Half-year review

July 1, 2015July 2, 2015 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

Well, I haven’t had much to say lately, which is fine. Very busy writing, naturally, just not so much on the blog/facebook, etc. Since the end of June has slipped by, I thought I’d do a quick review, as much for my benefit as anything.

A few publications around – “Salazar” in Perihelion, “Number Man” in SQ Mag, and “Concentration” in Landfall. It seems like a very slow year, but I’m focusing on two things: submitting to more pro and fewer semi-pro mags, and also writing fewer stories and more novels. This means there’s less stuff out there. I’ve had a few other acceptances, which I’ll announce when they arrive in stores.

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Music-wise, there have been some Shadows on the Snow releases and one Venus Vulture release.
I don’t think that’s all of them – I have trouble keeping up with Kendall and his sheer enthusiasm!

Check here for A Thousand Winters Against the World. Others can be found at archive.org, Bandcamp, Kruk Records and Zenapolae.
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With the self/indie-publishing, I’ve put up quite a few items, including three novels (one horror, one literary and one sci-fi). I’ve got a few more in various states of readiness (and some more in my head). These show up at smashwords, Amazon and other ebook/physical book retailers.

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The business of writing-words on the page-has progressed well too. Despite a slower time while travelling in Japan, I’ve still completed a quarter million words for the first six months of the year. I guess that’s what writing every day (even while travelling) does.

Better yet, I’ve completed more words so far this year. That is, items proofed, corrected and formatted. Over 300,000 words. Over the past few years I’ve let some items sit around (including a 92,000 word novel), but I’m feeling more onto it this year. It’s all very well to write, but if it’s not finished and submitted/published then I’m not satisfied. It feels good to be getting some of last year’s (and the previous year’s) stories completed.

Similarly, I’ve published more – 340,000 words so far. Yes most of that is indie/self published. Likewise, it feels good to have the writing out there.

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For the next six months. More of the same. I’d like to get another five to seven novels out. I’ve promised readers The Eye book three in The Hidden Dome series, so I need to write that (I expect to finish the draft of the current novel in the next few days, then get to writing The Eye). I have a few other novels fully drafted, just needed that final tinkering. That does mean more proof-reading/reader feedback, and more formatting.

The main thing, though: I’m having a ball. Thanks for reading.

Walking Gear image © Artem Popov | Dreamstime.com
Arlchip Burnout image © Kuan Leong Yong | Dreamstime.com
Used with permission

Number Man in SQMag

March 3, 2015 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

My little story “Number Man” has just come out in the March issue of the SQ Mag, an Australian Spec Fic Magazine. The story, “charts the difficulties of life after prison, especially when your family got you put in there in the first place” (from Sophie’s introduction). It’s also described as Cyberpunk, but I hadn’t thought of that when I was writing it (did someone once say a writer is the worst judge of his own writing?). Anyway, it was a fun adventure to write, I hope it’s as much fun to read. There are some other cool stories in there too, and I do like that cover.

The Man with Fountain Fingers in Strangelet issue 0

October 6, 2014 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

Strangelet Journal is a new publication, and their first issue (number 0) includes my story “The Man with Fountain Fingers”.

It’s a short piece I initially wrote thinking of a local short story contest, so it’s kind of a mix of literary and science fantasy. Or is that urban fantasy? Or something else? I sure know when I write hard sci-fi, but sometimes I don’t know exactly how to classify some of my other stories. Anyway, the editor told me the story exemplified what they were looking for, so sometimes I guess it’s a matter of finding the right match of story with publication. I think it fits well in its new home.

It’s available both in paperback and on Kindle from Amazon.

The Whalefall in The Colored Lens

September 22, 2014September 25, 2014 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

My novelette “The Whalefall” has just appeared in the Autumn 2014 issue of The Colored Lens. The story of a woman searching for her father lost at sea, on a distant planet where the sea life comes somewhat larger than here on Earth.

Cool to be sharing the contents page with, among others, David Kernot from across the ditch. David’s also one of the editors for issues of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine – in fact edited the issue that came out a couple of months ago with my story “Alecia in the Mechwurm”.

Yet Another Invader – in Fiction Vortex

September 8, 2014 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

My short piece “Yet Another Invader” appeared in the July issue of Fiction Vortex. This is an odd one, less adventure oriented, but still science fiction. Fex is stuck out in the wilds, trying to figure out how to remove an alien invader lodged in a piece of equipment. Somehow I missed the publication on the day it came out, but I got paid today so that jogged my memory. Fiction Vortex published my dieselpunk story “Memory Book” in August last year.

Here’s the opening of “Yet Another Invader”:

Night came quickly out this way. Always did.

It felt like the sun blasted the desert clean all day, as if some spectacular furnace was set on high and aimed right at this one spot before dropping off the side of the world.

I’d been here sixteen years now, at altitude, watching the sun pass overhead each day. When I arrived they called me Mr. Harding, but now I’m just Fex. I guess I can fix your stuff up better than most.

“Ripples from the Weather Aggregator” at Black Denim Lit.

June 10, 2014 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ 2 Comments

My story “Ripples from the Weather Aggregator” is in the June issue of Black Denim Lit. BDLit is a fairly new publication, but is going from strength to strength. This is my second story with them. I kind of like the cover highlighting Michael Haynes’s story. My own story is another action-adventure with science fiction tinges to it.
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In the line at Heathrow, Jaclyn kept seeing suspicious characters. Any one of these people could be after her. Once she was in the air, it would be all right. Everything would be fine. All she had to do was get off the ground. She wondered if they could touch her once she was through passport control. Did they have people on the other side?

Read on at Black Denim Lit.

“Aerobrake” – short story in The Colored Lens

January 6, 2014 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

My hard sci-fi story “Aerobrake” is out now in the Winter 2014 issue of The Colored Lens. The story’s mostly set in low Earth orbit. Claire’s about to call it a day repairing satellites when she gets a distress call. Another tech, ship scraping the atmosphere, could use a hand. Here’s the opening:

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The galaxy, for a moment, looked frozen. Claire’s ship pitched on its axis and she had a passing view of the stars in lockstep with her view through the forward windows. From orbit, especially this low, the distant blazing suns were always sweeping by. The ship’s current altitude, 326 kilometers, had her completing an orbit in just over ninety minutes.
The ranging radar pinged at her. She was less than thirty kilometers from the errant satellite. With a sweep on the controls, she swung the cockpit around on its internal gimbals. For a moment she was in darkness. Only another couple of hours and she would be done for the month. Back to Levithab for two weeks in the station’s gravity spin. After three months on call–basically meaning out all day every day–and a full week in the Demeter’s tiny cockpit and living quarters, she really needed a break. The ship was starting to feel dank and lived in, like old socks that needed a wash, rinse and airing.

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The Colored Lens is published for Kindle – available at Amazon for $3.58. There are a whole bunch of stories in there – a really great magazine.

To Take a Breath – new Triple V/Self-pub story out.

October 25, 2013October 29, 2013 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ 2 Comments

A while ago I wrote a longish short story (8400 words), science fiction, set well into the future and sent it off to all the appropriate pro markets. It came back each time, sometimes with a form rejection, sometimes with a little personal note but still a rejection. So I’m putting it up through my own Triple V imprint with some trepidation.

You see, it’s about an astronaut running out of air. I haven’t seen Gravity yet, but the previews seem to have given the game away a bit too much (I’m going over the weekend so I’ll know more by Monday). I know my story’s very different from the movie (near-future vs. far future, international space station vs. space wreck, near-Earth-orbit vs. light years away, George Clooney vs. minor character, etc.), but still kind of feel like I’m ripping off the trope a bit, even though I wrote this before I’d even heard about Gravity.

Still, to assuage that guilt a fraction, for readers of this blog/facebook post, here’s a code to get it free. (I know there aren’t many of you, but feel free to pass the code on… it expires in a month anyway: Gravity will be fading from the theatres and I will feel less guilty).

Go to the ebook at Smashwords and enter the code FY77L. You have to be a member of Smashwords, but I think most of you are already. Let me know if not – I’ll send you the epub or mobi or whatever. You can preview 20% anyway with or without joining.

Promotional price: $0.00
Coupon Code: FY77L
Expires: November 24, 2013

It’s also on Kindle, and will show up on Nook, Sony, etc. soon.

Here’s the opening:

Clare Benjamin knew she had three minutes to live. The suit’s oxygen gauge read eighteen liters, atmospheric effective. Fifty breaths. She was already on the emergency tank.

She gave the strobe a flash and saw the way ahead. Conduits and wires. Some of them were damaged, pointing stiff and sharp edges into the narrow passages.
Behind the conduits the pressure walls might be intact. Probably were. She’d felt a thrumming in the hull when she’d pulled herself along through the evacuated hold. Somewhere inside there was an engine running. It might just be some automatic function, but it might also be a converter sustaining atmosphere to some sections of the wrecked ship. If she could get inside an atmospheric room, then she could buy some time to figure out her next move.

“You find it yet?” Suz said through the comms.

Clare pulled herself along another meter in the darkness. She fired the strobe again. The gap looked even more vicious up close. Like the serrated jaw of a deep sea monster ready to ingest her.

“Clare? You got an exit yet?”

“I’m here. No. I didn’t find it.” Suzanne Memphis was waiting outside the liner in their eighty ton tender, the Mercy Me.

“You need to move, girl.”

“Oh? Thanks for the reminder.” Two months ago, they’d been salvaging from The New Jersey, a station at Cannon’s Star, busted and orbiting Cooltown, the system’s biggest gas giant. The station had been shut down by its owners. Suz and Clare’s clients had lost all their personal property being shipped through. Suz had gotten herself lost. The memory still made Clare blanch.

continue reading at Smashwords

A Visit to the Theatre – new ebook

February 22, 2013March 1, 2013 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

I’ve just put up my story “A Visit to the Theatre” as an ebook through Triple V Publishing. The story first came out in the Static Movement anthology Bounty Hunter a couple of years back. The ebook is paired with a flash fiction story “The Neuron Thieves”, which was itself published in The New Flesh.

Here’s the blurb:
Nikki’s got a an urgent telex for an easy bounty. Niemann’s in town. All she’s got to do is find him. The trouble is, Niemann wants to be found.

ebook – $2.99
Kindle
Smashwords

Print – $4.99
Amazon

The fabulous cover illustration is by Ateliersommerland, who also created the illustration used on “Imaginary Maid Forgets She is Late for a Banquet”.

Year end review, with a late rally

December 21, 2012 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

Close to the end of the year, close to completing some goals, distant from others.

My word-count goal went well: from 300,000 for the year (completed in August), upped then to 450,000 for the year (completed in November) and upped again to 500,000, and right now sitting at 497,065. Catastrophes aside, it looks like a slam dunk on that one. Yay.

Publishing 300,000 words didn’t go so great. It went pretty good – right now it’s around 203,000. Mostly self-published under my Triple V Publishing banner through Smashwords, Kindle, and CreateSpace/Amazon. It was gratifying to have several acceptances by publishers in there – about 26,000 words of that total were published in online and print magaziens such as MicroHorror, The Colored Lens and Takahe.

What about the other 97,000 words? Well, I sure wrote them. Part of it was procrastination: sitting on a 60,000 word New Zealand Literary novel instead of sending it out to some publishers (and then self-publishing it if it came back as noes). I’ll remedy that in the new year, with my new goals. Part of it was a pig-headed determination to keep things on the market – that is, numerous stories, novelettes and novellas that get rejected and go out again, rather than self-pubbing. I’ll fix that too: with some of the pieces that have been to the seven or eight main markets: the next time they come back I’ll pull them out of circulation and publish them through Triple V.

I felt like I spent much of the year feeling out in the wilderness: I’ve had more than a hundred rejection slips since January. Mostly form rejections, but there have been a few personal notes which has been cheering. The acceptances have helped out too – early in the year my sci-fi novella The Wreck of the Emerald Sky appeared in The Colored Lens. I had a few flash-fiction acceptances through the year, which was nice, but most of the longer works seemed to keep cycling. Then, a late rally. An acceptance for Takahe (a New Zealand literary mag), a third-placing in a regional short story contest, and an acceptance for Aurealis – one of Australia’s leading science fiction magazines. Coming just a couple of weeks before the end of the year, that acceptance has buoyed me no end: I am on the right track, and persistence pays (real money in this case, too).

Next year, I’m aiming at 500,000 words from the git-go. And aiming at publishing 600,000 (whether self- or traditional) – and have a plan in place to make the possible.

See you next year, with more goal updates.