Tag: new fiction

New(ish) fiction announcement

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I somehow managed not to put up a blog post when my story “To Love and Drive in L.A” was published in IZ Digital, although I did tweet about it. Well, now I’m putting that right.

The story is set in Los Angeles (you mean you didn’t guess?) and I’ve been fortunate to visit there twice, although those visits were several decades apart. Several of the locales that feature in the story were based on remembered places I had visited and then later researched with the aid of Google Maps. So I had a clear mental image to work from when I was writing the story.

I was fortunate that Gareth Jelley, editor and publisher of both Interzone and IZ Digital took the story. I was even more pleased when I saw the cover image Gareth had lined up to accompany my piece which perfectly fit with how I pictured the landscape in my imagination. Gareth is wonderful to work with and it’s great to see him continuing to take Interzone to new audiences.

Although the story was published a couple of months ago, it’s still available to purchase on the IZ Digital site here.

––It’s just another job for one of the taxis in the city’s fleet of autonomous vehicles. You see them everywhere, and they’ll take you anywhere you want to go. But late at night when the rides are scarce, have you ever wondered what they might get up to?

“There’s nothing to be afraid of. What harm can I do? What threat do I represent? I’m an autonomous vehicle. My purpose is limited and dictated by function.”

New story! “Blue shift, Passing By” (Andromeda Spaceways Magazine #91)

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I’ve been a bit remiss at posting here when I have new fiction published – something I intend to rectify starting right now! So I’m pleased to announce that the latest issue of the wonderful Andromeda Spaceways Magazine (issue 91, in fact) carries my story Blue Shift, Passing By in its hallowed pages, together with a whole host of other fictional gems. Why not purchase a copy here and see for yourself?

Blue Shift, Passing By tells the story of Mac, an ambitious but over-worked, middle-manager trying to make his way up the corporate hierarchy so that he can provide for his disabled wife. When he’s offered the chance to take part in his company’s pioneering blue-shift programme, he jumps at it. Blue-shifting means drug-induced enhanced time perception which makes it possible to cram several days’ worth of mental activity into a single business day. Naturally, it comes at a cost, and it soon puts a strain on the relationship with his wife, who has a different perspective on the things that matter. As the company ramps the team up to ever more compressed working sessions, their relationship is pushed to its limits.

This is my second appearance in ASM. (He Who Stands and Waits in which a refugee in a post-apocalyptic world befriends a lone, robotic sentinel still guarding an isolated strip of beach long after all threats have receded – was published in issue 80). As ever, my whole-hearted thanks go to Tom Dullemond and his wonderful crew at ASM for the chance to fly Andromeda Spaceways once more.