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What with the Christmas period and my recent ticking-clock househunt that saw my sanity reduced to a whimpering dormouse, I haven’t been paying much attention to my writing. But here we go, two new stories published to kick off the new year!
At Kasma SF I have The Survivors of the Wayfarer, set on a desolate in a far future Earth, and illustrated very beautifully by Jose Baetas. (It’s legitimately weird and humbling to see somebody draw or paint a scene that I only brought into being from my imagination.)
And over at old stalwart Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction, edition 53 has the seventh instalment of my Black Swan serial, Restitution – in which the consequences of the sixth story spill over. Enjoy!
My science fiction story “Loyalty,” which takes place following a botched heist in a near-future Melbourne, has been published in issue #80 of Aurealis.
Aurealis is Australia’s oldest science fiction magazine, and publishing there has been a long-held goal of mine. It was actually the first place I ever got a rejection letter from, way back in 2009 when I was 19 years old. So I’m pretty pleased with this even if I now feel super old.
My short story “Heritage,” the sixth in the Black Swan series, has been published in the latest edition of Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction. This also happens to be TQF’s 50th issue, a proud milestone for any publication. Many congratulations to Stephen Theaker and John Greenwood, and many thanks to them for publishing my high concept sci-fi rigmarole over the years. You can read the issue in a variety of formats here.
If you’d like to start from the beginning of my Black Swan series, a serial revolving around an oddball crew of traders and smugglers on a shabby spaceship at the end of the 22nd century, you can begin with the first story, “Homecoming,” in TQF #40.
My short story Denmark was published the other day at Read Short Fiction, and you can read it online for free.
It may seem like I’ve been very productive lately, but actually all these recent stories were mostly written last year or at the beginning of this year and have been waiting to be accepted or published. I have nothing in my Duotrope queue now. This is it. Zip. Zilch. Nada. It’s all over.
My sci-fi flash fiction piece Futures Market was published this week at Daily Science Fiction, and you can read it for free online right here.
Daily Science Fiction is a really neat idea for a sci-fi journal – you can sign up to them for free and they’ll email you a short science fiction or fantasy story every weekday, tending towards flash fiction but with longer pieces on Friday. Getting a story published at DSF has been a long-held goal of mine, so it’s nice to finally be in there.
My short story “What Manner of Creature?”, a horror story taking place on a British navy ship in the Pacific Ocean in the early 19th century, has been published in the fifth volume of Canadian magazine Postscripts to Darkness. “What Manner of Creature” is a horror story which take place on a British navy vessel in the Pacific Ocean in the early 19th century, and is accompanied nicely by the above illustration by Sebyth.
PstD is a pay-only magazine, but it comes in a very tasteful bundle with lots of other tales of the weird and uncanny. You can visit the PstD store to order a hard-copy for $18 Canadian, including shipping, or buy a $5 PDF.
“What Manner of Creature” is a specific type of horror story which I tried to disguise. I felt I made it a little too obvious, in the end, but had a number of early readers who didn’t twig at all, and were nonplussed by the ending. So in the event that anyone actually reads this and then reads the story, let me know if it was too obvious or not obvious enough.
Happy New Year! I’m a bit late on this, because I was out camping with no internet, but Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction has once again been kind enough to publish me. “Customs” is the fourth story in my ongoing Black Swan serial, and it’s available for free in TQF Issue #46 in a variety of convenient formats right here. This is the first Black Swan story that went straight to Theaker’s without ever being printed here, so enjoy!
My short fantasy story “The Shipwreck of Andalus the Hero” has been published in the latest edition of Schlock Magazine. It’s only about 1,000 words long and you can read it free online.
This is the first story I’ve published that’s been illustrated, in the nice piece of art you can see above, by Thom Cuschieri. Thanks Thom!
My short story “The Monster” has been published in Issue #13 of Used Gravitrons, and can be read for free online.
Somewhat disappointed with this one, because I couldn’t quite get it to end the way I wanted it to. Sort of painted myself into a corner. Anyway.
My short story “The Cave,” a fantasy/horror/Western set in Outback Australia in the 19th century, has been published in the July edition of The Abstract Quill, and can be read for free online.
This is the first story I’ve had published since the beginning of the year, which was a bit of a downer after having two right on New Year’s Day. But I have a few more in the pipeline which have been accepted at various venues and will be coming out over the next few months.
Grub Street 
