Mars Poetry Contract Signed — Not the Same One that Will Go Into Space; Blood Type Anthology Contents Announced

Exciting times!  A quiet afternoon computing at the County Library (a.k.a. The Computer Cave Annex) was interrupted at about 2:15 with the announcement that there was a tornado warning in effect, and would we please go to the downstairs level, from which we were guided into an office area and instructed to space ourselves along the corridors there.  Thus we would be safe from potentially flying books, but, more immediately in an office just across from where I ended up a radio was announcing  the details.  Tornado-prone clouds had been spotted about six miles to the west, but nothing was on the ground — at least yet.  Also, judging from what was said concerning locations and direction, it seemed likely to me that it would pass somewhat to the south of the city.

Better safe than sorry, though, and in about a half hour the warning had passed (tomorrow’s newspaper may tell of damage, but as of now I haven’t heard anything more).  And so back to computing and, to the point here, returning a signed contract to Patricia Ferguson of the National Space Society of North Texas for three haiku-styled poems, “Outward Bound” (also a contest Honorable Mention), “Red Sky,” and “4th Planet Excursion,” to be published in a chapbook anthology MARS, THE NEXT FRONTIER (cf. September 26, September 22 2012).  We have met the National Space Society of North Texas before, incidentally, on February 11 2012 and September 15 2011 with a previous anthology, MOON:  THE EIGHTH CONTINENT, including my poem “Landing.”

I hasten to add for those who’re following NASA’s haiku contest to actually send a haiku to Mars aboard the MAVEN — Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN — mission spacecraft set for launch in late fall, this is a different thing altogether.  The MAVEN contest ended May 20 and (oops!) the date slipped by before I’d sent anything to it.

Then for late-breaking news on BLOOD TYPE (cf. July 18, below), here directly from Editor Wilson via the Horror Writers Association on Facebook:  Coming Devil’s Night (October 30th) 2013! BLOOD TYPE: AN ANTHOLOGY OF VAMPIRE SF ON THE CUTTING EDGE edited by Robert S. Wilson!  All proceeds from this anthology will go to The Cystic Fibrosis Trust! Here’s the final TOC in alphabetical order by story title! (This is not the final order.)

17 by Jonathan Templar

A Little Night Music by Mike Resnick

A River of Blood, Carried into the Abyss by John Palisano

Accommodation by Michael R. Collings

Better for Burning by H.E. Roulo

Chrysalis by Jason V. Brock

Damned to Life by Essel Pratt

Data Suck by Benjamin Kane Ethridge

Eudora by James S. Dorr

Evergreen by Peter Giglio

Gods and Devils by Taylor Grant

Happy Hour by GN Braun

I, Vampire by David N. Smith & Violet Addison

I was there… by Tarl Hoch

Mountains of Ice by Jilly Paddock

Occupation by James Ninness

Predators of Tomorrow by Michael Kamp

Reptile House by Stephen Graham Jones

Slave Arm by Laird Barron

Strays by Robert S. Wilson

Sun Hungry by Tim Waggoner

Taxing Youth by Rebecca Brown

Temporary Measures by Jay Wilburn

The Pilot by Jason Duke

The Souls of Stars by Amelia Mangan

The Undying by William F. Nolan

Unperished by S.R. Algernon

Wet Heavens by Brian Fatah Steele