“The Hub of the Matter” is out! (UPDATED)

I’ve just belatedly discovered that the March issue of Analog Science Fiction & Fact containing my novelette “The Hub of the Matter” is up on the Analog site and apparently reached subscribers last month.  Hopefully that means it’s on newsstands now, though you may have to call around to find a store that carries it.

And look!

I got my name on the cover of Analog! That’s a first!  Wow.

Additionally, as this is my third appearance in the magazine, I’m the subject of this month’s Biolog column, which was distilled from an interview Rick Lovett conducted with me back in August.

Sometime soon I’ll post some discussion of this story on my main site’s Original Fiction page.  I don’t have it ready yet because I hadn’t expected it to be out so soon.   Besides, I want to give all you folks a chance to go out and buy the magazine!  (Please.  Print SF magazines are an endangered species, so please consider buying this, not just to support me but to support science fiction in general.)

UPDATE: I’ve now posted background discussion on my Original Fiction page.  I’ll probably post spoiler notes eventually, and I’m open to reader questions here on the blog.

Tentative cover to STAR TREK: SEEK A NEWER WORLD

Simon & Schuster’s advance solicitation catalog for summer 2010 is out, and it contains preliminary covers and blurbs for the four Star Trek novels set in the new movie’s continuity, including my own Seek a Newer World.  The catalog’s technically meant for book vendors only, not for public distribution, since its contents are often very tentative.  But it always gets out on the Internet anyway.

I’m not going to bother posting the catalog’s blurb, which is far from accurate and far from the final version of the blurb.  But here’s the low-res black-and-white rendering of the preliminary cover art:

Not bad, and it’s along the lines I expected — using photos of the movie cast and ship to make the connection to the movie clear.  It’s a fairly generic image, but that’s understandable.  This early in the game, the most important thing to sell is the fact that this is a new series tied into the movie, as distinct from the other books in the traditional (“Prime”) Trek continuity.

Besides, generic or not, it works.  I like how it almost comes off as a shot of Kirk and Spock on the bridge, even though it’s clearly put together from different images.  And the image has more relevance to the story inside than you might expect.  The choice of characters is fitting, since the tale focuses heavily on Kirk, Spock, and their developing relationship in the wake of the film.  And the bridge setting on the cover dovetails nicely into the opening scene of the novel.  Indeed, this image could almost represent a particular moment in that scene, if they were “standing” on the other side of the bridge.  Moreover, I think there are reasons why a focus on the bridge — and command chair — of the Enterprise is symbolically relevant to the novel.

More on all four covers and the catalogue can be found here:

http://www.trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=111934

And of course the book is available for preorder at Amazon.com and elsewhere.