Two SFnal reprints in QuickFic – “Masks” and “Little More than Shadows”

These two reprints are actually from late June, but I was visiting family at the time and wasn’t paying much attention to things.

So, under the “better late than never” category: I have two reprints in Digital Fiction Publishing’s “QuickFic” imprint which are free to read online on their website.

The first of these, “Little More than Shadows,” is a roughly 800-word 2nd-person slipstreamy story about dreams, monsters, regrets, and Hamlet references in the title. It starts like this:

On the worst days, just the knowledge that you’re dreaming is enough to set you shivering in the cot, neck stiff from the cables.

Eventually, one of your wardens will come, so you wait. They are little more than shadows, these days: features you can’t quite bring into focus; skin tone somewhere between ivory and midnight. You can’t remember any of the names you gave them when you first arrived.

The second story, “Masks,” is closer to 3000 words, and is space opera featuring a colony-ship, spies, sabotage, alien artefacts of unclear provenance, and more. Also a lesbian couple, hooray!

Min can tell by the way the man in the lizard mask drums the fingers of one hand on the surface of his desk that he is angry. She avoids the bright green glimmer of his eyes, wishing she were anywhere but here. Wishing she remembered who she was supposed to be.

“This is all you bring me?” the man asks, his voice raspy with distortion. In his other hand he holds the latest chip Min has stolen, heavy with data on Ship’s communications to the other surviving colony ships and its route away from Earth-long-gone.

Two Sales: Sockdolager and Fine Linen

I’m pleased to announce that I’ve made two sale in the past few days.

First, to The Sockdolager, a new semi-pro ‘zine, I’ve sold reprint rights to my post-apocalyptic metafictional fairytale, “Selections from the Aarne-Thompson Index for After the End of Things.” This one was a lot of fun to write, but it definitely requires a certain… intellectual/weird sense of humour that made finding a home for it to live online a little difficult. It first appeared in the London-based The Next Review.

Secondly, “Nikumaroro, July 1937,” a very short and hard-to-classify tale about what really happened to Amelia Earhart (or something) has sold to Fine Linen Magazine. Nikumaroro is the name of an atoll in the South Pacific, where it’s thought Earhart and her co-pilot Fred Noons may have crash-landed. The atoll has a small amount of freshwater, and quite a few coconut crabs. Factoids which may or may not be relevant to the plot of my story.

That brings my stories sold this year up into the double digits, which I’m pretty excited about! I’ll probably post a “submission statistics” post some time towards the end of the year, just because I think it’s interesting to see that sort of stuff.

Original Fiction: “Little More than Shadows” at Daily Science Fiction

A weird little flash story of mine is available today at Daily Science Fiction.

Broadly speaking, it’s about dreams. Also paranoia, insanity, resignation, love, and a vaguely-defined beast which is eating the world.

You know, the usual stuff.

Intrigued? Perplexed? Read on at: http://dailysciencefiction.com/fantasy/parapsychology/stewart-c-baker/little-more-than-shadows

I’d also like to point out that DSF uses a rating system for their fiction—so if you like what you read, please leave a rating!