While it took donkey’s years to see my first publishing credit with Andromeda Spaceways, I’m pleased to say that number two is impending. My sci-fi/horror piece ‘The Larval Stage’ is scheduled to appear in issue #70, available in March 2018.
It’s about a man diagnosed with a terminal illness who agrees to take part in the ‘Life for Life’ program, where a dying person plays host to an alien larva. The program is considered good interstellar diplomacy, but in SF, as in real life, no philanthropic deed goes unpunished.
The central concept came to me in a dream, which makes it unique among my stories. I’ve had other ideas arrive that way, but my mind rarely hangs onto them; when I wake the next morning, they have dissipated like a wisp of steam. For me, daydreaming has always been more fruitful than dreaming.
I’m also contributing to Andromeda #70 as a reviewer – keep an eye out for my thoughts on the erotic fantasy novella ‘Playback, Jury of the Heart’ by Ivory Snow.
Some other good news, while I’m on the subject: my story ‘Howling Mad’ in Aurealis #106 received a positive critique in Tangent Online. “The unexpected twists in this tale will keep the reader captivated until the end. It was a nicely crafted story,” said reviewer Kevin P. Hallett. But even better, it made the 2017 Tangent Online Recommended Reading List, one of five Aurealis stories included in the list of 378 recommended stories, novellas and novels.
It had been ten years since Tangent took notice of one of my stories – the last was the Jackass-inspired ‘A Vampire Film Review’ in 2007, which appeared in the short-lived Blood, Blade and Thruster.