December’s issue of Static Movement (again with a wonderful illustration by Lee Kuruganti – very Christmassy) includes another of my magic realism stories, or perhaps magic punk. Bottled Sleep is kind of about a magic shop, kind of about destiny. The story is set in the same universe as my flash fiction story Jacob’s Naked Aquarium that appeared earlier this year in Bewildering Stories.
Author: Sean Monaghan
Writer. Voracious reader.
Hard Suit Lock – hard sci-fi in Planet Magazine
With a cool little illustration by Romeo Esparrago, my short piece Hard Suit Lock is out now in Planet Magazine. Hard-shell space suits (see Wikipedia note on the suits here) have advocates, versus typical NASA fabric suits, for various reasons, but ultimatly soft-suits have won out. There’s something a little more fifties sci-fi about the hard suits: think of those old covers of pulp magazines from the fifties with people in suits like armour. Similar, perhaps, to the deep sea diving suits, but slimmer. Apparently NASA is working on a variety of semi-hard suits – see their page here, but these are different to the suit Andreas locks up in the story.
And, this is another story featuring my character Bayliss, who’s also appeared in How Things Fall, Redcord Macro-Nano Engine in Error State and Xuento (in Kings of the Realm).
Nancy Pickard – The Scent of Rain and Lightning
Well, it’s not an Arizona novel, but Kansas feels near enough – certainly in terms of ranching and wide open landscapes, so for me that’s a big part of the appeal of Nancy Pickard‘s novel. Similar to Ray Robinson’s Forgetting Zoë, which I reviewed a few posts back – note even the similarity of the covers (though this is the UK cover – the edition I read – the US cover is slightly different).
And as with Robinson’s book The Scent of Rain and Lightning involves a crime, and the solving of that crime. Structurally the book is unusual, and challenging – opening in the present time, with the memory of the murder and some sudden changes coming from that – then dropping back to a time shortly before the original crime, in what it would appear to be a quick flashback that gradually becomes the main part of the novel.
With rising tension – we know the crime is coming – Pickard expertly delays and delays, delving into the family and their situation, making the murder almost inevitable. When, far into the novel, we’re returned to the present time, those sudden changes – the release of murderer from jail – take on a whole new context, and give the story a whole different, though inevitable direction. The ending is unexpected, the story-telling tight and fast, the atmosphere evocative.
This book is perhaps more in the realm of crime writing than Robinson’s, though both bear similarities. It is an engaging, tight read, and I’ll be looking for more of Pickard’s books.
Don’t Sleep Downstairs – flash fiction at Flashes In The Dark
Don’t Sleep Downstairs is another of my Arizona stories, my on-going love of the place coming through, in its own odd way. With a bleak old farmhouse and a visiting painter I hope I’ve captured something of character and of the feel of the place. It was fun to write and I hope it’s fun to read.
Thanks to Lori and Bob at Flashes in The Dark for publishing the story.
Mini-vid on YouTube
Nothing much to report for the week – actually not blogging so much lately anyhow. I’ve put up a new eighty second video at the Venus Vulture YouTube site. Just some angles and spinning with a quiet ambient drone soundtrack.
More posts next week.
Finding Keys – flash fiction on MicroHorror
Finding Keys, a 500 word story and another entry for the Halloween contest – themed space “not outer space, but the space between things” – has just come out on MicroHorror. Another story with the protagonist waking in a hospital bed – my other entry Airhead started the same. Both go in very different directions though.
Forgetting Zoë by Ray Robinson
I try to read broadly, but probably read just way too much contemporary American fiction*. I discovered Ray Robinson‘s Forgetting Zoë by accident. Firstly the cover appealed, and then the setting – Arizona (at least for part of the book) – my passion for four corners states, and surrounds, continually fed by some excellent literature.
Forgetting Zoë is an exceptional story, told to a certain extent as if it was a straight crime novel – there’s a crime, there’s some mystery to the solving of that – but beyond that it’s really a literary novel, savouring the words themselves throughout, while still maintaining pace and intrigue. The novel certainly seems to draw on events that have been in the media over recent years – the story focuses on the abduction and imprisonment of Zoë, and the experiences of the families involved.
Robinson’s attention to setting is striking – the novel is set between the dry heat of Arizona ranchlands, and an island off Newfoundland, cold and weatherbeaten.
*What I didn’t realise during the reading of the book is that Robinson is British. I’m surprised by what a good ear he has for writing fiction that fits with other mid-west novels.
The Rotated part five, and a new short story – on Infinite Windows
Part five of my serialized novel The Rotated is now up in the November issue of Infinite Windows. Car chases, flashbacks, even a little more explanation of ‘rotating’. It’s all very fiery and fast.
This month’s issue also includes my story Pipes and Bones – a hard sci-fi adventure set in the same world, with some of the same characters, as my story Skinny Joe, which came out in the June 2009 issue. I have more stories to come in the same location – gradually I hope it unfolds and more about the world – Daron – is revealed over time.
Fledgling – magic realism at The New Flesh
All of my stories are special to me, for one reason or another, yet Fledgling is one of my personal favourites – perhaps the closest I’ve come to getting the whole thing right. If you were to ask me to recommend just one of my stories to read, this would be it.
My thanks to the editors of The New Flesh Magazine – William Pauley III and Brian Barnett for publishing the piece – I didn’t know if it was quite the right fit, but I guess it was. Also my indebtedness to Jodi MacArthur for her invaluable feedback on an early draft of this story.
Oh, what is magic realism anyway? I was looking for a way to describe this story quickly and that seems to describe it – real, but with the tiniest hint of magic.
Giant Mushroom Envelops Small WA Town – flash fiction in Antipodean Science Fiction, November
Another action-adventure Sci-Fi piece in Antipodean Science Fiction. Giant Mushroom Envelops Small WA Town is a quick shoot-em-up set in Western Australia (not Washington), which seems appropriate in AntiSF. Giant fungal invasions remain high on my list of fears, and it’s cool to smother Western Australia too, though I have another story on the backburner, with nasty fungus further east.
Antipodean Science Fiction publishes 10 stories monthly, each story around 500 words long.
Sean Monaghan - Writer 