Sci-Fi, Thrillers, Contemporary
The list of nominees for the upcoming Sir Julius Vogel Awards is now available. I’m honoured to have my name among some fine company.
I’ll be attending the awards on June 5th in Wellington at Au Contraire. Now, it may not seem obvious, but I have in fact never attended a Sci Fi Con. I suspect I’m in for a fast education.
Anyone have any tips on etiquette, behaviours and mores?
My story “The Old Fighting Goose” made it to the recently announced James White Award Longlist. I can mention this now because the blind judging has been completed and the story didn’t get on the shortlist. With over 350 entries, I’m pleased to have at least reached the last 22.
Best of luck to the finalists for the winners’ announcement at the BSFA Awards Ceremony in Manchester over Easter.
This is the last time I’m allowed to enter. From the rules: “The James White Award Short Story Competition is open only to non-professional writers.” The award is an annual contest and with a forthcoming publication this August I will qualify for professional status and lose eligibility for next year. Still it has been fun entering each year.
Now, editors, watch out. “The Old Fighting Goose” will be landing in your inbox soon.
My story “The Root Bridges of Haemae” is out now in Issue 87 of Australia’s Aurealis Magazine, edited by the renowned Dirk Strasser.
Described as “a resonant off-world story featuring a truly alien culture”, young alien Ribolee struggles with human and alien relationships.
This story made last semi-finalist in the Writers of the Future contest. I’m pleased that it’s found a home, especially with Aurealis.
The full issue includes stories by Ian Bell and Deborah Sheldon, as well as interviews and reviews. Available from Smashwords for $US2.99.
Aurealis is expanding. For a long time the publication had been restricted to submissions from Australian and New Zealand contributors, but now it’s going global.
Here’s the story’s opening:
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Human females survive the birth of their children.
Astonishing.
Ribolee ran this revelation around in her head again and again as she walked home from their camp.
Human females survive the birth.
And not only that, they sometimes have just one child. Imagine. A single child. How could that be? How could a species come to be with such a clear hindrance to its own survival?
Around her, the jungle dripped. The midday rains had been shorter today. She liked this time of year: summer almost here, but still cooler and the rains diminishing. The full seasons were far wilder: the dry of summer when the ground became bristl
ing and crackly, the leaves darkened and swelled, animals howled and rushed; the wet chill of winter when the rivers burgeoned, the ground became a swamp and the rain could last for suns on end.
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I’m lucky enough to have my story complemented by a wonderful illustration by Dion Hamill. Thanks Dion.
There is the vague possibility of my getting onto the ballot for the Sir Julius Vogel Awards – New Zealand’s Science Fiction awards for a couple of stories: The Molenstraat Music Festival in Asimov’s, and The Harpsichord Elf in Capricious. The process works by the stories with the most nominations go on the ballot.
So, if any of you happen to have read either or both of the stories (and I’m happy to send you copies if you haven’t 
), and you have a moment, email the details to
sjv_awards@sffanz.org.nz
asking to nominate the story (one story per email).The nominations close on February 28th (which will be the 27th, American friends living across the dateline).
Award website:http://www.sffanz.org.nz/sjv/sjvAwards.shtml
Details to send:
Title: The Molenstraat Music Festival
Author: Sean Monaghan
Category: Novelette or Novella
Published: Septmeber 2015
Published in: Asimov’s science fiction
Full details here: http://www.asimovs.com
Category: Professional awards
Science fiction
Nominated by [your contact details]
Title: The Harpsichord Elf
Author: Sean Monaghan
Category: Short Story
Published: 2015
Published in: Capricious
Full details here: http://www.capricioussf.org/2015/09/issue-1-available-now/
Category: Professional awards
Science Fiction
Nominated by [your contact details]
Thank you so much.
It’s been a little while since I’ve had any external publication news. My short story “Conductive and Flammable” has just come out in the latest issue of takahē.
Recently widowed, Beth’s dealing with a teenage son, a complicated estate and a neighbour who’s constantly burning stinky garden waste right at her back fence.
takahē has an enduring history in New Zealand literature (as you see, it’s up to issue 85) and I’m honored to be published there again. Thanks to fiction editor Karen Zelas for taking my story.
I’m thrilled that my story “Penny of Tharsis Montes” is one of the three winners of the innaugural Amazing Stories Gernsback Writing Contest.
The contest asked writers to visualize how the solar system would look in 250 years time. Mine ended up set on a somewhat terraformed Mars (hence Tharsis Montes).
The story will be published in the first issue of the Amazing Stories Bi-annual anthology early next year. Can’t wait.
My story “The Harpsichord Elf” appears in the September issue of Capricious, a new magazine of literary speculative fiction and criticism, edited by A.C. Buchanan. The wonderful cover art is by Anastasia (Mircha) Astasheva. The magazine is available for download free download. Subscriptions are available.
The story is perhaps slipstream (a little bit fantasy, a little bit sci-fi), and perhaps dovetails into “The Molenstraat Music Festival” in a way… well, with some musical themes there at least.
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The opening paragraphs go something like this:
As Shev clawed his way through the ruined floorboards into the music room, he got a splinter in his thumb. Still waist-deep in the hole he pulled the splinter with his teeth. He sucked on the sore thumb for a moment.
Somewhere deeper in the structure someone shouted.
“You can’t be in here,” a cello said. Rosewood and yew, it leant back in a stand. Out of tune.
“Quiet you,” Shev forced his way out onto the floor.
My short story “Distractions” is out now in Perihelion.
A wonderful cover by Hardy Fowler – “Taking a five minute break, a mecha pilot enjoys a quiet reverie in this secluded forest on the third planet from the sun.” Feels cool to have one of my stories hidden behind such a fabulous illustration.
This is a lighter one than my recent Asimov’s story – Robert’s boss Julianne Kette will stop at nothing to get her bounty, even if it means dragging him through hell to get it.
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Frustrated that I could only return to the cafe with bad news, I beat my way back along the dusty street. Kette would not be pleased.
Some screaming kids ran out from between buildings, a hoop robot chasing them. The thing had little pincers and zappers around its circumference. It fired barbs at them
Laughing, the kids ploughed through traffic, oblivious to the enormous trucks and skimmers speeding along. Sirens blared and the hoop robot stopped at the sidewalk’s edge.
I tascered the thin little machine and took it with me.
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My thanks again to editor Sam Bellotto Jr., for publishing another one of my quirky pieces.
My novelette “The Molenstraat Music Festival” has just been published in the September issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. It’s a story of a far future that, among advanced technology, still has time for art.
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“I’m Tamsin Birchall.” She stepped down from the vehicle. She was tall, thin-legged and wasp-waisted. She’d had work done, but then everybody did these days, didn’t they? She was wearing a blue single-piece dress that seemed to wrap around her legs almost like slacks as she walked. Her hips swayed, but her shoulders stayed steady. She could be a dancer.
“I can help you?” Clancy said. He pointed back the way they’d come. “Stay on that road for another six or seven miles you’ll come to a nice, isolated beach. The water’s a long way down now, with the dry, but it’s still pleasant enough. The trees grow down to the sand’s edge, and there are some grassy picnic spots. Another ten miles on, up Freyberg Road, there’s a rooming house.”
“It’s not directions I’m looking for.”
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I’m thrilled and honored to be sharing the table of contents with science fiction luminaries once again. Brenda Cooper!, Jason Sanford, Vylar Kaftan, among others.
I’m also honored that Asimov’s editor Sheila Williams saw something in my little story. Thanks.
Strangelet Journal is a new publication, and their first issue (number 0) includes my story “The Man with Fountain Fingers”.
It’s a short piece I initially wrote thinking of a local short story contest, so it’s kind of a mix of literary and science fantasy. Or is that urban fantasy? Or something else? I sure know when I write hard sci-fi, but sometimes I don’t know exactly how to classify some of my other stories. Anyway, the editor told me the story exemplified what they were looking for, so sometimes I guess it’s a matter of finding the right match of story with publication. I think it fits well in its new home.
It’s available both in paperback and on Kindle from Amazon.
Sean Monaghan - Writer 