Tag: science fiction

Habitat – Young adult novel available on Kindle and elsewhere

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

My young adult/middle grade (as you will) novel Habitat is now available through Triple V Publishing – on Kindle and other ebook sites. $2.99 download, and I’m working on a POD version which should be out soon.

“Seve Brigham’s dream opportunity – a cadetship to work on the huge orbiting Habitat – is about to turn bad. Very bad. The station is an unfinished mess: behind schedule and under-staffed. Then there’s the alien voice in Seve’s head. And thieves are trying to steal the whole station. Seve needs to look sharp and think fast.”

Habitat is a backlist title. Originally published on BookHabit – one of the first ebook sites. BookHabit sold it’s inventory to SmashWords, but at the time I was busy with other things (and disappointed with the lack of sales – zero – and the complicated set of hoops to jump through to format it for SmashWords), so it fell into limbo.

Of late I’ve been learning about formatting – seriously not that big of a deal – and about indie publishing. With my newly edited novel Rotations (more on that soon) just released from Lucky Bat Books, now seemed like a good time to bring Habitat back to light.

3am, Persledt Eight – new pulp sci-fi story by Len Stone

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been writing some pulp stories under the name Len Stone. “3am, Persledt Eight” is a hard sci-fi romp that twists and turns a little. This is the first of several Bren Taylor stories – Taylor is a fix-it man, but sometimes gets more than he’s bargained for. The story is available now as an ebook through Triple V Publishing – 99 cents. It’s a little over 8000 words. It starts like this:

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“Situation?” I said as I picked up the phone. No one calls at 3am unless there’s a problem. I have no family left so no heart attack was worth disturbing my sleep.
“Taylor?” the voice said. Joe.
“Situation?” I said again. He knew it was me. Making an urgent call then messing around did not endear me. I could be sleeping.
“The BonOrbit facility. A patient ran amok and now they’re trapped.”

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Update, December 16 – changed the cover – the first one felt a bit washed out. This one is grainier, but the colours are more dramatic.

Deadstick – Short story for 99 cents at Smashwords

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 3 Comments

Triple V’s first short story ebook release – Deadstick – is now up at Smashwords. Read the first 20% free.

“Deadstick” came from a fairy story I’d conceived, about a burning sailing ship running aground off a fairy village and the problems ensuing. A very different thing to how this dieselpunk story turned out. For a moment I thought of having a pair of stories, one fantasy and one sci-fi, both using that same device. This story, however, wrote itself very quickly, while the fairy one still sits in my head, not quite ready to pour forth. Perhaps it will come to me one day.

Deadstick was originally published in the Static Movement anthology Oil.

Two stories in Jake’s Monthly…

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment


Static Movement regular Jake Johnson has put together the first edition of a serial online anthology – Jake’s Monthly: Science Fiction. It’s got two of my stories in – “Where There’s Water”, and a story under the byline Michael Shone – “Katie Stumbled” (previously published in the Static Movement Anthology Bounty Hunter).

Quite a roster of stories in the anthology – , Congregation by Dorothy Davies, Nova by Joe Jablonski, Anomaly by Jay Faulkner, Reality TV by T. Fox Dunham, The Memorial by Ron Koppelberger, Firstfather by Tom Wells, Hylo by Tom Wells, Lemon Pi by John H. Dromey, The Third Crime’s a Charm by John H. Dromey, The Last Singularity by Ran Cartwright, THE POLY UNSATURATED, QUICK DISSOLVING, FAST ACTING, PLEASANT TASTING GREEN AND PURPLE ADVENTURES OF WOMYNGRRL AND boyman by David Perlmutter, The David Effect by Mike Jansen, Eye of the Beholder by Danica Green. Hmm, lots of Static Movement regulars in there. I think that’s around 200 pages? Well, 60,000 odd words. It’s a .99c eBook at Smashwords. That’s gotta be good value – I’d buy a single short story for .99c there.

I am Nano in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #52

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

My story “I am Nano” has just appeared in Australia’s premier print Sci-Fi magazine Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. A fun little piece of nano (well, flash) fiction. Thanks to editor David Kernot for his help with working on the story.

ASIM has been gaining a great reputation and a good following. It’ll also be available in eBook formats soon – at a great price.

Here are the opening words:
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“We cannot be self-aware,” LM said. “There are simply insufficient connections for us to realise anything approximating consciousness.” LM inserted his probe through the cell wall to take a sample. He took a sample every 100 milliseconds.
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Pan Am 617 Heavy – conclusion

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 2 Comments

And so my dieselpunk novella serialization comes to a close with part 2 of Pan Am Historic Flight 1. It’s been fun to watch this come out piece by piece over the last few weeks.
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Dominic ducked back in as a cloud of cinders and soot blew into the cabin. He looked out again. Keyshaa hadn’t moved. Tying the rope to the door handle, he dove into the water, letting the big plane cruise off alone.

“Keyshaa,” he called when he surfaced. She wasn’t far away, still leaning on the floatvest. He grabbed the sinking rope and kicked for her.
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If you’re looking to start at the beginning, then read through each of the parts, start here. Again, my thanks to Don Webb and the team at Bewildering Stories for taking the novella on, in particular their encouragement to develop what started out as a much shorter piece.

Pan Am 617 Heavy, parts 6 and 7

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 1 Comment

A bonus this week – two chapters of Pan Am 617 Heavy – Messerschmitt Dogfight and Pan Am Historic Flight 1 (pt.1). Just one more part after this.
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“They’re waiting,” Dominic said, pointing to the open door, lit by a blinding spotlight.

“Throw out your weapons,” someone shouted from outside. Dominic imagined a semi-circle of them, all with their guns trained on the door.

“Well,” Keyshaa said, “that’s it, then.”
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I know there’s no Messerschmitt in the picture, but these were the models I found. It’s been fun doing the illustrations for each part of the story – even if they sometimes feel a bit rough.

Pan Am 617 Heavy, pt. 5 (chapter 3, part 2)

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 2 Comments

Part two of chapter three “Particle Magnetron” is out now. Down in the tunnels below the atoll’s surface, Dominic and Keyshaa find more surprises.

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Dominic heard the sound of the flare striking the concrete floor. He glanced back and could see the outline of the tunnel roof. The flare crackled as it lit, throwing light around them.

“Come on,” Keyshaa said. She ran off.

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Pan Am 617 Heavy, pt. 3

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 3 Comments

Part Three is out now.

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The last red of the sunset echoed across the sky as Keyshaa pointed ahead. They’d been following the running lights from the glider, and beyond, Dominic could see brighter lights lower down, glinting on the surface.

“A ship?” Dominic said. He was cold. He guessed that they were already below three thousand feet. That didn’t give them much glide room before they splashed into the dark ocean.

“Maybe the atoll.”

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