Welcome to my Work In Progress
You probably know me from my science fiction writing,
mostly in Analog
magazine. (Been there since 1998. It's almost like home now.)
Some of you might know me from humorous projects I've done on
the side. And a few of you may just be family members peeking
in. (Hi, Mom.)
I hope to have something for all of you here. I'll be
listing the stories I've published
over the years, along with insights
into selected ones. I'll be showing off some of the other writing I've done, with greater or
lesser connections to science fiction. And there will be
random stuff I'll throw in from time to time, to keep things
fresh.
This website remains a work in progress. Keep peeking in for updates on what
I've added.
So take a look around, please. Navigating buttons are on
your left: they'll get you where you need to go, and with no
dead ends. And if you run
out of interesting stuff, don't worry, there will be
more soon.
If you want to drop me a note -- even, or especially, to
point out glitches here at the website -- my mailbox is always
open. Not to spam, though, so I'll have to be careful spelling
it out:
shane at (the URL, minus www period)
And if that doesn't stymie the spambots, nothing will.
"Groundling" -- appearing in Analog, May/June 2025
Upcoming Event
I will be attending LibertyCon 35 in Chattanooga,
Tennessee on June 20-22, 2025.
December 16, 2024 -- I have a semi-tentative date for my next story in Analog. If it changes (almost certainly for the earlier), I'll post a follow-up notice.
October 26, 2024 -- Yes, I'm alive. There was some slight doubt for a while, and I'll get to that in a moment.
Hurricane Helene struck western North Carolina, and my current hometown Asheville in particular, with unexpected ferocity. I'm located too high up on a hill to have experienced the widespread flooding that left parts of the city, and much more of the surrounding lands and outlying counties, an expanse of mud. We did suffer the high winds that took down a large number of trees, many blocking the roads, and smashed utility infrastructure. Power was out for more than two weeks, running water for three, and standard Internet service for four. I still have a bucket of water in my bathroom, in case the water conks out again and I need an emergency flushing reserve.
I was never in any significant danger, though with all contact cut off you wouldn't have known this. Indeed, one of you did not. Michael Burstein, longtime friend from the SF field and editor of Jewish Futures, in which I had my short story "The Kuiper Gemara," actually called in a wellness check on me from Massachusetts. A member of the Asheville Police Department came to my door to ask whether I was alive and well. (I had mailed Michael a note once the Postal Service was back to delivering and correcting mail, but delivery was slow, and it reached him after the wellness check.) I went two for two, and the policeman (Ian Cooper) went away happy, something not guaranteed in that phase of his job.
Rough as I had it for a while, there are many people here who suffered far worse. However much you have heard, it is probably more than that. If you're so inclined, find a good efficient charity with high throughput of donations that is doing some of the work here, and back them. I cannot confirm the horror stories about government disaster relief (ironically I was getting less news about local events than people a thousand miles away likely were), but one matter about a pallet of plug-in chainsaws sent to a blackout zone did reach my ears through local sources.
A couple of lessons learned during the disaster may reach my writing someday. See if you can spot them.
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