Thanks to Patrick Swenson for coming aboard to take this project to the next level, even though his Fairwood Press slate for 2013 was already full. I’ve wanted to work with Patrick for a long time. I’m thrilled it’s finally happening.
Thanks to all of our Kickstarter supporters, especially Matt Forbeck and Alex Shvartsman, who were ready with advice for this neophyte and helped walk me through the process. Even when it took a miracle to fund, their cheerleading and support kept me encouraged and on track.
Thanks to fellow editors Jennifer Brozek, David Lee Summers, Paula Guran, Rich Horton, Cat Rambo and Ellen Datlow for free advice and encouragement at the touch of an email. I respect and admire so much what they do and to be able to call them friends is a treasure.
Thanks to Mitch Bentley for yet another great cover. To have your trust before I had the funds to pay you and also to give you a chance to reach new audiences is a privilege. Our working relationship has been a blessing as has your friendship.
Thanks to Sarah Chorn for helpful notes and feedback on stories. You underrate your gifts of analysis. Your thoughtful comments have made these stories and this anthology better. I’m pleased to help you reach a new dream, even as your old one book blogging at Bookworm Blues, continues to garner respect and be a success.
To the writers who submitted but didn’t make the final TOC, your friendship and trust is also a treasure. You’re a part of this regardless of inclusion or not because the creative energy you brought is part of the whole that made Beyond The Sun a reality. Thanks Dana, Matt, Anna, Gene, Sarah, Grace, and Jessica. May your words find many happy homes in days to come!
Thanks to my family—Ramon, Glenda, Lara, Kyle, Amelie, Louie—for accepting that sometimes the dream can become the real job and allowing me to succeed even if it took longer financially than any of us would have liked. Patience is truly a virtue, but from family it’s also a gift and an act of love.
I also thank the Great I Am for the gift of talent in His image, opening amazing doors and blessing me with endurance and passion to keep going despite many obstacles.
Last but not least, thanks to you, the readers. Whether you were a part of the Kickstarter or not, your passion for stories and authors like these make such opportunities possible. I hope these stories allow you live the dream for a little while and inspire dreams of your own.
Bryan Thomas Schmidt
Ottawa, KS
February 2013
ABOUT THE EDITOR
Bryan Thomas Schmidt is the editor of Blue Shift Magazine and an author and editor of adult and children’s speculative fiction. His debut novel, The Worker Prince (2011) received Honorable Mention on Barnes & Noble Book Club’s Year’s Best Science Fiction Releases for 2011. A sequel, The Returning, followed in 2012 and The Exodus will appear in 2014, completing the space opera Saga Of Davi Rhii. His first children’s books, 102 More Hilarious Dinosaur Jokes For Kids and Abraham Lincoln: Dinosaur Hunter—Land Of Legends released in 2012 and 2013 from Delabarre Publishing. His short stories have appeared in magazines, anthologies and online.
In addition to Beyond The Sun, he edited the anthology Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales #6 (2012) and is working on Raygun Chronicles: Space Opera For a New Age for Every Day Publishing (November 2013), Shattered Shields, a military fantasy anthology with co-editor Jennifer Brozek for Baen Books in 2014, and Choices, a YA reprint anthology, among others. He hosts #sffwrtcht (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writer’s Chat) Wednesdays at 9 pm ET on Twitter and is an affiliate member of the SFWA.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Mitchell Davidson Bentley spent the last 20 years moving physically from place to place and artistically from traditional oils to cyber compositions. Trained in the traditional medium of oil by his mother, and inspired by his grandfather’s love of science fiction, Bentley began his career as a full-time science fiction artist in 1989 from his home base in Tulsa. While actively involved in the science fiction art world, Bentley also moved from Tulsa to Austin to Central Pennsylvania where his search for knowledge earned him bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Penn State University. Over the same period of time, Bentley shifted from the more traditional oil painting to airbrushed acrylics, and since 2004 has been working exclusively in electronic media.
As the Creative Consultant of Atomic Fly Studios, Bentley produces cover art, marketing materials and Web sites while he continues to produce quality 2D artwork marketed through the AFS Web site and at science fiction conventions across the United States.
Bentley has lectured at universities, worked in film, edited publications and served as Artist Guest of Honor at more than a dozen science fiction conventions. He has also earned 35 awards, is a lifetime member of the Association of Science Fiction and Fantasy Artists and is currently serving as President.
He currently resides in Harrisburg, PA with his partner Cathie McCormick and their spoiled cats, Mr. Spike, Zöe and Drucilla. Bentley’s Web address is: www.atomicflystudios.com.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Maurice Broaddus has written hundreds of short stories, essays, novellas, and articles. His dark fiction has been published in numerous magazines, anthologies, and web sites, including Cemetery Dance, Apex Magazine, Black Static, and Weird Tales Magazine. He is the co-editor of the Dark Faith anthology series (Apex Books) and the author of the urban fantasy trilogy, Knights of Breton Court (Angry Robot Books). He has been a teaching artist for over five years, teaching creative writing to elementary, middle, and high school students, as well as adults. Visit his site at www.MauriceBroaddus.com.
Jennifer Brozek is an award winning editor, game designer, and author. She has been writing role-playing games and professionally publishing fiction since 2004. With the number of edited anthologies, fiction sales, RPG books, and non-fiction books under her belt, Jennifer is often considered a Renaissance woman, but she prefers to be known as a wordslinger and optimist. She is coediting Shattered Shields, a military fantasy anthology for Baen Books (2014) with Beyond The Sun editor, Bryan Thomas Schmidt. Read more about her at www.jenniferbrozek.com or follow her on Twitter at @JenniferBrozek.
Anthony R. Cardno’s first published work was a “hero history” of Marvel Comics’ The Invaders for the late, lamented Amazing Heroes magazine back in 1986. His short stories have been published in Willard & Maple, Sybil, and Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales Volume 6. In addition to a full time job as a corporate trainer, Anthony is a proofreader for Lightspeed magazine, writes book reviews for Icarus magazine, and interviews authors, singers, and other creative types on www.anthonycardno.com, where you can also find some of his other short stories. In his spare time, Anthony enjoys being tuckerized into other authors’ work, and a collection of those stories is forth-coming in late 2013. Besides his website, he can be found on Twitter as @talekyn.
Jaleta Clegg enjoys exploring space. Since she can’t do it for real, she writes about it. She also loves living in worlds that don’t exist anywhere except in her imagination. She has published the first three books in a space opera series, The Fall of the Altairan Empire. More information can be found at www.altairanempire.com She has numerous short stories published in a variety of venues in every genre from silly horror to high fantasy to science fiction. You can find links at www.jaletac.com. Her day job involves starship simulators, an inflatable planetarium, and lots of school kids.
Autumn Rachel Dryden is a Colorado native, but spent her childhood bouncing around the country before settling in Denver as a teen. In addition to writing, she spends most of her time working as a massage therapist and wrangling her three young children. “Respite” was based on a nightmare (many of her stories come to her while sleeping), but launched her writing career, becoming a dream come true. She currently spends most of her writing time focused on short stories, but has a novel or two in the works. She enjoys inventing and populating science fiction worlds, and re-writing fairy tales in the fantasy genre.
Nancy Fulda is a Hugo and Nebula Nominee, a
Phobos Award winner and a Vera Hinckley Mayhew Award recipient. She is the first (and so far only) female recipient of the Jim Baen Memorial Award. She has been a featured writer at Apex Online, a guest on the Writing Excuses podcast, and is a regular attendee of the Villa Diodati Writers’ Workshop. Visit her web site at nancyfulda.com.
Erin Hoffman is the author of the Chaos Knight trilogy from Pyr Books, whose concluding volume, Shield of Sea and Space is forthcoming in May 2013. Her work has appeared in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Bull Spec, Electric Velocipede, and elsewhere. She is a professional video game designer who lives in northern California with dogs, parrots, a husband, and no cats. You can read more at erinhoffman.com or follow her on twitter @gryphoness.
Jean Johnson is a multiple bestselling author in military science fiction, including a nomination for the Philip K. Dick Award for the first in her Theirs Not To Reason Why military scifi series, the same setting as her story in Beyond The Sun, and in fantasy/paranormal romance, including several reader’s choice nominations. Regardless of the genre, she strives her best to write entertaining stories. She also hopes you’re enjoying all of the other tales in this anthology as well.
Nancy Kress is the author of 29 books of science fiction and fantasy, plus three about writing. Her work has won four Nebulas, two Hugos, a Sturgeon, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award (for Probability Space). She frequently writes about genetic engineering. Nancy lives in Seattle with her husband, writer Jack Skillingstead, and Cosette, the world’s most spoiled toy poodle.
Simon C. Larter’s stories have appeared in Per Contra, Short Story America, LitNImage, Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales #6, and elsewhere. By day, he works in the construction industry. By night, he attempts to emulate his literary heroes by drinking vodka and writing until well past his bedtime. He’s convinced, however, that Hemingway wouldn’t have written nearly as much as he did if he’d had Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Cat Rambo lives, writes, and reads omnivorously in a candy-colored condo beside eagle-haunted Lake Sammamish in Redmond, Washington. Her short stories have appeared in such places as Asimov’s, Tor.com, and Clarkesworld as well as in three collections. Her most recent book is Near + Far, from Hydra House Books. Among the awards she’s been shortlisted for are the Endeavour, World Fantasy, Locus, and Nebula. You can find more of her fiction and information about her online classes at http://www.kittywumpus.net.
Mike Resnick is, according to Locus, the all-time leading award winner, living or dead, for short science fiction. He is the winner of five Hugos, a Nebula, and other major awards in the United States, France, Spain, Japan, Croatia and Poland. and has been short-listed for major awards in England, Italy and Australia. He is the author of 68 novels, over 250 stories, and 2 screenplays, and is the editor of 41 anthologies. His work has been translated into 25 languages. He was the Guest of Honor at the 2012 Worldcon and can be found online as @ResnickMike on Twitter or at www.mikeresnick.com.
Jamie Todd Rubin is a science fiction writer, blogger, and Evernote Ambassador for paperless living. His stories and articles have appeared in Analog, Daily Science Fiction, Lightspeed, InterGalactic Medicine Show, Apex Magazine, and 40K Books. Jamie lives in Falls Church, Virginia with his wife and two children. Find him on Twitter at @jamietr.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch has won awards in every genre for her work. She has several pen names, including Kris Nelscott for mystery and Kristine Grayson for romance. She’s writing two different science fiction series, The Retrieval Artist and the space opera Diving series. Her next novel, the standalone Snipers, a time-travel thriller, will appear in July, followed by Skirmishes, the next Diving novel, in August. WMG Publishing is releasing her entire backlist. She’s also editing the anthology series Fiction River. For more on her work, go to kristinekathrynrusch.com.
Jason Sanford, born and raised in the American South, currently lives in the Midwestern U.S. with his wife and sons. Among his life’s adventures includes work as an archeologist and a Peace Corps Volunteer. A dozen of Jason’s story have been published in the British magazine Interzone, which has devoted a special issue to his fiction. He’s also been published in Year’s Best SF, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Analog: Science Fiction and Fact, Orson Scott Card’s InterGalactic Medicine Show, Tales of the Unanticipated, The Mississippi Review, Diagram, Pindeldyboz, and other places. Among his awards includes being a finalist for the 2009 Nebula Award for Best Novella and winning three Interzone Readers’ Polls. His first short story collection Never Never Stories is now available. More details are available at www.jasonsanford.com.
Alex Shvartsman is a writer and game designer from Brooklyn, NY. He has traveled to over 30 countries, played cards for a living, and built a successful business from scratch. His short stories appeared in Nature, Daily Science Fiction, Galaxy’s Edge and many other magazines and anthologies. To read more of his work, visit www.alexshvartsman.com.
Robert Silverberg is rightly considered by many as one of the greatest living Science Fiction Writers. His career stretches back to the pulps and his output is amazing by any standards. He’s authored numerous novels, short stories and nonfiction books in various genres and categories. He’s also a frequent guest at Cons and a regularly columnist for Asimov’s. His major works include Dying Inside, The Book of Skulls, The Alien Years, The World Inside, Nightfall with Isaac Asimov, Son of Man, A Time of Changes and the 7 Majipoor Cycle books. His first Majipoor trilogy, Lord Valentine’s Castle, Majipoor Chronicles and Valentine Pontifex, were reissued by ROC Books in May 2012, September 2012 and January 2013. Tales Of Majipoor, a new collection bringing together all the short Majipoor tales, followed in May 2013.
Brad R. Torgersen was a 2012 nominee for the Campbell, Hugo, and Nebula awards, and is a past winner of both the Writers of the Future award, and Analog magazine’s AnLab readers’ choice award. A frequent contributor to Analog, Brad has collaborated with Hugo and Nebula award winner Mike Resnick, is currently collaborating with Hugo winner and bestseller Larry Niven, and has several works pending publication in 2013. His web site is www.bradrtorgersen.com.
Tremendous thanks to our backers who funded this project on Kickstarter!
CADETS:
Sabrina Vourvoulais
Matt Adams
Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
Gary Vandegrift
Andrew House
Mike Schaer
Nicole Manasco
Michael Scholl
David Annandale
Keith West
James Bartlemay
Jerry Gaiser
Paul McMullen
Madison Woods
Greg Baerg
Janine A. Southard
Travis J I Corcoran
Frances Wu
Alex Shvartsman
Hugh Blair
Michael Wallace
Leah Petersen
Dayton Ward
Michael Cummings
Benjamin Liska
Janet Oblinger
Andrew Mayer
Lori Eppright
Johan Ljungman
Dafydd Nicklin
Jamie Todd Rubin
Shervyn von Hoerl
Erin M. Klitzke
Flavio Mortarino
Brenda Cooper
Sandra Ulbrich Almazan
Jen Warren
Guy Anthony DeMarco
Adam Hill
Jeffrey Allan Boman
Steve Mashburn
Rebecca M. Senese
Evaristo Ramos, Jr.
Dave Gross
Jon Freestone
EXPLORERS:
Sue Lewis
Lisa Deutsch Harrigan
Infinity Ltd.
Emiliano Marchetti
John Devenny
G. Mark Cole
Bear Weiter
Nathan Burgoine
Gordon Duke
Austin Williams
Jason Sanford
PLANETARY ROVERS:
Christopher Kastensmidt
Jean Allison Namaste Stuntz
Cat McDude
Rosemary Foley
Jimmy Plamondon
Brian White
Mark Zimmerman
Karl-Erik Sonvisen
Rich Laux
Victoria Adams
Darrell Long
COLONISTS:
Danielle Gembala
Gary Olson
Simo Muinonen
JUNIOR OFFICERS:
Christian Berntsen
Johne Cook
Gregory S. Close
Ken Kenyon
Lydia Ondrusek
OFFICERS:
Grace Bridges
Evan Ladouceur
Teresa Spencer
Anthony Cardno
Greg Cueto
COLONIAL MERCHANT:
David Chamberlain
COLONIAL DIPLOMATS:
John Osuna
David Bridges
Beyond the Sun Page 32