by IGMS
But talking through stories isn't something everyone can or should do. If you don't think you can discuss a work in progress without losing the urge to put it on paper, then by all means, keep it to yourself. I know writers who wouldn't tell you the first thing about what they're working on even if you tortured them on the rack. And I think you need to be careful that you're not boring the person you're talking to. Before I met Linda, I lost a girlfriend that way. She'd actually get pissed off when I'd start discussing the great idea I just had for a story. That's when I found out that listening to a writer talk about his work can be just about as dull as listening to a golfer talk about his last game.
SCHWEITZER: So, what ideas are intriguing you now? What most excites your science fictional imagination?
STEELE: For quite a while now, I've been fascinated by the discovery of exoplanets. This began about fifteen years ago when Marcy and Butler announced their finding the first handful, including 47 Ursae Majoris-B, the setting of the Coyote series, and it's continued ever since. What's really amazing about this is that, in a very short period of time, nearly everything we'd assumed to be true about solar systems in general and planetary formation in particular has been thrown in to question, if not out the window. Indeed, much of what I learned in my college astronomy classes -- which I took along with about a handful of other science courses to make up for a lousy high-school science education -- has become obsolete. The universe seems to be a much stranger place than we believed, and even science fiction writers had no idea just how weird. Well, most of us, anyway . . . Hal Clement and Larry Niven were way ahead of the curve.
SCHWEITZER: And what are you working on now and what have you just finished?
STEELE: I'm currently working on a story arc I'm calling the Arkwright series, which is about the first starship from Earth. Although that may sound like a rewrite of Coyote, it's a stand-alone novel and something else entirely, a reconsideration of the effort it will take to build and launch a ship to another star. Like Coyote, I'm writing this as a series of novellas for Asimov's. I've already mentioned the first story, "The Legion of Tomorrow." The second story, "The Prodigal Son," will be published sometime later in the year, I've just finished the third story, "The Long Wait," and after that will be a forth story. Eventually I'll rewrite interstitial material to bind everything together as a novel, but for now I'm treating it as a series of stories, which is my way of tricking myself into writing a complex work.
SCHWEITZER: Thanks, Allen.
STEELE: And thank you, Darrell.
Letter From The Editor
Issue 38 - March 2014
by Edmund R. Schubert
Editor, Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show
* * *
Welcome to Issue 38 of IGMS, which has a bit of an international flavor and more than a little illegal/unnatural activity.
Our cover story is "The Sound of Death" by British author Gareth D. Jones, proving that while murder is universal, exploring an alien world and culture through the eyes and ears of a detective investigating that murder is an event not soon forgotten.
Part Two of Jeffrey A. Ballard's SF novelette "Underwater Restorations" concludes this tale of high-tech thievery in a near-future where the water line has risen, but the level of honor among thieves has not. If you missed Part One, it was published in issue 37.
"Extinct Fauna of the High Malafan" by Israeli author Alter Reiss kicks into high gear with the murder of the necromancer charged with the protection of team of paleontologists who are raising the ghosts of dinosaurs -- dinosaurs who have more weapons to worry about than just razor-sharp claws and teeth.
"Right and Wrongs," by Brain K. Lowe, is about the (pardon the pun) trials and tribulations of a lawyer charged with protecting his client from a murder charge. The problem is this client is also a shape-shifting alien left behind after a failed invasion attempt, which raises its own unique set of extra challenges.
In "A Little Trouble Dying," written by the dynamic trio of me, myself, and I, is a Twilight-Zone-esque trip into the experience of a man who hid from death in an underground bunker when a virulent plague ravaged the entire world, only to find that he had perhaps hidden a little too well.
Another foray into Twilight-Zone-Land, this issue's audio production, "Dogs From Other Places," written by Shannon Peavy and read by award-winning performer Emily Rankin, shows the fringes of the known world being encroached upon by something else, something that changes people. People, and apparently dogs, too . . .
And be sure not to miss Darrell Schweitzer's InterGalactic Interview with multiple Hugo Award winning SF author Allen Steele, plus the next installment of our newest feature, "At The Picture Show: Extended Cut," an in-depth article by our regular film critic, Chris Bellamy.
It's time again for this year's annual reader's poll. Vote for your favorite stories and favorite artwork. Top vote-getting stories and illustrations will receive an extra cash prize. As an enticement for you readers to go ahead and vote, one randomly-selected voter will receive a free autographed copy of one of Uncle Orson's books
Edmund R. Schubert
Editor, Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show
P.S. As usual, we've collected essays from the authors in this issue and will post them on our blog (www.SideShowFreaks.blogspot.com). Feel free to drop by and catch The Story Behind The Stories, where the authors talk about the creation of their tales.
For more from Orson Scott Card's
InterGalactic Medicine Show visit:
http://www.InterGalacticMedicineShow.com
Copyright © 2014 Hatrack River Enterprises
Table of Contents
The Sound of Death
Underwater Restorations, Part 2
Extinct Fauna of the High Malafan
Rights and Wrongs
A Little Trouble Dying
At the Picture Show: Extended Cut
InterGalactic Interview With Allen M. Steele
Letter From The Editor