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New Original Fiction: May & June Update

Posted on by Stewart

It’s been a while since I last updated, but I have a few new publications to announce!

First, a bittersweet story about long-term care, memory loss, and mother-daughter relationships.

In “Against the Dying of the Light,” from Flash Fiction Online’s May 2020 issue, a woman must balance caring for her mother with reporting on a cutting-edge surgery that’s supposed to be nearly miraculous. But as the saying goes, if something seems too good to be true…

Read “Against the Dying of the Light” at Flash Fiction Online here! You can also support the publisher by purchasing a copy of the issue on Amazon (it’s only $1!).

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Next up is “At the Edge of a Human Path,” a story that features:

  • Ancient kami!
  • Shapeshifting foxes!
  • Politics, power, and greed!
  • A strange and hopefully compelling mashup of 6th-century Japan with the comedic middle English ballad The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle!

All this and more can be found in my 5000 word fantasy story “At the Edge of a Human Path,” out now in 87 Bedford’s Historic Fantasy Anthology, which published in June, 2020. You can purchase a copy of the anthology direct from the publisher at https://87bedford.com/2020/05/25/historic-fantasy-anthology/ for the low price of $5.

If you want to read just my story you can read it here.

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And last, but not least, a cutemeet set against the end of the world!

Wait, maybe an exclamation mark sets the tone wrong for that one…

In any case, my story “Scenes from the End of a World” is up in the June 2020 issue of All Worlds Wayfarer. Features non-binary characters, a budding romance, and… well… what it says on the cover.

You can read “Scenes from the End of a World” online at All Worlds Wayfarer and support the publisher by buying a copy of the issue in which it apperas at Amazon for $2.99.

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What else have I been up to?

Right now I’m doing the Clarion West Writeathon, which is always fun.

In May/June, I wrote the first draft of a 30,000 word novella looking at the Akō Incident, more commonly known in English as the tale of the 47 rōnin. My take on the story focuses on the trials of Sengoku Hisanao, one of the shogun’s chief castle inspectors and the person in charge of the official investigation and response to the rōnin attack on Kira Yoshinaka. It also features (of course) telepathic extraterrestrials who exist as beings of pure thought.

I’m planning to shop it around when I’ve made a few more revisions, so hopefully will have news to share about it in the future!

I did finally finish up a revised draft of the novel I’ve been working on as well, and am going to dive back into that soon now that I have some beta reader feedback to look at about what needs fixing.

“At the Edge of a Human Path”

Posted on by Stewart
  • Ancient kami!
  • Shapeshifting foxes!
  • Politics, power, and greed!
  • A strange and hopefully compelling mashup of 6th-century Japan with the comedic middle English ballad The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle!

All this and more can be found in my 5000 word fantasy story “At the Edge of a Human Path,” out now in 87 Bedford’s Historic Fantasy Anthology. You can purchase a copy of the anthology direct from the publisher at https://87bedford.com/2020/05/25/historic-fantasy-anthology/ for the low price of $5.

If you want to read just my story you can read it here.

“My Decohering Heart,” a new story at Quantum Shorts

Posted on by Stewart

If you like quantum physics, self-aware computers, or time travel weirdness, check out my new story “My Decohering Heart,” free to read now as part of the Quantum Shorts competition.

When Dr. Z. tells L3 to protect her daughter Innusha, the quantum computer is determined to do so no matter the cost. But when Innusha issues a different, contradictory request, the computer finds itself stuck between yes and no, one and zero. What’s a computer to do? Fortunately, with quantum physics there’s more than just a binary…

Here’s an excerpt:

Only one of my optical sensors is online, and through it I see that Dr Z has aged: that more lines than before spider the edges of her eyes, that her hair has turned slightly more white. Someone is with her, a younger person my memory banks do not recall.

“Hello, L3,” Dr Z. whispers. “I’m glad I was able to retrieve you. I need your help.”

How is the project? I want to ask. Why did you wait so long to awaken me? But the answers to both of these are obvious, and I don’t wish to bring her distress.

“Of course,” I say instead. “Anything.”

“My Decohering Heart”

If you want to find out what happens–and maybe learn a little bit about quantum physics along the way–you’ll have to read the whole story over at Quantum Shorts. (P.S. Thanks to Vylar Kaftan, David DeGraff, and Emily Randall for the physics check!)

Quantum Shorts Anthology

This isn’t my first rodeo with Quantum Shorts–in 2015, I was shortlisted with a reprint of “How to Configure Your Quantum Disambiguator,” originally published in Nature.

I was lucky enough to have that story reprinted again recently in a beautifully-designed anthology edition of some of the judges’ favourite stories from Quantum Shorts.

The cover of the anthology. (My story is represented by the red button!)

Although the print edition (which is glorious!) was only available to authors featured within its pages, you can download the equally lovely ebook edition on the Quantum Shorts website.

And the best part is that the anthology–like all the entries to their contest–is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, so you can download it for free and share the stories you find there however you wish, so long as you don’t sell them, let people know who wrote them, and don’t modify them.

Out soon! My story “Kuriko” is in Guardbridge Books’ Tales from the Sunrise Lands anthology

Posted on by Stewart

I’m pleased to announce that I’ll have a story in Guardbridge Books’ upcoming collection of short stories set in Japan called “Tales from the Sunrise Lands.” You can pre-order a copy at the link there.

My story, “Kuriko,” is a roughly 7500 word story about a living mechanical doll (からくり人形) trying to survive late 1600s Japan, and features down-on-their-luck samurai, drunken lords, and other unsavoury 時代小説 style characters. It was inspired mostly by a visit to the Ohno Karakuri museum in Kanazawa, Japan back when I lived there for half a year in 2005. Well, that and binge-reading Yoshikawa Eiji and Shiba Ryotaro.

I first wrote this story waaaay back in 2009(?) or 2010 for a writing contest on Scribophile , making it one of my earlier stories in terms of when I wrote it. When the (mangled, disjointed, subpar) first draft didn’t place in that contest, I reworked it and expanded it (too much) and submitted it to Writers of the Future, where it was my first entry and earned me my only semi-finalist. (In fact, it was the only story I ever submitted that earned me more than an honorable mention, up until my story “Images across a Shattered Sea” won first place on my last qualifying entry in late 2015.)

After I got my semi-finalist critique from former judge K.D. Wentworth, I lopped about 1/3 of the story off the front and revised it some more, then sent it out on submission, where it’s come close at a few places (including earning me a non-published contest win at Spark: A Creative Anthology).

I’m pleased to have finally sold it to a great publisher like Guardbridge!

Interestingly, I actually submitted this story more than 2 years ago (June 11th, 2015—I checked!) to Guardbridge’s great Myriad Lands anthology. Since it was over the length the editor wanted and also Japanese-themed and he had too many of those, the editor said he’d like to bump it to a planned anthology of stories by Japanese and non-Japanese authors set in Japan. (The anthology has changed its focus a little and doesn’t include many Japanese authors, apparently due to a lack of response when the editor tried to solicit submissions–a bit disappointing.) Fast forward to October of 2016, and I had received an official acceptance, and in December I signed the contract.

So it’s been quite a wait for those of us behind the scenes, but it’ll be out soon. Other authors include Douglas Smith, Alison Akiko McBain, and Richard Parks.

It’s 9 GBP to pre-order, and shipping in the UK is reasonable. Go give it a gander if you like Japanese stuff.

Link to buy: Tales of the Sunrise Lands

In a feat inspired by quantum interference, I will be at WorldCon this year while I am not at WorldCon this year. #FlatStewart

Posted on by Stewart

Ah, WorldCon. Science Fiction and Fantasy fandom’s largest annual shindig. Where you can rub shoulders with upcoming SFF authors and renowned bestsellers alike—and thousands of other industry professional and fans—and even see some people take home fancy (if phallic) rocket ship trophies.

But for all of WorldCon’s fame and staying power, it’s not without its drawbacks. Like, for instance, how no one* has ever dared to attend the convention while also not attending the convention.

That’s all about to change. For the first time ever**, I will be attempting this daring feat, thanks solely to the generosity and ingenuity of author, editor, miniature poodle***, and all-around awesome person-type being known as K.M. Szpara.

Kellan has, through the magic**** of printing, created a proxy for me, dubbed Flat Stewart.

Aren’t I magnificently deranged-looking? I mean magnificent? Don’t answer that.

Anyway, Kellan will be taking Flat Stewart around the place, and no doubt getting up to all sorts of misadventures. You can follow along with the fun by looking at the #FlatStewart hashtag on Twitter*****.

Quantum interference has never been so easy.

Footnotes:
* That I can think of, anyway, because I’m too lazy to look it up and see.
** See previous footnote.
*** It is possible I may be misreading their bio.
**** Any sufficiently advanced technology, &.c, &c.
***** Note that there appears to be some other Flat Stewart in the tweets prior to 16 August 2016. Judging from his profile and relative lack of facial hair, I’m the evil twin.

Reprint: “The Butterfly Disjunct” in Strange Constellations under a CC-BY-NC licence

Posted on by Stewart

My far-future story “The Butterfly Disjunct” is now up to read free of charge in Strange Constellations, a web magazine that publishes stories under a Creative Commons licence. a CC-BY-NC licence, in particular.

And what does that mean?

In practical terms, it means that you can do whatever you want with this little story, so long as you:

  1. Credit me as its author
  2. Make it clear that you’ve modified my work (if applicable)
  3. Don’t make money as a result

Want to paste the whole story on your web page? You can!

Want to put it in a free anthology of other CC-BY stories? Knock yourself out.

Want to remix it, or make it part of a bigger work? Cool. Go for it!

Thinking about making a Polish-language post-modern opera about it where the whole story takes place in a Cold War bunker? Sounds neat.

Again, so long as whatever you’re doing is not commercial in nature, there’s no real limit to what you can do. (Although as the author of the story, I can waive this on a case-by-case basis. So just get in touch!)

As a librarian with an interest in the Open Access movement, I’m excited to be able to publish a story under a Creative Commons licence. Especially since this particular story hasn’t appeared in the wild for free before. I hope you enjoy reading it! (Or doing whatever else you plan on doing to it.)

Read “The Butterfly Disjunct” at Strange Constellations.