News

Welcome to the news page! This is the place to go for news regarding the Starman Series.

May 30, 2007: A new Starman short story has been written! The full text of the story can be found here:

The Ultimate Code (PDF) - 123 KB

Currently the only version available is the above e-text, but I am hoping to make a printed version of the story available in the near future. When it is ready I will post a notice about it on this news page.

We hope you enjoy this new entry into the Starman Series!

May 1, 2007: A new Starman short story has been written! The full text of the story can be found here:

The Plight of the Bumblebee (PDF) - 197 KB

The story is also available in serial form on my short stories blog:

The Plight of the Bumblebee - Chapter 1

The Plight of the Bumblebee - Chapter 2

The Plight of the Bumblebee - Chapter 3

The Plight of the Bumblebee - Chapter 4

The Plight of the Bumblebee - Chapter 5

The Plight of the Bumblebee - Chapter 6

The Plight of the Bumblebee - Chapter 7

Currently the only version available is the above e-text, but I am hoping to make a printed version of the story available in the near future. When it is ready I will post a notice about it on this news page.

We hope you enjoy this new entry into the Starman Series!

January 17, 2007: The abridged version of The Runaway Asteroid is now available online for free as an audio book, courtesy of Roy Trumbull! You can find it right here:

http://www.archive.org/details/Runaway_Asteroid

We hope you enjoy it!

July 12, 2006: The fourth and final volume of the Starman Archives is now available for purchase! The book is 569 pages long and contains all sorts of behind-the-scenes information about the Starman Series. The book is available only from Cafepress at: http://www.cafepress.com/starman12. You won't want to miss it!

Unless something changes, this will be the final word on the Starman Series - our last publication and our final update. Thanks for stopping by! We hope you enjoyed the series.

July 11, 2006: Work on the fourth and final volume of the Starman Archives has been completed! We hope to make it available soon. In the meantime, you can find an image of its cover art at our image library page. Be sure to check it out!

April 21, 2006: Work has begun on the last Starman Appendix! It will be good.

Also, for those who have read The Last Command: we have uploaded an actual photo of Omega Centauri to our image library page. Be sure to check it out!

February 2, 2006: I have posted photos of Michael Allison on the image library page. Michael Allison is the person who wrote the introduction to The Last Command.

November 25, 2005: The Starman website has had a significant update: four new Starman products are available! The entire Starman saga (books plus short stories) has been combined into two massive volumes, with an annotated version and a non-annotated version. Please check out our purchasing page for more details.

October 10, 2005: The day has come at last: the final Starman book is now in the hands of our readers. The Last Command began arriving yesterday; the book has been printed and mailed. For those who missed the first edition there is hope, for the book has been reprinted in a large paperback format and is available at Cafepress.

We hope that you enjoy the final Starman book! The series has now come to a close; what began in June of 1998 has now come to an end. Thank you for helping to make this series of books possible; it's been fun.

August 8, 2005: Starman #7, The Heart of Danger, has been reprinted in paperback and is once again available! You can find it right here:

http://www.cafepress.com/starman5.27903997

The reprinted volume is 161 pages long and measures 7.5" x 9.25" (which is not the standard series-book size); the cost is $11.83 plus S/H.

August 4, 2005: It has been a long time since a website update was posted, but at last we have some real news: the eighth and last Starman book is now available for preorder! You can find it right here:

http://www.americanwebbooks.com/book.php?BID=407&BCTL=2

This is the only place where the book will be available; once it goes to press the book will be out-of-print. We are planning on sending it to the printer on August 22 in order to get the books printed and delivered before the end of the year, so if you want a copy of this book in the hardback-with-dustjacket standard series-book size, now is your chance!

May 12, 2005: Volumes 2 and 3 of the Starman Archives have now been released! You can find out more about this right here. With this addition all 5 volumes of the Starman Appendix are now in print (volume 3 includes volumes 3, 4, and 5). We hope you enjoy them!

May 6, 2005: In 2003 five massive books were released, together totaling more than 1000 pages. These books offered a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to write a Starman book. Each volume was crammed with information: plot outlines for each Starman book, printing details, writer's notes detailing the hidden reference we placed inside the books, and letters - lots of letters, revealing where our ideas came from and how we put the book together. Volume 1 focused on the series' origins and Starman books #1 through #3; volume 2 focused on books #4 and #5; volume 3 focused on the artwork of the Starman Series; volume 4 focused on printing the series; and volume 5 focused on miscellaneous tidbits.

All of these books were released as e-texts and made freely available online. They are actually still available; you can download them at this page right here.

The books, though, were long - very long. Not everyone wanted to read an e-text either; some (such as myself) prefer printed copies. At the time we didn't have a way to print these books; it was very expensive to print a lot of copies, and even American Web Books required 100 preorders.

Then one day we discovered a solution that allows us to offer these books as printed volumes with full-color covers after all! We were excited and began preparing the books for publication. There was a lot of work involved: Cafepress only accepts certain sizes (not the series-book size, unfortunately) so the manuscript had to be reformatted and all-new artwork had to be made.

Our hard work as begun to pay off, however, and we're proud to announce that Volume 1 of the Starman Archives is now available as a printed book! You can find this 289-page book for sale right here:

http://www.cafepress.com/starman1.21402060

The book costs $15.67 plus S/H; it is only available in paperback and measures 7.5" by 9.25" (which is not the standard series-book size). The full-wrap cover scene was taken from Journey to the Tenth Planet; at one time we decided to create new artwork for the Starman books to be used if the books were reprinted, and this cover came from that effort. The scene depicts two Xenobot spacecraft landing in front of the 'abandoned' base on Nyx. The book is being sold at-cost, with no markup, as a service to our readers.

We hope you enjoy the book! It is our desire to make the other volumes of the Starman Archives available later this summer.