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Science fiction poetry and magical time loops: 2 new publications

Posted on October 16, 2022 by Stewart

It is somehow October, and I have a new piece of science fiction poetry and a new piece of flash fiction out on the same day!

Do you like time loops, Regency dramas, mother-daughter relationships, and sarcasm? How about classic SF robots and poetry?

If the answer to either of those is “yes,” “maybe,” or even just “What?”, then I am happy to introduce you to “What Not to Do When You’re Polymorphed and Stuck in a Time Loop” and “The Three Laws of Poetics,” which came out this month in a brand new and a solidly established magazine, respectively.

Flash Fiction: Of Time Loops and Tea

First up, what do you get when you drink a polymorph potion and suck the essence out of powerful mages in a desperate attempt to get out of a time loop?

a yellow and blue 3D clock with golden symbols and linesthe prague astronomical clock — The Prague Astronomical clock, a medieval clock that probably doesn’t involve time travel.
(Used under a CC-BY license from George M. Groutas)

It sounds like the start of a highly specific and very strange joke, but it’s also the concept behind “What Not to Do When You’re Polymorphed and Stuck in a Time Loop,” out now from a new magazine called The Sprawl.

I’m particularly excited to be in the first issue of the magazine, which has a focus on queer, feminist, anti-colonial content. If that sounds up your alley, definitely go check out the full contents of the issue. It has a bevy of fantastic poems and stories! (I hear a print version is in the works, as well.)

If you like this story, you might also enjoy some of my other published fiction, since this isn’t the first zany thing I’ve written that messes about with time travel tropes.

In particular, I’d recommend “How to Break Causality and Write the Perfect Time Travel Story,” from Translunar Travelers Lounge in 2019. It’s science fiction instead of fantasy, but hits some similar notes!

Science Fiction Poetry: The Three Laws of Robotics Poetics

a black toy robot with a TV in its stomach — This robot is just a toy and probably doesn’t write poetry. (used under a CC-BY-SA license from DJ Shin)

My other new publication is a short piece of science fiction poetry titled “The Three Laws of Poetics,” appearing in the November/December issue of Asimov’s as well as for free on their website.

If you’ve ever read Asimov’s short fiction, it’s probably obvious just from the title what I was doing with this piece. And, yes, it’s just what you think: an examination of the classic SF author’s three laws of robotics, but applied to poetry and poets instead of (his vision of) robots.

If you’re an Asimov fan, I hope you enjoy it.

And even if you’re new to Asimov (or untinterested in his problematic stereotyping or personal behaviour, which I definitely understand) you don’t need to be a fan to read and hopefully enjoy the poem. It should stand alone.

What is Science Fiction Poetry?

As defined by Suzette Haden Elgin, who coined the term, science fiction poetry treats scientific matters with “rigor.” Today, the term describes poetry that uses science fiction tropes. Science fiction poetry is a type of speculative poetry, which also includes fantasy and horror poems.

Speculative poetry today

Today, most science fiction poets consider themselves speculative poets (or just poets!) and–as Elgin herself lamented as far back as 1999–her proposed definition of poetry that had “rigor” never realy stuck.

In fact, the topic of “what is science fiction poetry” is probably a good way to get into a debate with most people who write poetry with science fictional themes. If all that sounds like fun, check out the Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA).

And if you’d like to read some excellent speculative poetry, the SFPA’s annual contest is a fantastic place to start.

New Story: “How They Name the Ships.” Ship Names, Naming, and Identity in Space Opera.

Posted on December 28, 2020December 28, 2020 by Stewart

a blue-green rose on a black background — Frozen Wavelets, issue 5 cover

I have a new piece of flash fiction out today in Frozen Wavelets that explores ship names and artificially intelligent spaceships, titled “How they Name the Ships.”

The Somsei Republic name their Ships after important historical figures (usually male). The Ucchou Federation gives Ships use-names like any other citizen, and let them select their own personal names. The philosophical alien Kfuul and the brutal Kháos Empire follow their own rules for ship names, as always. Even the repulsive, symbiotic Brakm have a specific way of naming the Ships they have scavenged.

But what names do the Ships take for themselves?

To find out, you’ll have to read “How they Name the Ships,” out now in issue 5 of Frozen Wavelets: https://frozenwavelets.com/issue-5/how-they-name-the-ships-by-stewart-c-baker/ (It’s only 750 words. You might like it!)

What’s the Story about?

On a surface read, the story tackles the tried and true space opera trope of amusing (or odd) ship names, with examples from several human and non-human polities that range from the droll to the disturbing.

A few examples (or formulas) from the piece:

Nju Confederation Ship (NCS) Stability
Philosophical concepts, references to obscure texts, and complex word games are popular among the alien Kfuul.
NCS Hair Bog
Kháos Empire ships are named for acts of violence, types of deadly sickness, and cats.
Yet Another Bloody Disagreement, a ship from the anarchic anti-polity The Tumble, which was aptly and abruptly disintegrated by a rival faction while speaking before the Ucchou Federation parliament.
Ucchou use names for ships tend to involve words of motion and allusions to important events.

Of course, the story is about much more than space opera tropes. Each section in the piece deals with a specific polity and details not only naming patterns, but what (if anything) ships can do if they disagree with or dislike the name they’ve been given.

The last section ponders what the ships themselves do, and how to otherwise get by while living in a society that’s potentially hostile to your own sense of identity — if not your very existence as an independent being who can make your own choices.

And that’s what the story is really about under the surface level levity: identity, the power names have, and how to stay true to yourself when the society you live in won’t accept who you are.

Ship Names and Space Opera

Anyone who reads space opera will immediately think of a few authors whose space opera settings play with the idea of ship names. Indeed, there’s a whole Wikipedia page that just lists fictional spacecraft.

a red spaceship hovers over water on the front cover of The Player of Games by Iain M Banks, an author well known for playing with ship names — Iain M. Banks’ *The Player of Games* (not the cover I have, but this one has a ship on it!)

Alas, though! That page is woefully deficient in my own view, as it contains not a single ship from Iain M. Banks’s Culture series of books — apparently due to an admin deciding it was “fan cruft,” if this Reddit page is accurate.

Banks’s work was formative of how I approach reading and writing space opera, and Culture ships (listed here) are definitely the go-to for clever, ironic, or surreal ship names, to the point where space-related things in real life are now named after them.

The Wiki page also lacks ships from works by newer authors who are just as brilliant as Banks, and also play with the trope, like Aliette de Bodard in her Xuya Universe stories and Merc Fenn Wolfmoor in their Sunlords of the Principality stories.

So, with that in mind, here is a short list of my own personal favourite ship names from other authors’ work, and the stories they appear in.

My Favourite Space Opera Ship Names

Brightened Star, Ascending Dawn – From the story of the same name by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor. Features poetry, a child refugee, defiance of protocol, tragedy, and hope (2017, Lightspeed)
The Wild Orchid in Sunless Woods – From Seven of Infinities by Aliette de Bodard. Poetry (yes, I know), found family, criminal hijinx. Awkward human-Ship romance that everyone but the participants can see is obviously there. What’s not to love? (2020, Subterannean Books)
Size Isn’t Everything – From Iain M. Banks’s Use of Weapons. And yes, the ship in question is quite large…
Of Course I Still Love You, also from Banks, this time from Player of Games. Notable particularly because SpaceX has a drone ship named after it in real life.
Starbug – The name of the shuttle in British SF sitcom Red Dwarf. Known for being uh… less than reliable.
Justice of Toren – The starship now known as Breq, the protagonist of Ann Leckie’s fantastic Ancillary Justice and its sequels.
Heart of Gold – The “sleekest, most advanced, coolest spaceship in the galaxy” in Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series. (Stolen by that ne’er-do-well Zaphod Beeblebrox.)

a spaceship flies in front of a planet against a backdrop of stars, leaving a brighly colored wake — Image by Tombud

“How They Name the Ships”

Thinking about these and other ship names from space opera definitely played a part in how and why I wrote “How They Name the Ships.”

I don’t know if I can add to the conversation about ship names, what they mean, and why they’re so popular in space opera with such a small story, but it was a fun one to write, all the same. And I hope, if you read it, that it brings you something — whether that’s a moment of levity or something deeper and more lasting.

Again, you can read “How they Name the Ships” in issue 5 of Frozen Wavelets, out now: https://frozenwavelets.com/issue-5/how-they-name-the-ships-by-stewart-c-baker/

New Story: “Five Things I Hate about Phobos” in Nature Magazine

Posted on December 10, 2020December 10, 2020 by Stewart

I have a new story out today in Nature Magazine’s “Futures” column, titled “Five Things I Hate about Phobos.”

a heart made of electromagnetic coronas surrounds Phobos — Illustration for the story, by *Nature*‘s regular story artist Jacey.

The story’s about love and the potential of loss, and ultimately asks the question of whether our eventual but inevitable demise is a tragedy or somethinge lse. You can read it (and a brief author’s note) online here in all its glory: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03505-9

In the spirit of the listicle-style title, I’ve come up with what you might call “Five Things about Five Things I Hate about Phobos.” If you’re into that kind of meta stuff, read on!

1. It’s set on Phobos

classical Greek floor tiles — Look at this guy, such a charmer.

Okay, pretty obvious from the title, probably, right?

That’s Phobos the moon, not the personification of fear and panic in classical Greek mythology.

Mr Fear and Panic makes a cameo, though, at least sort of, with the narrator commenting on how messed up it is that anyone would actually want to live on a moon named after him.

A moon which, incidentally, has an orbit that will eventually decay so far that it will crash onto the surface of Mars or break up into tiny pieces around a hundred million years hence.

2. It’s my fifth appearance in Nature

Which I actually didn’t notice until I checked just now!

That makes the title — and this post — even more numerologically concerned, especially given my Discordian tendencies. And that’s yet another connection to Classical Greek mythology, given that Eris, the goddess of discord and strife, is Discordia’s principal deity.

Most of my other stories appear in the sidebar on the Nature site when you read the current one, or you can dig them up from my bibliography here, as well.

3. It’s got nonstandard pronouns

One of the characters in the story, Tashi, uses zie/zir pronouns.

If you’re not familiar with these, they work just like any other pronoun. Zie is the singular third person form (like he or she), and zir is both the object (him/her) and possessive (his/hers) form.

Zie (often also spelled ze) is a gender-free pronoun most commonly used online, so you can think of it as similar to they/them. Although if someone uses zie, that doesn’t necessarily mean zie identifies as nonbinary, or even considers zirself “gender free” at all — and it definitely doesn’t mean you should use they/them instead when referring to someone whose pronouns are zie/zir.

4. It draws on traditional Japanese aesthetic ideas about impernanence

The word “wabisabi” is somewhat of a buzzword in English design circles, used to describe a sort of vague “imperfectness” that’s treated as a catch-all for a Japanese-inspired aesthetic.

Actually, though, “wabisabi” is two specific terms mashed together: wabi (侘び) and sabi (寂び). Because these words share similar elements aesthetically, they are often connected into a single word: wabisabi (侘び寂び)

To be fair, judging from the number of Japanese-language articles titled things like “The difference between ‘wabi’ and ‘sabi’,” confusion over this often-paired set of terms is rampant even within Japan. (Which makes sense. How many people can easily rattle off a clear explanation of art nouveau as a design aesthetic?)

However, although these words are often paired, and both have something to do with accepting impermanence, they’re pretty different terms.

So what does wabisabi mean, exactly? According to the article linked above, from Japanese newspaper Mainichi Shinbun, wabi is “the emotion you feel when things are calm and quiet,” while sabi is “the emotion you feel when something is old or withered.”

Those definitions match up relatively well with the ones in jisho.org (my favourite Japanese-English dictionary), where wabi is “austere refinement” or “enjoyment of a quiet life,” and sabi is “elegant simplicity.” Taken together, then, wabisabi can be considered a feeling conveyed by something that’s simple, calm, old, and withered. More generally, it’s used as shorthand (at least in English) for “imperfect” things, especially those which were broken and then repaired.

Although life on Phobos in my story isn’t exactly elegant or refined, it’s hard to imagine the life of space-dwelling people to be anything other than simple in the near future. And accepting that — along with the fact of our own inevitable demise — would be pretty important.

On the other hand…

5. Celebratory light show!

A central part of the story is a festival held by those living on Phobos. This festival involves electrostatic charges and corona discharge on the satellite’s surface — which are a real thing, at least according to this Nasa study from 2017.

a glass orb filled with blue-white rays of light like lightning — A plasma globe, one type of corona discharge familiar to many US school children.

In the story, those living on Phobos gather on its surface and sing, holding hands around a crater in a ceremony called The Harmonia (remember Eris? Her Roman equivalent was Discordia, which is Harmonia’s antonym. Levels within levels, man! Levels within levels…).

The narrator of the story finds this uncomfortable at first, but although they don’t admit it in so many words, you can read between the lines and see that their participation in the ceremony is the point at which the story pivots from “I hate this place” to “I’d hate to see this place disappear.”

Do they get to the point of acceptance? Well, you’ll have to read the story yourself to find out.

Check out “Five Things I Hate about Phobos” in Nature now!

New Original Fiction: May & June Update

Posted on July 5, 2020 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!).

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.

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.

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.

Two new flash stories + reprints and an audio reprint

Posted on October 5, 2018October 5, 2018 by Stewart

Gack! How is it October?

I have been bad about updating, but have two new stories to share, as well as some reprints and an audio reprint from the past few months!

New Flash Stories

In “Failsafes,” which went live September 5th over at Nature Magzine, a scavenger in a post-apocalyptic future finds a hidden cache with long-lost technology that just might be the key to making people’s lives better — starting with her own. There’s also a bonus blog post which talks about my inspirations for the story, including musings on the Long Now Foundation, librarianship (of course), and the importance of the human element in the sciences.

In “Words I’ve Redefined Since Your Dinosaurs Invaded My Lunar Lair,” out October 1st in Flash Fiction Online, a super-villain confronts her nemesis — and calls into question the very nature of the good-vs-evil trappings of superheroics.

Reprints

My story “Raising Words,” about a young girl who struggles with her father’s changing identity in Yamato Japan, has been reprinted in Asian Birds and Beasts, an e-book anthology of stories from Insignia Press. This story was first published in now-defunct Penumbra eZine back in 2013. You’ll also find original and reprinted stories by Nidhi Singh, Amy Fontaine, Kelly Matsuura, Russell Hemmell, Lorraine Schein, Keyan Bowes, and Joyce Chng inside, so go grab yourself a copy!

I also have a reprint in another Insignia Press e-book anthology, Asian Science Fiction. This one features my story “Love and Relativity,” originally a Nature Futures story from 2015. Other authors in the anthology are Joyce Chgn, Nidhi Singh, Ray Daley, Holly Schofield, Jeremy Szal, L Chan, Vonnie Winslow Crist, so — again — consider purchasing a copy if you like Asian-inspired SFF.

Audio

Last, but not least, my story “Butterflies,” originally published in Spark in early 2014, has been podcasted by The Overcast. This one is about formal logic and the end of time, and I promise that’s more interesting than it sounds. It’s free to listen to on The Overcast‘s website, if you like podcast fiction.

Novel Update

Novel-wise! I have been going through and getting ready to make some major revisions to The Road that Spans the Sea, my in-progress epic fantasy set in a secondary world modeled loosely on early modern Japan. Only with, you know, blood magic and immortal sorcerers and pseudo-magical floating iron ore and reversed gender roles and stuff. I’m looking forward to digging into the edits, although I’m also mildly terrified! I gather that’s normal, though, for novel edits.

sub-Q Magazine

As I’ve mentioned before, editorial stuff at sub-Q is taking up a good bit of my time, too. I’ve recently revamped our submission guidelines, and we have some exciting stuff planned for 2019. If you like Interactive Fiction, or would like to try your hand at writing it, please keep us in mind!

Two science-fiction reprints in ebook anthologies + novel update

Posted on July 18, 2018July 18, 2018 by Stewart

Two science-fiction stories of mine are being reprinted in upcoming anthologies.

The first of these, “Love and Relativity” first appeared in Nature Physics back in 2015. This time around, it will be appearing in Asian Science Fiction from Insignia, and should be available this coming Friday (July 20th).

The second, “Proceedings from the First and Only Sixteenth Annual One-Woman Symposium on Time Manipulation”, which previously appeared in Time Travel Tales, will be released as part of Timeshift. A pre-order link for that is available here–it releases August 1st.

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What am I up to otherwise?

Knuckling down and trying to finish revising a novel, mostly. THE ROAD THAT SPANS THE SEA is a roughly 110,000-word epic fantasy novel set in a secondary world modeled loosely on early modern Asia. It features family feuds, swordplay and other martial arts, banter, treachery and betrayal, a few too many orphan children, and at least one grouchy immortal warrior woman with (of course) a heart of gold.

Sound exciting? I’m planning to get it all wrapped up in the next couple of months and send it out to agents. Fingers crossed!

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(You might also notice that my website design has changed. Since I’m not updating this blog as often as I used to due to ALL THE THINGS, I decided to switch to a design that has a bit more static of a front page, and where it’s easier for me to highlight specific posts.)

I’ve entered “The Thing about Heisenball” in the 2017 Quantum Shorts contest–go check it out!

Posted on October 16, 2017June 25, 2018 by Stewart

My flash fiction piece “The Thing about Heisenball” has a non-zero number of non-binary characters, and deals with relationship problems, a game a little like squash, and Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, with a dash of many worlds theorem thrown in for good measure. You know, it’s just your average all-the-things story.

The story, which was published in Daily Science Fiction in April of 2017, is now up and awaiting eyeballs at the semi-annual Quantum Shorts fiction contest.

Quantum Shorts is a neat contest. It alternates between a short film and fiction contest, and each year pushes creators to explore concepts of quantum physics with their art. In 2015 my Nature story “How to Configure your Quantum Disambiguator” made it onto the short-list, and I found the short films in last year’s contest fascinating to watch.

This year’s contest has just kicked off, so there isn’t a lot of content yet. But in addition to my story, there’s a very clever little story by fellow Writers of the Future alum (and former librarian!) Stephen P Sottong and several other stories by other writers. (Anything marked as being “by Quantum Shorts” is a winner from a previous year of the contest.) Go check it out, and don’t forget to vote for your favourite!

And if you’re a writer yourself, and want to join in the fun, get to it! The competition deadline is December 1st, and your entry needs to explore some concept of quantum physics and include the sentence “There are only two possibilities: yes or no.” All that in 1000 words or fewer. (If you’re stuck on quantum physics, the site includes a handy reference section, with an A-Z guide on quantum physics, quotes from physicists, and more.)

Ten reprints now available at Curious Fictions

Posted on September 18, 2017June 25, 2018 by Stewart

As an author, it can sometimes be challenging to find good homes for reprints of stories I’ve had published in magazines. And, as a reader, I know it’s difficult to hunt down more stories by authors I like in one central location.

With all this in mind, I’m please to report that fellow writer Tanya Breshears has created a new website just for reprints, called Curious Fictions.

Curious Fictions provides an attractive home for multiple reprints, making it easy for me to manage my previously published stories and for readers to find them (and those of great writers like Helena Bell, Matt Dovey, Laura Pearlman, Aidan Doyle, and Effie Seiberg–with more sure to come!).

As a reader, you’re given a preview of each story, with the option to pay whatever you feel is appropriate for the rest (currently, you can choose to pay anywhere between $1 and $10 USD). Payments are accepted from anywhere in the world with a valid credit card. There are no ads (glory of glories!) and 75% of each payment goes to the author of the purchased story.

At the moment, you can only browse by genre and author name, but I’ve heard through the grapevine that there are plans for many other ways to discover and enjoy great fiction from your favourite authors, as well as those who are new to you.

Here are brief summaries of the ten stories I’ve posted to the site, with links to read them:

Love and Relativity – When her husband disappears aboard an experimental starship, Indira researches what went wrong. But the answers don’t always lie on the pages of a book… This story first appeared in Nature Physics, and has since been translated into several languages. It’s currently a finalist for the 2016-2017 Canopus Awards for Excellence in Interstellar Writing.

Little More than Shadows – You’ve always been able to make your dreams take form. You’ve always been able to shape the world around you. To shift it. Now, at the end of everything, what will you do…? This story first appeared in Daily Science Fiction.

Oubliette – The surgery is supposed to take away stress and leave Robert feeling happy, successful, and at peace with himself. But something goes wrong… This story first appeared in Flash Fiction Online.

How to Configure your Quantum Disabiguator – Read these instructions carefully—they may just save your life. (Or you can just forget about it all and push the red button…) First appeared in Nature Futures.

Concerning Your Recent Creation of Horse-Things on the Next Planet Over – Dr Higgelbottem has a bone to pick with the Ancient Academy of the Right Honourable Uplifters, and she wants them to know exactly what she thinks… First appeared in Flash Fiction Online.

Elements of a Successful Exit Broadcast – Stay calm. Stay focused. Remember who you’re speaking to, and why… First appeared in Fantastic Stories of the Imagination.

The View from Driftwise Spindle – Gayatri and Ang are different in a lot of ways, but what they want is the same: the best deal for Driftwise Spindle, and for as many people as possible to survive the end of the world… This story was a finalist for the Baen Memorial SF award in 2014. It was first published in Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show.

Fugue in a Minor Key – All Katja wants is to see her child again, her husband. Get back to her career as a concert pianist. But the two techs sitting across from her insist that none of that is real. That she’s just awoken from an immersive simulation, and only eight minutes have passed… This story was first published in Galaxy’s Edge.

Just Another Night at the Abandoned Draft Bar and Grill – All Alex wants is stop being murdered, chopped up, and hidden in the fridge to serve as her boyfriend’s backstory. So when Francois, who comes from an Afro-futurist science fiction story, tells her of his plan to change their author’s mindset, she readily agrees. What could possibly go wrong…? This story was first published in Galaxy’s Edge.

The Thing about Heisenball – The narrator gets a crash course in Heisenball, a game that melds squash with quantum physics. And, most importantly of all, it’s a game where losing doesn’t matter. First published in Daily Science Fiction.

If you head over to Curious Fictions to check these out, be sure to browse around the site and see what else is on offer!

Two of my favourites are Helena Bell’s “Robot” and Laura Pearlman’s uproarious “I AM GRAALNAK OF THE VROON EMPIRE, DESTROYER OF GALAXIES, SUPREME OVERLORD OF THE PLANET EARTH. ASK ME ANYTHING” (which, really, is better suited to headline capslock than any other title I can think of).

Reprint: Proceedings from the First and Only Sixteenth Annual One-Woman Symposium on Time Manipulation

Posted on August 1, 2017June 25, 2018 by Stewart

My weird and somewhat surreal flash fiction piece, “Proceedings from the First and Only Sixteenth Annual One-Woman Symposium on Time Manipulation,” is up today as a reprint at Flash Fiction Online!

This story first appeared late last year in Time Travel Tales, which you can buy on Amazon as an e-book or in print. The anthology has a bunch of excellent stories by other authors as well as mine, so if you like time travel, go check that out as well!

And—speaking of anthologies—a reminder that my historical fantasy story “Kuriko” is out now in Guardbridge Books’s Tales of the Sunrise Lands, and available on Amazon as well as through the Guardbridge Books website.

Two new flash fiction pieces in Remixt Magazine, volume 2

Posted on July 9, 2017June 25, 2018 by Stewart

I have two original flash fiction pieces out in two separate issues of the second volume of Remixt, out yesterday!

Remixt, if you’re not familiar with it, is an experiment in publishing spearheaded by Julia Rios. Each release of the magazine pits 5+ editors against the same slush pile, and so there’s the possibility of the same piece being selected by different editors, or of each simultaneously-released issue being completely unique. You can read more about the process in Julia’s editorial here.

I sent two different pieces of flash their way back in March, and was fortunate enough to have each one appeal to one of the volume 2 editors. Huzzah!

Volume 2, Issue 3 features my story “Doge Coefficient,” a vaguely SFnal post-apocalyptic tale where the end came not in the form of zombies or plague but in sudden social collapse caused by Internet-driven language change. It’s also about learning to accept the past, and figuring out how to move forward.

Volume 2, Issue 4 features my story “What She Left Behind,” a slipstreamy kind of fantasy story which is kind of part Ovidian transformation story, part Southern Reach style weird, and part uh… learning-to-accept-the-past-and-figuring-out-how-to-move-forward. Which I guess was kind of a theme for me in these two stories for some reason.

Anyway. Go give ’em a read and check out the other fine stories featured in the various issues of Remixt, volume 2!