“Winds of Mars”, a new novella by SF author and sailor Bud Sparhawk

Thanks to the generosity of the folks at Baen Books, I’m reading my way through “Winds of Mars” (2009), an interesting new novella written by science fiction author Bud Sparhawk. Published in the June 2009 issue of Jim Baen’s Universe and posted on Baen’s website for all to read, “Winds of Mars” is about a sailing race on the Red Planet. Here are the opening lines:

The wind blew soundlessly across the red-gray Amazonis landscape. Arching high above the station's masts were the fluttering tell-tails on the tug's sails. Halsey "Sands" Ribblokenni barely gave them a glance as he headed for the dispatcher's shack. His mind was more on the Tuesday night's race out on the Tiblia Plantia. He was in third place in the latest series and, if he managed to win the next race, he'd move up to second. ...

John C. “Bud" Sparhawk started reading science fiction in 1948 with the Ray Bradbury stories in Collier's magazine. He had his first SF story published in Analog: Science Fiction and Fact magazine in 1976 and has written many more since. His novelette “Olympus Mons!” was published in the January 1998 issue of Analog. Bud Sparhawk lives in Maryland and enjoys sailing on Chesapeake Bay.

Thanks to Tinkoo of the blog Variety SF for the link!