Genre fiction
MicroHorror, run by the most esteemed Nathan Rosen, writer, musician and editor, publishes flash horror fiction no more than 666 words long.
My recent piece Heading for Boise appeared on the site on October 6th. This has some of my favourite (perhaps over-used) elements – fragmented narrative, shifting viewpoints, flashbacks, a car wreck and a bit of a haunting. I was pleased with the results but still I hope it’s still readable and makes sense to readers other than me.
My quirky sci-fi flash “The Path to Centauri” is in the October issue of KC Ball’s quarterly flash fiction magazine. 10Flash publish ten flash fiction pieces in each issue, all around a common theme. October’s theme is “stop me if you’ve heard this one” – as it implies, the issue is filled with some pretty humourous stories.
I seem to have a lot of publication announcements at the moment – one of those convergence things. I have a couple more to announce next week too, but then I should be back to my usual self of ranting about politicians and global warming.
As the name suggests, 365Tomorrows publish a new science fiction piece every day.
My flash story Sunset Photographer has just been published.
“Tony Willits scrambled up the scree slope looking for the Leica on hands and knees. The sun, tapping the horizon, glistened through airborne particles. Deimos in the sky and some heavy terraforming dust-devils lurched along the far canyon edge. He’d taken some great photos, but this was too extraordinary to miss…”
A calamity, a tough choice and a gorgeous sunset, all set in the fabulous hills of Mars. 365T publish only flash fiction and their limit is 600 words, so this is pretty tight.
Lori Titus and Bob Eccles, the editors of the wonderful Flashes in the Dark online magazine, took my very dark story “The Newly Oiled Gate”.
I’m not sure what commentary to offer on this one – some familiar tropes, I suppose: damaged people, damaged bodies and a possibly ambiguous end. An exercise in voice, as much as anything else, I guess. Enjoy.
Antipodean Science Fiction is an online Australian speculative magazine which publishes flash fiction up to 500 words. They’ve published a couple of my stories over recent years – ‘Puncture Wound’ and ‘How Things Fall’ (both archived at The National Library of Australia’s Pandora Web Archive) – and this new piece is kind of interrelated to both of those, using the character (such as a character can be in a 500 word piece) Bayliss. She also appears in my story ‘Xuento’ in the Lame Goat Press book Kings of the Realm – A Dragon Anthology (yes, that’s a hard sci-fi story in a book about dragons).
The story, Redcord MacroNano Engine in Error State in the September issue is a hard-sci adventure. It’s fun taking these characters out for a spin in the depths of vacuum and I think I’ll keep on writing about them.
Do I rave about Jodi’s fiction? Perhaps. Anyway, here’s a new story from her – Sexy Hot Score – published at The Not (or whatnot). Something very different and fun – not quite as dark as much of Jodi’s stuff, but still somewhat twisted. Nice to see her versatility.
Fifty-one stories here – and definitely with Angel Zapata this time!
Contents
The Lump by William Pauley III
The Woman Without the Red Dress by Michael A. Kechula
The Girl Who Followed Bees by Christie Isler
The Wooden Door by Michael A. Kechula
Grub by Angel Zapata
Heartless by Donna Jean Lyons
Kids in a Candy Store by Spencer Wendleton
Fun and Games by Brian Barnett
Penelope’s Good Day by Suzie Bradshaw
Aloisius Cottonbottom’s Surefire Image Reconstructive Services by Steve Lowe
Submissions by Sean Monaghan
Illusion by Michael A. Kechula
Figure Ate by Stephanie Barnett
The Man Who Held Hands by Brian Barnett
Rigged by Jodi MacArthur
Midnight Stroll by Joshua Day
Evolution by Angel Zapata
Demons and Acid Don’t Mix by Laura Eno
Distractions by Suzie Bradshaw
The Penguins Revolt! By Brian Barnett
The Car Park by Dan Powell
Foul-Mouthed Teenage Zombies by Suzie Bradshaw
Superstition by Robert C. Eccles
Oh My God by Chad Case
Two’s Company by Graeme Reynolds
Melissa in a Jug by A.J. Brown
Forbidden Desire in a Cave by Annemarie Bogart
Hunting J.K. by Kevin Shamel
What Comes Next by Andrew Kaspereen
Cheeto Monkey by Chris Bowsman
The Pull Out Method by Dustin Reade
Bloodline by Sheldon Lee Compton
Mangeni’s Lullaby by Eugene Gramelis
The Neuron Thieves by Sean Monaghan
Adventures of My Little Carnivorous Pony
by Jodi MacArthur
Accused by Chris Reed
Anything More Than Two by Lee Hughes
Guide Number 3 by Sean Monaghan
Fears of a Clown by Graeme Reynolds
Searching for Storms by Tania Luna
Teeth by Chris Bowsman
Feeding Time by Richard Godwin
Jared’s Gift by Mark Anthony Crittenden
The Grump by John Harrower
Septic Infusion by Bryan Lindenberger
In Case of Armageddon by Magen Toole
Mr. Fantastic by Garrett Ashley
Cleveland Cassidy’s Dick by Nathaniel Tower
Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One by Jimmy Callaway
Blink by William Pauley III
A wonderful range of stuff here – just look at those names. And it’s free – what a great thing for your Kindo or Kable or whatever those ebook reader things are 😉
Plus – keep reading The New Flesh for more stories – a new piece of weird flash almost every day.
New Flesh Magazine editors William Pauley III and Brian Barnett (with a nod to Suzie Bradshaw too, I’m sure) have compiled an ebook of their favourite stories from New Flesh’s first year – including some of my pieces.
The New Flesh is an online flash fiction publication, filled with misfit, bizarre and weird stories, so this ebook will be pretty unusual. You can download the ebook for free through the New Flesh Magazine website. Happy reading.
After my previous post where I messed up who is in the book (sorry Angel), here is a full table of contents, as I have verified from the printed book:
Introduction by Martin Zeigler
Tea Time With Warthog by Jodi MacArthur
Always Read the Instructions! by A.E. Churchyard
Angel’s Trumpet by Patricia La Barbera
Answers by Mark Taylor
Are We There Yet? by George Wilhite
The ATM by Bob Eccles
A Bad Hand by Aurelio Rico Lopez III
The Ballad of the Kid by Paul Brazill
Blow the Snow-Bird by Maggie Veness
The Bullet by Chris Bartholomew
Blue by Carrie Clevenger
Choices by C. Douglas Birkhead
Choices by Mark Taylor
Cold by John C. Mannone
Cupid, Playing by Kenneth C. Goldman
The Dark Side by Jim Bronyaur
Date of the Old Goat by Deborah Walker
Demon by A.J. French
A Dream of Peonies by Chris Allinotte
Dolce Pauline by R.W. Watkins & Robin Tilley
Even Zombies Have to Shop by Ellie Garratt
A fairy Tale by Ryan Lawrence
Family Ties by Matt Nord
First, Second, and Third by Lee Hughes
Fly Away Butterfly by Kia Storm
For Your Loss by Cynthia D. Witherspoon
From the Belly of the Beast by Francesca Angelique Carrillo
The Garden Tea Party by John C. Mannone
The Greater Hand by James P. Wagner
The Growth by Erik T. Johnson
Haunted houses aren’t free by Ryan Lawrence
Haven’t You Heard That I’m The New Cancer? by William Wolford
Mud in Your Eye by Chip O’Brien
How Does Beauty Come About? by William Wolford
Hunter by Laura Eno
The Immortal’s Lecture by Daybert Linares
Injured Us by Luanna Azzarito
Innocent Until Proven by Marion Sipe
Itch by Jack Roth
Just Imagine by Iain Pattison
The Last Clown by Lee Hughes
Leper by A.J. French
Living With Dying by Kevin Brown
The Long Walk by Billy Burgess
M by Paul Brazill
Man With Shark Teeth Walks Into Jake’s Diner by Sean Monaghan
Meeting Frieda by Martin Zeigler
Midnight Lemonade by Abigail Beal
Monotony by Kathryn Slavik
A New Life by A.E. Churchyard
New Year’s Resolution by Brad Nelson
No Deposit, No Return by Bob Eccles
No. 102 by R.W. Watkins
The Oak Tree by Col Bury
OnScar by Brad Nelson
Par One by Gregory Miller
The Partner by C. Douglas Birkhead
A Peaceful Solution by Jason Barney
Pride and Joy by Emma Kathryn
Proving Ground by Mark Anthony Crittenden
A Quick Break by Gregory Miller
Recruitment’s End by Jason Barney
Right is Right by Luanna Azzarito
Seven by Jamie K. Schmidt
Shades of Black by Kevin Brown
Shiny Places by Maggie Veness
The Snitch by Ryan Lawrence
A Soldier’s Last Stand by Jordan Fuselier-Gardner
Something Different by Chris Allinotte
Rust by Fred Venturini
The Stick Pony by Chris Bartholomew
A Strange Means of Suicide by Robert Essig
Sweet Heart by Christina Murphy
To Whom It May Concern by Ryan Lawrence
Two Heads Aren’t Better Than One by Laura Eno
Under the Bed by Kevin Wallis
The Unicorn by Steven Barrie
The Waking Death by Luke Campen
Willpower by Lily Mulholland
You Never Know by Daniel Fabiani
3 O’Clock in the Midnight World by Charles Muir
Unavailable by Karen Schindler
University Park by Jessy Marie Roberts
Once Bitten by Mark Taylor
Salvation by Iain Pattison
Wow, that’s a lot of stories. Props to all the writers, and Martin for his intro, and Chris for editing (and Christopher for initiating the project to begin with).
This book has been around for a few weeks, but my copy just arrived yesterday and it looks sharp, and is filled with dozens of flash-fiction stories. Editor Chris Bartholemew of Static Movement has done an awesome job of putting this out amongst the range of other anthologies she’s taking on. Neatly led out by “Tea Time With Warthog” by Jodi MacArthur, the roster includes lots of names I’m familiar with – Angel Zapata,, Laura Eno, Robert Essig, Bob Eccles, A.J. French, Jim Bronyaur … more than eighty stories in all, and yes, including one by me – “Man with Shark’s Teeth Walks into Jake’s Diner”.
A wonderful collection, and a great introduction to flash fiction.
Addendum – after a little more checking (see comments below) it seems Angel is not in the anthology – my apologies (a glaring error, perhaps), but Laura is, with her stories “Hunter” and “Two heads are better than one”. Well, that’s from my quick web-check … I will leaf through the book shortly and re-double-confirm that I’ve got that right. Anyway, I’m leaving my link to Angel’s blog there anyhow – awesome writer and you should check out his work.
Triple V Publishing 