Tag: science fiction

Short Stories and Games from 2022: My Latest Publications!

Posted on by Stewart

2022 has been a weird year, writing-wise. I’ve spent nearly all my writing energy on a forthcoming comedy/fantasy/baking/isekai/eldritch-horror game co-written with James Beamon. (Look for that from Choice of Games in 2023, by the way!)

That and some freelance nonfiction accounts for nearly all of my written output this year, so it’s been easy to feel like I haven’t done anything. It’s a little surprising, then, to look through what I had published this year!

I had seven original short stories and one game released this year, as well as the first few chapters of a second game.

Here’s a brief run down, with links when available!

2022 Short Stories

“The Spread of Space and Endless Devastation” (Lightspeed, December)

“The Spread of Space and Endless Devastation” – Lightspeed, December, 2022

A 1200-word story about time loops, ships with feelings, found family / parenting vibes, and learning to let go even when it’s really hard.

No content notes as such but it has some heavy emotional notes at the end.

“The Labyrinth’s Daughter” (Corvid Queen, November)

“The Labyrinth’s Daughter” – Corvid Queen, November 28 2022

The daughter of the Minotaur lives on. Will she ever step out of his shadow—or the labyrinth? A fantasy story of roughly 1000 words inspired by the art of Leonora Carrington and the stories of Jorge Luis Borges.

(Content notes: violence, emotional abuse)

“Veracity’s Find” (Wizards in Space, November)

“Veracity’s Find” – Wizards in Space 8, November 2022

A woman living on board a world-spanning orbital station goes on a treasure hunt to get over a break-up. Will what she finds there help her or make her feel worse? More importantly, will Station ever keep its weird ideas to itself? A science fiction story of around 1600 words.

(Content notes: low self-esteem)

“What Not to Do When You’re Polymorphed and Stuck in a Time Loop” (The Sprawl, October)

“What Not to Do When You’re Polymorphed and Stuck in a Time Loop” – The Sprawl Mag, October 16, 2022

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?

It sounds like the start of a highly specific and very strange joke, but it’s also the concept behind this weird little genre-bender of 750 words.

“The Nature of Stones” (Prismatic Dreams, June)

“The Nature of Stones” – Prismatic Dreams, All Worlds Wayfarer, June 2022

A quiet science fantasy story of 3000 words about childbirth, relationship conflicts, and negative self-talk, set on a planet where there’s no concept of gender and giant boulders drift slowly down from space to crash in the ocean.

(Content notes: brief suicidal ideation)

“The Calligrapher’s Granddaughter” (Haven Speculative, May)

“The Calligrapher’s Granddaughter” – Haven Speculative, May 2022

Set in 1800s Edo (now Tokyo), Japan, this story has snooty samurai, magical calligraphy, and a found family theme.

(Content notes: terminal illness, runaway child, threat of harm to child)

“A Difference of Opinion” (Kaleidotrope, April)

“A Difference of Opinion” – Kaleidotrope, April 2022

This far-future space opera features AI, drones, golden retrievers, and sly (or not so sly) references to the work of Ursula Le Guin and Iain M. Banks. Approximately 4100 words.

(Content notes: accidental poisoning… sort of)

2022 Reprints

I had three stories reprinted this year as well, one as an audio reprint:

2022 Games

“Trick or Treat or Trick or Treat or Trick” (Ectocomp, October)

(Created using “halloween candy” by Terren under a CC-BY license.)

It’s your first year trick or treating alone. Will it be your last?

Trick or Treat or Trick or Treat or Trick is a parser game about time loops and trick or treating, written for Ectocomp 2022 in October. It’s set in the 90s, hence the eye-watering cover art.

The game scored dead last, probably because it was my first time writing anything in Inform (the game engine I used) and I decided that it wouldn’t be challenging enough without introducing weird time loop mechanics. For some reason?!

I’ve fixed the (many!) bugs that were present in the competition release and introduced a hint system, which I hope makes this more entertaining to play. If you enjoy interactive fiction, or are curious what exactly it is, check it out!

“Library of Worlds” (Storyloom, Ongoing)

illustration of a person's head. the top part of the head is replaced with a nebula of stars, and library books flutter across their face

A demon lord in the library?!

Inspired by my love for isekai anime and my library career (sort of, anyway!), “Library of Worlds” is a cozy reverse isekai fantasy visual novel. That’s a lot of adjectives — basically, it’s a game where you talk to various characters from a fantasy world have been reborn in our own, but without the seriously high stakes and tension that are common to certain types of fantasy stories.

The first six chapters are now available to play, and I anticipate publishing another five each in January and February, bringing the story to its completion.

Also, check out that gorgeous cover the Storyloom art team put together for me. Wow!

The Storyloom site is in beta and all games are currently free to play, but getting to a specific title is a little tricky still. If you want to try this one out, I recommend clicking the link, signing up for an account, and then coming back here and clicking the link again.

2022 Submission Statistics

Seven stories and three reprints published in one year sounds like a lot.

Wow, I must be so successful! The sting of rejection banished from my writing practice for good!

Well, not so much.

My secret (it’s not very secret) is that I write a lot of very short fiction and I make a lot of submissions. That means I net more accepted stories than I would if I rarely sent things out, but it also means I get a heck of a lot of rejections.

Here are this years stats:

  • Stories Started: 6 (all flash)
  • Stories Finished: 3 (mostly flash)
  • Words Written: ~150,000 (almost all in the choicescript game)
  • Submissions: 220
  • Acceptances: 15 (some from 2021 submissions, some for things that will come out in 2023 — or beyond)
  • Rejections: 140 (9 personal, the rest forms)
  • Pending: 42 (as of late December when I’m writing this post — most will likely be rejections)

According to Duotrope, which I use to track my submissions, my acceptance ratio for the year is just under 9%. (Duotrope doesn’t have every single one of my submissions, which is why the numbers above don’t add up properly, so my acceptance ratio is probably lower in reality.)

That’s actually about where it’s been since 2019, and my submission numbers per year are about the same too. To put things into perspective, this means if I’d only submitted the seven stories I had accepted, I wouldn’t have gotten any acceptances. (Yes, I know that’s not how statistics work.)

For most people, 217 submissions in a year is kind of bonkers, although I definitely know authors who submit more stories and poems each year! I’ve set myself a goal of 15 submissions a month since about 2020. For me, that’s a relatively easy task because:

  1. I write primarily flash fiction and short stories that are on the shorter side.
  2. I have a pretty decent stable of published short stories built up from my ~10 years of submitting (Just under 70 stories published as of December 2022) so I can send out lots of reprints.

If you’re a writer yourself, I’d love to hear from you about short stories you had published this year!

Science fiction poetry and magical time loops: 2 new publications

Posted on 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).

the logo for the science fiction and fantasy poetry association, formerly known as the science fiction poetry association

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 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: “Maricourt’s Waters, Quiet and Deep” in No Police = Know Future

Posted on by Stewart

I’m thrilled to announce that I have a new story out!

“Maricourt’s Waters, Quiet and Deep” takes place on a terraformed Mars where different ideas of justice have taken hold in different, mostly independent city-states.

Take Aala, for example. They’ve scratched out a living for themself as a petty thief and pickpocket in the glittering, turbulent spray cast up by the endless waterfalls of Marineris City, where profit is king and men like Vasilis are its loyal, vicious servants. Kirsi, on the other hand, comes from Maricourt, where community, equity and compassion hold sway.

A rocket ship statue stands before some buildings and a blue sky

The most Aala ever hoped for in Marineris was to slip through the cracks, to avoid Vasilis’s wrath and out of the local law enforcement’s damp and dreadful holding cells. But all that’s all behind them, now, as they travel to Maricourt with Kirsi–who, for some reason, doesn’t think they’re scum and wants to spend actual time with them.

Maricourt and Kirsi between them give Aala more hope than they dare to admit, but theft is the only way they know how to survive. Will a change in surroundings lead to a happy ending, or will a slip back into old habits ruin their run in Maricourt before they ever had a chance to start?

If you want to find out, you’ll have to read “Maricourt’s Waters, Quiet and Deep,” out now in No Police = Know Future, edited by James Beamon and available here from Experimenter Publishing.

No Police = Know Future

“What does a future without police look like?”

That’s the central question asked by the No Police = Know Future anthology, which came out in mid-December from Experimenter Press, the publishers of Amazing Stories Magazine. With stories from me and seven other authors, including Holly Schofield, Lettie Prell, Jared Oliver Adams, and Anatoly Belilovsky, the anthology presents some possible answers.

Also, if you’re reading this before December 27th (as opposed to in the distant future) you can also attend an online launch party for the book!

Join editor James Beamon and some of the authors (including me) December 27th, 2020, at 1pm Eastern Time to chat about the book, the future of policing, and the meaning of “justice.” Check the details here on the Amazing Stories website for information on how to attend.

“Maricourt’s Waters, Quiet and Deep”

At the core of my story in the anthology is the concept of restorative justice.

What is restorative justice? According to the Centre for Justice & Reconciliation (CJR), it’s justice that “views crime as more than breaking the law – it also causes harm to people, relationships, and the community.”

This seems pretty obvious, but where restorative justice often surprises people is that it considers the reintegration of offenders and victims as part of its concept of “justice.”

That’s not to say that victims are less important than offenders. Rather:

Offenders also face stigmatization. Since crime causes fear in the community, offenders become vilified in the eyes of society. Incarceration separates them from their families and communities. Upon release, offenders frequently lack stable support structures, and even start-up money for food and clothes, housing, transportation, and other parts of a healthy productive life. At the same time, offenders face discrimination in their attempts to become productive citizens.

Centre for Justice and Reconciliation, “Reintegration“

So what does restorative justice look like in real life? That’s a tricky question, and its worth noting that there are many disagreements not only on how to implement it, but what it even is and whether it might (intentionally or otherwise) still cause harm to offenders.

The central idea, though, is one of respect. Respect for victims and respect for offenders, giving the former restitution while still allowing—and encouraging—forgiveness for the latter so they can become integrated into society, less likely to offend again and less likely to need to. Restorative justice is about healing and support, not punishment and submission.

Would it be a perfect system?

No, of course not. No system is perfect.

But consider the following:

  1. There are well-documented racial inequities caused by longterm socioeconomic trends that the US criminal justice system ignores
  2. Imprisonment and similar punishments are likely to increase reoffending rather than reducing crime over the long term

Given the above (not to mention all the other things wrong with criminal justice in the USA today), why not try a system that doesn’t treat every single person who commits a crime as a malicious actor who needs to be taught a lesson? A system that acts from a humane, compassionate impulse rather than a neurotic, rules-obsessed, inhumane one? A system where the main idea is to actually help people?

If these questions intrigue you, or if you’ve just never thought about it before, I’d encourage you to read up on restorative justice at the links above. (Of course, you can also see how I approach it in my story!)

But what about Mars?

An artist's conception of a terraformed Mars (Maricourt Crater not pictured)
Look closely: that’s Mars, not Earth!
Image credit: Daein Ballard. Used under a CC-By-SA license.

“Maricourt’s Waters, Quiet and Deep” is set on a terraformed Mars, where water is plentiful on the surface — as you might have guessed from the title.

The story opens as Aala and Kirsi take a monorail over a lake at the center of Maricourt Crater, and the metaphor of water as peace and justice runs throughout the story.

Marineris City, where profit is king? Turbulent waterfalls that fall ever downward. Maricourt? A tranquil lake which glitters in the sun. (Okay, so it’s not a very subtle metaphor.)

Mars has historically been associated with water in the form of canals, which don’t make an appearance in my story in particular (a missed opportunity, now that I think about it!). And of course, water development and management would be essential on any human-livable Mars.

All of which is to say: if you’re just here for “future terraformed Mars,” I’ve got you covered there with this story, too.

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

Posted on 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!

We need to go deeper
So meta!

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.

Hail Eris! All Hail Discordia!

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.”

a ceramic bowl that has broken and been repaired with golden lacquer
This 16th-century Korean tea bowl was repaired with kintsugi, a Japanese repair aesthetic where “breaks” are an important part of the object’s history — often mentioned as an example of “wabisabi.”

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 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.

Two science-fiction reprints in ebook anthologies + novel update

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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.)

One new short story, two new reprints

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I’ve been bad about updating this blog lately. Sorry!

So what’s new?

First, the fiction!

My story “The City, Like Time” has been published in Kasma SF. It’s post-apocalyptic, and features creepy water ghosts, mysterious boxes, and betrayal. Go give it a read, and check out the glorious art by José Baetas!

On the reprint front:

My Gothic tale “The Mother of Sands,” which has appeared online at a few other places, is now out in print for the first time in an anthology from Old Sins publishing called Beyond Steampunk, which features steampunk-like stories set outside of the typical era and locales. My story is set in 19th century Latvia, and features all sorts of creepiness. If you like the stylings of Gothic literature, or if you like steampunk, go check out the anthology on Amazon or at Barnes and Noble’s web store. It’s available in print and e-book form.

My wacky SF flash fiction “How to Configure Your Quantum Disambiguator” has also been reprinted, this one in podcast form at the excellent Toasted Cake. Tina really nailed the narration to this, and I love every minute of it. (About 13 minutes long, for those of you who like audio fiction!)

Second (and the reason I haven’t updated much) is that in December of last year I took over as editor-in-chief of sub-Q Magazine. I’ve been a slush reader for the magazine for several years now, and have had a story published there as well, and I’m happy to take my involvement with the magazine to the next level.

If you’re unfamiliar with sub-Q, we are a pro-rate-paying magazine for short Interactive Fiction (IF). Think Zork, Adventure, Monkey Island and other classic computer-aided fictive game/stories.

Here’s a link to the sub-Q submission guidelines.

I’d love to answer any questions about the magazine or submitting to it, if anyone has any questions!

It’s #FridayReads! Here’s what I’ve been reading this week.

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Every week on Twitter, Shimmer Magazine asks people what they’ve been reading. It’s a great way to find new novels and stories that people are excited about–or figure out what might not suit your tastes.

Here, then, are a few things I’ve read this week!

Short Stories

“Hare’s Breath” by Maria Haskins (Shimmer, September 2017)- A beautiful, heart-aching story of loss, love, and midsummer magic of a very Swedish sort. (Note: depictions of abuse.)

“The Lies I’ve Told to Keep You Safe” by Matt Dovey (Daily Science Fiction, October 19th, 2017) – This very short story about an alien takeover of Earth packs a punch that goes far beyond its wordcount.

Novellas/Novels

Acadie by Dave Hutchinson (Tor.com, September 5, 2017) – An unwilling president, an illicit space colony, and genetic alteration–what’s not to love? Mostly: the ending, which read to me like the author just stopped writing the novel he’d started and put on a twist ending a quarter of the way through, and called the result a novella. I was particularly disappointed because the twist (which appeared more or less entirely unforeshadowed on the last two pages of the novella!) seemed to me to rub in my face everything I’d enjoyed about the story to that point. And, okay, I should have figured something was up since the thing’s called Acadie and Arcadia is supposed to be an unattainable paradise that can never be regained. But ugggggh. Very disappointed in this one–if you pick it up, you’ll probably be happier if you just stop when the Bureau ship appears in-system and make up your own ending. (Although the twist ending seems to have worked really well for some people, so what do I know?)

Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnoly (Tor, February 2017) – The elevator pitch for this book is “A double-agent sacrifices all his ideals in order to save his smuggler lover before a government coup takes over their decadent city,” which sounds fantastic to me. I really wanted to love this one, but just couldn’t stick with it past the second chapter. I enjoyed the character interactions in the sections of it I did read, but the style just was not my cup of tea, and it was all a little too lushly written for me to get into. (The slang of the world, in particular, felt too self-consciously faux-1920s for my taste.) Give this one a try if “lushly written” 1920s-style intrigue is your thing, though!

Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys (Tor.com, April 2017) – Fantastically clever Lovecraft subversion. Aphra Marsh is a Deep One and a woman–and it’s not always clear which of those things the powerful men who want to stop her find the most distasteful. I enjoyed every word of this one! (And, as a bonus, you can read the first few chapters, as well as a novelette that takes place before the events of the novel, for free online at Tor.com.)

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

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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.)