The Yearbook, and other monsters

24 December, 2025 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

Finally making an effort to show up here and make some updates on the writing and publishing trajectory through December. It’s been a cool month. Three big publications – “Chasing Fox Palton” a new novella, Sean Monaghan’s Yearbook 2025 and “Barnacle” a new Venus Vulture album.

Let’s start with the Yearbook, since, among all that nuttiness, it’s probably the nuttiest.

A Yearbook. This is a 600+page collection of various publications from 2025. Short stories, novellas and even a complete novel. With afterwords and an introduction.

One unique story, “The Diorama”, never before published… because I realised after I’d written it, that it kind of had spoilers for the novel The Ingersal Ballet, so should not appear alone (it follows the novel in the volume, with an introduction recommending readers don’t even look at the story until they’ve finished reading the novel).

I guess this book is in lieu of writing a list of my year’s achievements here on the blog (but that was publishing six novels, sixteen short stories – including stories in Analog, Asimov’s and Pulphouse, four novellas and some occasional blog posts). A busy year I guess. I’m planning something even busier next year.

The contents of the volume are:

Sigrid’s Eagle (Traditional fantasy short story)

Mangled Gravity (Contemporary fantasy novella)

Heading For Boise (Horror flash fiction)

Caprock (Thriller short story)

Peruser (Cole Wright thriller short story)

Daisy And Maisie, External Hull Maintenance Experts (SF novelette, also winner of Analog’s Anlab Award for best novelette)

Lying Cameras (Contemporary fantasy novella)

Visit Me, Oh Dreamer (SF short story)

The Quiet Hours (Morgenfeld short story)

The Ingersal Ballet (Morgenfeld novel)

The Diorama (Morgenfeld short story)

All of which are still available individually (save for The Diorama which as I mentioned, I realised after writing it, contains spoilers for The Ingersal Ballet).

Releasing on December 31st the Yearbook retails at $9.99 for the ebook – find your favorite retailer here. The paperback will be $25.99.

Also directly from the website here seanmonaghan.com immediately.

I also have a new novella out – a mind-bending time travel tale “Chasing Fox Palton”.

In a twisted and tangled world, Time Operative Haylee Dahlen just wants to find the crook Fox Palton.

And no one knows exactly what Fox Palton wants.

A vast story of come-uppance and betrayal that stretches across the decades and centuries, with a pace that defies time itself.

From the author of the quirky time travel tale “Can You Outrun a T-Rex?”

$3.99 from the website here. Readers of this blog can use the code FoxP50 to get it for half-off ($1.99) – thanks! Code expires on February 28th 2026. Use it wisely.

Other retailers here, including paperback from Amazon ($14.99).

As a sideline, I also create soundscapes and ambient music as Venus Vulture. The latest release, just out on December 12th, is Barnacle. 40 some minutes of drifty, loopy drones. Available from Bandcamp, priced at $7. Also on vinyl from Elastic Stage, a little more expensive there at around $38, plus shipping. Both sites let you listen to the tracks for free, so there is that.

So that rounds out 2025. Big plans for 2026, including, once again, being present more often here (as in, rather than one big post about a bunch of releases, doing individual posts). I’ve tried that before and fallen over. I do, however, have some better structures around out for next year.

Thanks for reading.

Sean

Daisy And Maisie, External Hull Maintenance Experts – award ballots.

16 April, 2025 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

I’ve just learned that my story “Daisy And Maisie, External Hull Maintenance Experts”, from Analog last year, is a finalist for the Aurealis Awards for Best Novella.

With the story already a finalist for the Analog Analytical Laboratory award, and the Sir Julius Vogel Award, I’m feeling pretty humbled. My little story hanging out there with a bunch of stories by some awesome writers.

Now, I just wait for those results to trickle in, with my fingers crossed.

You can read the story for free at the Analog website, but you can also grab the ebook, with my afterword, from my website seanmonaghan.com. $2.99, but you can use the code DandM50 to get it for fifty percent off. Or use the code DandM100 to get it 100% off (that is, free). Both codes will be valid through until June 15th 2025 (when the Analog Analytical Laboratory results are announced).

Daisy and Maisie, External Hull Maintenance Experts

14 April, 202513 April, 2025 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

I mentioned before here and here, my short story “Daisy and Maisie, External Hull Maintenance Specialists”, originally published in the March/April issue of Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, is on the Sir Julius Vogel Award ballot for best novella or novelette, and also is on the ballot for Analog’s Analytical Laboratory (voted for by readers). The Analog final results come out in mid-June, I think, but the SJVs voting is on now, with the award ceremony happening at Concatenation con in Wellington over Easter (Kudos too for the organisers of the con, pulling together something out of almost nothing – great work).

If you’re a member of Concatenation, or SFFANZ, you have voting rights, so you can access the stories through the finalists page.

They’re also available to read for free on the Analog (Daisy and Maisie) and Asimov’s (Wildest Skies) websites, through until those respective awards are announced.

But, to add to that, “Daisy and Maisie…” is available from the website now as an ebook for $2.99. Just for reading here, you can use the code DandM50 to get it for fifty percent off. Not enough. Okay. Use the code DandM100 to get it 100% off (that is, free). I can’t go any higher than that, otherwise I’m giving you money 😁. I’ll leave these codes valid through until June 15th.

The print book version will be available soon. It looks grand. Link coming when all the details are in place.

Daisy and Maisie, External Hull Maintenance Experts

Chuck Grimshaw works hard in the gruelling environment orbiting Mars. Long days fixing broken equipment, on a worn out ship, in a stinky spacesuit.

His two robot helpers, Daisy and Maisie, make things bearable. Never short of a wry observation or a correction to Grimshaw’s work habits.

When disaster strikes, Grimshaw finds they have more talents than just quips and repairs.

But do they have the skills to help him survive?

Grab it now! Use the discount! Do a little dance!

Thank you.

Award Season…

31 March, 202530 March, 2025 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

Now that the official announcement has been made, I can add in here to two of my stories from 2024 are finalists on a couple more award ballots. Both “Daisy and Maisie, External Hull Maintenance Experts” (Analog, March/April 2024) and “Wildest Skies” (Asimov’s November/December 2024) are up for those magazines’ awards.

“Daisy and Maisie…” for Analog’s Analytical Laboratory Award, and “Wildest Skies” for Asimov’s Readers’ Poll. There are a lot of familiar names in those lists, and I’m humbled to be among them.

The announcements of the winners for both will come with the July/August issues (out in mid-June), but in the meantime, you can read the stories for free at award pages – the links here will take you to them – and most of the other finalists are available there too. That’s a whole mess of great reading. There are some spectacular stories there. Enjoy.

These awards are kind of my favorites because they’re voted for by the actual readers of the magazines. I’ve been a finalist before in the Asimov’s Readers’ Poll, for “The Molenstraat Music Festival” (which placed fourth equal as best novelette of 2015), “Goldie” (which placed second as best novella of 2022) and “Crimson Birds of Small Miracles” (which won for best short story of 2017). This is the first time I’ve been a finalist for the Analog Analytical Laboratory, though I’ve had numerous stories there over the last few years.

While I’m jabbering on, I do have more Asimov’s and Analog stories forthcoming – “Can You Outrun A T-Rex” in the November/December Asimov’s, and “Ready For New Arrivals” in the July/August Analog.

But I digress. Both “Wildest Skies” and “Daisy and Maisie, External Hull Maintenance Experts” are also finalists in the Best Novella/Novelette category in New Zealand’s Sir Julius Vogel Awards, in the same category, though, which makes me feel a little like I’m up against myself, ha, ha. And both are also on the long list (i.e. nominated) for Australia’s Aurealis Award. More details on that one to come. Hoping that they might make the shortlist.

“Wildest Skies” was a fun story to write too, and stimulated a whole lot of other stories with the characters and situations, with more to come. See www.wildestskies.com with those stories there.

Daisy and Maisie, External Hull Maintenance Experts – Award Ballots

24 March, 202513 April, 2025 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

My short story “Daisy and Maisie, External Hull Maintenance Experts”, originally published in the March/April issue of Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, is on the Sir Julius Vogel Award ballot for best novella or novelette. Now, I call it a short story, but there are technical lengths for awards and the cutoff for short stories is 7,500 words… “Daisy and Maisie…” is 7,600 words. That pushes it to novelette length.

That’s all well and fine, I’m thrilled to be nominated and to make it onto the finalist ballot.

Interesting side note, my 22,000 word novella “Wildest Skies” is also on the same ballot, so I’m kind of competing with myself, with stories of very different lengths.

Again, no complaints. Not at all. I’ve been on the ballots before, and even won once, but it’s been a while. All you nice people who’ve been reading the stories have been kind enough to consider them award-worthy and to nominate them.

Thank you, thank you. It’s very appreciated.

I have friends in other categories too – Lee Murray for Best Collected work, and Best Cover for her wonderful Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud and Mel Harding-Shaw for her novel Echoes of Earthshine and also (as Melanie Harding-Shaw) for her article “Your Guide to New Zealand Fantasy Romance Novels Coming in 2024”

A full list of the finalists can be found here on the Sir Julius Vogel Awards Finalists 2025 page.

The competition will be tight, and because of other commitments I will miss the awards ceremony in April. Wish me luck, but also best of luck to the other nominees Just not in my category 😉

“Daisy and Maisie…” will be out as a standalone story in ebook and print very soon. What do you think of the cover? This is the blurb.

Daisy and Maisie, External Hull Maintenance Experts, blurb

Chuck Grimshaw works hard in the gruelling environment orbiting Mars. Long days fixing broken equipment, on a worn out ship, in a stinky spacesuit.

His two robot helpers, Daisy and Maisie, make things bearable. Never short of a wry observation or a correction to Grimshaw’s work habits.

When disaster strikes, Grimshaw finds they have more talents than just quips and repairs.

But do they have the skills to help him survive?

Wildest Skies – new novella out now in the November/December issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction

27 October, 202426 October, 2024 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

I have a new novella out in the latest issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction – “Wildest Skies”. A survival story set on a distant planet. Another of my sci-fi adventure stories. Nice to be in Asimov’s again. I’m always really honored and humbled.

There’s a whole lot going on around the novella – specifically and mainly, a series of other stories with the same characters – check out the page at www.wildestskies.com

Also, I’ve done a little interview for Asimov’s about the writing of the novella. You can see that here at From the Earth to the Stars.

More soon. Thanks for reading.

Wildest Skies Survival Kit

12 September, 202411 September, 2024 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

It’s been quiet here for a while now. My great intentions to post more frequently vanished into the world of just writing more and tinkering with the business side of writing as I work on learning. Mostly the business side. More coming on that at some point, but it’s been figuring out things like Shopify, a mailing list, Bookfunnel, Kickstarter and others.

One thing was moving the main website seanmonaghan.com over to Shopify, and grabbing the new url seanmonaghan.blog for this site. With Shopify I can sell my books directly to readers without Amazon or the others stores in between, though of course my books are still available on all of those. Got to make it as easy as possible to find the books, right?

Now, a little more immediate news. To do with the mission patch right there.

My novella “Wildest Skies” will appear in the November/ December issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction – “Our November/December 2024 issue ends the year under Sean Monaghan’s “Wildest Skies.” This thrilling novella is filled with adventures on a dangerous and deadly alien planet.”

“Wildest Skies” was a fun story to write, and it was great to stretch my legs a bit. I’ve had other stories in Asimov’s, but this is the longest yet. Longer even than my well-received “Goldie” from the January/February 2022 issue. I’m always a little stunned to appear in those esteemed pages.

When I was working on the novella, I realized there were other stories to tell in that universe. Ed Linklater was an intriguing character and, well, I’d tossed him into one adventure so why not see how he did with other adventures. Right now, there’s one story available – “Spindle Shatters” – set in the lead up to the main mission. A prequel, I suppose.

All of this will appear on the Wildest Skies Survival Kit Page – www.wildestskies.com

Spindle Shatters

A Wildest Skies story.

Preparing for the deep space mission on the interstellar ship Cumberland Ed Linklater and the crew run through batteries of trials and drills.

A grueling schedule.

When trouble with the training centrifuge proves almost catastrophic, Ed must face alterations to the mission profile that test him in whole new ways.

Alterations that shake him to his emotional core.

With the future in the balance of not only his career but the mission itself, Ed faces whole new challenges.

More stories coming. There will be at least five. At least, that’s how many I’ve written so far (well, I’m well into writing the fifth one now, so not far away). So far they’re all prequels. I think this my subconscious’s way of avoiding letting out spoilers about the novella. Have I ever ranted here about spoilers? Not a fan. Maybe after “Wildest Skies” is out in the world there will be some sequels.

What’s up, you ask, with the heading here? Well, “Wildest Skies” is a survival story (is that a spoiler?), and I figure survival takes a little gear. Coming soon on the page will be handy things from the Deep Space Vessel Cumberland’s inventory. Plans are afoot for a satchel, a water bottle, a towel, a cap, a windbreaker. Maybe more. Right now I’m waiting on samples. from Printful to check the quality of the items themselves and how my designs look.

Here’s one, for the windbreaker, on one of the Printful models. Still just a draft, though. More news soon.

jacket on model

Another story, Shards of Tempered Glass will be out soon too.

Ed Linklater discovers cracked glass on one of the deep space vessel Cumberland’s tender craft. The damage jeopardizes the entire mission.

Light years from Earth, Ed and crew must figure out a solution. With limited resources and no way to contact home, it takes everything they have.

And then some.

A prequel story to the novella “Wildest Skies”.

Thanks for reading. Stay in touch!

Cold Highway – the first Cole Wright novella out now

21 November, 20224 July, 2024 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

Cold Highway – A Cole Wright Thriller – novella

A trip north of the border takes Cole Wright into the heart of snowbound Canada. Friendly people, vast distances, tough vehicles, isolation.

When a breakdown looms, Wright finds himself caught in the white, compacted landscape. A road thirty feet wide, hemmed in by the piled up ridges left by snowploughs. And an endless forest that could hide just about anything.

Unfriendly territory. Dangerous places.

A Cole Wright novella that focuses down on a single moment where the slightest error could be his last.

Available now as an ebook, $3.99, and in print $7.99/$10.99 – Link here.

It’s been a big year for my Cole Wright character, from the first short story “Dark Fields“, and the first novel The Arrival, we’ve put out a bunch more novels and stories, and now, the first novella. This has been a labour over the last several years to get these up and running. The sixth novel Zero Kills will be out in December (available for preorder now), and I’m hard at work on the seventh right now, and hoping to have that out around May next year. More on that as the time approaches.

Check out all the details and links on the Cole Wright Thrillers page here on the website.

Next year we’ll be putting some of the novels together into box sets – that’ll be two box sets, of books 1 -3 and of books 4-6. We’ll also have a collection of all the short stories, and include Cold Highway in there too. And some bonus content that we’re still tinkering with.

Thanks for reading. More soon.

Sean

Novellas in October and November

6 October, 20225 October, 2022 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

I like to have new book releases out on the 20th of the month, and for October and November, these will be novellas from two of my series. The first novellas in both. My novellas sit around a quarter the length of a novel – say around a hundred pages. I think Amazon labels them in with “90 minute reads” or something.

First up in on October 2oth is “Ortanide Steppers” from my Captain Arlon Stoddard Adventures series. Think deep space adventures with mysteries and puzzles around the galaxy. Technically a “novelette” in SF terms, but boy, keeping track of the names for the different lengths…

Ortanide. A planet with a unique geography, a rich history and a strange political system.

A political system that defies Captain Arlon Stoddard and his crew.

Restrained in a dank cell by the very people he came to help, Arlon faces the choice of violating the charters he works to uphold.

Or certain death.

A Captain Arlon Stoddard novella that pits the crew against possibly their most heinous foe yet.

Priced especially at $2.99 for the ebook, and $6.99 for the paperback. A bargain, right?

Next out on November 20th is “Cold Highway” from my Cole Wright Thrillers series. Pretty standard kind of thriller, adventure, gunplay stuff here. I’ve always liked those frozen highways and figured that might be a fun place to set a story. I was right, at least in writing it. I hope it’s as much fun to read.

A trip north of the border takes Cole Wright into the heart of snowbound Canada. Friendly people, vast distances, tough vehicles, isolation.

Unfriendly territory. Dangerous places.

A Cole Wright novella that focuses down on a single moment where the slightest error could be his last.

Still reasonably priced at $3.99 for the ebook, and $7.99 for the paperback.

So far all my paperbacks have come through Amazon, but I’m testing this one through Draft 2 Digital as well, in a slightly larger format, and ending up priced at $10.99. We’ll see how that goes.

As with previous months, I’ll have short stories out in the lead up to the releases. “Sea Skimmers”, which is the first Captain Arlon Stoddard short story, and followed by “Cardinals” which is a Cole Wright story with a difference – Lieutenant Ione Anders as the lead character (you’ll remember her from the first Cole Wright novel The Arrival) and Cole himself tagging along as a background character.

Details to come.

Remember you can explore the series from the pages available in the menu at the top of the page on the website here.

Thanks for reading.

Sean

Sail Man – new novelette

21 August, 202220 August, 2022 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

I have a new standalone novelette out now – “Sail Man“.

Alice Briggs has a plan. Send a deep space probe farther out than any before.
She knows how to do it, but faces blocks at every turn. When she meets Tink and Caroline—the sail builders—they make her big ideas seem small.
In a good way. A story of pioneering, relationships, and an AI who might just get her own way.

$2.99 ebook, $5.99 print

I have a few of these hard sci-fi novelettes out now – Problem Landing, Load-Bearing Member, Eyes to the Height, so planning to put together another collection later in the year, time allowing.