Announcement: An Ill Wind is appearing in IFSF #4

 

Once again, I'm just touching down on the blog here to make honourable mention of The Independent Fantasy and Sci-Fi Magazine, a new Aussie mag that it's my pleasure to participate in (and yes, I know I ended that sentence with a preposition, but one otherwise sounds as pretentious as an octogenarian English teacher). From tiny acorns come mighty oaks, and I wish IFSF all the best for a great future in publishing.

It's also a great pleasure to report that -- again -- Mike Adamson and I are sharing a contents list. His story in this issue is a Tales of the Middle Stars piece entitled The Last Man Standing, and mine is one of the Martian stories, An Ill Wind. Which might have been the first Martian story I wrote, come to think of it. 

Closer to home, the news is mixed --

Writing and editing are going well: Mike and I have delivered two of the five books that are on the 2026 schedule, and I expect to begin editing Mike's For the Good of the Regiment fairly soon. In fact, I should just have time to finish editing my own novel before I must begin Mike's, which is his third Sherlock Holmes novel. I'm in the last 5% of the massive novelisation of Pet Shop Dragons. You may recall that eight or ten years ago, I wrote a cute short story by the same name. It was published in Hoards of the Great Fire Wyrms and promptly forgotten ... whereupon I realised what I'd wasted. The idea was filled with potential, and during the last couple of years, eight thousand words have become 125,000 -- a full novel, done and extremely close to going out on the hunt for agency representation. Wish me luck. 

On a personal note, things are not so rosy. If you follow me at all, here or on Facebook, you'll know that it's getting close to two years since my husband was diagnosed with the worst possible form of MND, and given a two-year prognosis. Well, we shall certainly beat that horrible prognosis, but I have to admit that life is starting to get ... interesting. Not in a good way. It may be that, for the next several years, I might not be able to find the time, inspiration, energy, or even the courage to write. I'll always edit, though: Mike and I work well together, and we're due to cowrite a couple of stories, which will be a pleasure. 

When there's more to share, I'll post again. You'll notice that the posts are thin on the ground these days -- for which, blame MND. It's a horrific experience to watch someone you love go through this.

Falling appears in the July - August 2026 issue of ANALOG

Just stopping by at last -- about a month late; I know, I'm terrible about keeping up with social media -- to mention that the issue of ANALOG in which I appear (for the fourth time!) is on the magazine racks at your local store at this time. You'll be able to get it through the end of August, and the story you're looking for is Falling. I'd include a couple of snapshots of the interior pages showing my story, but the contributor's copies are still "on the water" ... and delivery will take longer because of the war, I should think. Everything is slower. The issue might have gone off the racks before the contributor's copies arrive, so ... here I am, while there's time.

Second piece of writing news is that An Ill Wind will be published in Issue #3 of the new Australian SF/F magazine, The Independent Fantasy and Sci-Fi Magazine. It's tremendous to be able to support a local "start-up," and I wish IFSF all the best. AN ILL WIND is one of my Martian stories, a couple of which have appeared in ANALOG as well as several other venues.

Third piece of writing news is that (lol) I'm actually writing again. I've finished a novel; am just about to begin the final editing pass through it, and then ... off we go on the hunt for agency representation. Wish me luck. This one is a "secondary world" romp set in post-Victorian times -- not steampunk but magic and dragons in the long, dark foreshadowing of the impeding First World War. With any luck, I might have conceived of an idea that's sufficiently commercial to catch an agent's interest. Time will tell, and if we can connect with professional representation, of course I'll keep you posted.

There I am on the table of Contents, so ... hope you enjoy the story in this issue!

Announcement: "Falling" will be in ANALOG Science Fiction

What a great pleasure to be able to report that Falling will be appearing in ANALOG Science Fiction, probably some time in 2026. 

This one was a lot of fun to write, and for the first time I was able to "go play in the Jovian system," with  FIFO worker on the assignment to end them all. Fly in, fly out work is one thing ... but when the flight to and from the job is a year old, it's a life-changer. In Falling, the central character is out there for the best and worst of all reasons: money. Without it, everything falls apart, yet the quest to earn it is not conducive to family life. And yes, our hero is left a partner and child back on Earth. What's a mother to do?

This story had been in my mind in one form or another for some time, but I'd usually pictured it as taking place on Mars. The thing is that I've written so many stories set on Mars that -- 1) I didn't want to identify myself as "that writer who only writes about Mars," not to mention -- 2) I felt as if I needed a challenge. Get out of the familiar environment (which is almost a witticism) of Mars and make a foray into the Badlands. And they don't come much "badder" than Jupiter. So...

Much research later, Falling found itself completely restructured. The central character changed from being a detective assigned by the department on Earth to investigate a murder in the industrial south of our neighbouring world to being an engineer working with the heaviest heavy industry imaginable. And the stage on which the story plays out shifted from the aforesaid Martian industrial wasteland to the upper atmosphere of a giant world that really, seriously, wants to kill you. Result: a story with which I was extremely happy. 

And the cherry on the cream is that this one will be appearing in ANALOG Science Fiction in a year or so. It's always a thrill!

Next: back to the very serious job of editing, with two major projects ahead of me for Mike Adamson, and after both books are delivered, he and I will be collaborating on a novel. Speaking of Mike, the last week has been a blizzard of hard but rewarding work as we revamped and expanded his website. It's well worth a look ... a writing site that is a visual feast of artwork. Check it out on the link attached to his name there.

Announcement: Islands Of the Mind has been published

 

It's my great pleasure to announce that "Islands Of the Mind has recently appeared in Way of Worlds, a science fiction anthology from Underdog Press.

Rather than writing at length about my own piece (which is about terraformers on an alien world being remade for humans), let me just quote the blurb from the anthology's page and include the link:

Venture into the uncharted territories of imagination. Within these pages, you’ll encounter worlds both familiar and utterly alien, where the boundaries of reality blur and the human spirit is tested against extraordinary circumstances.

A master of disguise finds her mission twisted by unexpected alliances, uncovering secrets that could shatter the very foundations of her world...

In the desolate aftermath of a devastating war, a lone survivor confronts not only the ghosts of the past but also an enigmatic visitor from a long-vanished enemy...

And in a realm where technology and magic intertwine, a desperate search for a lost artifact leads to a confrontation with a power that could reshape the very fabric of reality...

Within these pages, find these tales and more: a journey through the fractured memories of a dying starship captain; a tense standoff between scavengers and the guardians of a forgotten city; and a poignant exploration of artificial intelligence grappling with the complexities of human emotion.

From the depths of space to the ruins of Earth, from the ethereal planes of magic to the intricate circuits of artificial minds, these stories explore the resilience of the human heart, the enduring power of hope, and the infinite possibilities that lie beyond the known. Prepare to be transported, challenged, and inspired by these tales of wonder and discovery.

Find the Way of Worlds here, at Underdog Press ... and thank you for reading!

Announcement: The Brandstatter Watch has been published

 

"The Brandstatter Watch" has appeared in Tales of Horror #3, for March 2025! 

This story is the second of two co-written works from Mike Adamson and myself (we're working on the third at this time -- a George Trevelyan story which will be a pine-tingler with that "can't put it down, am reading between my fingers" quality). 

The current story is a "tale of unease," in which the dead are ... well, restless. Set in a village "out west" of London, it pivots around a somewhat rare and precious pocket watch -- a watch with a history. 

It's a tremendous pleasure to report the publication of this piece, and I'm looking forward with great anticipation to working in cahoots with Mike again, especially since we'll be returning to the world of retired Detective Inspector Trevelyan, whose nose for trouble of the supernatural variety is infallible. 

Find Tales of Horror #3 here ... and thank you for reading! 

Announcement: The Brandstatter Watch will be published in Tales of Horror

 

It's a great pleasure to be able to make this announcement, because it marks a first: the first time Mike Adamson and I have published on a co-credit, after writing in partnership. It's been some time since I mentioned on this blog that we were working in concert, and I hope there will be many other co-credit, cowritten stories -- in fact, novels -- to come. I'll post again when the Tales of Horror collection is published. 

Mike has written a lot of horror, and in fact, we recently completed editing on an H.P. Lovecraft anthology to be issued very soon by Belanger Books, as well as the Crimson Blade anthology, which came out from Hiraeth late in 2024. There again, I served as editor and cover artist). 

Next on our co-writing schedule will (I believe) be a George Trevelyan novel, and I'm looking forward to this. George has been a favourite character for several years now, and I always enjoy returning to his world, which is actually the same space-time as Sherlock Holmes.

It's been an impossibly difficult year for me, personally. I'd only just grabbed the bit between my teeth and started to run with a major SF project, The Gift of Prometheus, when the world seemed to explode at the end of September, 2024. When your husband is calmly handed a terminal diagnosis and given a prognosis of two years that will be horrible before the so-called inevitable happens ... suffice it to say that everything jumps off the rails. I didn't write a word for months.

As of this moment, however, Dave is in remission. The two-year prognosis turns out to be very wrong; the research into this awful disorder is zooming, and we're working hard to keep him as strong and healthy as possible while we wait for science to catch up. We all believe that it can -- and in time. The future will be very different indeed from anything that had been imagined, but it doesn't have to be bad. 

My cover art for Mike's anthology

Mike and I will continue to work, and I'll post here when there's something to report. I'm enjoying the work of the editor very much. In fact, my next assignment there will be complete in a week or so -- the Middle Stars anthology, to be issued later in 2025 by Jay Henge, another opus of Mike's, which begins a trilogy of anthologies exploring a fascinating topic: human offworld colonization in the coming centuries.

After Tales of the Middle Stars, the next editing assignment will be Ravensgate, a return to Sherlock Holmes, which should be out from Belanger Books also in 2025. With this one, all the projects we promised to deliver for this year have been fulfilled, and we'll forge onward with new titles. 

Creatively, it's going to be an exciting year, and 2026 should be equally interesting.

On the personal front, we soldier on: Dave is almost done with work, and he has surgery in a few weeks' time, which should make life, and managing this condition, somewhat easier. I live strongly in the complete knowledge that science will catch up, and that his cure (perhaps a new gene therapy) is out there in the future, close enough for us to reach the date with time to spare ... after which, we'll drive forward into the rest of our lives with optimism, and look back on these months while wondering what the heck happened.

Announcement: Islands of the Mind will be in THE WAY OF WORLDS

a mock-up cover lashed up by me, for my story only:
has nothing to do with the actual anthology --
used here merely to illustrate this blog post

It's official. Islands of the Mind has just gone to contract and will appear in the anthology The Way of Worlds. This one is a piece about terraforming in a distant future where habitable, Earthlike worlds are difficult to find yet critical to human survival because our population never ceased to increase. An explorer fleet has discovered a glorious ocean planet with a sweet atmosphere and friendly gravity, right in the "Goldilocks zone" -- all this world needs is landmasses. The terraformer crew arrives for business and sets about the task of creating those landmasses. And then -- and then -- ah! That would be telling. I'll blog again, with a link when The Way of Worlds comes out.

Terraforming is a subject that interests me deeply. I actually do believe that our population will continue to grow. If I'm right, and it does, humanity has only one way to go: outwards. How long is it since anyone mentioned the term "population explosion," in any but a historical context? It's been decades. Now, countries like China (population 1.412 billon as I write this) are actually passing over the top of the population growth curve. Their numbers are about to fall .. result? Not relief, that the existential dread we all felt at the population explosion if over. Oh, no. Its's all bags of panic and blue lights. Why? Because constant population growth is the only way we (yet) know to power an economy that is also maintains an endless, infinite trajectory of growth.

Far be it from me to criticize the mechanisms of capitalism: I also would like to be floating away on oceans of cash, and buy a castle in Ireland. But at the same time, in the interests of powering economic growth essentially forever, we're certainly going to vastly overload this planet. In fact, specialists say we did that long ago. It's been estimated that around two billion people is the maximum this world can sustain indefinitely. So, the predictable outcome of economic growth without surcease is a dying, or even dead, planet, with a population of ridiculous size packed into artificial environments constructed and maintained by technology in a future where "let technology do the heavy lifting" will have become both our survival mantra and our curse.  Inevitably we'll see a mass return to the colonial spirit of old...

Go west, young man. Or south, and anywhere one can find open spaces, free territory, the opportunity to succeed for ordinary folks who were born outside the .01% of the community who control 99.99% of all wealth and resources. Well, we've already entirely run out of compass points. Every square centimetre of Earth is owned, and fenced ... there is nowhere go up but up, and out.

With physics coming right around to supporting the case for faster-than-light starships, it's becoming more appropriate to look at other worlds -- and I don't mean Mars, though Mars will surely be a steppingstone along the way. I've written many stories about the Martian colonial years, and the violent "troubles" between Earth and Mars (The Way Back; Collateral Damage; Happy Hour, all published to date, with several more still waiting for homes -- Dust Gets in Your Eyes, Home Soil, and so forth). I'm working on the first draft of a new novel, as mentioned in my last post. The Gift of Prometheus....

Now, Gift is about human endeavour and ambition crashing headfirst into human ethics and dreams, in the years when the great Einsteinian starships find the way to the true FTL ships that will eventually, almost inevitably, lead us to the future you glimpse in Islands of the Mind. I'll blog about the writing process as it chugs along. Gift is the first full-on novel I've written since beginning this blog, which shows how long, rotten, and tough to beat the writer's block has been. It hit me broadside the second time we all got Covid. The third bout of Covid turned into post viral syndrome and worsened it. Now I've begun the fightback, and The Gift of Prometheus looks like a great place to begin.

The novel is very possibly set in the same universal canon as my Martian stories and Islands of the Mind. Let me think about this. But I'm liking the idea.

Firegrounds has been published in ANALOG for September - October 2024

 

It's a great pleasure to report that the September/October issue of ANALOG is available ... and I'm in it. My story is Firegrounds, an enormous idea condensed into a small space, the theme of which is wildfire prevention in a world that is becoming ever hotter, drier and stormier. I had a blast writing the story, and I hope it will not merely be enjoyed, but might also provide some food for thought. 

The link I can provide here -- at this time -- is to the print magazine's order page. Remember that after October 15th, this link will not take you to this issue. ANALOG's website carries only ordering information for the current issue plus subscriptions. In the future, if you want to track down this issue specifically, you'll need to Google it, specifying Sept-Oct 2024. 

Announcement: Firegrounds will be published in ANALOG Science Fiction

The best possible news today ... Firegrounds will be appearing in ANALOG Science Fiction, probably early in 2025. This is my third outing with ANALOG, and I'm absolutely thrilled.

The story concerns a woman working for the RFS, or Regional Fire Service in South Australia's desiccated, ravaged mid-north, maybe half a century from now. Climate Change has happened. Past tense. It's not a question of stopping it ... now, survival is all about preventing fires, and this story examines ways and means of doing that, utilizing the cutting-edge Ai and robotics of the 2070s...

All of which falls apart somewhat when you've lost your husband to this job, and your teenage son is going so far wrong, you're haunted by the worst of all intuitions about him and his friends, some of whom are already incarcerated, others at liberty by a thread. 

Firegrounds is a story that's very close to my heart. Somewhere far, far down the track, I think there's a full novel to be derived from the foundations built by this little piece. In this incarnation, it's only about 4,000 words, but a lot of world building went into it, and one day ... one day ... So I took out half an hour and lashed up a cover to illustrate the story, and help to celebrate the sweet process of the contract signing. 

Watch this space, and when the issue is published, I'll blog about Firegrounds again.

Announcement: Root and Branch appears for the second time, ebook and paperback

What a great pleasure to announce that  Root and Branch is appearing in reprint! This is a slightly abridged version of the original text, but the cuts are by no means major. They don't detract from the story in any way; it's mostly a swatch of backstory and characterisation here and there that's been pruned away to make a large story fit into a smaller space.

The Sunshine Superhighway: Solar Sailings anthology is available via Amazon, from Jay Henge, in both Kindle and paperback editions. 

The story concerns the troubles faced by a living city who has contracted a disease. The city grew, and is still growing ... she's home to a million souls who have nowhere else to go. And she's dying. The race is on to find out why, and find a cure, but it appears there's no hope. Until the sky gypsies arrive with their living, flying showboat, Capricornia. Meet the charismatic and irresistible magician and stage manager of the greatest show in the sky who, quite by chance, holds out a skerrick of hope for the city of Waratah. 

Find Sunshine Superhighway: Solar Sailings at Amazon right here, and ... good reading!

Announcement: A Darkness Incandescent is published in Best of Newmyths Volume 4

'A Darkness Incandescent' has just been released, in the Cosmic Muse anthology, from Newmyths ... it's a poem I'm rather proud of, and it's thrilling to see it in this volume.

The link to buy Cosmic Muse as an ebook is a little awkward -- it's available in so many formats, the publisher has supplied a "catch all" link which will send you to something called "Books 2 Read," and from there, you can bump on to your store of choice, with something like nine options ... though not without allowing Books 2 Read to set "preference" cookies (which, for myself, I prefer not to do. It's your call). 

So I'll give you three links here: this first will take you to the aggregator, Smashwords, where books funnel through to ebook stores galore; the second is to the "Books 2 Read" page, where you can make your own decisions about whether you'll accept cookies; and the third link is to the paperback edition of this anthology, available from Amazon. 

Announcement: A Glamour of Toads is out

It's been a long time indeed since I updated this blog ... life has been like that. As the saying goes, "One damn" thing after another.' 

Anyone remember the Farside-style cartoon of two monsters chasing each other down a street while a couple of middle-aged ladies look on, and one lady says to the other (!), "It's just one goddamn thing after another." Mmm. That's been life in a nutshell. Don't ask. 

But I'm back at last -- with less news that I'd hoped to be able to relay, but at least there's something. 

It begins with an update on A Glamour of Toads, which was published in Dragon Gems, Summer 2023 issue ... available as of last month, I believe. As the cover indicates, this is a kind of cute and/or "cracked" fairy-tale fantasy anthology, and I'm sure Glamour fits perfectly...

The story of a young woman who's blessed, or cursed, with enormous courage and physical ugliness (no other way to parse this, so -- grasp it, and weaponize it), and she finds herself born into the era of the witch hunts, what we call the 'burning times.' 

Worse yet, her village lies directly in the path of an oncoming Witchfinder who's notorious for his treatment of people just like her. She's not a witch, but she's going to be treated as one ... so, what's to be done about it? Sarah has recently lost her dad, who was a woodsman by trade. His work often took them into the forest, which is how Sarah knows of a certain cottage, way back in the wildwood: the house where three women live. Women who are so skilled in the Craft of the Wise, the world is oblivious to them. They have no fear of the Witchfinder and his troops, and once upon a moonless midnight, Sarah knocks at their door and begs for a boon. For magic. 

The only potential fly in the ointment is that to read Glamour, you'll need a subscription to something called SCRIBD.  Now, in and of itself, SRIBD is a marvellous idea. In a nutshell, here is their advertising line: "Enjoy millions of ebooks, audiobooks, magazines, and more, with a free trial." 

You could read Dragon Gems Summer 2023 on the 30-day free trial, course ... but if I had a tablet, and I didn't mind a monthly fee of about AUD$20, I think I'd be subscribing. I'll be brutally honest at this moment: I have things to save for, so my own discretional spending is shackled and bound. But when I've bought the camera and lenses I want (price tag, around two grand -- you get the picture), SRCIBD will be on my list, along with a YouTube subscription (to get rid of those pesky commercials). 

So -- Find A Glamour of Toads right here, but be prepared to take them up on the offer of that free trial. You should be able to read on phones ... I certainly could!

I wish there were more to update, but the publishers for whom a whole raft of stories and poems were written have been delayed, and only recently opened back up for reading. Everything is late, so the news is a bit thin on the publishing front. 

However, there's more, if the hard, demanding and exacting work of the editor counts in this publishing game -- and it does. I spent some fascinating weeks working on A Tradition of Evil, a Sherlock Holmes novel by Mike Adamson. The job was actually a lot of fun, and the book (which went on sale, from Belanger Books, just a couple of months ago) is a great read that's being very well rated at Amazon. It was also my great pleasure to build Mike's new author website, not least because it gave me the opportunity to flex my illustrator's muscles, and provide all the original artwork...

And when I'd finished construction on that website, I was so envious -- I decided to build one for myself,  for my art and photography. I'm halfway through at this moment. And that is how time flew away, even before you add in some bad luck, car troubles, winter, flu, and the usual domestic drivel. Something had to go on the backburner, and the blogs were the unfortunate choice. I've barely kept touch with Facebook in the same span of time! 

Hopefully, this can turn around now.  

Announcement: Collateral Damage has been podcast by Analog!

 

News! ANALOG Science Fiction has podcast my story in the May/June issue -- "Collateral Damage." The podcast is online right now, and you can find it here ... happy listening!

https://www.podomatic.com/.../2023-05-17T08_52_30-07_00

(This artwork here is not from the magazine. I've put this together myself, as a "flag-waver," or an "attention grabber," but this *is* the character from "Collateral Damage," as she appears in one of the other stories, which you can find elsewhere. It's an Iray render from late '21, and it fits the story to a T!)

Announcement: Collateral Damage -- and A Glamour of Toads!

 

Good news! A Glamour of Toads has been optioned by Water Dragon Publishing, for their mid-year anthology, Dragon Gems. Look for it around summer, or end-of-summer -- which is winter or early spring down under, of course. "Toads" is a mediaeval fantasy, juuuust a little bit on the dark side, about magic and mortal fear, and a lot more. (The artwork here wasn't actually done for the story, but I'm about to post an announcement to my writing blog, and I thought, "Hey, that almost fits it to a tee, I just need to do a bit of repainting...!") I'll let you know when the anthology is published ... 

Also,  Collateral Damage is in the March issue of ANALOG Science Fiction. If it isn't on the magazine racks now, it soon will be. That's another story set on Mars, in the same world-building project as The Way Back, which was in the February ANALOG last year, and Happy Hour, which was in Mythic #17. This is wonderful for me ... it gives me some real inspiration to write more in this universe. I've done a couple of others -- Welcome to Mars, (which is archived here), Home Soil (which is waiting for a home), Dust Gets in Your Eyes (likewise), and so forth. There's enough to get me thinking about an anthology...

Lastly, the fantasy, The Gates of Petheris, has been available from Four Star Stories for some time -- this came out in my hiatus, when I vanished off social media for about four months and didn't post anywhere, about anything. I'll be archiving it very soon, with a new suite of art.  

Announcement: The Way Back is published in ANALOG Jan - Feb 2022

 

Brilliant news: The Way Back has been published  in the January - February 2022 issue of ANALOG. This is a great thrill for me, since I've been reading this magazine for decades, and it's the SF market leader.

Here's the link to the current issue ... please note that after February 2022, this link won't work: it's specifically for the current issue. Newsstand magazines really are "ephemera;" when they're off the stands, no longer current, one falls back on used copies, which change hands on eBay, Amazon and so forth. And for those, I can't provide a link. Alas, the ANALOG site has no store where you can buy specific back issues. They sell subscriptions, not copies, and the same is true of Amazon. If you're ordering before the end of February, 2022, however, that sub should include the issue in which The Way Back appears. 

Get this issue on Amazon

Announcement: Vector is online, at Dark Recesses Press

 

I'm rather late with this announcement ... Christmas, New Year, the holiday season, the hot Aussie summer -- blame one and all. But, somewhat belatedly, it's my great pleasure to announce that Vector has gone online at Dark Recesses Press ...

And here is the link!

It's an offbeat little tale of a cat, a litterbox, a new brand of cat-litter, and something perfectly ghastly afoot. A five minute quick-read, and if you enjoy a shiver...

Announcement: In The Company of Ghosts has been published

 

It's my great pleasure to announce that "In The Company of Ghosts" has just appeared in the latest issue of Sylvia Magazine. The story features a rich first-hand account of a traveller's visit to an old churchyard, in search of a family member, long departed. It was written several years ago, on a challenge, where the theme was simply ... October. 

I do hope you'll enjoy the read; Sylvia is free to read -- and it's an enchanting source of themed literature, one of the internet's hidden jewels. 

Find "In The Company of Ghosts" right here.