by Nancy Fulda
Julia graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Utah with a BA in Anthropology. When people asked her what she would do with the degree, she’d tell them, “Write science fiction.” Many of her stories incorporate fascinating bits of culture she discovered while studying. She has had fantasy and science fiction stories published in a number of magazines—including Realms of Fantasy, Oceans of the Mind, Spider, and The Friend—and anthologies, including Sword and Sorceress and Lace and Blade. She also sold a fantasy poem to Enchanted Conversation. Many of her stories are now available as ebooks.
West Jordan, Utah has been Julia’s home for over 30 years. She lives with her husband, two daughters, and far too many Cat Overlords. Her website is at juliahwest.com.
Born with the unfortunate talent of lying, James Wymore spent his youth explaining things he said before thinking. Gaining a kind of fame, people remembered him best for stretching the bounds of believability beyond breaking. His friends often benefitted from games or play time which incorporated these fantastic stories. However, family members usually just rolled their eyes and went on with what they were doing.
Taking the role of charlatan to expert level, James pursued science and philosophy to better justify the ideas he created. Pushing theories and technology past their limits, he found plenty of safe space where nobody could contradict him. Or, if that didn’t work, he’d just say, “It’s magic.” Eventually, he realized stories justify untruth with meaning. His efforts to become an astronaut, surgeon, dark wizard, and spy were all wasted. In the end, those credentials didn’t have any significance. People will forgive any disbelief for a good ending.
In addition to having over thirty short stories published, James has edited six anthologies—The Actuator: Borderlands Anthology, The Actuator 3: Chaos Chronicles, Windows into Hell, Choose Your Own Apocalypse, All Made of Hinges, and Backward Everything’s. He also acquired eighteen books for two different presses. His stand-alone novels represent the full spectrum of genres—Theocracide, Exacting Essence, Salvation, Schism, and Thug #1. Finally, the bestselling Actuator series includes work by 25 authors in every fiction genre and uniquely blends all the major tropes of genre fiction.
Find all the stories at jameswymore.wordpress.com.
Acknowledgements
I have a lot of people to thank for Trace the Stars being realized. One of the biggest is Marion K. “Doc” Smith, to whom this anthology is dedicated. You can read more about his influence in the Foreword.
Dave Butler, Jeffrey Creer, and Douglas Cootey were great sounding boards for all my crazy ideas. Dave Doering and Marny Parkin believed in this idea and helped with various political aspects in getting it going. Thanks to Steve Setzer, Dave Butler, and Sandi Monson for checking over some tricky legal stuff to make sure it was clear and worded correctly.
Thanks to Jaleta Clegg for being crazy enough to agree to co-edit this volume with me. I appreciate your experience, insight, suggestions, thoughts, and hard work. I hope someone with loads of money recognizes what a great editor and author you are.
Thanks to Rachel Heaps for guiding me through the perils of the L. Tom Perry Special Collections section of the Harold B. Lee Library at Brigham Young University. I wouldn’t have made it without your help. I also appreciate the help of Cindy Brightenburg and Trevor Casper at Special Collections. I found some useful information there.
I really appreciate the overwhelming response when we put out the call for submissions. While we would have loved to do so, we couldn’t include every story submitted. All of the authors who submitted stories believe in the symposium and its mission to help train current and up-and-coming writers, artists, editors, and other professionals in the many science fiction, fantasy, horror, and alternate history fields. Thank you for being willing to donate your story.
All the authors whose stories were selected were wonderful to work with. I’m still learning all the ropes as an editor, and all of you were very patient with me. Thank you, Kevin, Beth, Jaleta, David, Daniel, Nancy, Paul, Megan, Wulf, John, Emily, Eric, Eric (yes, there are two of them), Sandra, Brad, Julia, and James. You are a credit to writers everywhere.
Thank you to Kevin Wasden for donating your amazing painting for the cover art. It’s everything cover art should be for a collection of space opera and hard science fiction. I hope to use your work again in the future.
If I missed anyone who should have been thanked, I apologize, ask for your forgiveness, and thank you.
Finally, I express appreciation to Heather, Ian, and Chiemi. Thank you for your patience, thanks for putting up with me, and thank you for your love and support. You are all wonderful.
—Joe Monson
I owe a big thanks to Joe Monson for inviting me to work on this anthology with him. It’s been an honor and a privilege. I didn’t know Doc Smith very well, but his legacy lives on in the people he touched and the stories he inspired. This anthology is for him.
Thank you to the authors who submitted stories. Without you, we wouldn’t have an anthology. Your stories are full of wonder and angst and joy and pain and all the emotions that make us human.
Thank you to Kevin Wasden for the gorgeous cover art. It doesn’t take much to make an awesome cover when you have such high quality art to work with.
And thank you to the fans and readers. Without you, our stories would be pointless.
—Jaleta Clegg
Story Copyrights
Stories are published here for the first time unless otherwise noted. The author, artist, and editor biographies are copyright to those individuals, who wrote them.
“Foreword: Our Very Own Doc Smith” and editor’s note for “The Last Ray of Light” © 2019 by Joe Monson.
“Log Entry” © 2006 by Kevin J. Anderson. Originally published in Space Cadets, edited by Mike Resnick.
“Cycle 335” © 2019 by Beth Buck.
“Making Legends” © 2019 by Jaleta Clegg.
“Sweetly the Dragon Dreams” © 2008 by David Farland. Originally published in Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show #10, edited by Edmund R. Schubert.
“Launch” © 2012 by Daniel Friend. Originally published in Emerald Sky, edited by Andrea Jakeman.
“Angles of Incidence” © 2016 by Nancy Fulda. Originally published in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, October 2016, edited by Trevor Quachri.
“Neo Nihon” © 2015 by Paul Genesse. Originally published in Fiction River: Valor, edited by Lee Allred.
“The Last Ray of Light” © 1978 by Wulf Moon. Originally published in May 18, 1978, issue of Science World, edited by Michael Cusack. Author’s note for “The Last Ray of Light” © 2019 by Wulf Moon.
“A Veil of Leaves” © 2015 by M. K. Hutchins. Originally published in Crossed Genres #35, edited by Bart R. Leib and Kay T. Holt.
“Working on Cloud Nine” © 2019 by John M. Olsen.
“Glass Beads” © 2015 by Emily Martha Sorensen. Originally published in Rejected, edited by Brian Woods.
“Freefall” © 2011 by Eric James Stone. Originally published in Daily Science Fiction, edited by Jonathan Laden and Michele Barasso.
“Knowing Me” © 2019 by Eric G. Swedin
“The Road Not Taken” © 2012 by Sandra Tayler. Originally published on Mormon Lit Blitz website, edited by James Goldberg.
“Sea of Chaos” © 1995 by Julia H. West. Originally published in L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Volume XI, edited by Dave Wolverton.
“Fido” © 2013 by James Wymore. Originally published in So It Goes: A Tribute to Kurt Vonnegut, edited by Max Booth III.
" class="sharethis-inline-share-buttons">share
