story has been so popular, it's one of my most reprinted stories.  Not only has it appeared in the places mentioned above, but it was also printed in a local newspaper called The Ink and I read it on Maggie Bonham's Podcast, "The SciFi Traveling Roadshow".  Popular as this little piece of flash fiction has seemed to be, I thought it would be fun to expand the idea and actually explore the characters and their motivations more.

So, I changed my point-of-view character from the vampire to an engineer who encounters the vampire and my 150-word flash fiction grew into a 6700-word short story called "Anemia."  David Rozansky read the story and liked it, so it went into the anthology.  Now, here's hoping you enjoy it too!