My mainstream short story, "The Missing Elephant" is up today in CommuterLit. (Free to read)
It was originally published in They Have to Take You In anthology, Ursula Pflug, ed., Hidden Brook Press, 2014 and reprinted in Costal Shelf Issue #1, Nov 20, 2020.
This is an "Alan" story from my series about life in the 1960s, this one about things one did not talk about and the overwhelming power of denial.
Hosts Joe Mahoney and Mark A. Rayner invited me to come on Re-Creative, the podcast about art and writing that inspire writers. I took a long time to think about which writer or artist had had a big impact on me, but they had already talked about Den Valdron's The Mermaid's Tale and Douglas Adams, and I was debating amongst so many other possibilities (Terry Pratchett, Samual Marchbanks, Dave Duncan, Guy Gavriel Kay, Shane Koyzan, Lois McMaster Bujold, etc etc) that I just couldn't focus: until I read R. F. Kuang's Yellowface (See my text review). I could not shut up about how brilliant and relevant Yellowface is, a must-read for every aspiring writer, so that became the natural topic to propose to Mohoney and Rayner.
We also talk about a bit about my writing, editing, and breakfast.
My short story "Weathering" was reprinted in Daikaiju #19.
https://www.daikaijuzine.org/
"Weathering" originally appeared in Lamplit Underground #4, Sept 2020, pp.12-19.
Reviews of Kyber by Chadwick Ginther, and Shared World by Ball, Chomichuk, Gillespie and Ginter, Ottawa Review of Books, Sept 15, 2024. Preprint in The N3F Review of Books, July 2024.
My short story, "Inuksuk",has been reprinted in Best of Metastellar Year 3, September 2024, pp. 60-77.
The story originally appeared in Polar Borealis #15 (June 2020) pp 43-55 and reprinted in Metastellar, May 31, 2023.
Two of my drabbles, "Pillow Talk" and "Pepermints", have been reprinted in Siren's Call #66 Copies of the magazine are free to download at http://www.sirenscallpublications.com/pdfs/SirensCallEZine_Summer2024.pdf
My flash fiction "Fami's Watch" was podcast on AntipodeanSF July 14 and is available at: https://antisf.libsyn.com/ My story comes at about minute 6 (intro at minute 5) into the podcast. The story was originally published in Polar Borealis #20 (2021), and reprinted in AntipodeanSF #301 (2023).
My short story, "Sermon on the Mount" and my drabble "Deja Vu" were published in the anthology, A Stich in Space Time: Time Travel Stories, edited by Jay Chakravarti, is out from Culture Pulp Press, July 2024.
"Sermon on the Mount" originally appeared in On Spec Magazine #106, Vol 28 (3) (January, 2018) and "Deja Vu" originally appeared in ScribesMicro #31 (July 15, 2023).
Epub from https://www.lulu.com/shop/jay-chakravarti/a-stitch-in-spacetime/ebook/product-2m5898q.html
Paperback from https://www.lulu.com/shop/jay-chakravarti/a-stitch-in-spacetime/paperback/product-e786k52.html
Fred Gambino’s first novel, Dark Shepard, launched May 14th from the award-winning UK publisher, Newcon Press. Dark Shepard, the novel, is not to be confused with The Art of Fred Gambino: Dark Shepard, his 2014 art book from Titan Books. (Fred is a famous book cover artist and Hollywood/game conceptual designer and has been working on the Dark Shepard universe for decades.) The book is brilliant and the most cinematic novel I’ve ever edited&emdash;if somebody doesn’t pick this up as the next movie franchise, they’re missing a sure thing. I mean, he’s already done the movie trailers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aettbKa5sws
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmvq3pSx1Xs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VpCVSleFd4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwjFhaQ5tx8
My review of Shadow Matter is now up at Ottawa Review of Books.
May 7, 2024 was the official launch of the late great Dave Duncan's novel, The Traitor's Son, which I edited and shepherded through to publication on his behalf.
The Traitor’s Son is one of Dave’s few science fiction novels, and his most political. It’s about a narcissistic leadership that knows the (distant colony) world is dying but hopes not in their lifetimes and continues to ignore the problem for their personal enrichment. It’s a pretty obvious allegory, but wrapped in a daring-do adventure novel.
It’s also about people’s assumptions about inherited identities and how that can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The launch was held in Calgary in the 300+ seat Patricia A. Whelan Performance Hall in the main branch of the public library.
I reviewed The Downloaded for The Ottawa Review of Books. Given I was the editor on The Traitor's Son I can't really review it for ORB but can say here I thought it up to Duncan's usual high standards.
Duncan's next book, Corridor to Nightmare will launch Saturday, August 17, at Calgary's When Words Collide convention.
My flash fiction, "Garbage In, Garbage Out", was published in the Summer 2024 issue of Sci-fi Lampoon (May 5, 2024). It is another in my series about Fami and his AI Watch.
