Two arts, synchronousin waves of speculation. Together as One.¬­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­¬When Ron proposed this book of science fictional haiku, I was amused but skeptical. Haiku? Does he know what a haiku is? Can he even write poetry?Turns out he does know what a haiku is and he can write poetry. As I read along I was increasingly fascinated and delighted. The pairing of haiku and AI artwork is ingenious, truly more than the sum of its parts. And that's before you read Ron's short comments describing each pairing, adding extra depth, often with poignancy and humor. I found myself studying each piece of art to see if I could guess the subject of the haiku before reading it. And then returning to the artwork with the haiku now in mind before reading Ron's comments. You will not be surprised to find yourself sometimes disagreeing with Ron's interpretation or assessment of the resulting artwork. That's okay. Art, like beauty, is all in the eye of the beholder. I was even inspired to write my own haiku and generate an AI pairing, above. The wild-eyed look of Ron the science fiction author writing haiku is perfect! So, enjoy the book you have in your hands. Savor it. Let the combined beauty of the haiku and AI artwork do its magic.  Lisa Collins, editor

Five Seven Five

"I wanted to write science fiction, and The Novel and Short Story Market laid out facts about the market for such tales . the fields were lush, the game most definitely afoot. I mean, seriously. Add up all that space and you get literally thousands of short stories being published every year. How hard could it be? That peal of rolling thunder you hear is the combined laughter of every writer on the planet."  So goes award-winning SF author Ron Collins's sometimes humorous, sometimes heart-warming, but always true-to-the-bone ode to a life spent writing the short story. Specifically, the science fiction short story. Using experience built through thirty years of publishing short fiction, Collins touches on every facet of a writing career, beginning with "Why the Short Story?" and progressing to "The Only Truth" that matters-as well as "The Second Only Truth" that matters. Inside, you'll consider the difference between short stories and novels, partake in a few reader cookies, and even discover the only reason a new writer should decide to join a critique group. And then there's Write Club. We can't forget Write Club, now, can we? Other topics include: Careers vs. Real JobsFinding Your BeatSpeed vs. QualityStalled WritersThe World of EditorsShort Fiction and the Indie WorldAnd a lot more! All discussed with a personal touch that illuminates a life devoted to writing-and reading-short. If you write short stories, or simply love reading them, this is the book for you.

On Writing (and Reading!) Short

A black hole connected to the sun. A race against time. A question of who lives and who dies.  Across distant star systems, forces clash to save the worlds they love.  Torrance Black, stranded on a dying planet, gambles on one last hope. Baraq Waganat, the quadar who triggered civil war, yearns to fulfil a legacy. Allie Feder, brilliant physicist, chases the universe's most powerful weapon. Deidra Francis, leader of Universe Three, faces a brutal dilemma. Zina Nichols, ambitious United Government Intelligence Officer, runs a high-stakes op. Thomas Kitchell and Marisa Harthing, long-ago heroes of the Everguard disaster, learn to play a game they never knew existed.  Who will live? Who will die? And what will be left behind? STARBORN, the ninth book of Stealing the Sun, a space-based Science Fiction series from frequent Analog contributor and bestselling Science Fiction and Dark Fantasy author Ron Collins

Starborn - Stealing the Sun, #9

What would happen if the DNA of Roy Hobbs, Casey at the Bat, and Henry Skrimshander got mixed up with Jack Kerouac and Hunter S. Thompson, then the whole concoction was thrown into a blender and set on "comic book?"Welcome to baseball, PEBA style. Where the game is global and growing, and where you'll find scandal, love, mystical powers, ghosts, and even perhaps a Russian spy and a Japanese inspector or two. In other words, anything can and does happen. LET'S PLAY THREE! is a boxed set of all three volumes in the PEBA Chronicles (two novels and a short story). It includes: - See the PEBA on $25 a Day - The Mysterious Case of Shojiro Sano's Bats - Chasing the Setting Sun. These stories are like Robert Coover's Universal Baseball Association would be if everything in it was real. Or in an alternate history line. Or a comic book. Or not not. Who can tell?"If you love baseball, you're going to love See the PEBA on $25 a Day." - John Rodriquez, Commissioner of the Planetary Extreme Baseball Alliance

Let's Play Three

Superstitions pervade every culture and belief system. Often, the origins of such superstitions elude their practitioners. The seventeen authors in this latest volume of Fiction River create their own superstitious tales in fascinating stories ranging from dark and moody to light and fun, from introspective and thought-provoking to high-ratcheted tension. Distinct and realistic elements of humanity, love, fear, family, friendship, life, and death provide unforgettable experiences that prove we all practice some form of superstition, whether we admit it or not.".fertile imaginations take these ideas to wild and wonderful directions."-Astro Guyz

Fiction River: Superstitious - Fiction River: An Original Anthology Magazine, #32

Fiction River readers make the call in this latest volume of Fiction River Presents. From a reluctant warrior fighting a battle in her own backyard, to a man coming to terms with the racial inequality of his youth, to a romance blooming out of adversity, Readers' Choice offers up favorite stories from the first four years of Fiction River. Spanning genre lines from historical mystery to science fiction to Regency romance, this volume proves why Adventures Fantastic says: "[Fiction River] is one of the best and most exciting publications in the field today."

Fiction River Presents: Readers' Choice - Fiction River Presents, #6

A desolate plane. A devastated order of mages. A planewalker hungry for revenge. Garrick has agreed to lead the independent Torean mages, if for no other reason than to protect them from deceit and trickery of the god-like planewalkers. But when he returns to Dorfort, he finds the high superior of the Koradictine order has kidnapped Will, the boy Garrick had taken under wing. Devastated, he vows to retrieve the boy, a choice that results in being disowned by the twisted planewalker who is his mage superior. Meanwhile, the Lectodinian order launches a winter offensive designed to gain control of magic across Adruin, and the remnants of the Koradictine leadership joust for position as they enact a desperate ploy to survive. In Changing of the Guard, Garrick is on his own as he hunts the Koradictine high superior through a trail that leads through demonic underplanes and mystical time warps. Can he survive the planes without his superior's aid? Can he save the boy? And perhaps more important, what will remain of the orders if he survives?The results will change the face of Adruin forever.

Changing of the Guard - Saga of the God-Touched Mage, #6

A mage's apprentice. Sorcerers on the hunt. Unnatural magic of devastating power. Garrick is a mage's apprentice, soon to be a full-fledged sorcerer. The course of his life is clear-he will be an apprentice, a mage, and then a superior. But a tragic accident finds him wielding a god-like power over life and death, and as rumors of mage war grow stronger around him, he learns his future is not fated to be as simple as he dreamed. Glamour of the God-Touched follows Garrick as he discovers the forces behind his new magic. The lessons he learns and how he deals with them will threaten the very nature of who he is.

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