Tag: short stories

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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.

 

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New Story Out Now: Sigmund Seventeen

The latest issue of online speculative fiction magazine Electric Spec is out now. And I’m pleased to say it features one of my ‘Way’ stories: Sigmund Seventeen.

I wrote about the ‘Way’ story sequence last month (see May 9th), and there’s more about the background to this and its sister story ‘Once There Was A Way’ in the blog that accompanies Electric Spec. If you’re interested, you can read that here. Also completely free.

Look out for more ‘Way’ tales before long.

[Featured image – from the latest Electric Spec cover – is copyright Brian Malachy Quinn.]

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My first eligibility post – 2017

I confess it feels almost un-British to draw attention to my own work, but it is the season when people are considering what’s eligible for various awards.

I’ve not had much out in 2017, while slaving in the book caverns. But – hey – if not me, who?

So, for your consideration, I humbly offer:

When I Close My Eyes (Interzone #271, July/August 2017)

Interzone 271

I was pitifully proud of this, and so pleased to get my first story in the UK’s premier SF magazine. It’s my ‘hardest’ SF story yet – with a bereaved astronaut trapped by a rockfall in a cave on Titan, encountering some fragile but peskily well-organised Titanian aliens. (But he’s helped out by a ghost, so it’s not that hard SF!)

It’s eligible for Hugo and WSFA awards (and BFS – but I’m not canvassing!)

How to be Invisible (Cold Iron – Ghost Stories from the 21st Century, IRON Press, UK June 2017)

coldiron

You’ll have to search this out, but I was pleased to get a berth in an intriguing collection of ‘modern’ ghost stories, published by the small but enterprising Iron Press, from England’s chilly but beautiful north east. The story concerns a man who quite literally fades away from shame and guilt.

Eligible for Hugo and British Fantasy Award.

 

There you go. This time next year, I hope to be pestering people about my forthcoming novel, Fifty-One. But that’s not (quite) out yet!

 

 

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When I Close My Eyes – New Story in Interzone

It’s always a kick to have one of your stories hitting print, but I’m especially pleased that my latest story, ‘When I Close My Eyes’ is out this month in the UK’s longest-running (and best) science fiction magazine, Interzone.

I will confess: I’ve been trying to get a story in Interzone for ages, but they kept turning me down. The editor, Andy Cox, is rightly a demanding man. Anyway, you know the old saying: if at first you don’t succeed, make a bloody nuisance of yourself!

The story is probably my ‘hardest’ SF yet; set on Saturn’s moon, Titan, and featuring some fragile but peskily well-organised alien lifeforms. (There’s still a ghost in it, though, which I guess means that as SF goes, it isn’t that hard!)

You can buy Interzone here. If you subscribe – which you really should – you can even get this issue free.