An Alternative History Story for 2016

At her blog, Laura Frost posts about my 1999 story "Hillary Orbits Venus:" "Imagine this.  In a parallel universe, Donald Trump never declared his candidacy for president. Nor did Hillary Clinton.  Instead, she became an astronaut.  That’s the alternate reality of Pamela Sargent’s short story "Hillary Orbits Venus," which appeared in the science fiction magazine Amazing Stories back when HRC was running for Senator." The rest of her post is here. This story was inspired by the fact that, when she was 15 years old, young Hillary Rodham wrote to NASA asking how to become an astronaut and got a reply saying that females weren't being considered for the program. My story assumes that some NASA flack wrote back to encourage her instead.

"Hillary Orbits Venus" is in my short fiction collection The Mountain Cage, available from Open Road Media. (See my post of April 29, 2016 here.)

And Hillary Clinton's official campaign site is here. 

Update on Saturday, November 12, 2016 at 12:48PM by Pamela Sargent

Well, we know how that election turned out. I am mourning for my country.

The Ten Best Dystopian Books You Haven't Read Yet

My novel The Shore of Women is on this distinguished if depressing list.

A New Short Story

A new story by me, "Monuments," will be out in Jonathan Strahan's upcoming original anthology Bridging Infinity, to be published in November 2016. 

A One-Day Bargain Price for The Shore of Women

Open Road Media will include my novel The Shore of Women in their 7/18/16 Early Bird Books newsletter offering daily deals on e-books. The e-book of The Shore of Women will be priced at $1.99 for that day only at all major retailers in the U.S. To sign up for Early Bird Books, go here. This novel will also be available on 7/18/16 from BookBub, a daily deals newsletter with millions of subscribers. To sign up for BookBub, go here. Please note that you do not have to be a subscriber to either newsletter to buy The Shore of Women at the $1.99 price on July 18, but if you like bargains on e-books, you may want to subscribe anyway.

A Special Price for The Mountain Cage

My editor at Open Road Media, publisher of most of my e-editions, writes: "I¹m delighted to let you know that The Mountain Cage and Other Stories will be included in the 5/6/16 Early Bird Books newsletter. Early Bird Books is a daily deals newsletter that goes out to more than 370,000 subscribers. The ebook will be priced at $1.99 for that day only. The discount will be available at all major retailers in the U.S."

Among the stories in this book is "Hillary Orbits Venus," first published in 1999. As a girl, Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote to NASA and asked them how to become an astronaut. They wrote back and told her they didn't take girls. My story is about what might have happened if they had instead encouraged her.

You can sign up for the Early Bird Books newsletter here.