Tag: science fiction

Daisy and Maisie, External Hull Maintenance Experts

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

It’s cool when I have a new story come out, especially when it’s in Analog Science Fiction and Fact. There is always the little glitch of living halfway across the world and finally receiving my subscription and contributor’s copies after some time has passed, but still, here it is. The March/April 2024 issue, just in my. letterbox this week, with my story “Daisy and Maisie, External Hull Maintenance Experts” inside.

Accompanied by a cute image of Daisy and Maisie, and astronaut Chuck Grimshaw by K.A. Teryna. Chuck’s in a bad spot, but maybe Daisy and Maisie can help out.

Another cool fact about this issue, you’ll find a story, “Enough” by Nebula Award Winner William Ledbetter. I was fortunate enough to enjoy Bill’s company over a few days some years back in L.A. at the National Space Society’s International Space Development Conference. Bill administers the Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Award contest, and the award is given at the conference. After all these years. I think this is the first time we’ve actually shared a table of contents.

While I’m mentioning Analog, I’ll highlight that I have another story, “Float Where We Will” coming in the next issue, May/June, which I think is probably already on the magazine racks in the U.S.

It’s fun being in Analog, but amazing to be in back to back issues. I imagine my copy will arrive in six weeks or so. Expect another post then.

Cradle Robbers – Captain Arlon Stoddard Adventures book 11 – out now

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

Finally, finally, we have Cradle Robbers out in the world. Book number 11 in the series. That even surprises me, really. I have such fun writing these books, that I seem to have just continued writing more. As I post this, the 12th book – Margin Dwellers –  has already been written and will soon enter the editing-proofing-preparation machine and should be out later in the year.

Cradle Robbers

Royd Melgrave slams himself into an emergency vacuum suit as klaxons blast around him. The refinery station seems doomed.

When Authority investigators Captain Arlon Stoddard and his crew arrive, the refinery wreck follows an erratic orbit and little evidence remains.

What they do find only raises more questions. Questions that might turn things inside out.

Can they figure it out before more the destruction of more installations?

 

All of the books are space adventures, but this one might just be the most space opera of them all.

Releasing on March 20th, Cradle Robbers is available for preorder from your favorite retailer through the Universal Book Link here. ebook $5.99, print $16.99.

But, as I’m working on developing direct sales through my own store, the ebook is available right now, directly from me through Shopify/Bookfunnel for the same price – $5.99.

Catch up with the rest of the series here on the Captain Arlon Stoddard page. The first three books, Asteroid Jumpers, Ice Hunters and Ship Tracers, remain at the special price of $3.99 to help readers get started. Eventually they will show up on the Sean Monaghan store as well.

You’ll notice that there are layout changes to the covers of the last two books. I’m working back through the inventory to update the look, but with several series, numerous standalone novels, and a whole bunch of short stories and novellas, this is taking a while. I’ll get to them as the process progresses.

Thanks for reading. More news soon. Yes, soon. I’ve neglected posting here, but plans are afoot to put something up on a more regular basis. Did you say weekly? Sure, why not?

Cheers, Sean

 

 

Tramp Steamers – Captain Arlon Stoddard book 10 now available for preorder

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

I’m excited that the Captain Arlon Stoddard series has now reached book number 10. I have such a blast writing these and it’s fun setting them free into the world.

Also, this is going to be the first with an updated cover style. Still with the “A CAPTATIN ARLON STODDARD ADVENTURE” banner across the top (but now in caps), but also switching the title to the bottom, and my name to the top. In this world you gotta shout out if you want attention 🙂

Here are the old style and new style covers by way of comparison. Next part of my plan is to retrofit all the previous nine novels in the series like this.

 

 

Tramp Steamers

Planet Ulshene’s unique trading culture takes some getting used to. Steamers ply the skies, skimming over the endless prairie.

Barl Brennan rates his skills as a crewman. Without a job, he faces a tough choice. Edmond Steverin knows desperation when he sees it.

Captain Arlon Stoddard slips undercover and finda himself tipped into a world filled with intrigue.

Can they survive the complex interlinked web of easy deceit and mortal danger?

Universal book link here. ebook $5.99, print book $18.99. Preorder available now, releasing on October 20th.

I love the art of Ian McQue, most especially his junks and tugs that float through the sky. Would that I could draw images like those. At least those images were part of the inspiration for Tramp Steamers. Something that fitted right into the Captain Arlon Stoddard Adventures – antigravity is part of the stories already, and the idea of pirates and complex commercial shipping all kind of fell in together.

And another inspiration was Sherri S. Tepper‘s wonderful 1989 novel Grass. Less about the alien side of it, but certainly a planet dominated by prairie. I was much younger when I first read it and found myself plunged into her remarkable, immersive world. Sometimes it’s compared to Dune, as a book that takes a world with a singular aspect and exploits that for the story.

 

Rorqual Saitu – Karnish River Navigations book 9

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

Finally I’ve made it. Rorqual Saitu has been written, proofed, formatted and sent out into the world. It’s up on preorder now for an August 20th release. The paperback will be out a week or so earlier.

Get them here: Rorqual Saitu, Univeral Book Link

Rorqual Saitu

When Kumi Saitu’s difficult mission to wrest vital data from Hundstein’s criminal network almost kills her, she faces a critical decision.

The maelstrom of danger and intrigue draws in Kumi’s old friends, Flis and Grae.

Facing an ancient harvester and a far-reaching illicit web, they must fight the clock to set things right.

Have they met their match?

 

Cover art: © MerryDesigns | Dreamstime.com (Flis), © Bianca Van Dijk from | Pixabay (Rorqual), © Bertrandb | Dreamstime.com (Background)

Rorqual Saitu is book 9 in the Karnish River Navigations series, started way back in 2015 with Arlchip Burnout. Astute readers will notice that book 10, Tombs Under Vaile came out in 2018, and might ask ‘why the long wait?’ Fair question. The answer stems from the title of the first book, when I noticed that the first letters each word in the title were A and B. It struck me that that was also the first two letters of the English alphabet. So then I wrote Canal Days which came out in 2016.

Suddenly I had a thirteen book series to write. All the way to a book using the letters Y and Z in the title (more about that little problem further down).

The next book I wrote was Guest House Izarra, somehow sneakily using up an extra letter of the alphabet there (and in 2018 later I did the same with Tombs Under Vale – now it was a tidier twelve book series). I had, though, skipped over the letters E and F. I guess I have ‘oooh, shiny’ brain with this series, and just write all over the alphabet.

The books can be read in any order, but if you put them alphabetically you’ll get books one to ten (with eleven and twelve coming next year, hopefully). With the ten books out so far, if you take the order they came out, you get 1, 2, 7, 3, 8, 9, 4, 5, 10, 6. (that is, Eastern Foray the third book in the series, was the seventh one out, and book four, Guest House Izarra, was the third one out).

Possibly this shows some lack of planning. Or perhaps there’s some greater scheme that my subconscious is not letting me in on.

I did mention they can be read in any order. Apparently they can be written in any order too.

I hope that over the years I’ve become a better writer, and that Rorqual Saitu is a stronger book than Arlchip Burnout (though I do stand by that book, absolutely). I wonder if the contrast is notable for readers who go from Liquid Machine (2023) straight into Night Operations (2016). I would hope that seven years of practising at being a better writer would yield a stronger book. Perhaps though, that (slightly) more youthful me wrote with more verve and energy? I don’t know. That’s up to the readers.

Anyway, all that said. I’m having fun with the series and it’s nice having it rebranded and looking good.

Now, though, I do have the challenge of coming up with titles for the WX and YZ books. Didn’t think of that, Sean, did you, when you raced on into Canal Days imagining the alphabetic series. Wiggling Xylophone anyone? Wasteful Xerxes? Wicked X-ray?

It should be out sometime next year. I suspect it may take as long to come up with a decent title as it will take to write the book.

Thanks for reading, and remember to check out the series on the Karnish River Navigations page..

Sean

The Blaze of Pollux – short story collection

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

Sometimes I write stories that are a little off beat and unusual. At least, I like to think they are – a writer being the worst judge of their own work, it may be that these are simply cookie cutter stories in the same vein as everything else I write, though somehow, I don’t think so. Take a look at the blurb:

The Blaze of Pollux

Ice cream on a space liner headed for disaster. A hike with a difference.  Strange animals on the loose. Odd solutions to trash overload. A scam artist lost in space.

Immerse yourself in another collection of offbeat science fiction stories from award winner Sean Monaghan.

Cover illustration © Eevlva | Dreamstime.com.

 

In the early days of my indie publication explorations – 2014 and 2015 – I put out four collections – Balance, Balance ii, Balance iii and Unbalanced, on the premise that they were neatly balanced collections, but the last one – Unbalanced – brought together quirky stories – a manga character on the loose in the real world, a transcript of a future NASCAR race commentary – and turned out to be a fun collection. It’s even sold a few copies – thanks if you were one of the purchasers. I hope you enjoyed that one.

With the passage of years, I hope I’m a better storyteller, so I would like to think that these ones are a little better than those. Of course, as I mention in the book’s introduction, a writer is the worst judge of their own work. I’m pretty sure that the cover and the interior look better than those early fumbling attempts.

Pick up The Blaze of Pollux from your favorite retailer: ebook $4.99, print $9.99. – Universal book link.

These ones below are still available. No universal booklink, but a search in your faborite retailer will bring them to the top. Sometimes I might even go back and redo those covers. So many covers, so little time!

Indistinct Garbled Static – new long short story out now

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

I’m working to keep up the release schedule here. I have this backlog of stories that should really get out into the light of day. Maybe a few people will even read them. Considering this is about my only promotion of new titles few people might hear of them anyway. So thanks for being here!

“Indistinct Garbled Static” is at the long end of short stories – just crossing that threshhold where the SF community start calling them novelettes (for those interested – that 7500 words, this story is 8400 words)

Indistinct Garbled Static

Cassie hears patterns. Everywhere.

That makes her one of the best interstellar signal analysts around.

When the AI interpreter sends odd data her way, Cassie might have more than even she can cope with.

And the implications of the signal might change everything.

A story that asks the question: Do we know our place in the universe?

 

 

Cover art – which I think fits the story brilliantly – by Grandeluc from Dreamstime. I work hard on my covers and this time I’m feeling I’ve actually got the balance of text and image just about right.

Available now as both an ebook and in print for $2.99 / $6.99. Link there goes to the Universal Book Link which then takes you on to your favorite retailer.

 

Aelonee – new novella out now

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

It’s been a little while since my last post here. Travel and writing and whathaveyou slowed that all down a little. There are snippets of news about publications, some of which I may have mentioned before, but I’ll start with a a brand new one – Aelonee – a novella/long short story that’s out now.

I’m fascinated by hunter-gatherer culture and the missteps of farming and so on that have led us away from simplicity into the world we have now. I often wonder what it will be like for future interstellar explorers to encounter those kinds of societies, and the moral gray areas around all that.

I do not claim to be an expert on indigenous cultures, and the more I read, the more I discover holes in my knowledge, and the more I want to learn.

And all that said, I hope that Aelonee is an entertaining and engaging tale.

Aelonee

 

Planet Shepherdess.

Simple. Surprising. Deceptive.

Cara Silmar’s lifelong obsession researching the indigenous culture of Aelonee’s people, the Saesse, leads her deeper and deeper into a world she still barely understands.

A new arrival and an old friend throw Cara’s work into disarray, forcing her to consider everything.

Or toss it all away.

A deep space adventure story with a heart.

___

Wonderful cover illustration by PlanetFelicity from Dreamstime.

Available now as a paperback, $9.99, and an ebook, $3.99. Link here.

If you like the idea, my story A Cultural Exchange deals with similar themes – human researchers struggling with indigenous culture.

Arriving in the deep alien forests of Corrul, Tim Maxter and his crew hardly expect instant hostility from the locals.

Sixty light years from Earth to find someone pounding on the spaceship’s door. Welcome to a planet filled with surprises.

Surprises that will cut Maxter to his core.

In other news, I have a story coming out in the July/August Asimov’s and a reprint in Allan Kaster’s The Year’s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 7 out in June.

More details to come. Thanks for reading.

 

Goldie – finalist in the Asimov’s Readers’ Awards

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

My novella “Goldie” from the January/February 2022 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction is a finalist in annual Asimov’s Readers’ Poll Awards. Amazingly this is actually my third time as a finalist for this award, following “Crimson Birds of Small Miracles” and “The Molenstraat Music Festival“.

When they put up the finalists lists, Asimov’s also make the stories and poems available to read online for a limited time – see the full page of finalists here, and the the direct link to “Goldie”.

Nice to see Dominic Harman’s cover illustration for “Goldie” as a finalist in the Best Covers category. Dominic captured Goldie herself so well that I was stunned when I received my copies of the magazine. I’d spent a lot of time with Goldie over the course of a year. The novella was a big work and there was a lot of back and forth with Sheila Williams, the Asimov’s editor in getting it right for publication (thanks Sheila!). I was surprised by my own feelings when I saw her so gorgeously realized right there in front of me. Thanks Dominic! Good luck with the award.

And good luck to all the finalists, though of course fingers crossed for me.

 

 

 

 

Dead Ringers – Captain Arlon Stoddard book 9

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

Dead Ringers, book 9 in my Captain Arlon Stoddard series is available on pre order with an April 20th release – universal book link here

More will come closer to the time (though I will be away from the net on a research trip on the lead up to release day).

I will say now, though, that I’m excited about this one. Nine books now in the series. Who’d have thought, huh?

And, as I type this, I’m working on Tramp Steamers, the tenth book.

I also wanted to mention briefly the wonderful cover by Algol (licensed through Dreamstime) – I actually licensed this years back for a different story. A story I hadn’t written at the time. I loved the image and I grabbed it, and wrote a story based on it, thinking just to indie publish it. But then, I sold the story to a magazine, so that locked it up for a while (generally when you sell – license – a story, part of that is a period of time when it’s exclusive to the magazine, fair enough, they paid for that).

Anyway, in the interim, I’ve just never got around to publishing the story as a standalone (goofing off, I guess, since, you know, apparently I’m a slouch when it comes to putting stories and novels up indie and really should be getting more of them out), but I still hold the license on the image.

Then I wrote Dead Ringers and it was really different and high-concept and stuff like that and ultimately I was struggling to find cover art that fitted the story. Then I remembered I had this. It fits this story well, it’s dynamic and energetic and conveys the action. So here it is.

More soon – a blurb and other details on price and so on. But you know, we do have until April 20th until it’s out.

Thanks for reading.

More soon.

Sean

Liquid Machine – Karnish River Navigations book 6 – on pre-release now

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

Liquid Machine, Book 6 in the Karnish River Navigation series (though actually the ninth book to come out) will be out on February 20th, but can be preordered now.

Liquid Machine – blurb

An easy minder job, watching a dignitary’s child, should be a simple payday for Flis Kupe and Grae Sinder. Sometimes their little investigations business needs the peace and quiet. Sometimes it needs the money.

But when the job turns sour, Flis and Grae might just find themselves in the firing line.

A Karnish River Navigations novel that changes everything.

Universal book link here.

ebook $5.99, print $18.99

Why, you ask, is this book 6 in the series, but the ninth to come out? Well, it’s one of those series that can be read in any order, and, it turns out, I’m writing it in any order. I started this when I was a younger writer, and the first book was titled Arlchip Burnout and, naively I thought that was neatly alphabetical, why not carry on? (see Toby Litt’s alphabetical series).

So then, Canal Days and Eastern Foray and so on.

But it turned out that titles came to me from different places in the alphabet. Tombs Under Vail came out long before Eastern Foray. In fact, Fantastic Fiction lists them by publication year (fair enough) rather than alphabetically:

Karnish River Navigations
Arlchip Burnout (2015)
Night Operations (2016)
Canal Days (2016)
Guest House Izarra (2016)
Persephone Quest (2017)
Tombs Under Vaile (2018)
Eastern Foray (2019)
Jackpot Kingdom (2022)

Reading order would be

  • Arlchip Burnout,
  • Canal Days,
  • Eastern Foray,
  • Guest House Izarra,
  • Jackpot Kingdom,
  • Liquid Machine
  • Night Operations
  • Persephone Quest
  • [Rorqual Saitu]
  • Tombs Under Vaile
  • [W… X…]
  • [Y… Z…]

You’ll see those three titles there in parentheses/brackets – [ ] – these three are still to be written. I will be embarking on Rorqual Saitu possibly as soon as next month, so it might even be out later this year.

Then, the challenge I seem to have set for myself of coming up with the WX and YZ titles. And good stories to roll around under those. Humph. I suppose that I do like a good challenge.