Category: stories

It’s here! The End Has Come!

On By leiossIn New story!, short stories2 Comments
The End Has Come
The End Has Come

Whoohoo! It’s wild and free!

Today is the release date for The End Has Come, the last volume in the Apocalypse Triptych edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey, containing my story Wandering Star.

Here’s what it says on the cover:

Famine. Death. War. Pestilence. These are the harbingers of the biblical apocalypse, of the End of the World. In science fiction, the end is triggered by less figurative means: nuclear holocaust, biological warfare/pandemic, ecological disaster, or cosmological cataclysm.

But before any catastrophe, there are people who see it coming. During, there are heroes who fight against it. And after, there are the survivors who persevere and try to rebuild.

THE APOCALYPSE TRIPTYCH tells their stories.

My story, Wandering Star, is a bit of a funny one, because it’s not strictly about what happens after the apocalypse. It’s built of glimpses from both before and after the apocalypse, and is about loss – loss of the future, but also loss of the past.

The End Has Come contains new stories from the likes of Seanan McGuire, Elizabeth Bear, Ken Liu, Jonathan Mayberry, Nancy Kress, Charlie Jane Anders, Hugh Howey and loads more. At the moment it’s available in trade paperback and for Kindle from Amazon, with other ebook formats to follow on 1 August.

I hope you enjoy it.

Some inspiration: floating candle ceremonies

On By leiossIn ideas, images, inspiration, novelsLeave a comment

Here is some inspiration I’ve been using lately for a scene in Novel Project #3.

Hue City, central Vietnam: girls in traditional dresses float candles in the river in prayer for loved ones who have passed on.
Hue City, central Vietnam: girls in traditional dresses float candles in the river in prayer for loved ones who have passed on (National Geographic).

I’ve been looking at floating candle ceremonies from around the world.

Fenghuang, in China: people float candles in the river at Lunar New Year for good luck. The candles represent their wishes for the coming year.
Fenghuang, in China: people float candles in the river at Lunar New Year for good luck. The candles represent their wishes for the coming year.

There are so many different reasons for this beautiful gesture.

Floating candles to commemorate the bombing of Hiroshima (click on the picture to find out more)
Floating candles to commemorate the bombing of Hiroshima (click on the picture to find out more)

For expressing hope for the future, commemorating the past, or even just celebrating the present.

School children float candles on the Limmat River and eat gingerbread and drink hot punch to celebrate Christmas in Zurich, Switzerland, .
School children float candles on the Limmat River and eat gingerbread and drink hot punch to celebrate Christmas in Zurich, Switzerland.

New story: Wandering Star!

On By leiossIn New story!, short storiesLeave a comment

I have been sitting on this news for a long time, now, but I’m really thrilled to announce that my story Wandering Star, will be appearing in the third book of The Apocalypse Triptych, The End Has Come, edited by John Joseph Adams of Lightspeed Magazine, and Hugh Howey, author of the New York Times bestselling novels Wool, Shift, and Dust.

The End Has Come

Quite aside from the editors, there are some stellar names in the table of contents of this anthology, and the previous two Apocalypse anthologies have come out to great reviews.

Out on 1 May!

I really hope you enjoy it.

The Never Never Land

On By leiossIn ideas, inspiration, New story!, short stories, writingLeave a comment

knitting

How could this have slipped my mind? My only excuse is that I’ve been crafting a new story, so my brain has been very much off in another world entirely in the last couple of weeks.

On 3 February, the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild announced the table of contents of their upcoming anthology The Never Never Land, and my story Adventure Socks is in it!

Congratulations to everyone involved. The lineup is fantastic, and includes a bunch of authors I’m very proud to sit alongside, as well as some new names.

I have to thank my fiddle teacher, the extraordinarily gifted artist Jacqueline Bradley, for the inspiration for this one. She makes sculpture using familiar objects in quirky, unexpected and thought provoking ways. While this story is not a direct response to any specific piece of hers, the idea behind it sprang from a conversation we had and feels to me like it has perhaps captured a tiny spark of the homely, whimsical spirit of her work.

So far so good

On By leiossIn images, inspiration, short stories, stories, writingLeave a comment

I’ve just finished the second draft of a new short story – my first for 2015. I got it done in time for the February session of my writing group’s short story critiquing circle, and they gave me some excellent and very positive feedback. Now I need to let it sit for a bit, and maybe get one more set of eyes to run over it before I start sending it out into the world to find its way.

It feels good to have a new short just about ready to go, because I’ve been focussing a lot on novel projects recently. These offer a whole other kind of gratification, but they really are the long game. It’s very easy to feel like your writing career is going nowhere while you chip away at your novel-sized wordcount, or navigate your way through the slog of trying to find an agent or a publisher. Also, just from the perspective of writing satisfaction, the great ideas you want to get down take a lot longer to realise in novel form than in short form. This one only took a few days to knock out the first draft.

Plus, even though my trunk is largely empty right now for all the right reasons, it’s not good for it to stay that way for long. It feels good to start filling it up again.

Now, usually I have a really clear recollection of where the inspiration came from for a story. Usually it’s an image. But for some reason, even though I only started writing it two weeks ago, my recollection of where this one sprang from has all got a bit muddy. I think it might have changed direction somewhere along the way, and now I can’t remember what kicked it off.

So, in lieu of my source inspiration, have a picture of some beautiful art from Jack Pine Studios. It may be relevant!

Iris blue hand blown glass egg, Jack Pine Studio
Iris blue hand blown glass egg, Jack Pine Studio on Etsy

Reflections on 2014

On By leiossIn achieved, castle-in-the-air, progress, writing goals2 Comments

Happy new year! I hope 2014 was a good year for you, or at least had good bits. And here’s to 2015 being even better.

Here’s what I achieved in 2014:

I made 15 story submissions (which didn’t meet my target of 25, but I have a good excuse for that.)

I sold 5 stories! This beat my previous pattern of selling one per year, so I’m pretty chuffed. Three of them sold to the first place I subbed them to, which I’m also pretty chuffed about. And that’s my excuse for not making my target of 25 submissions. I ran out of stories to submit.

I made my first sale to a pro market.

I also got my first review! (And my second, and my third.)

I got an Honourable Mention for one of the stories I subbed to the Writers of the Future Competition.

I finally got Novel Project #1 into a state to start sending out to agents, and I wrote a synopsis (which I consider equivalent to having gained a new skill).

So what’s on the cards for 2015?

Find an agent for Novel Project #1.

Write (and sell!!) more short stories. I’m going to aim for 15 submissions this year. That’s a bit low, but my trunk is basically empty at the moment, so I’m going to have to write some before I can submit them. I think 15 is probably going to be a stretch.

Let’s aim high: I’d like to finish a first draft of Novel Project #3 or #4, and do substantial work on the other one.

Finish and polish up a few half-written stories and first drafts of novellas I have sitting in the trunk.

And here’s a couple of castle-in-the-air goals:

Win a writing competition.

Make another pro sale.

I’m also going to have a stab at learning another language. I’m going to try French!

Here’s hoping that 2015 will be a good year! I wish you every happiness and success with all your goals in the coming months.

Happy New Year 2015 by franky242, courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net
Happy New Year 2015 by franky242, courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

 

Using POV to untangle plot

On By leiossIn creative process, novels, writingLeave a comment

Tangled threads 2

 

A little while ago I decided I needed a clearer perspective on the villain’s story in Novel Project #3. So I sat down and plotted the story-so-far from his perspective. This proved to be an interesting exercise.

Humiliatingly, I discovered the plot actually didn’t work from his perspective. I had him on one side of the country on one day, then popping up on the other side of the country a few days later with no plausible reason for how he got there, or, worse, why he might have wanted to travel in the first place.

Learning No. 1: plotting your story from alternative viewpoints (even if the story is never told from these viewpoints), is a valuable tool for uncovering plot holes.

Then, I got stuck. I got to a point in the story where I couldn’t work out what should happen next. I knew where I wanted my heroine to end up, but there was a hefty gap between where she was and where she needed to be, and I couldn’t think of anything interesting to fill it. I had that sense of having to write some stuff to fill time before the next chunk of story started, and we all know what a mortal blow that is to plot.

I’d had a sense for a little while that my backstory needed more work, and that some of the plot points so far weren’t quite as convincing as they should be. And what do you know. When I went back and did the work on the backstory that it needed, my story came to life again. By understanding more about what was going on with my villain and a couple of the supporting characters, I understood what else was going on in my story that would galvanise the next chapter of action and excitement. I couldn’t see it before, because I was only looking at it from my heroine’s perspective, and she has no idea about this other stuff that’s going on.

Learning No. 2: Not everything important that is happening in your story is going to directly involve your protagonist, even if it does end up affecting her. Plotting your story from alternative viewpoints will enable you to understand the other currents flowing through your plot, and to know when and how their effects will manifest for your protagonist.

Music for an Ivory Violin – reviewed on Tangent!

On By leiossIn Review, short storiesLeave a comment
Aurealis #74
Aurealis #74

I’ve finally had a chance to do some catching up on stuff, and look what I found: Chuck Rothman has reviewed Aurealis #74 on Tangent Online! He says Music for an Ivory Violin is:

 … an interesting tale of a unique form of revenge that avoids some of the problems with revenge stories.

Well. That’s quite good to hear. Thanks, Chuck!

(I wonder what revenge story problems I’ve avoided?)

Coming up: reading & panel discussion at Conflux 10

On By leiossIn community, conventions, creative process, short storiesLeave a comment
Spectacular artwork for Conflux 10 by Shauna O'Meara
Spectacular artwork for Conflux 10 by Shauna O’Meara

Conflux is on this weekend!! This is the annual Canberra spec fic convention, and lucky for me it has a very strong focus on writing.

I’m participating in a couple of events:

  • On Saturday, 4 October at 12.0o, Simon Petrie will be launching his new collection of short fiction, Difficult Second Album, by Peggy Bright Books. At the launch, some of the other recent titles from PBB will be showcased, including Use Only As Directed. So I shall be doing a reading from “The Blue Djinn’s Wish”!
  • On Monday, 6 October at 4pm, I will be part of the Denouement – the Journey’s End panel with Richard Harland and Daniel O’Malley!

I’ll also be doing my bit to staff the CSFG table in the dealer’s room around lunchtime on Saturday & Sunday, so please come along & say hi!