DUNE 7 BLOG

Friday, January 27, 2006

Short Stuff

While I spend most of my imagination and writing time wandering around immense manuscripts -- whether thick DUNE tomes or equally-long and convoluted SEVEN SUNS epics -- a short story gives me the chance to explore a smaller idea. In between writing novels, or sometimes even just as a break during a day hike, I'll take the time to write a short piece.

Brian and I have published four DUNE-related short stories, the first being "A Whisper of Caladan Seas," which originally appeared in Amazing Stories magazine; it's a vignette set during the Harkonnen attack on Arrakeen in the original DUNE. Then we wrote three introductory and connective stories to fit between the books of the "Legends of Dune" trilogy -- "Hunting Harkonnens" set before THE BUTLERIAN JIHAD, "Whipping Mek" set before THE MACHINE CRUSADE, and "The Faces of a Martyr," set before THE BATTLE OF CORRIN. "The Faces of a Martyr" was included in some paperback versions of THE MACHINE CRUSADE, and all the others were reprinted in THE ROAD TO DUNE.

To gear up for HUNTERS OF DUNE, Brian and I will be publishing two more original short stories. The first, "Sea Child," will be part of a Tsunami-relief anthology, ELEMENTAL, which comes out in May; the second story (as yet untitled) should appear in the online magazine, Jim Baen's UNIVERSE in August. More details to come as those stories are available.

A new science fiction short story of my own, "Job Qualifications," has just been released in the anthology FUTURESHOCKS, edited by Lou Anders. Click here to order; it's chock full of great stories.

The bigger news is that the story "Rough Draft," written with my wife Rebecca and published in Analog magazine, has just made the preliminary ballot for the prestigious Nebula Award. It is also currently eligible for the Hugo Award. The Analog magazine website has graciously made the story available online at no charge. It's about a one-hit-wonder writer who discovers that he made a success of himself in an alternate timeline, and has to deal with the fact that he gave up on his dream. One of my very best. Click here to read the story for free.

And now back to editing SANDWORMS -- a much longer manuscript.

--KJA