Category: fiction

Pan Am 617 Heavy – conclusion

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 2 Comments

And so my dieselpunk novella serialization comes to a close with part 2 of Pan Am Historic Flight 1. It’s been fun to watch this come out piece by piece over the last few weeks.
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Dominic ducked back in as a cloud of cinders and soot blew into the cabin. He looked out again. Keyshaa hadn’t moved. Tying the rope to the door handle, he dove into the water, letting the big plane cruise off alone.

“Keyshaa,” he called when he surfaced. She wasn’t far away, still leaning on the floatvest. He grabbed the sinking rope and kicked for her.
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If you’re looking to start at the beginning, then read through each of the parts, start here. Again, my thanks to Don Webb and the team at Bewildering Stories for taking the novella on, in particular their encouragement to develop what started out as a much shorter piece.

Pan Am 617 Heavy, parts 6 and 7

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 1 Comment

A bonus this week – two chapters of Pan Am 617 Heavy – Messerschmitt Dogfight and Pan Am Historic Flight 1 (pt.1). Just one more part after this.
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“They’re waiting,” Dominic said, pointing to the open door, lit by a blinding spotlight.

“Throw out your weapons,” someone shouted from outside. Dominic imagined a semi-circle of them, all with their guns trained on the door.

“Well,” Keyshaa said, “that’s it, then.”
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I know there’s no Messerschmitt in the picture, but these were the models I found. It’s been fun doing the illustrations for each part of the story – even if they sometimes feel a bit rough.

Pan Am 617 Heavy, pt. 5 (chapter 3, part 2)

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 2 Comments

Part two of chapter three “Particle Magnetron” is out now. Down in the tunnels below the atoll’s surface, Dominic and Keyshaa find more surprises.

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Dominic heard the sound of the flare striking the concrete floor. He glanced back and could see the outline of the tunnel roof. The flare crackled as it lit, throwing light around them.

“Come on,” Keyshaa said. She ran off.

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Pan Am 617 Heavy, pt. 3

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 3 Comments

Part Three is out now.

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The last red of the sunset echoed across the sky as Keyshaa pointed ahead. They’d been following the running lights from the glider, and beyond, Dominic could see brighter lights lower down, glinting on the surface.

“A ship?” Dominic said. He was cold. He guessed that they were already below three thousand feet. That didn’t give them much glide room before they splashed into the dark ocean.

“Maybe the atoll.”

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Pan Am 617 Heavy – novella serialisation at Bewildering Stories

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 2 Comments

My dieselpunk novella Pan Am 617 Heavy is being serialised on the Bewildering stories site. You can read Chapter One, Part One now, with future episodes coming weekly.

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Dominic knew Keyshaa wanted Miterall dead. She wanted the money back, and the patent documents and plans, but first she would be putting a gun to Miterall head to make him squirm.

Dominic prised the carry-on bag from her hand as the cab pulled up at the SFO terminal.

“How long has he been gone?” she asked.

“Less than a day.”

“It will go very badly.”

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Suitcase Nuke – short story in Monk Punk

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 1 Comment

It seems that anytime you like you can add “punk” to a word and create a new literary genre – that’s kind of cool. A.J. French has put together this cool anthology of monk stories. My own – Suitcase Nuke – is an action-driven sci-fi thriller (as I hope the title suggests). The book is available at Amazon.

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Staring across Schema Menovanni’s shoulder, Gerry looked through the narrow window at the snowy Pyrenees. He glimpsed one of the eagles, wings spread, head fixed then darting as it sought prey.
“Are you listening to me, Brother Mitchell?” the Schema said.
Gerry turned to Menovanni’s face, wondering how it had become so very lined. He’d never seen the old man change his expression from neutral. His outward elderly calm perhaps belied a vexed youth. As the oldest monk in Sopphoreo, no one knew his history. “I am listening, Schema,” Gerry said.

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Editor A.J. French is doing a great job of promoting the book, with review copies going out, print ads and fliers. It’s also available at the Pill Hill bookstore.

There’s a good roster of authors here – nice to be sharing the table of contents with people like Joe Jablonski, Dave Fragments, A.J. himself, and others. John R. Fultz has a good overview of the book and his story at his blog.

Two stories in Bounty Hunter

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 2 Comments

This has got to be one of my favourites. My story “A visit to the theatre” appears in the Static Movement anthology Bounty Hunter. The story is only a little over a couple of thousand words, but it’s a fun romp, I hope. It was inspired a little by the cover illustration (I love that picture), though it’s pretty dieselpunk. Lots of chasing and shooting, and I hope, an engaging satisfying story. Okay, opening paragraphs:

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Nikki heard Sam’s Sikorsky spiracopter put down on the apartment building roof and she had her leg strapped on and guns layed out on her bed before he even got down to her door.
She opened the Venetians. In the wan dawn light commuter traffic was backing up along Lexington. Horns blared and taxi drivers yelled. The new traffic signals on thirty-second hadn’t worked right for weeks.
“It’s open,” she yelled to Sam’s pounding.

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Nikki and Sam feel like characters I want to take out again, and their world is just slightly shifted from ours, so there’s lots of world-building which could be fun.

The anthology also has another story of mine, under the byline Michael Shone (I liked the theme, but I’m a bit shy about having multiple stories in a single anthology, so this was a solution), titled “Katie Stumbled”. This is a longer piece, still a bit action-oriented, but a very different tone (I hope) to the other story. It opens like this:

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Bill Sefheron landed the ornithopter in Clarkeson’s town square. He’d known about the Casselith here, but seeing it loom from the South Dakota horizon as he’d made his low approach had surprised him. He hadn’t realized how big this one was. The main mass of its black stone must have been six hundred feet high, the near face tapered to perhaps two hundred feet across at the top. This Casselith probably occupied close to four acres at its base, making it one of the bigger ones. Sefheron saw windows in some parts.

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Thanks again to Chris Bartholomew for her work on these anthologies.

Bergamot Silhouetted – Flash Fiction in Unquiet Earth from Static Movement

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

My hard (?) sci-fi story “Bergamot Silhouetted” is out now in the Static Movement anthology Unquiet Earth. Yes, this is collection of zombie stories (just look at that cover), and yes, mine includes zombies, eventually. At $17 from Amazon, with dozens of stories – it’s a collection of flash fiction, ie, all under 1000 words (mine is 998) – it’s a bargain. Here’s the opening paragraphs of my story:
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Corey stared through the Astoria’s viewport at the battered Bergamot. Years amongst explosion debris, and tidal stresses from the gas giant system, and from swollen and pocked Bellatrix, made her look like a lump of dead coral. The ship seemed modular though the briefing said she was a bulk carrier.

“Lover,” Luese said. “Nearly time for the briefing.”

“I never thought you’d notice me,” he said, staring at the shard that had once been a spaceship.

“Well, you are blocking the viewport.”

Corey dropped back to the bunk. “I meant the whole trip. I’ve been watching you since we left Mintaka.”
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My thanks to editor Chris Bartholomew