Yes, the title pretty much says it all. But to put this into perspective, this work in progress took roughly eight years to finish due to work and a whole lot of life intervening! That’s quite the slog considering that my first three novels in the series were completed in about three years (2017-2020). But like I said, work, life, etc.

In any case, 193 pages and 60,642 words later, my fourth novel is finally complete. Originally, I billed this book as a novella, thinking it would be short and poignant. But it evolved into a full-blown novel that connects the first three books (The Formist Series) to the next planned trilogy (The Seedling Series).

Pending a final edit and some tweaks, the book will be released on Amazon Kindle and related platforms. Stay tuned for updates on the official release!

In the next installment from Stories from Space, I plan to talk about the Wow! Signal. On Aug. 15th, 1977, the “Big Ear” Observatory at Ohio State University received what is still considered the most likely candidate for a SETI signal in history. The radio signal lasted 72 seconds and appeared to be coming from somewhere in the constellation Sagittarius. All attempts to explain it in terms of natural phenomena have not panned out, leaving the source a mystery.

Okay, this short is for an episode that aired prior to the introduction of SfS shorts. But it’s still new, so that isn’t false advertising. Henceforth, all episodes in Season 6 will be preceded by a short clip summarizing the contents (with video!)

After engaging with a few podcasts that are way more successful than mine, I gleaned a wee lesson. Successful podcasters put out vignettes, or shorts, of upcoming and recently released episodes. These short clips, never more than a few minutes long, give audiences a teaser and/or a TL:DR summary of what the episode is about in a quick clip. I have been trying to make vignettes for awhile now, but kept procrastinating. But when I started making video episodes, another thing the successful folk tend to do, I saw an opportunity.

I present the first Stories from Space Short I produced that offers a teaser of what’s coming in Episode 2, Season Six of the show: The Anthropic Principle and the Search for Intelligent Life. It’s got a question at the end that I wouldn’t mind people answering in the comments. And you need to watch the full video, don’t cheat, I’ll know.

Yes, it’s about that time. You know the one I mean. When a work-in-progress is just shy of completion, you want to get a sense of what it looks like. If you’re a writer like me, that’s when cover art comes in! And if you’re really like me, you don’t even wait until the book is nearing completion. You want to see it while it’s still in early development!

Somehow, it’s the next best thing to holding your novel in your hands for the first time. After all the labor you put into its creation, it’s like looking upon the latest addition to your family. With that said, here are the top contenders for the Transverse. The two immediately below are the current front-runners, but I’ve included some of the honorable mentions too.

Check them out, and let me know what you think in the comments!

The cover shown above depicts the interior of the Transverse, a generation ship that contains all Earth’s ecosystems within a single self-contained biosphere. The bright light above is known as the Sunband, a light source of assembled photons that simulates day and night and provides each ecosystem with the energy it needs to sustain the ship’s life cycle.

The cover below shows the exterior of the Transverse in orbit around Ararat, the largest planet in the Tōnatiuh system. As you can see, there’s a megastructure emerging from the planet, which is kind of intrinsic to the plot (no spoilers!)

Here are the honorable mentions. They are included not because they received many votes, but because my wife and I like them. The first is a representation of the Tōnatiuh system, while the second is a more compact version of the cover immediately above.