Today is launch day for a new website called Story Portals.  They are using short stories to develop several characters, including Katya, Lady Assassin.  Why am I telling you this?  Because I wrote one of the Katya stories: "The Price of a Dagger."  Unfortunately, that story isn't available on the site yet, but they'll be releasing new stories on a... read more »

In case anyone missed the news, I did not win a Hugo for "That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made."  Frankly, I anticipated losing, so it was only a slight disappointment.  I felt more disappointment on behalf of various friends who I hoped had a real shot at winning Hugos or the Campbell Award. However, I was thrilled that my friend... read more »

The August issue of InterGalactic Medicine Show has some fascinating stories -- all of which I read as submissions and recommended to our editor. (It's the first time that's happened.) "Under the Shield" by Stephen Kotowych is an alternate history in which Nikola Tesla developed a death ray and a force shield. 'Nuff said. "What Happened at Blessing Creek" by... read more »

I've sold a story to Digital Science Fiction (not to be confused with Daily Science Fiction): "A Lincoln in Time."  It's my first sale to this new market; here's hoping it won't be the last. Russian science fiction magazine ESLI has published "Этот левиафан, которого ты сотворил...," their translation of "That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made." I spent several days... read more »

I've been superbusy with various things, so I haven't posted a blog entry in almost a month. I went to the Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop and had a great time and learned a lot. I went to an extended Erekson family reunion and really enjoyed catching up with a lot of my relatives. The Chinese magazine Science Fiction World requested... read more »

There's going to be a new InterGalactic Medicine Show anthology coming out later this year.  My story "The Robot Sorcerer" (which I still consider to possibly be the best story I've written) will be included. Here's the full table of contents: “Trinity County, CA” by Peter S. Beagle First appeared in IGMS issue #18 “Sister Jasmine Brings the Pain” by... read more »

You can now read my short story "Freefall" for free at the Daily Science fiction website.  To whet your appetite, here's how it starts: Freefall was the best part of a jump. As she fell, Gina Wright looked down at Earth, half shadowed beneath her as dawn crept toward her landing target in Kansas, and relished the knowledge that she... read more »

My short story "Freefall" is scheduled for the June 28 issue of Daily Science Fiction.  In practice, that means it will probably be sent to email subscribers late tonight.  If you're not a subscriber, why aren't you?  It's free, and they publish a lot of great stories, most of which only take a few minutes to read. Sign up here.

Don't worry, I'm not going to complain about anything in this post. I'm not sure exactly when I first ran across the word "whinge," but I don't recall having seen it before about 2004.  I may have seen it on rare occasions before then, and just thought it was a misspelling of "whine," since that would have made perfect sense... read more »

Someone has translated my story "The Greatest Science Fiction Story Ever Written," originally published in Nature, into Chinese. My favorite comment from one of the readers is: 哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈哈！！！ From searching Google, it appears the story's been published in Chinese on several websites -- and that its publication in Nature caused quite a stir among Chinese scientists.  From one... read more »