OTHER EARTH, OTHER STARS is the title of my forthcoming collection of science fiction short stories. I just need to finish proofing the galleys (that’s writer talk) and this baby will shoot through the photon torpedo … um … photon torpedo shooter thingie. Science fiction. Yeah.

ANYWAY, here’s the cover, without the back cover blurb.

Gorgeous, or what?

Here’s the back cover text:

In order to work off-world, you have to have your connection to the ‘net severed. But what if you still hear voices in your head?

In an alternate history, three young friends and their mechanical dog rent an airship for a jolly holiday. Then sky pirates happen.

Can you ever trust a mermayd? They may be charming, but there’s nobody trickier.

A woman begins to wonder exactly who she is after her atoms are reassembled at the end of a transfer.

By land, air, or sea, with two arms or eight, driving lessons are driving lessons.

These stories and poems, most collected from various venues and one brand new, imagine alternate Earth, future Earth, Earthlings in space and on other planets, and people of other planets.

Science fiction. It’s not just rayguns anymore.

Here’s the contents, more-or-less — there might be a shuffle or two before it’s final, along with where the stories originally appeared:

• Solo For Multiple Instruments – FUTURE PERFECT, TENSE IN SPACE, 2010
• Out of the Frying Pan – #amwriting website, 2012
• Prime Date – Quills and Quibbles website, 2011
• Treasure of the Terra Madre – Marian Allen, Author Lady website, 2014
• Best Ride in Space – Marian Allen, Author Lady website, 2014
• Craw – Quills and Quibbles website, 2011
• Line of Descent – Smashwords, Kindle, since withdrawn
• Out of the Cradle – BEASTLY TALES, 2006
• Blood of Mermayds – Marian Allen, Author Lady website, since withdrawn
• Becalmed at Sea – Marian Allen, Author Lady website, 2014
• SMILE, Mr. President – Marian Allen, Author Lady website, 2014
• Three Men in a Blimp, To Say Nothing of the Automaton – CIRCUITS AND STEAM, 2014
• Dog Star – WorldWide Recipes newsletter, 2003; NOVEL INGREDIENTS, 2003
• Sure Thing – Quills and Quibbles website, 2013
• Pile-Up – Race to the Hugo Award website, 2013
• Snow on the Screen – Marian Allen, Author Lady website, 2015
• A Long Time Coming – Marian Allen, Author Lady website, 2015
• Western Star – Marian Allen, Author Lady website, 2015
• Aardvark With an Arrow – #amwriting website, 2012
• Reading From the Book of First Bambi – Marian Allen, Author Lady website, 2014
• Slob vs Snob – Marian Allen, Author Lady website, 2013
• The One and Only – Marian Allen, Author Lady website, 2013
• Til Death Us Do Part – Race to the Hugo Award website, 2014
• The Woman Who Wasn’t a Shave-Tail – Oceans of the Mind website, 2002
• Demon Ozone – Yandro, 1979; PAIR OF NORMAL WHAT, 2013
• Sanctuary – Quills and Quibbles website, 2011
• Mixed Metaphor – BYTELAND POETRY ANTHOLOGY, 1994; PAIR OF NORMAL WHAT, 2013
• Independence – Marian Allen, Author Lady website, 2015
• Leaving the Turtle – previously unpublished

I think the Launch will be in September. IF YOU TRULY BELIEVE YOU’LL GIVE ME A REVIEW, I’ll be happy to send you an electronic review copy. The review, of course, should be honest, even if you don’t like the book. I’m betting you will.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Write about someone out of place in time or setting.

MA