Category: fiction!

“Seeds of the Lotus” to appear in Shanghai Steam

At long last! A new Matty and the Mandroid story has been written, set among the Twelve Domed Cities of Mars.  The first two — “The Clone Wrangler’s Bride” and “Droidtown Blues” — are still available online for free-range reading.

This new anthology, SHANGHAI STEAM (a Wuxia/Steampunk mash-up) promises to be Awfully Good Fun.  A full table of contents has been revealed:

  • The Fivefold Proverbs of Zhen Xiaquan – Tim Ford
  • Qin Yun’s Mechanical Dragon and the Cricket Spies  – Amanda Clark
  • Moon-Flame Woman – Laurel Anne Hill
  • Love and Rockets at the Siege of Peking – K. H. Vaughan
  •  The Master and the Guest – Crystal Koo
  • Ming Jie and the Coffee Maker of Doom – Brent Nichols
  • A Hero Faces the Celestial Empire; A Death by Fire is Avenged by Water – Julia A. Rosenthal
  • Riding the Wind – William H. Keith
  • Mistress of the Pearl Dragon – Shen Braun
  • Song of My Heart – Jennifer Rahn
  •  Last Flight of the Lóng Qíshì – Emily Mah
  • Protection from Assassins – Frances Pauli
  • Seeds of the Lotus – Camille Alexa
  • The Ability of Lightness – Tim Reynolds
  • Fire in the Sky – Ray Dean
  • The Legend of Wong Heng Li – Frank Larnerd
  • Flying Devils – Derwin Mak
  • Legend of the Secret Masterpiece – Nick Tramdack
  • Jing Ke Before the Principle of Order – Minsoo Kang

 

Stories to appear in Ellery Queen’s & Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazines

ImageAfter a year or so of novelizing, I spent the first half of 2012 revelling — yes! revelling! — in short story writing.  Following, as it has, the long delicious slog of writing novels, shortfic feels self-indulgent, almost decadent.

Of course the side effect of spending some time on short form writing means I have a fair number of stories forthcoming in print hither and yon. Wuxia clones, virtual reality, rural apocalypse survivors, ghost dogs, beautiful alien babes from spaaaace . . . I’ve been splashing around in the genre fiction pools with no small amount of glee.

I’ve always been something of a non-traditionalist when it comes to genre Imageclassification and venue, so I’m very much looking forward to seeing my story “A Good Thing and a Right Thing” appear in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine about the same time my story “Light as Air and Death” will be coming out in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.

Of course it’s still me, so expect Ancient Norse gods, despondent gunslingers, Gold Rush madness and human sacrifice and archaeological ruins.

Now, back to novels.

To Strangers Seated on a Plane

My very short piece “To Strangers Seated on a Plane” arrived recently wrapped in plain brown paper like an oldfashioned naughty book. This was my contributor copy of ROBO-BOOK, a project of Bank-Heavy Press.

. . .To the gentleman in 7c:
I can only say thank you.
It’s a pleasure to sit behind a man
so attentive to hygiene. You smelled
good and clean and fresh and
that can’t be said of all our seat neighbors. . . .

Check out Bank-Heavy on their site, or participate in their Superduper Merchandise Fundraiser by going here. Also, they’re accepting poetry for their newest project, Kisses with Fishes, until July 31st.