Category Archives: Short Fiction

Double nomination for the 2023 Aurora Awards

Awards, General, News, Short Fiction

I am tremendously honoured that two of my works are nominated for the 2023 Aurora Awards, Canada’s national literary prize for excellence in speculative fiction, which are voted on by members of the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association (CSFFA). My short story “A New Brave World” is a finalist in the Best Short Story category, and my novelette “A Sky and a Heaven” is a finalist in the Best Novelette/Novella category. “A New Brave World” was first published in the anthology Brave New Worlds edited by S.C. Butler and Joshua B. Palmatier (Zombies Need Brains). “A Sky and a Heaven” was first published in my collection Just Like Being There (Springer Nature) and also appeared in the anthology Other Covenants edited by Andrea D. Lobel and Mark Shainblum (Ben Yehuda Press).

Voting for the 2023 Aurora Awards begins on June 17 and closes six weeks later on July 29. The awards ceremony will be held online on August 19 starting at 7:00pm EDT and will be hosted by Mark Leslie Lefebvre and Liz Anderson.

Life Beyond Us is no longer beyond us!

Anthologies, General, News, Short Fiction

Life Beyond Us, the new astrobiology-themed science fiction anthology from the European Astrobiology Institute and Laksa Media Groups, has arrived on planet Earth! Edited by Julie Novakova, Lucas K. Law and Susan Forest, Life Beyond Us features twenty-seven stories, each accompanied by an essay written by a scientist in a relevant field. My new story “Hemlock on Mars” opens the collection with the accompanying science essay “Planetary Protection: Best Practices for the Safety of Humankind (And All Those Aliens Out There)” by Giovanni Poggiali of Observatoire de Paris. Also check out the latest post on John Scalzi’s Whatever blog in which Julie, Lucas, and Susan explore The Big Idea behind the anthology and discuss my story “Hemlock on Mars”.

Thank you Julie, Lucas, and Susan for the honour of being included in this ambitious and beautiful anthology!

Contributor copies of Life Beyond Us and Extraordinary Visions

Anthologies, General, News, Short Fiction

My contributor copies of the anthologies Life Beyond Us and Extraordinary Visions, under the watchful visage of an extraordinary terrestrial lifeform.

Life Beyond Us is the new astrobiology-themed science fiction anthology from the European Astrobiology Institute and Laksa Media Groups, edited by Julie Nováková, Lucas K. Law, and Susan Forest. The book features twenty-seven stories, each accompanied by an essay written by a scientist in a relevant field. Opening the collection is my new story “Hemlock on Mars” with the accompanying science essay “Planetary Protection: Best Practices for the Safety of Humankind (And All Those Aliens Out There)” by Giovanni Poggiali of Observatoire de Paris. Life Beyond Us will be arriving to our planet on Earth Day (April 22).

Extraordinary Visions is the first-ever fiction anthology presented by the North American Jules Verne Society, edited by Steven R. Southard and Matthew Hardesty. The book featuring thirteen stories inspired by the writings of Jules Verne including my story “Raise the Nautilus” which closes the collection. Extraordinary Visions is available now in paperback and hardcover. Check out the review on the Nerds of a Feather website.

While their themes are different, these books have much in common. Both are beautiful, with gorgeous cover art by Dan O’Driscoll and Amanda Bergloff respectively, and vividly illustrated interior designs. Both are ambitious, with terrific stories brought together by visionary editors who are passionate about the respective themes of their books. I am grateful and proud to be a part of these anthologies.

Holiday Reading

Anthologies, General, News, Short Fiction

For your reading pleasure this Holiday season.

Just Like Being There
My first collection of short fiction featuring fifteen of my hard SF and alternate history stories including the Aurora Award winning “Crimson Sky”.

Brave New Worlds
Edited by S.C. Butler and Joshua B. Palmatier featuring fifteen original stories that follow humanity’s long dream of travelling to the stars including my story “A New Brave World”. [Reading Copy (for SFWA members)]

Extraordinary Visions
The first-ever fiction anthology presented by the North American Jules Verne Society featuring thirteen stories inspired by Verne’s work including my story “Raise the Nautilus”.

Other Covenants
Edited by A.D. Lobel and Mark Shainblum, this alternate history collection features stories and poems by thirty authors and includes my novelette “A Sky and a Heaven”. [Reading Copy (for SFWA members)]

Story Announcements

General, News, Short Fiction

“Beware the Glob!”, a new story about a dangerous extraterrestrial creature that is unleashed from its frozen Arctic slumber by climate change, will be appearing in a future issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact. Thank you Trevor Quachri for my fifth appearance in Analog as well as Julie Czerneda and Peter Watts for the biology help, and thank you to my beta readers Kate Story, Gillian Clinton, and Cordell Grant.

“Raise the Nautilus”, about a salvage mission to retrieve Captain Nemo’s submarine, appears in Hungarian translation in the July 2022 issue of Galaktika magazine. The story was first published in 20,000 Leagues Remembered edited by Steven R. Southard and Kelly A. Harmon, and the July issue of Galaktika also features translations of “Water Whispers” by Gregory L. Norris and “The Silent Agenda” by Mike Adamson from the same anthology. Thank you Attila Németh for my third appearance in Galaktika and thank you Schubert András for the translation.

“Raise the Nautilus” to appear in Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne

Anthologies, General, News, Short Fiction

I am pleased to announced that my story “Raise the Nautilus”, which was first published in 20,000 Leagues Remembered edited by Steven Southard and Kelly A. Harmon, will be reprinted in the upcoming anthology Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne from the North American Jules Verne Society. This will be the first collection of short fiction ever sponsored by the Society.

“Raise the Nautilus” describes an attempt by the Royal Navy to salvage Captain Nemo’s submarine and retrieve an artefact that could turn the tide of the First World War. You can read an abridged excerpt from the story here.

“The Greatest Day” is a Finalist for the 2020 Analog Analytical Laboratory (AnLab) Award

Awards, General, News, Short Fiction

I am honoured that my short story “The Greatest Day”, an alternate history about the Space Shuttle Columbia accident that appeared in the January/February 2020 issue of Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine, is a finalist for the 2020 Analytical Laboratory (AnLab) Award in the category of Best Short Story as voted by readers of Analog. Thank you to Trevor Quachri and Emily Hockaday for publishing the story, and thank you to all the Analog readers who voted. The winners will be announced in the July/August issue of Analog.

[Story] [Podcast] [Q&A] [Review]

Abridged Excerpt from “Raise the Nautilus”

General, Short Fiction

Here is an abridged excerpt from “Raise the Nautilus”, a story set during the First World War about an attempt by the Royal Navy to salvage Captain Nemo’s Nautilus and retrieve an artefact that could turn the tide of the conflict. The story was first published in 20,000 Leagues Remembered edited by Steven R. Southard and Kelly A. Harmon and was reprinted in the anthology Extraordinary Visions: Stories Inspired by Jules Verne from the North American Jules Verne Society.

South Pacific Ocean
1,700 nautical miles east-northeast of New Zealand
June 1916

Commander Thomas Jennings and the key divisional officers of HMS Euryalus had been briefed by Donald McCabe from the Meta Section of the Directorate of Military Intelligence on the Nautilus file just before their departure from Auckland. Of particular interest to the War Office was a description in the Smith-Harding report, corroborated by earlier accounts from Aronnax, of “a destructive weapon, lightning-like in its effects” that could stun or kill men. His Majesty’s Government was still telling the public that the Great War was going well, but military men like Jennings knew the terrible truth. Such a weapon, in the hands of the British, could break the stalemate on the Western Front.

“The report on the condition of the Nautilus is excellent news,” said Lieutenant-Commander Eugene Seagram. “It means we can proceed with the original salvage plan with little modification.” He spread across the table a schematic diagram of the submarine, copied from a trove of documents seized five years ago during a joint raid by the Directorate of Military Intelligence and the British Army on the ancestral palace of the late Prince Dakkar in the Bundelkhand region of India.

There was one other aspect of the Smith-Harding report that had made an impression on Commander Jennings — the fanatical hatred of Prince Dakkar, later known as Captain Nemo, for the British Empire. How ironic it would be if Nemo’s invention ended up saving it.

20,000 Leagues Remembered

General, News, Short Fiction

My new story “Raise the Nautilus” is the closing story in the anthology 20,000 Leagues Remembered edited by Steven R. Southard and Kelly A. Harmon. This collection commemorates the 150th anniversary of the first publication of the classic Jules Verne novel. “Raise the Nautilus” is an alternate history set in 1916 about an attempt by the British Navy to salvage the Nautilus and retrieve an artefact that could turn the tide of the First World War.

Here is my contributor copy of 20,000 Leagues Remembered with the original Jules Verne novel on a map of The Mysterious Island. A hundred and fifty years of speculative fiction in one image.