Bio: Jason Erik Lundberg is a fiction writer, having caught a rather virulent strain of the writing bug at the tender age of 7, when he started writing mysteries about his mother's car. He currently works as a website designer and CAD draftsman to support his writing habit. In his spare time (when there is such a thing), he photographs in black and white, and composes electronic music. He lives in Cary, North Carolina (featured recently in National Geographic) and owns too many books.

When James Patrick Kelly won the Hugo Award with "Think Like a Dinosaur", I thought "That's it. Fun's over. It's all downhill from here. There's no way he can improve upon this modern classic." Then he wrote wrote "10 to the 16 to 1" and proved me incredibly wrong. This is not just a science fiction story, it's a story about science fiction, about how it sucks us in at the Golden Age of 11 or 12 and never wants to let go. It's about the wonders that skiffy holds, the promise that anything is possible. It's also a story about an accidental first contact, and the consequences that follow. Kelly is a wonderfully gifted writer, and this is another modern masterpiece. By the way, this story also snagged a Hugo.

This nominee for the 2001 Nebula Award final ballot is one of the funniest SF stories I've ever read. The last time these three guys teamed up was for "The True History of the End of the World", and they improved even more in this tale. The story takes its name from a quote by Theodore Sturgeon that went, "Ninety percent of science fiction is shit. Then again, ninety percent of everything is shit." By the way, if you're offended by the s-word, this story is not for you. It takes place in the near future where aliens have landed. However, the aliens are not the cute, big-eyed, skinny grey guys that abound in popular culture, but rather are monstrous, quadrupedal, dog-like beings, who tunnel into the earth and leave mountainous piles of excrement that grow jewels at the top; these aliens, naturally, are named "shitdogs". The race to discover what these jewels are (not to mention how to get to them; the smell is horrendous -- imagine the smell of your dog's leavings and multiply that by a thousand) is on, and the winner will be forever noted in the history books. This one almost nabbed the Nebula, folks. It's funny as hell.

This story is nominated for the 2001 Hugo Award for a very good reason: Michael Swanwick is one of the best short story writers in the business. His novels are exceptional as well, but he absolutely excels at the short story. Each one is a masterpiece of magnificent writing, unforgettable characters, and lush settings. He is thoughtful, ruthless, and downright nasty, sometimes all in the same sentence. He's also one of the most prolific writers out there, garnering awards probably as I write this. He won a Hugo the last two years in a row for "Scherzo With Tyrannosaur" (2000) and "The Very Pulse of the Machine" (1999), and has won numerous other awards for his fiction. Needless to say, he's a damn good writer. "Moon Dogs" is a story about facing down your fears, no matter what they may be. It might get you gored by a deer, or cause you to want to put an oxygen shunt in your brain so you can simulate drowning for hours on end, but at least you are doing something about it. In the case of the two main characters in "Moon Dogs", it leads to their fateful meeting in the woods, and neither of them will be the same afterwards. Swanwick's prose will forever change how you look at the little things in life, and this story is no different.