The Coach Girl by M.L.D. Curelas

SF Canada member M.L.D. Curelas has a story in a new anthology Clockwork, Curses, & Coal: Steampunk and Gaslamp Fairy Tales.  

“The Coach Girl” is a take on “The Goose Girl” by the Brothers Grimm.  Clockwork, Curses, & Coal was published by World Weaver Press and edited by Rhonda Parrish.

Fairies threaten the world of artifice and technology, forcing the royal family to solve a riddle to stop their world from irrevocable change; a dishonest merchant uses automatons as vessels for his secrets and lies; a woman discovers the secret of three princesses whose shoes get scuffed while they sleep. These and so many other steampunk and gaslamp fairy tales await within the pages of Clockwork, Curses and Coal.

Retellings of Hansel and Gretel, The Princess and the Pea, Pinocchio, The Twelve Dancing Princesses and more are all showcased alongside some original fairy tale-like stories. Featuring stories by Melissa Bobe, Adam Brekenridge, Beth Cato, MLD Curelas, Joseph Halden, Reese Hogan, Diana Hurlburt, Christina Johnson, Alethea Kontis, Lex T. Lindsay, Wendy Nikel, Brian Trent, Laura VanArendonk Baugh and Sarah Van Goethem.

M.L.D. Curelas is the publisher of Tyche Books, a Canadian small-press specializing in science-fiction and fantasy anthologies, novels, and non-fiction. She enjoys Victorian fiction, a Proper Tea, and stalking authors at conventions. She is disappointed that the “no capes” rule applies to publishing.

Order Clockwork, Curses, & Coal from your bookseller of choice via worldweaverpress.com.

Night, the Hardest Time to Be Alive by Melissa Yuan-Innes

SF Canada member Melissa Yuan-Innes, was recently published in Enchanted Conversation: A Fairytale Magazine.

Her fractured fairy tale “Night, the Hardest Time to Be Alive” is a re-imagining of the story of Ondine, but from the point of view of her child, and with a contemporary context.

“Editor’s Note: Love in its many forms can uplift or curse those that find themselves under its spell. It is a theme that resonates in fairy tales set in the past and the present. We hope you enjoy this unique tale as much as we did.”

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, SCORPION SCHEME, Hope Sze discovers a man with a nail through his skull shortly after she lands in Cairo, Egypt. This man could hold the key to millions of dollars in buried treasure. Previous Hope Sze volumes were recommended by the Globe and Mail and CBC Books as best suspense novels of the season.

Read “Night, the Hardest Time to Be Alive” at fairytalemagazine.com.

 

 

 

The New Season by Graham J Darling

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.

Birthday Barbeque by Robert Runté

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.

Death and The Mother by Melissa Yuan-Innes

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.

Short Story Published

Paul Marlowes short story “The Grinsfield Penitent” has been published in the Indian literary magazine The Affair. (Click the links to read the story for free on-line.) Ether Frolics cover

The story, about a priest confessing and recollecting a supernatural incident connected to the First World War, also appears in Marlowe’s collection Ether Frolics, which was short-listed for the 16th annual Danuta Gleed Literary Award for the best début collection of short fiction by a Canadian author.

Reviews of Ether Frolics

Marlowe’s sense of place is dynamic and fresh, for all that his writing is set in the past… what Marlowe has written is a creation well worth the read, revealing a major Canadian talent.” – Chadwick Ginther, The Winnipeg Review

This collection of nine short stories is a true jaw-dropping jewel of a book…
Aly Grauer, Doctor Fantastique’s Show of Wonders