Eligibility Post – 2018

It’s a little late, but at this time of year it’s customary to pull together a list of work published in the previous year (which may -ahem! – be eligible for various awards). There has been some fantastic fiction published in 2018, and it’s daunting presuming to be in that company. But I’ll just put here what I’ve had out in 2018.

Fifty-One (Filles Vertes Publishing, February 2018)

mockup-5-94560481516669712-largeAfter a long and winding road to publication, my time travel romance novel came out in 2018, from small press with a big heart, Filles Vertes Publishing.

If you haven’t read it, treat yourself here. Interzone said it was better plotted than Connie Willis! There’s a love triangle, time travel, and flying bombs.

Short Stories

By coincidence, my three new stories published this year were part of a series. I wrote about the ‘Way’ stories back in August, when the third one was published. All the stories are concerned with the consequences for people who stumble upon a mechanism for traveling between different versions of reality, between worlds that are subtly or dramatically different from our own, depending on how far you go along a mysterious path called the Way.

All stories are eligible for British and international awards, should anyone think them worthy.

In order of writing (but not strictly the order of publication), the three stories were:

full moon for sigmundOnce There Was a Way (published in anthology, Flicker: Stories of Inner Flame, Filles Vertes Publishing, September 2018)

Siggy meets Ellie. They fall in love, and she shares with him a fantastic secret: she has stumbled upon a mechanism for traveling between different versions of reality, along the Way.

Siggy has a wanderlust, and showing him the Way is like giving him the keys to the sweetshop. He can’t resist using it without Ellie, only to get lost in parallel worlds, forever searching for the version of reality he left behind, the one with his lover in it.

The Flicker anthology is available here. Or from Amazon.

Sigmund Seventeen (Electric Spec, Vol 13, Issue 2, May 2018)

Electric Spec June 2018
Image Copyright Brian Malachy Quinn

Something told me that ‘Once There Was a Way’ was not the whole story. I left Siggy wandering the Multiverse, searching in vain for the Ellie he left behind. But what about Ellie?

That thought led to Sigmund Seventeen, the sad tale of what Ellie did after she lost Siggy.

As I said in this Electric Spec blog post, both stories have a theme that lies at the heart of much science fiction: whatever the powers and possibilities that become available to us, through technology or otherwise, our fate is often determined by the flaws that lie within us. In Once There Was a Way, Siggy loses Ellie because he always wants to look around the next corner and suspects the grass is greener, and so fails to see that what he already has. In Sigmund Seventeen, Ellie risks wasting the endless possibilities available to her in a doomed search to replace the man who got away.

Sigmund Seventeen is available free at Electric Spec.

Hard Times in Nuovo Genova (or How I Lost My Way) (Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, issue 64, August 2018)

Nuovo Genova artwork
Artwork by Kelsey Liggett, from August 2018 IGMS

Hard Times doesn’t feature Ellie or Siggy. But it’s still basically a boy meets girl story, set in multiple versions of Chicago. Except the girl has the power to travel at will between alternative universes, and the boy doesn’t. Surely a recipe for relationship trouble!

This story–like all my stories set on the Way–is at heart about this truth: what we get out of life is largely determined by what we are able to bring to it. There’s no magical or technological fix that can make us what we are not.

You can subscribe to Intergalactic Medicine Show – which I heartily recommend – here.

 

 

And finally, two stories that were not new came out in audio form in 2018. Both remain available for free if you want to check them out. They are:

When I Close My Eyes

Ghosts and tricky aliens afflict a stranded astronaut on Titan – available in Starship Sofa, episode 534, narrated by Gareth Stack

Looking After Shaun

Shaun comes back from the Far East with some kind of fever, and takes to his bed, with increasingly disturbing consequences for his housemates. Available free in Tales to Terrify, episode 336, ably narrated by Matt Dovey.

 

Once There Was A Way: new story in FVP’s ‘Flicker’ Anthology

I do so love the folks at Filles Vertes Publishing. They brought my novel Fifty-One into the world, and now they’ve gone and published a delightful anthology of short stories.

Called ‘Flicker’, the collection includes stories from FVP writers and winners of a recent competition run by the publisher to find new voices. You can buy it here:

From Filles Vertes Publishing
Amazon UK
Amazon US

 

Full disclosure – one of my stories is in the book (more on that below), but even if it wasn’t I’d be recommending you read the book, for its variety of voices and styles.

I particularly enjoyed K M Pohlkamp‘s ‘Physicists in Petticoats’, maybe because I’m currently reading a book on quantum physics (light early autumn reading!)

As for my story, it’s another from the ‘Way’ series, following on the heels of ‘Sigmund Seventeen’ , published by Electric Spec in May. It features a young man called Siggy, who meets a woman called Ellie. They fall in love, and she shares with him a fantastic secret: she has stumbled upon a mechanism for traveling between different versions of reality, between worlds that are subtly or dramatically different from our own, depending on how far you go along a mysterious path called the Way.

You can read more about the writing of the Way stories in this Electric Spec blog post. And here’s the opening of ‘Once There Was A Way’:

Once There Was A Way

I had known Ellie a month. We were at a party near the coast. It was after midnight when we kissed in the dark under the trees at the bottom of the garden.

Ellie said, “There’s something I want to show you.”

“Will I like it?” I assumed we were talking about sex, which was fine with me.

“I’ve never shown anyone else. I think you’re ready.”

She took my hand and led me through a gate, into a cliff-top meadow overlooking the Atlantic. A full moon stood sentinel over the sea, laying a shimmering trail across the water.

“Do you want me to show you something amazing?”

“Right here?” I admit, I was still thinking about sex.

“It only works at full moon.” She stepped closer and kissed me again.  “Close your eyes and relax.” Her hands were on my shoulders. She eased me backwards, a step at a time. “Tell me what you feel under your feet,” she whispered. “Each step.”

“Grass, of course. Grass again. Wait -.” A change in the texture of the ground, some kind of artificial surface.

“Open your eyes.”

I had one foot on a layer of mist, which was not there a few seconds before. It glowed faintly in the moonlight, making a ghostly path that snaked away from us, rippling along the cliff top. I thought at first it was some trick of the moonlight and a trace of sea mist, abetted by the wine we had drunk. But, however impossible it seemed, there was no denying that I stood on a thin strip of light a couple of inches above the grass.

“What is it?”

“It’s called the Way.”

“But what is it?”

“You can find out by trying it,” Ellie said. “You’re always keen to travel. But you have to do exactly as I say. Don’t go far, just a few minutes and then come back. Count the number of steps you take and make them even. You have to take the exact same number on the way back. And also, take this.” She reached up and unclasped the silver necklace she wore. “When you come back, give it to me before you do anything else.”

“Why?” The chain had a tiny silver dolphin on it.

“I’ll explain later. Now go, but hurry back.”

***

Is this two hundred trips, or maybe more? I’ve lost count. This time, her house isn’t even there. Instead, a brutalist 1970s apartment block squats on a patch of grass. Two teenage boys sit on the roof of a wrecked car. They watch me as I approach. I keep walking.

Once out of sight, I take the turning that should lead to the pub. But that isn’t there either. There is a row of narrow houses, some with boarded windows.

No house, no pub. No way of knowing if Ellie ever lived here or ever will. I should be used to this. I should have learned by now not to hope. But every time it’s a punch in the gut.

The full moon remains high and I walk back to where I left the Way. I step on it without a backward glance, and the buildings around me fade away.

I move on.

(To read more, you’ll need a copy of Flicker – buying links above!)

STOP PRESS: A third ‘Way’ story has just been published in Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show magazine. You can find that here. The story is called Hard Times in Nuovo Genova.

New Story Klaxon: Hard Times in Nuovo Genova

New story klaxon!

Artwork by Kelsey Liggett, from August 2018 IGMS

As trailed a couple of months back, the latest issue of online SF magazine Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show features a new story.

Called ‘Hard Times in Nuovo Genova’, this is the third of my ‘Way’ stories. It’s a story of love and loss in multiple versions of Chicago.

One of the things that always interests me about writing fiction is the way that you make stuff up and sometimes the characters and the ideas take on a life of their own. You think you’ve written something the way it should be, only to find that you have to go back and explore it some more.

A while back, I wrote a story about a young man called Siggy who meets a woman called Ellie. They fall in love, and she shares with him a fantastic secret: she has stumbled upon a mechanism for travelling between different versions of reality, between worlds that are subtly or dramatically different from our own, depending on how far you go along a mysterious path called the Way.

That story–called Once There Was a Way*–ends sadly. Siggy has a wanderlust – showing him the Way is like giving him the keys to the sweetshop. He can’t resist using it on his own, without Ellie, only to get lost in parallel worlds, forever searching for the version of reality he left behind, the one with his lover in it.

The concept of the Way (which I don’t claim is especially original) obviously lends itself to a series of stories, and sure enough I wrote others. The story of Siggy and Ellie hadn’t been fully told. I left Siggy wandering the Multiverse, searching in vain for the Ellie he left behind. But what about Ellie?

Image Copyright Brian Malachy Quinn

That thought led to my story Sigmund Seventeen, the sad tale of what Ellie did after she lost Sigmund. That story is available online at Electric Spec magazine.

What both those stories show is a truth that lies at the heart of much science fiction: whatever the powers and possibilities that become available to us, through technology or otherwise, our fate is often determined by the flaws that lie within us. In Once There Was a Way, Sigmund loses Ellie because he always wants to look around the next corner. He suspects the grass is greener, and so fails to see what he already has. In Sigmund Seventeen, Ellie risks wasting the endless possibilities available to her in a doomed search to replace the man who got away.

I’m thrilled that the latest Way story has been picked up by Intergalactic Medicine Show. Hard Times in Nuovo Genova doesn’t feature Ellie or Siggy. But it’s still basically a boy meets girl story. Except the girl has the power to travel at will between alternative universes, and the boy doesn’t. Surely a recipe for relationship trouble!

This new story also–like all my stories set on the Way–is at heart about this truth: what we get out of life is largely determined by what we are able to bring to it. There’s no magical or technological fix that can make us what we are not.

____________________

 *If you want to read, Once There Was a Way, it is included in the short story anthology Flicker, out now from Filles Vertes Publishing. Filles Vertes also published my new time-travel romance novel, Fifty-One, which is available now.

New Podcast: Looking After Shaun

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there is so much great stuff available free these days. I’m a regular listener to podcasts, usually while I’m walking places (which I do a lot).

For science fiction and fantasy fans, there are some fantastic stories available in audible form. Escape Pod, for example, is a top-quality science fiction podcast, well worth checking out.

And then there’s the District of Wonders stable. I’ve already written about Starship Sofa (when they podcast my Best of British SF 2017 story, When I Close My Eyes, in May). Starship Sofa has a sister podcast, called Tales to Terrify, and episode 336 has my story, Looking After Shaun, ably narrated by Matt Dovey.

The story was originally published in the magazine, Devolution Z, in February 2016, and it’s fun to have it pop up again now, in audio form. In it, Shaun comes back from the Far East with some kind of fever, and takes to his bed, with increasingly disturbing consequences for his housemates.

Check it out, and do consider subscribing to Tales to Terrify.

 

My Double Life: Fifty-One Book Launch

It seems a long time ago now (been a bit busy!), but the UK book launch for Fifty-One was such great fun that I can’t neglect to post about it.

We were hosted by Blackheath Bookshop, who do a fantastic job promoting local authors and books with local connections. The venue was apt because (as those of you who have read it know) a large part of Fifty-One takes place in Blackheath and neighbouring parts of south London, both in the 1940s, when London was at war, and in the 2040s, from whence my time travelling protagonist comes.

The shop very kindly laid on drinks and snacks, and pretty much handed over the whole shop to us for our event. The net result was a crowded and happy bookshop on a lovely summer evening, with lots of books signed and sold and (I confess) many of us ending up in somewhat ‘cheerful’ condition in a local pub!

Mayor of Lewisham, Damien Egan, Laura Cunningham and Chris Barnham

It was lovely to see so many friends and book-lovers, and I was immensely honoured that our fantastic newly-elected Mayor, Damien Egan, came along to say a few words – particularly praising the bookshop for their support for local writers.

Damien also referred to my double life – as local councillor and writer. It is a strange existence: a lot of the time, I operate in a world where it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s fantasy; where no one can be certain that the rules of reality apply; and where people can choose to believe the most unlikely things.

The rest of the time, I write science fiction.

(Missed the book launch? Never mind, you can still buy Fifty-One, including here. )

 

Book Launch: Blackheath Bookshop 22 June

Excitement rising Chez Barnham as we look forward to the official UK launch of Fifty-One this coming Friday 22nd June.

Thanks to the generosity of the Blackheath Bookshop – who are hosting – we’ll be launching the book right where a lot of the story is set, in Blackheath Village.

The fun starts at 6pm, with drinks and nibbles. If you’re in the area (and in a book-buying mood) come along.

The address is 34 Tranquil Vale, Blackheath, London SE3 0AX.