Now that co-editor and fellow author Kevin J. Anderson has spilled the beans on his blog, I am free to announce my own participation in an upcoming short-fiction anthology he’s helping to curate.

2113: Songs Inspired by the Music of Rush started as the brainchild of co-editor and contributing author John McFetridge, who pitched the idea to Canadian publisher ECW Press. Kevin came aboard shortly thereafter, and with John he pitched the idea to Neil Peart and the other members of Rush to secure their blessings for the project, which they graciously granted.

Neil isn’t directly involved with the project, but wait until you see the lineup of authors who are.

Kevin J. Anderson will be contributing an original novella, “2113,” a sequel to the band’s perennially popular fourth album, 2112. Filling out the rest of the tome’s roster are such award-winning, best-selling, and acclaimed writers as David Farland, Mercedes Lackey, Greg van Eekhout, Dayton Ward, Steven Savile, Brian Hodge, Michael Z. Williamson, Brad R. Torgersen, David Niall Wilson, Ron Collins, Mark Leslie, Larry Dixon, and Tim Lasiuta. In addition, the anthology will feature reprintings of Richard Foster‘s story “A Nice Morning Drive,” which inspired the Rush song “Red Barchetta” on Moving Pictures, and the Fritz Leiber tale “Roll the Bones,” which inspired Rush’s song and album of the same title.

To say that I am excited to be part of this project, and to have my work alongside that of such an accomplished lineup of fellow authors and Rush fans, would be a massive understatement. I’ve just turned in my short story, “Mulligan,” to Kevin, and I am very pleased with how it has turned out.

No specific publication date has been set yet, but Kevin says we should expect to see it about a year from now.