Tag: science fiction novella

The Yearbook, and other monsters

~ 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

Goldie shows up again

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

My novella “Goldie”, which was the cover story in Asimov’s January/February 2022 has been reprinted, again, this time in Neil Clarke‘s Forever Magazine.

This is its second reprint outing, following an appearance in Allan Kaster’s The Year’s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 7 last year.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a great opportunity to pick up the story, along with “Jaunt” by Ken Liu, and “The Empty” by Ray Nayler. Man, I’m humbled by that company that’s for sure. The excellent cover art is by Ron Guyatt. At $2.99 for the ebook of the issue, it’s an awesome deal.

While I’m mentioning the story, I’ll note that it placed second in Asimov’s annual readers’ poll. Who remembers the second place getter, right? So I’ll mention that first place went to Kristine Kathryn Rusch, who is pretty much the champion of science fiction novellas. See her (now completed) Novella Kickstarter here – which funded tremenously well and pretty quickly. Yeah, she really knows her stuff with novellas.

Goldie has always been close to my heart, so it’s great to see her out and about strutting her stuff once again.

 

In other news, I have a new contemporary fantasy story out now – “Everything Has Cupboards”. A quirkly little piece that was fun to write and fun to put out. Here’s the Universal book link, though it may take a few days to populate.

Everything Has Cupboards

Learning her way around the office at her new job, Milly discovers a locked cupboard door. Well that just fascinates Milly. As a child she explored everything, and that desire stayed with her.

Sometimes her curiosity creates problems. Mostly, though it creates more curiosity.

This time, though, things might just get out of hand.

A simple, fantastical short story that asks: Do we really know ourselves?

As usual $2.99 for the ebook, and $6.99 for the print book. Drop me a line if you’d like a code for a free one (which will come from Bookfunnel, via Shopify).

Also, out just a few days back, book 11 in the Captain Arlon Stoddard Series 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.

 

ebook for $5.99, and in print for $16.99

 

Thanks for reading. More news in a couple of weeks.

Sean

p.s. Goldie is named for her remarkable amber eyes (which Dominic Harmon captured so well in the original cover illustration), but also, as a nod to my New Zealand homeland, after C.F. Goldie, an artist of enduring renown.