Category: stories

No comments

The New Season by Graham J Darling

  By , ,

SF Canada member Graham J Darling has a short story, “The New Season” in Brain Games: Stories to Astonish. This anthology was published October 26, 2020 by Third Flatiron Publishing and also includes “The Disconnect” from SF Canada member Lisa Timpf.

Brain Games: Stories to Astonish is a fabulous collection of 27 short science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories involving killer apps, Rube Goldberg inventions, clever escapes, Greek mythology, mysterious space heists, and high-tech sorcery. The humor section gives us the inner workings of a MegaMind.

Graham J. “GrayJay” Darling has long been a voracious consumer of speculative literature. The first novel he ever read was Alice in Wonderland: after learning that by heart, he went on to sip from entire fields of such flowers of the imagination. Eventually he was moved to share the wonder with like-minded fans in clubs, conventions, productions and games. He now writes as fiction what the world isn’t ready for as fact, in parallel to his activities as a scientist and as a medieval reenactor.

Full TOC and more about Third Flatiron at thirdflatiron.com.

Order the e-book or paperback version of Brain Games: Stories to Astonish on Amazon.

No comments

Weathering and Age of Miracles by Robert Runté

  By , , ,

SF Canada member Robert Runté recently published two short stories. “Weathering” in the online journal Lamplit Underground [Vol. 4] and “Age of Miracles” in Canadian Shorts II.

“Weathering” is the story of a schoolgirl going about her day in a post-apocalyptic society at war. Lamplit Underground is an online journal, “devoted to all that is slightly odd, a touch off-putting.”

Read “Weathering” at lamplitunderground.com.

“Age of Miracles” is now in Canadian Shorts II (Mischievous Press, Oct 2020) which is a best-of collection of Canadian short fiction. “Age of Miracles” originally appeared in Strangers Among Us (Laska Media, 2016) and was shortlisted for an Aurora Award.

Canadian Shorts II – A Collection of Short Stories is a specially selected collection of short stories by established and emerging Canadian authors. Showcasing Canada’s diverse writing talent, there is a story for every reader.

From Literary Fiction to SciFi to Prairie Gothic, Canadian Shorts II unites some of our country’s diverse writing talent to defy 2020’s year of upheaval. From the depths of social isolation and societal upheaval, sixteen authors offer compelling stories of hope, failure, love, and sheer wonder at the workings of the world – with Bigfoot and a little alien abduction for fun.

Learn more about Canadian Shorts II at mischieviousbooks.com.

Order your copy via Amazon, Google, Smashwords, Apple, or Kobo.

Dr. Robert Runté is Senior Editor with EssentialEdits.ca, a retired professor (University of Lethbridge), and former Senior Editor for Five Rivers Publishing. As an academic, editor, reviewer, and organizer, Robert has been actively promoting Canadian SF for over forty years. He was a founding Director of NonCon, Context89, and SF Canada; and has served on the Boards of the Edmonton Science Fiction and Comic Arts Society, On Spec Magazine, Tesseract Books, and The Writers Guild of Alberta. In addition to dozens of conference papers, journal articles, book chapters, and a half dozen entries in the Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada , Robert has edited over 150 issues of various SF newsletters.

No comments

Stellar Evolutions Edited by Rhea Rose

  By , ,

SF Canada member Rhea Rose is the editor of a new anthology, Stellar Evolutions, now open to pre-release ebook orders. These short stories and poems were drawn from the first fifteen issues of fellow SF Canada member R. Graeme Cameron’s magazine Polar Borealis.

Oh, Canada! Welcome to this world-bending collection of speculative writing Canadian style. Between these boreal covers, a compilation of must-read fantastic fiction by trending and diverse authors will take readers to the next level of story discovery. New futures, fantasies and frightening realities become readers’ portals connecting yesterday’s print to tomorrow’s digital dreams. This gathering showcases stories and poetry by many award-winning, award-nominated, yet diverse authors’ and their best works, selected exclusively from Polar Borealis Magazine, a Canadian speculative fiction publication dedicated to discovering the finest ideas in a large land of divergent narratives. These stellar storytellers and poets find our common humanity, play with its evolution, evaluate the relentless tick-tock of technology and step into the seductive chill of starlight with only their imaginations to guide them against the spiralling foils of the unknown.

“A particularly interesting collection because it features emerging Canadian writers, covers a broad swath of Canadian speculative fiction, and includes as much poetry as prose.” —Robert Runte—Editor, critic, author of Canadian Science Fiction, an Introduction & List of Recommended Authors and more.

Learn more about Rhea at rheaerose.weebly.com.

Learn more about Graeme and Polar Borealis at polarborealis.ca.

Reserve your copy of Stellar Evolutions via Amazon.

No comments

Birthday Barbeque by Robert Runté

  By ,

SF Canada member Robert Runté was published, September 7, 2020 in Potato Soup Journal. “Birthday Barbeque” is a contemporary flash fiction story with a magic realism twist.

Snaps are simple of course, but this latest model had a pretty sophisticated built-in editing suite. Fortunately, it had an ‘easy’ setting for people like Grandpa. Software did everything for you. “See, Grandpa, you just have to remember to press this button, and move your finger over what you want to erase, and it’s gone.” 

Dr. Robert Runté is Senior Editor with EssentialEdits.ca, a retired professor (University of Lethbridge), and former Senior Editor for Five Rivers Publishing. As an academic, editor, reviewer, and organizer, Robert has been actively promoting Canadian SF for over forty years. He was a founding Director of NonCon, Context89, and SF Canada; and has served on the Boards of the Edmonton Science Fiction and Comic Arts Society, On Spec Magazine, Tesseract Books, and The Writers Guild of Alberta. In addition to dozens of conference papers, journal articles, book chapters, and a half dozen entries in the Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada, Robert has edited over 150 issues of various SF newsletters.

Read “Birthday Barbeque” at potatosoupjournal.com.

No comments

Death and The Mother by Melissa Yuan-Innes

  By , ,

Image by Richard Tennant

SF Canada member Melissa Yuan-Innes was published August 3, 2020 in Enchanted Conversation: A Fairytale Magazine. Her fractured fairytale “Death and The Mother” presents a chilling view of how the Angel of Death pursued Snow White throughout her childhood.

Death chuckled. It felt like finger bones clinking in her throat. “It does not work that way, my Queen. Once a human has been marked for Death, I will keep coming, no matter how many lives are thrown in my path.”

This popular story is currently trending on the magazine’s website, alongside the richly detailed illustration of the Angel of Death, shown here.

“Editor’s note: I couldn’t resist this angle on the Angel of Death. Melissa takes a classic fairy tale and Death and mashes them up in a very unexpected way. A surprising and satisfying tale.”

Melissa writes speculative fiction as Melissa Yuan-Innes and medical thrillers as Melissa Yi. She is an emergency physician and award-winning writer. In her newest crime novel, DEATH FLIGHT, Dr. Hope Sze battles murder on an airplane. Previous Hope Sze volumes were recommended by the Globe and Mail and CBC Books as best suspense novels of the season.

Read “Death and The Mother” at fairytalemagazine.com.

No comments

“Molecular Rage” by Marie Bilodeau now out in Analog!

  By , ,

SF Canada member Marie Bilodeau has a story in the Sept/Oct 2019 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine. “Molecular Rage” is about road rage and teleportation. Tangent Online says Marie “shows great imagination”.

Marie Bilodeau is an Ottawa-based author and storyteller, with eight published books to her name. Her speculative fiction has won several awards and has been translated into French (Les Éditions Alire) and Chinese (SF World). Her short stories have also appeared in various anthologies. In a past life not-so-long ago, she was Deputy Publisher for The Ed Greenwood Group (TEGG). Marie is also a storyteller and has told stories across Canada in theatres, tea shops, at festivals and under disco balls. She’s won story slams with personal stories, has participated in epic tellings at the National Arts Centre, and has adapted classical material.

Marie is co-host of the Archivos Podcast Network with Dave Robison, co-chair of Ottawa’s speculative fiction literary convention CAN-CON with Derek Künsken, co-chair of Ottawa ChiSeries with Nicole Lavigne and Matt Moore, and is a casual blogger at Black Gate Magazine. Find her at https://www.mariebilodeau.com/.

Subscribe to Analog or look for a copy of the current issue in your favorite science fiction bookstore.