My story “Low Arc” wins a prize.

18 March, 2014 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ 8 Comments

Though some of you already know, I’m still thrilled to announce that my short story “Low Arc” has won the Grand Prize in the 2014 Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest.

The contest is sponsored by Baen books in conjunction with the National Space Society to celebrate the role science fiction plays in advancing science.

The brief is to write a short story that shows the near future (no more than about 50-60 years out) of manned space exploration. I stuck my guy on the moon, with an orbitting Orion capsule, and a busted up lander. And I got to use the very cool word “pericynthion” (which I learned during reading up and preparing the story).

So my next step is to get myself to L.A. in May to pick up the trophy, and, as part of the prize, attend the 2014 International Space Development Conference. Very excited.

800 – published in Black Denim Lit

10 March, 2014 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ 1 Comment

My short story “800” is now out in the March 2014 issure of Black Denim Lit. This is free to read online. It’s a 3000 word sci-fi/literary tale about ageing and generation gaps. Nothing too serious. Here’s how it starts:
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Today my daughter is turning 769. July 16th. It might not seem like a milestone–no easily divisible figure like 750 or 777–but it is.

For me, at least.

Mary was born when I was a couple of months shy of my 31st birthday. This coming September I will turn 800.

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Keep reading here: 800

Changing Modes

26 February, 2014 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ 4 Comments

Last night I finished the draft of my first novel of the year.

That’s change mode number one. For the previous twelve-plus months I’ve been focusing on short stories so have mostly been writing in the 3000 to 10,000 word range.

Writing a sustained story that’s 60,000 words long takes a different kind of process. Glad I did Dean Wesley Smith’s Pacing Workshop (non-affiliate link!) over summer. That gave me a whole new way to approach a novel.

Change mode two: once I finished the novel I got started on a literary short story. Each year in New Zealand there are a couple of big literary contests and I make sure I enter both. One of them has a prize of $10,000 – seriously! I guess my chances are about 1/10,000, but that’s better than that Lotto thing and I still get to send off my story to other markets when it doesn’t win (one of last year’s entries has just been accepted for Takahe, a NZ literary magazine, yay).

So I went from the validation at the end of that sixty thousand word hard sci-fi novel to the opening of what will be a 3000 word piece focused on language and character more than action and wonder. I hope I can pull it off.

And, yes. I got started on the story as soon as I finished the novel. I saved the file called “pirates 25 2 2014” and created a new file called “the accident 25 2 2014” and began typing. Some writers apparently take a week off after finishing a novel. Nice for some, I guess. I want to capitalise on that momentum and carry on with writing. Anyway, I have a daily word count goal to hit.

Oh, that busy bee in the sunflower? Just last week in the garden. Summer is really giving us a scorcher for the moment. I know most of you are practically snowbound at the moment – I hope the pic gives you some cheer.

Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest 2014

7 February, 2014 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ 3 Comments

I’m thrilled to be joining a group of esteemed writers as a finalist in the Jim Baen Memorial Writing Contest 2014. Amazing to see my name on that list.

There are a few names I know there, and some dark horses. Some have been finalists in the Writers of the Future contest and others have been place getters in the Jim Baen contest previously (including myself in both of those categories). I do feel humbled being among such luminaries as Brad R. Torgersen (Writers of the Future winner, Hugo, Nebula and Campbell award nominee), Martin L. Shoemaker (stories in Analog and Galaxy’s Edge, and forthcoming in Gardner Dozios’s Year’s Best Science Fiction), Marina J. Lostetter (Writers of the Future winner [in the same quarter when I was a finalist, grrr], stories in Galaxy’s Edge, Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show). Sheesh, I need to stop now, after all there are only three podium places.

Best of luck to everyone.

Blood Relation – sci fi story in Outposts of Beyond

5 February, 2014 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

My science fiction short story “Blood Relation” has just come out in the January issue of Outposts of Beyond. Sally’s waiting on her brother Bevan to decide whether to donate a kidney. On an asteroid belt-based space station running on limited resources it’s not an easy call for either kid. I’m still waiting on my copy, but it looks like a bunch of interesting stories in there. It’s available in print from the Alban Lake Store for $8.

Robert Silverberg and Asimov’s

31 January, 2014 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

As a teen I devoured books by Robert Silverberg. The Man in the Maze, Those Who Watch, Downward to the Earth… the list goes on. I didn’t read everything – his output was prolific, I couldn’t even find them all – but his accessible, engaging, clever stories were a big part of making me want to be a writer. I’m sure many of my early tales were little more than awkward adolescent copies of his books.

Well, over time I guess I’ve found my own voice, and have published many stories along the way. Now, though, I’m thrilled to have achieved one of my dreams from those teenage years: a story published in Asimov’s Science Fiction. My novelette “Walking Gear” is in the March 2014 issue.

Not only that, but I’m sharing the contents page with Robert Silverberg.

Of course, Mr. Silverberg’s piece is his regular column, so getting a story in Asimov’s meant a fair chance of coinciding, but I still feel very honored. There are other luminaries in the issue too, like Mike Resnick, Ken Liu and Cat Rambo. Wow.

(Asimov’s on Kindle)

Quisic Smith and the Russian Puzzle Doll – fiction at Perihelion

13 January, 20146 March, 2014 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

Thrilled today to have my short story “Quisic Smith and the Russian Puzzle Doll” published in Perihelion’s January issue. This story’s a bit more light-hearted than a lot of my writing. It’s free to read online. Here’s how it starts out:

QUISIC MARCHED FOR THE back of the store. The credit bot followed at a safe distance, hovering above and behind, throwing out looping light tendrils as it checked the merchandise. One of the fluorescent tubes above the aisle flickered.

He had to find the doll set, and quickly. Trawler Cooper needed it today, and Quisic needed the payday. He was going to need more too, with the way the lawyers were fleecing him.

“Try Lavendish Mango for men,” one of the bracket displays advised him. It gave an aerosol burst of a woody-fruity scent. “Impress the girls.”

keep reading at Perihelion…

“Aerobrake” – short story in The Colored Lens

6 January, 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.

The Million Word Apprenticeship

24 December, 201324 December, 2013 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ 2 Comments

Somewhere I’ve read something about how a writer has to write a million words before they’re good enough.

Well, I published some stories well before I’d completed a million words. Some people even said some complimentary things about them. But one of the things I figure is I’m never going to stop learning. So I keep writing, figuring each new million words as a new apprenticeship.

This year I’ve written a half-million. That complements the half-million from last year. This is the first time I’ve consciously tracked the word count. It’s nice to feel like I’ve clearly got a million under my belt. I think in all the years leading up to that I’d probably written more than a million. But that feels like another lifetime.

Last year was my most successful ever – with more paid publications than ever before. This year was even better. It feels like the work is paying off.

Next year I’m embarking on a new apprenticeship. The first half-million of the next million. Always learning.

Arms Wide – new story in Landfall

11 December, 2013 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

My short story “Arms Wide” has just come out in the latest (Spring 2013) issue of Landfall (Spring here in the southern hemisphere, though it’s summer already). I feel chuffed about this one – I’ve been submitting to Landfall for years. It’s the longest running literary journal in New Zealand and sets the bar pretty high, so getting a story in there makes me feel like I’m heading in the right direction.

There’s no online version, but I will publish the story for Kindle, Nook, etc. sometime during next year as a stand-alone.

Here’s the opening:

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The first time my daughter stole a car, her mother acted with an indifference I should have expected. Julie, my daughter, was seventeen, and the car was a 1993 Subaru with every kind of trim, accessory and modification you could imagine. The thing had lights under the chassis to shine on the road.
“Listen, Trevor,” Amy – Julie’s mother – told me from her apartment in Omaha, “I’m fifteen thousand miles away. What can I do? Let her grow up.”
“She’ll go to jail,” I said.
“Blah, blah, blah.” Amy hung up.
Julie didn’t go to jail, but, you know, it was close. Real close.
“Maybe you should go live with Mom?” I said, back at home after the hearing. She’d escaped conviction, but was on some kind of a watchlist that I didn’t understand.
“Yeah,” Julie said. She smiled and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “That’s really gonna happen.”