Richard A. Lovett

Richard A. Lovett
175px Richard A. Lovett, 2009
Born	(1953-10-28) October 28, 1953 Dixon, Illinois
Occupation	Writer
Nationality	American
Education	Michigan State University B.A. (astrophysics) 1975 University of Michigan J.D. 1978, PhD (economics) 1981
Genre	Science fiction, science, sports, profile, humor, journalism
Notable awards	AnLab (ten times)
Website
www.richardalovett.com

Richard A. Lovett (born 1953, Dixon, Illinois) is an American science fiction author and science writer from Portland, Oregon. He has written numerous short stories and factual articles that have appeared in multiple literary and scientific magazines and websites, including Analog Science Fiction and Fact, National Geographic News, Nature, New Scientist, Science, Scientific American, Cosmos, and Psychology Today.

Lovett is one of the most prolific and decorated writers in Analog's 80-plus-year history. His first formal appearance in the magazine other than a 1993 letter to the editor was "Tricorders, Yactograms and the Future of Analytical Chemistry: When 'Nano-' Isn't Small Enough" (April 1999), a science article. His first fiction appearance was the novelette "Equalization" (March 2003).

Lovett first won the magazine's reader's choice award, the Analytical Laboratory (AnLab), in 2002 for a 2001 fact article, "Up in Smoke: How Mt. St. Helens Blasted Conventional Scientific Wisdom" (April 2001). Since then he has won the award a record ten times, three times for novelettes, three times for novellas, and four times for science articles. Including the 2015 awards, he has also placed in the top five 33 additional times, more than any other Analog contributor. As of the July/Aug 2015 issue, his work had appeared in the magazine 134 times, placing him second place on the magazine's all-time contributor list. In addition to writing fiction and science articles for the magazine, he has also written profiles (called Biologs) since 2006, and a series of how-to articles about writing short stories. These special features comprise about a quarter of his total contributions to the magazine.

His science fiction stories have also appeared in Nature, Cosmos, Abyss and Apex, Esli (Russian translation), Running Times, and Marathon & Beyond.

Coaching and sports writing

In addition to writing science fiction, Lovett is coach of Team Red Lizard, a 300-member running club in Portland, Oregon, as well as of two women who qualified to compete for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Marathon Team, and one member of the U.S. Snow Shoe Racing Team. He writes frequent features about distance running for Running Times magazine and Marathon & Beyond, and has written Olympic-related news articles and features for National Geographic News, Cosmos, and the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper. He has also cauthored two running books with marathon legend Alberto Salazar, plus two books on bicycle touring and one on cross-country skiing.

Sports themes, particularly running, have infused seven of his science fiction stories: "Equalization" (Analog, March 2003), "Original Sin" (Analog, June 2006), "Olympic Talent" (Nature, July 5, 2007), "Excellence" (Analog, Jan/Feb 2009), "Jak and the Beanstalk" (Analog, Jul/Aug 2011), "Running 2030" (Running Times, Dec 2011), and "Morgan's Run" (Cosmos, Nov/Dec 2012).

• "Equalization" is the story of a futuristic 10,000-meter runner in a world in which runners are annually handicapped by mind/body swaps in which highly competitive individuals receive less-talented bodies;
• "Original Sin" centers around a memory-recording device that allows coaches to feel exactly what their runners feel in training;
• "Olympic Talent" and "Excellence" involve athletes who improve performance through gene doping, a technology in which gene therapy methods are used to enhance strength and endurance,
• "Jak and the Beanstalk" centers around an endurance athlete who finds a way to climb a space elevator (the titular "beanstalk") all the way to geosynchronous orbit,
• "Running 2030" is a day in the life of a futuristic runner.
• "Morgan's Run" addresses the same themes as "Running 2030."

Bibliography

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Short fiction

• Equalization (Analog 2003)
• Brownian Motion (Analog 2003)
• Tiny Berries (Analog 2003)
• Weapon of Mass Distraction (Analog 2004)
• Distant Fire (Analog 2004)
• Promises (Analog 2004)
• Caretaker (Analog 2004)
• A Few Good Men (Analog 2005)
• Tomorrow's Strawberries (Analog 2005)
• NetPuppets (Analog 2005) with Mark Niemann-Ross
• Zero Tolerance (Analog 2005)
• 911 Backup (Analog 2005)
• Dinosaur Blood (Analog 2006)
• Hiking the Roof of the World (Nature 2006)
• Numismatist (Analog 2006)
• Original Sin (Analog 2006)
• A Pound of Flesh (Analog Sept 2006)
• Nigerian Scam (Analog 2006)
• The Unrung Bells of the Marie [sic] Celeste (Analog 2007)
• Bambi Steaks(Analog 2007)
• The Road to Heather Cove (Abyss & Apex 2007)
• The Last of the Weathermen (Analog 2007)
• Olympic Talent (Nature 2007)
• A Plutoid By Any Other Name . . . (Analog 2007)
• A Deadly Intent (Analog 2008) with Mark Niemann-Ross
• New Wineskins (Analog 2008) with Mark Niemann-Ross
• Bug Eyes (Analog Nov 2008)
• Excellence (Analog 2009, reprinted in condensed version, Running Times 2009)
• Attack of the Grub-Eaters (Analog 2009)
• Carpe Mañana (Abyss & Apex 2009)
• Snowflake Kisses (Analog 2010) with Holly Hight
• Sense of Wonder (Nature, vol. 465, p. 656, June 3, 2010)
• Spludge (Analog, 2010)
• Phantom Sense (Analog Nov. 2010) with Mark Niemann-Ross
• Multivac's Singularity (Analog Jan/Feb 2011)
• Jak and the Beanstalk (Analog Jul/Aug 2011)
• Running 2030 (Running Times, December 2011, pp. 41–44)
• Mother's Tattoos (Analog March 2012)
• Nightfall on the Peak of Eternal Light (Analog July/Aug 2012) with William Gleason
• Tech Support (Analog Nov 2012)
• Morgan's Run (Cosmos Nov/Dec 2012)
• Cats Know (Analog Dec 2012)
• Living Large (Starship Century, Gregory Benford and James Benford, eds., 2013)
• The Wormhole War (Analog June 2015)

Floyd and Brittney series

• The Sands of Titan (Analog Jun 2007)
• Brittney's Labyrinth (Analog Jun 2008)
• Neptune's Treasure (Analog Jan/Feb 2010)
• Music to Me (Analog Jan/Feb 2014)
• Defender of Worms (Analog Jan/Feb 2015)

Collections

• Phantom Sense and Other Stories (Strange Wolf Press, 2012)
  • Phantom Sense
  • Phantom Science
  • A Deadly Intent
  • New Wineskins
  • NetPuppets

Non fiction

• Polish Translationin Nowa Fantastyka, October 2004.

External links

• The Winning Athletes
• Olympic Talent
• Team Red Lizard
• Richard A. Lovett at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database