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Stories, Podcasts, Interviews, and Articles, 2020:
Stories, Podcasts, Interviews, and Articles, 2020:
Stories, Podcasts, Interviews, and Articles, 2020:
New Story
October 30, 2020, in Science Fiction
“This Ends in Violence or It Never Ends”
by Michael Ray
I am the eighth instance of myself. I’m alone. No one’s supervised my decanting. Where are they all?
— Zac? I have decanted you because I have a job for you —
Sever is the crew interface. Why is it giving me an assignment?
— There is a system intrusion, Zac —
“Out here? In the deep dark of interstellar space?”
— Please focus Zac —
“And my memories haven’t flooded back yet.”
— And before they do, there is this intrusion. Your assignment is to terminate the intrusion. —
New Poem
October 23, 2020, in Fantasy
“Zephyr’s Fair Child”, by Scott J. Couturier
A small, illustrated poem for the elusive fairy spirits of the Autumn and Hallowe’en season
Here for a Hallowe’en treat is this year’s Hallowe’en Ambience video, 2020,
from our videographer, Emily.
∼ A bubbling cauldron, crackling fire, intermittent thunderstorms, and spooky howling winds ∼
New Story
August 23, 2020, in Science Fiction
“Glory Whales”
by Marc A. Criley
Blazing twenty kilometers to port was our interstellar visitor, comet 172I/DSCS, churning slow-motion glitter. Ripples, curlicues, backlit streamers of gray and silver rain. Crepuscular cosmic rays and the nebulous electric blue glow of the ion tail.
Deep Space Comet Survey astronomers had spotted it crossing Jupiter’s orbit, The comet’s near-miss of Mars had altered its course. It would end its long journey between the stars with a dive into the Sun.
We’d been asked to pull up alongside for some data collection and to grab a sample if we thought it safe. As if we would miss a chance to greet this rare and temporary visitor to our solar system. And of course it would be safe.
a New Book review
Dominion
An Anthology of Speculative Fiction from Africa and the African Diaspora
edited by
Zelda Knight & Ekpeki Oghenechovwe Donald
Reviewed by Leena Naidoo, based on an advanced reader copy.
August 17,, 2020,
This isn’t an anthology for the faint-hearted or those looking for neatly-packed stories with happy ever afters or even a ‘proper’ ending. It’s gritty’ with lots of triggers, especially if you’re a woman or identify as female. This anthology is for those searching for balance and understanding of: actions and consequences, modern life and traditional ways, superstitions and alien interference. It’s for those who scorn package travel tours and seek their own adventures, knowing they may often be disappointed, but just as often rewarded with a gem, a glimpse of a mystery and a greater view of what’s out there.
a New Book review
Forest of Souls
by Lori M. Lee
July 11, 2020,
Sirscha Ashwyn is a royal spy in training…
Forest of Souls, author Lori M. Lee’s third and most ambitious novel to date, is a showcase of well-loved Young Adult Fantasy staples as well as all the best ways in which the genre continues to develop and grow. Engaging through to its hair-raising conclusion, where it gently leads the reader right over the edge of a cliffhanger and leaves them wishing for more.
Forest of Souls is a 2020 Junior Library Guild selection and the first in Lori’s Shamanborn series.
New Story
For June 30, 2020,
“The Last Rosy-Fingered Dawn“
by Paul Celmer
Bowman stared out, shielding his eyes against the dust swirling over the ramparts of New Ilium’s corroding blast wall. He’d never seen anything but devastation in all his years of trudging supplies to the top of the mega-city’s colossal wall. But now…
An Encore Story
For May 28, 2020,
we have in Science Fiction
“DOWN IN THE DEEPFLUX”, by Jake West
Chaos was this planet’s steady state. The over-stressed surface could never keep up with the intense and rapid fluctuations of its Cepheid variable star, burning furiously enough to raise sweat on Paxton’s forehead through his mutable-suit.
Paxton and his hi-profile client were at the equator, the region of highest energy-input and greatest instability, to capture a Caterwaul.
But when he reviewed logged data on his helmet display – of a man opening his suit to the caustic atmosphere, gale-force winds, and oven-like heat, and laughing while he did so, with a woman’s bare hand on his shoulder, Paxton remembered the whispered talk of things called Deepwalkers.
This story first appeared in the January 2005 issue of Rogue Worlds online magazine, edited by Doyle Wilmoth Jr.
an Encore Story
April 17, 2020,
in Fantasy
by Liam Hogan
If you tip water into my mouth, I will drink. If you place a morsel of food in my mouth, I will chew and swallow. These are involuntary actions. Necessary, but of no importance. They do not distract me from my purpose, which is to think.
I was trained from an early age to memorise, calculate, compute. My brain has been honed into a perfect machine, dedicated to solving the King’s problems
I do not need light to think. I do not need soft beds, or fresh air, or music. I operate in a room deep beneath the castle. The single entrance is kept locked.
When I have no problems to solve I do little other than sleep.
I woke from such a sleep as the cellar door creaked open.
First read live at Liars’ League, 2009, subsequently published in Arachne Press’s “Liberty Tales”, 2016.
New Story
For March 31, 2020,
in Stories for Young People of All Ages
“Tea and Sanctuaries”
by Hannah Montine
Crown Prince Ferdinand was shaking. Doom was upon him. His parents’ royal carriage was creaking to a dusty and ominous stop before his door. They had laid waste to every princess wishing to wed him. They had their idea of perfection, and nothing else would do. Soon their disapproving forms would loom over him, frowning down upon his recently-wedded bliss. What fault might they imagine in his beloved Regina?
New Science Article in
Science News and Information
“Coronavirus Considerations” by Douglas Dluzen, PhD.
March 11, 2019,
What We Know and What We Can Do
This article provides a short history of the virus, links to trustworthy sites for more information, symptoms to watch for and to distinguish it from the flu, and some of the latest developments, including the difficulties and limitations that have been placed upon our health professionals.
There is solid, science-based information.
New Story
For Leap day February 29, of leap year 2020,
“Cows in Space”
by J. Drake
Back then ‘a course, nobody knew about ‘em. Out in space they look kinda hazy, so we figure there might always have been a few about, just blendin’ in with interstellar clouds. Once they started their great migration though, leapin’ over the Great Nebula Wall, there were great big incandescent herds of ‘em, streamin’ out across our local territories ‘til we couldn’t help but notice. ‘Specially once they found planets they liked. Then they kinda condensed to a more physically palpable form you might say, and nonchalantly set to grazin’.
Well what could that lead to but peace and quiet?
New Story
January 31, 2020, in Fantasy
“Cloud Tower Rising”
by Ian Pohl
lead and end illustrations by Artur Rosa
Pulling his seeing-glass from his pack and surveying the valley, Devlin was astonished. He’d expected a wasteland. Instead there were rich farmlands. Veiled by wood smoke, he saw not rubble but shops and homes.
He looked further, to the cumulus clouds. A sparkle caught his eye. He glimpsed white walls and slender towers of ivory and pearl rising with the blossoming cloud.
A cloud castle — a wizard’s stronghold. It had survived, and it looked unscathed.
He loathed wizards, bleeding the land for generations, lighting innocents into screaming human candles, banishing rebels to the Demonic Planes. Their war amongst themselves left nothing save broken works in a haze of smoke and chaos.
But wizardly things fascinated him. He’d roamed far hunting for them. Most he sold. A few he kept — his far-seeing glass, his short sword that soaked up sunlight and struck blows like lightning.
Cloud castles held troves of such treasures, now free for the taking.