Pylon Suite – Venus Vulture soundscape on Zenapolae

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 2 Comments

A new Venus Vulture soundscape release doesn’t come along that often – the last were “Heavy Skies” on TurkbyTone Rekkids and “Stick With Me Giselle, Things Can Only Get Better” on Testtube, both in the first quarter of 2009. So after a year and a half of near-silence I’m excited to have a new extended piece released.

Released on the Zenapolae netlabel, Pylon Suite is a set of four tracks, making up a continuous thirty-eight minute movement. The set is deep and brooding, based on a long field recording (which wafts in and out through the album), together with long ambient drones. The tracks share elements, but progress, gradually becoming more complex – track four is the busiest (well, as busy as ambient drone music might be). Probably good to listen to at low volume while taking a bath or reading a horror novel.

The fabulous cover art was created by Arnd Klotz, based on photos I’d taken around the time I was composing the music.

Heading for Boise – flash fiction at MicroHorror

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

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.

The Path to Centauri in October 10Flash

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 4 Comments

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.

Sunset Photographer – flash fiction at 365Tomorrows

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 2 Comments


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.

Cold Skin by Albert Sánchez Piňol

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Just finished reading this wonderful dark gothic book. Despite being very different from much of what I’ve been reading lately – thrillers and young adult fiction – I didn’t feel I had to change gears to read my way through this. The book is fabulously compelling and actually, it was all I could do to have a break from reading it.

Set soon after World War I, on a nearly abandoned sub-antarctic island, with strange monsters and dangerous times, the book has a growing urgency. As a character study within a horror setting, this is brilliant, as a gothic thriller, it’s fabulous.

Perhaps it most closely reminded me of Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy (which I’ve now returned to, and am enjoying, though in a different way), but with more concise and economical language.