YOU, HUMAN Landing in the Fall (Hymn. Landing. Fall . . . )

​YEAH, I’M TALKIN’ TO YOU, READER!


Coming this fall from Dark Regions Press…

This Sweet Post O’Mine is mostly culled from a blog Michael Bailey posted at his WRITTEN BACKWARDS site. Visit that blog for more information and loads more illustrations for YOU, HUMAN, as well as information and links on Dark Regions Press, and others important, unprecedented people/places/things!

What does it mean to be alive? What does it mean to be real? What does it mean to exist? And most importantly, what does it mean to be human? You, Human, Michael Bailey’s first science fiction anthology for Dark Regions Press, will tackle those heavy questions. Twenty-four mind-bending works by some of the best in the business explore humanism through science fiction’s various sub-genres, split into three sections by poetic law.
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LISTEN UP! I’M ONLY GOING TO COPY AND PASTE THIS TEXT ONCE:
The Three Laws of Humanity:

1. A human being may not injure another human being or, through inaction, allow another human being to come to harm.
2. A human being must obey the orders given it by other human beings except where such orders would conflict with the first law.
3. A human being must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second laws.
   
   

Bram Stoker Award winning editor Michael Bailey brings sci-fi back to Dark Regions Press with heart in this genre-bending anthology of dark science fiction and poetry. With fiction illustrated beautifully throughout by world-renowned artist L.A. Spooner, with poetry and spot illustrations supplied by the always-impressive Orion Zangara, and with an incredible introduction on humanism by New York Times bestselling author F. Paul Wilson (Panacea, the Repairman Jack series), Asimov’s three laws of robotics are re-evaluated and revised to help define humanity.

AND YES, THAT SAME F. PAUL WILSON WHO WROTE THE KEEP! THE KEEP!

DO YOU HEAR ME? DO YA? YEAH I’M TALKIN’ TO YOU!
You, Human will contain the following works of fiction, which will be split into three sections (one for each of the three laws) by poetry. In no particular order:

1. “I Am the Doorway” – Stephen King
2. “Robot” – Mort Castle
3. “101 Things to Do Before You’re Downloaded” – Scott Edelman
4. “Cosmic Fair” – Darren Speegle
5. “The Star-Filled Sea is Smooth Tonight” – Thomas F. Monteleone
6. “Executive Functions” – Lucy A. Snyder
7. “Hopium Den” – John Skipp
8. “Dog at the Look” – B.E. Scully
9. “Ditch Treasures” – Richard Chizmar
10. “The Pretty Puppets” – Marc Levinthal
11. “Pink Crane Girls” – Autumn Christian
12. “The Cause” – Laura Lee Bahr
13. “Keepsakes” – Hal Bodner
14. “The Goldilocks Zone” – John R. Little
15. “The Jupiter Drop” – Josh Malerman
16. “Key to the City” – Cody Goodfellow
17. “The Universe is Dying” – Paul Michael Anderson
18. “Fallen Faces by the Wayside” – Gary A. Braunbeck
19. “It Can Walk and Talk” – Dyer Wilk
20. “What Goes Up Must Come Down” – Janet Harriett
21. “The Immigrants” – Erik T. Johnson
22. “Gumi-Bear” – Erinn L. Kemper
23. “Unity of Affect” – Jason V Brock
24. “The Fourth Law” – Marge Simon

Poetry will include the following, by Marge Simon:

1. “In Accordance With the Laws”
2. “Less Than Human”
3. “Future Imperfect: Broken Laws”
   
   

Coming this fall from Dark Regions Press…

Thanks to Michael Bailey for accepting my story “The Immigrants” for this anthology. And much love to all the contributors, many of whom I have shared many pages with over the past couple of years—and not a single disease transmitted among us, far as I know . . . unless enthusiasm for giving writing all you can is a disease. Which, very well may be, some OCD?

PROBABLY MOST LIKELY WON’T SEE YOU!

But it’s the thought that counts, so as your friend with too many thoughts to count (but not enough good ones), I remain, naturally, because why would I suddenly not be the person writing this, your friend,

ERIK
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Erik t [sic] Johnson