The ‘Love Hurts’ Anthology from Meerkat Press with my modestly apocalyptic sci fi/fantasy piece Jacinta’s Lovers is now in print.
Category Archives: short fiction
reliquaries on the shore
Issue 2 of Shoreline of Infinity with my moderately apocalyptic sci fi piece Reliquaries is now in print.
lighter than claire
‘Lighter than Claire’ has appeared in the summer (north of the equator) edition of the Colored Lens and is available at Amazon. It’s also freely available online. The story has various sources—a plate of pasta, ‘Mambo Italiano’ by Flabby and Carla Boni (playing while I was writing), Philip K. Dick’s “A Scanner Darkly,” and the evolution of the species, at least the way it works in my imagination.¹ Continue reading
reliquaries
‘Reliquaries’ has appeared in the second issue of Shoreline of Infinity, a new sf magazine from Scotland,¹ and it’s available at Amazon. It’s a great name for an sf mag, and they’re looking for inspiring stories with a vision of the future, whatever direction that might take. With ‘Reliquaries’ it’s pretty much a downhill ride.
I can’t identify any one source for this story, although it does borrow a broad concept from an earlier piece of mine. It also owes something to an unusual museum I once visited in the south of Chile. Continue reading
jacinta’s lovers
‘Jacinta’s Lovers’ has appeared in the Love Hurts anthology from Meerkat Press,¹ who are “committed to finding and publishing exceptional, irresistible, unforgettable fiction.” So no holding back there. The anthology is available at Amazon.
‘Jacinta’s Lovers’ is science fiction with a sprinkling of fantasy fairy dust, and the broad inspiration for the story was a collection of works by the Australian poet Peter Porter. I’d planned to quote a line from the magical poem ‘An Australian Garden’ which appeared in The Rest on the Flight—
the rising
‘The Rising’ has appeared in the autumn 2014 issue of the Colored Lens, and is now freely available online. From the publishers—
By publishing short stories and serialized novellas every quarter in genres ranging from fantasy, to science fiction, to slipstream or magical realism, we hope to help our readers see the world just a bit differently.
The main source for the story was the movie A Hora da Estrela (The Hour of the Star) based on the novel of the same name by Clarice Lispector. The background for the sf component was the technique of geological surveying with a magnetohydrodynamic generator.
With some pieces, I find it difficult to identify sources or inspiration and with other pieces I find it easy, but that doesn’t mean I’m doing some sort of copying from a source. Continue reading
ambisia
Ambisia has appeared in Black Denim Lit, a new magazine with stories freely available online. One source for the piece was Erwin Schrödinger’s Cat in the Box Paradox, and like the paradox, ‘Ambisia’ takes a few liberties with quantum mechanics. Another feature of the story is that it follows the Planetary Rhyming Convention:
- All planets in a given solar system must have rhyming names.
- If the inhabitants have not yet evolved to spoken language or are unable to distinguish the planets, all planets are deemed to have the name ‘Ook.’
the medusa
‘The Medusa’ appeared in the Canadian In Places Between 2013 collection of short stories from the finalists in the Robyn Herrington Memorial Speculative Fiction Contest. The story took first place in the competition. The contest is run by the Imaginative Fiction Writers Association, who very generously help new writers by providing brief critiques of the submitted stories.
One source for ‘The Medusa’ was the curious myth of the headless mule. Continue reading
inconstant light
The slightly eponymous ‘Inconstant Light’ appeared in the August 2013 issue of Plasma Frequency Magazine; it was published by Plasma Spyglass Press and was freely available online.
The magazine aimed to publish stories which resonate, but probably not at an actual plasma frequency, which would be many megahertz and would require ionized gas rather than paper. The story is set in an alternate world where things are a bit different, and there are some mythical aspects to do with the hard-to-pronounce and mysterious Jacyuaruá, the Moon Mirror Lake.
beaches
‘Beaches’ (flash fiction, 900 words) appeared in IF11 from Isotropic Fiction. The site has reviews, opinion pieces and background. Thanks to a dynamic publishing team possibly led by a stock broker, they’re producing some exciting stuff.
What is ‘Beaches’ about? Think of sand, surf, and summer fun. If you like.
I have written a little far-fetched material about organisms being created by the sea, as they are in the story.
the electrician and the circus
A short story in the Next anthology from CSFG Publishing, available in paperback and electronic formats. The Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild are very active and hit way above their weight in the sf scene, although their goal of world domination is possibly a little optimistic.
The story is very loosely based on the myth of Bacchus and Ariadne.
the apartment on copernicus street
Published in Aurealis #58, Chimaera Publications, and available in electronic formats at Smashwords. Aurealis is a great Australian sf magazine and they are currently offering discounted subscriptions because they are looking towards membership of SFWA. This is not the sound your vacuum cleaner makes when you accidentally suck up a sock but Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America.