February 2018 Open Post

   February 28, 2018
   March 1, 2018
   John Michael Greer
   456 Comments

   As announced earlier, this blog will host an open space once a month (well,
   more or less) to field questions and encourage discussion among my readers,
   and this is the week. All the standard rules apply - no profanity, no sales
   pitches,  no  trolling,  no  rudeness,  no  long  screeds  proclaiming  the
   infallible truth of fill in the blank - but since there's no topic, nothing
   is off topic.

   But first, an announcement...

                                 ***********

   Radio static crackles over the speakers as the pilot and co-pilot carry out
   final  system checks  from the  bulky steel  chairs in  the cockpit  of the
   gleaming spacecraft. One turns to the  other and makes a thumbs-up gesture:
   all  systems are  go.  Behind them,  in the  main  cabin, sixteen  intrepid
   interplanetary  explorers brace  themselves. Then,  over the  speakers, the
   countdown:

   "10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...we have ignition."

   Flame billows from the mighty rocket engines.

   "Main stage."

   With a tremendous roar, the engines rise to full power.

   "Liftoff!"

   Perched on a pillar of fire, the mighty spaceship Vintage Worlds rises from
   the surface  of the Earth,  en route to the  solar system that  should have
   been...

   I'm delighted  to report, in other  words, that the Old  Solar System short
   story contest  has been a rousing  success. Zendexor and I  received a fine
   selection of lively, readable stories, and  a hefty anthology is now in the
   works. The following stories have been  selected for the first volume (yep,
   there'll be more than one) of Vintage Worlds:

   "Perchance To Dream" by Peter C. Aitken

   "Europa Or Bust" by Shep Barnett

   "The Lure of the Depths" by Violet Bertelsen

   "The Dorian Grays" by D. Blakeden

   "Pen Pal" by Grant Canterbury

   "Tete-a-Tete" by David England

   "Uranian Thule" by Robert Gibson

   "Methane Blue" by Rachel Guettner

   "The Martian Girl" by Christopher Hennington

   "Incandescence" by Dylan Jeninga

   "Death Songs of Saturn" by Joel Jones

   "The Headless Skeletons of Mercury" by Troy Jones

   "Arden Archer" by Damian Macrae

   "The Solar System, The Universe and Everything" by Albert Sevcik

   "The Lost Cosmonaut and Saucer Six" by Clint Spivey

   "The Answer at the End of the World" by Arthur Vibert

   and "Out of the Chattering Planet" by yours truly.

   Contributors have until March  30 to put a final polish  on their stories -
   no major  changes, please, but if  you catch a glitch  somewhere now's your
   chance to fix it. Please send any  corrections in to the same email address
   you used  for the  submission, and  include a paragraph  of material  for a
   biographical blurb.

   I'd like to  thank everyone who submitted stories to  this project! As with
   the four After  Oil anthologies, it's been  a delight to read  so much good
   fiction that leaves behind the mandatory interstellar future that domineers
   over so  much of contemporary  SF. Stay tuned; in  the near future  I'll be
   announcing not one but two new contests.

                               ****************

   With that said, have at it...