Category Archives: Science Fiction

“Impossible Hope” Short Story Anthology is Released!

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A few months back, my friend and fellow author William Joseph Roberts let me know about an anthology being put together for a charitable cause. The Impossible Hope anthology came together as a means of promoting and supporting the medical GoFundMe for Bonnie Oliver, who’s suffering from a number of issues that require specialized treatment. This anthology is available in digital format to any who donate to the GoFundMe, and will also be available in a physical release sometime soon. Please consider supporting the GoFundMe, or at least spreading the word by sharing links and posting about it. Prayers and well-wishes are needed and appreciated, as well.

The theme of Impossible Hope was inspirational stories, stories that people could take hope from. There was no genre limitation, so the stories ran the gambit from nonfiction to fiction, literary to speculative. Since I can’t help but write speculative fiction, my story “Blue Pearls” was a modern-day / near-future fantasy about a deep dive worker operating out of Ago Bay in the part of Japan where they have a lot of pearl beds.

During his short tenure there my protagonist has managed to befriend a mermaid, who brings him a gift of pearls. But, before he can take the offered gift, disaster strikes. If they’re going to survive, they’ll have to work together. It’s a short piece, a little longer than what some would consider flash fiction (1,000 words or less) but not by much. In its original form a few years ago, it was short-listed for Flash Fiction Online, but ultimately didn’t make the cut for a variety of reasons, one of them being the sheer amount of grammar and spelling issues I hadn’t noticed in my muse-fueled haze of drafting and editing. The other issues with it required me to expand the story into the form you will find in the anthology. I’m happy with how it turned out, including the ending that’s a little open-ended. Depending on if you’re a glass half-full or half-empty kind of person, it’ll have a different result.

Yesterday, a few of us got together on a podcast hosted by Ben Wheeler and April Freeman, to talk about our stories and what inspired us to write them and to contribute to the anthology. It’s about 43 minutes, and was a lot of fun:

In the anthology, you will find the following stories by the following authors:

Do Something – Logan Lewis

Battle Buddy – Tom Rogneby

Queen’s Gambit – David Freiberg

Glastonbury Abbey – Josh Griffing

Four Funerals and a Wedding – L. Jagi Lamplighter

A Random World of Delta Capricorni – John C Wright

Shoulders of Giants – Dave Higgins

Sir Ronan and the Smooth Road – Frank Luke

Buddy – William Joseph Roberts

Bullies and Soggy Soup Bones – Woelf Dietrich

Battle Within – Musaab Sultan

Take My Breath Away – Sam M. Phillips

Ghosts of Camlan Hill – Ben Wheeler

Moulin Rouge’s Last Secret – Denton Salle

Life on the Fringe – B. Michael Stevens

Blue Pearls – Benjamin Tyler Smith

The Other Side – Heather Hood

Invisible Battles – R.J. Ladon

With Royal Beauty Bright – Nicholas Arkison

The Switchman’s lantern – James Pyles

The Jim Baen Memorial Award Collection is Here!

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If any of you know me, you know I don’t read as much science fiction as I do fantasy, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love a good space or cyberpunk jaunt. I’m also interested in writing more science fiction of my own, and what better way to do that than with a contest motivator?

Enter The Jim Baen Memorial Award: The First Decade. It is a collection of winning short stories from the Jim Baen Memorial Award contest that William Ledbetter and Baen Books host every year, in honor of positive science fiction and the late and great Jim Baen.

I’ll be enjoying, then studying, these stories over the next few weeks, so expect at least a few posts about it, including a review of the book overall. I’m impressed with what little I’ve skimmed so far. I regret to say I don’t recognize many of the names off the bat (Again, not really the genre I’ve spent much time reading in recent years), but I do recognize Brad Torgerson. I loved The Chaplain’s War, so I’ve high hopes for his short story “Gemini XVII.”

Goals for the Week Ending 02-16-14

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Starting today, every Monday there will be a post of my goals for the current week. This will include writing goals as well as reading goals. Reading is as important to a writer as writing, for both are learning experiences that help us to grow in our craft.

Or, so I like to think. Anyway, on to the goals!

Writing Goals (Any titles listed are working titles):

  • Write “Fallout Ariel”, a flash fiction story of a technical diver meeting a mermaid at the outset of nuclear war. (1,000 words or less)
  • Write a flash fiction piece for the Kazka 713 “Journeys” flash fiction contest. (1,000 words or less)
  • Write “Songs of Fate”, a fantasy short story for Crossed Genres‘ “music” theme. (4,000 words or less)
  • Write “What Use, This Strength?”, a short story for Penumbra‘s “superhero” theme. (3,500 words or less)
  • Write “Interstellar Explorers”, a science fiction short story about human prospectors discovering – and dealing with – a pre-spaceflight alien race that is very warlike and will be a threat if they do reach the stars. (6,000 words or less)
  • Write outline for the second draft of “Into the Wastes”, a fantasy novel about a company of crusaders sent into their kingdom’s northern hinterlands to deal with one threat, only to discover multiple threats.

Reading Goals:

  • Read each of the five stories that Daily Science Fiction puts out this week.  It’s free to subscribe, so I highly recommend it.  They put out many wonderful stories of varying sizes, shapes, and stripes.
  • Re-read my notes for “The Wastes” and lay the groundwork for a second draft.
  • Re-read portions of Elizabeth Haydon’s Symphony of Ages series, mostly for how she incorporates music into her writing.  This will be important for my own musically-themed stories.  Plus, it’s a good series!

“Second Thanksgiving” Rewrite Request

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A few months ago I sent a flash fiction piece called “Second Thanksgiving” to Anassa Publications for their “Existence on Mars” anthology (Photo below taken from their site, done by MK).  It was basically a retelling of the First Thanksgiving where the Pilgrims and the American Indians met and found a way to coexist, at least for a time, but the native Martians are not what you expect…

Anyway, I just heard back today that they want the story to be rewritten, but that they will otherwise accept it.  This is an interesting challenge, as I’ve never been asked to rewrite something before.  Minor edits, yes, but major scene changes?  I’ve got to get to work on this, but it could be fun!

Photo by MK (solely for inspiration)

“The Littlest of Sparrows” is Deemed… Honorable?

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IFWA

My science fiction short story “The Littlest of Sparrows” won itself a place in the 2013 “In Places Between” Contest hosted by the Imaginative Fiction Writers Association (IFWA).  There were more than a hundred submissions and, in the end, a total of eight winners.  The story ranked as one of the five Honorable Mentions, which is a great accomplishment for the tale.

Thank you very much, IFWA!