"Long Eyes" introduction

As promised, here's a teaser from the new book…

INTRODUCTION

This is the book nobody wanted me to publish — nobody except the fans.

These days, corporate New York has zero interest in short fiction collections except from the most successful authors. I'm merely successful, not a major brand name, so this book has been a long time in the making.

I'm even more excited about it because of the wait.

Not too long ago, short fiction collections were a staple of science fiction and fantasy. Growing up, I tore through 'em like a dingo feeds on human babies. Each collection served up a juicy pile of ideas, never lingering, always moving, banging on your brain like a bell. John Varley. Joe Haldeman. Heinlein. Asimov.

I'm fourth generation sf. My great-grandmother built her library around Frank L. Baum's Oz series, the original fantasy epic. She passed those beautiful hardcover editions to her son, my grandfather, who kept them alongside "Doc" E.E. Smith novels such as Lensmen and The Galactic Patrol, which were the cutting edge in his own time.

Later, when I was a boy, my grandfather introduced me to the world's first media tie-ins like Han Solo's Revenge and Splinter Of The Mind's Eye. This was not a man who sneered at popular good fun. He hooked me with Star Wars books, then fed my new addiction with the classics. At the same time, my father was bringing home doorstoppers like The Hobbit and Clan Of The Cave Bear, which, yes, reads very much like alternate history. This was mind-croggling stuff for a young boy. Obviously it warped me badly. Look at me now!

Long Eyes includes all of my short fiction from my earliest sales to several appearances in the top venues in the field.

If a novel is a loaded rifle, a short story is a single bullet. It needs to hit its target perfectly. As a writer, you love 'em and leave 'em. That's a very different experience than sinking fourteen months into a novel, but it's also the sweet taste of freedom. Running from idea to idea is a pleasure.

These stories feature aliens, clones, diseases, and disasters, but you'll also find a bit of the supernatural and the psychotic. Following each story, I've also included an afterword discussing each story's circumstances or inspiration.

It's a tasty stew. I hope it makes your head explode.

Now onto the title story…

Jeff Carlson