Tag Archives: Re-Enlist

Status of Two Anthos

You writers have been busy! In turn, your writing has been keeping me busy, as a co-editor for two different anthologies at the same time. Here’s a quick update on the two books I’ve been involved with, in good news/bad news format.

First, the bad news. Pole to Pole Publishing is cancelling its planned Re-Enlist anthology. I was co-editing this one along with a wonderful friend, author, and editor, Kelly A. Harmon. The book was to include futuristic/military/dark reprint stories. Unfortunately, we didn’t receive enough suitable stories to fill the anthology.

Many thanks to those who did submit stories. Among them were some great tales.

On the bright side, no one can keep Pole to Pole Publishing down for long. They plan to come up with new calls for submissions for future anthologies soon, and they’ll be announced here. It’s even possible that I’ll get to be involved as a co-editor again.

Now for the good news. The open submissions window for the anthology Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne just closed, and we got a flood of submissions. By a flood, I mean 120, way above what I expected, and they included many wonderful stories. I’m part of the editing team for this book, and we’re busy choosing which stories to take.

I also thank all those who submitted to that anthology. So many good tales, and we’ll have to make some tough decisions. We can’t take them all.

This anthology is being sponsored by the North American Jules Verne Society, and the society’s leadership was pleased to learn of the huge response by writers who took the time to write and send their stories. It demonstrates the lasting impact Jules Verne’s novels continue to have on people today.

If all goes well, that anthology will be published later this year, and I’ll announce that event on this blog.

Although I continue to write my own fiction, I figured it was time to give you a status update from the editing desk of—

Poseidon’s Scribe

May 9, 2021Permalink

Time to Re-Enlist

How do I get myself into these things? Hot on the heels of 20,000 Leagues Remembered, I’m now co-editing another anthology. This one is called Re-Enlist, from Pole to Pole Publishing. My co-editor is the wonderfully talented author and editor Kelly A. Harmon.

Re-Enlist will consist of previously published short stories (reprints) related to the military and war. Re-Enlist will join Pole to Pole’s previous anthologies in the Re-Imagined series: Re-Launch, Re-Enchant, Re-Quest and Re-Terrify.

If you’ve written a dark SF tale that’s military in nature, a short story between 3000 and 5000 words that’s been published before and the rights have reverted back to you, send it our way.

For all the details and to submit, go to this site.

Will you Re-Enlist? I know one editor who’s anxious to read your short story submission, and that’s—

Poseidon’s Scribe

February 5, 2021Permalink

9 SciFi Predictions for 2021

I know, I know, when I used a crystal ball two years ago, my predictions didn’t pan out. Then when I read tea leaves last year, my prognostications were in error. But you can believe me this year. I’m using SciFi tarot cards to predict what will happen in 2021.

The cards can’t possibly be wrong. Here are my predictions for science fiction books in the year 2021:

  • Disease Stories. Inspired by the COVID-19 virus, there will be stories of even deadlier diseases, perhaps intelligent diseases. I see stories of pandemics, extreme isolation, and how characters deal with mass death.
  • Rebirth. I foresee stories of characters getting back to normal after pandemics, stories about the rebirth of society.
  • Private Space Exploration. Inspired by Space-X, stories of space travel will involve companies, not governments.
  • Humor. There will be a surge in funny scifi, mainly because we can all use it right now.
  • Artificial Intelligence. Writers in 2021 will continue to explore this topic as they have for decades, but with greater urgency as computer scientists get closer and closer to developing Artificial General Intelligence, and perhaps Artificial Super Intelligence.
  • Anti-Capitalism. I predict there will be stories pointing out, in fictional form, the deficiencies of capitalism. Anti-capitalist themes may only form the backdrop of the story, but they will be there.
  • China. In 2021, I see an uptick in scifi books involving China in some way. Some will be written by Chinese authors, and some stories will be set in China.
  • Fewer Aliens. Alien tales are out in 2021. Of the few that will be published, they will involve communication only, not visitations, let alone abductions or invasions.
  • Urban Scifi. Paralleling the urban fantasy subgenre, we’ll see a lot of scifi books in 2021 that start out in a modern-day city setting, and go from there.

Personal Predictions

Here are three other prophesies for 2021, but these involve me in some way:

  • The Seastead Chronicles, my collection of short stories about the future history of seasteading, will be published in 2021.
  • The North American Jules Verne Society will publish its first anthology of short stories, (working title: Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne) all inspired by Jules Verne, in 2021, and I’ll be on the editorial team. You can write a story for it. Click here for details.
  • Pole to Pole Publishing will put out an anthology of reprinted military science fiction short stories in 2021, titled Re-Enlist. I’ll serve as co-editor of this one. Stay tuned to this blog for more details.

In late December of 2021, I’ll post my assessment of the above predictions, and you’ll see there’s no better reader of tarot cards than—

Poseidon’s Scribe

December 27, 2020Permalink