Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan's new anthology The New Space Opera 2 came out today, featuring all original stories by me, John Scalzi, Robert Charles Wilson, Jay Lake, Garth Nix, Bruce Sterling, Elizabeth Moon, Justina Robson and many others. My story, "To Go Boldly," is a look at the LARPing ethic that lurks under the skin of any space navy.

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0061562351/
Boing Boing: http://www.boingboing.net/2009/06/29/new-space-opera-2-sf.html

The darkness faded to gray; then to light.

YEOWHEEEE

To black again. Thaaaaat hurt.

Hand over her eyes; one more time, now. SLOWLY.

This is a synopsis and sample chapter of my book "First Light"

Synopsis:

A story of hope in a grey world.

On the harsh militant world of Sindorus, where even colours are considered sinful, three people living very separate lives are about to have those lives change forever. As deceptions are torn away, and ancient secrets brought to light, they each must struggle to find the missing pieces to the puzzle...answers that will unlock their true destiny.

They were nearing civilization; The trail beneath their feet was more dirt and mud than grass, with sparrodic signs of use.

She kept scanning ahead; this was mainly because scanning the dense and towering forrest to either side of the trail - itself bathed in near-perpetual twilight - was a futile effort.

"Is this what you truly want, Wolf?"

Rebecca watches the Wolf's eyes, his face. There's no hesitation there.

Her hand rests in the fur of his neck. She feels it brush leather as she stands, to walk a few paces and turn, look down and lock eyes -

"Show me."

And waits....

I've been meaning to mention the podcast, Welcome to Mars. (It's also available in iTunes.)

It's a great twelve-part series by a Brit named Ken Hollings that looks at America in the 1940s/1950s from the perspective of pop culture, science-fiction movies, ufo sightings, and the Cold War.

I thought it was very entertaining, and is probably my favorite of the podcasts I've stumbled across in the past couple of years.

A recent piece on CNN asked why our future isn't more like Star Trek, with amazing devices like jet packs and flying cars.

Maybe it's just me, but this seems like a perfectly bizarre thing to say in a world with cellphones better than any Federation communicator (at least those in the first series), the internet, laptops, modern medicine, etc.

Falling asleep us way harder to do during the summer!! But if you take the sleeping pills they help but they take forever !!

My feelings are every. People start to go crazy, am I ? The fear, of doing the wrong thing at the wrong time or at the place. Having this feeling makes no one feel better. So should I try an act how I always do. I always act happy and that nothing bothers me. How can I hold it all in?? That is the real question hopefully thing will change.

" Mom I'm leaving for school", Billy yells!