Out With the Old…
As I said I’d be doing last month, I’ve revamped my website. It now has a new header, new author photos, and a new layout. If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out.
I’ll also be adding a new segment to my newsletter called “The Story Behind the Story” in which I’ll share behind-the-scenes info about what inspired my stories, easter eggs, and what I personally like about them. The first one is about my environmental SF story, “Lost Beyond the Lights.” You’ll find this at the end of the newsletter.
CORRECTIONS
Publishing can be unpredictable, which means sometimes stories don’t come out when you think they will. On that note, I’d mentioned in my last newsletter that the Worlds of Possibility anthology and Augur issue 6.1 would be out in June, but that wasn’t the case.
As it stands, I don’t have a firm date on Worlds of Possibility, but I believe it’ll be around October (the good news here being that editor Julia Rios actually pushed back the publication date due to such a successful Kickstarter campaign that she was able to open to poetry submissions to add to this anthology).
As for Augur issue 6.1…did I say June? I meant July…yeah. As I write this, I don’t yet have a direct link to my story, “The Collective Memories of Dogs and Robots,” to include here, and because this weekend is Canada Day Weekend in the Great White North, I won’t be able to include one last-minute. But I’m told the issue will be published within days of this writing and you’ll definitely be able to find it on the Augur home page.
You can also follow my social media accounts where I’ll announce these publications with links when they happen.
LATEST SALES NEWS
My flash science fiction story, “8 Laws I Wound Up Breaking While Attempting to Restore the Timeline,” recently sold to Nature: Futures. Some of you may be familiar with Nature as a prestigious science journal, but they also include a fiction section: Futures.
I’ve long wanted to see one of my stories in Futures and am thrilled to have it be this one. As the title implies, I got to play with one of my favorite SF tropes—time travel. I can’t wait for you all to read this story. I had fun writing it, and hope you’ll have just as much fun reading it. If all goes as planned, it should be out around August.
PUBLICATIONS IN JULY
Aside from the above-mentioned Augur publication…
The ZNB Presents: Year One anthology, which includes my story, “The Smell of Sawdust,” is officially out today. If you didn’t already pre-order it, you can still get a copy HERE.
“The Smell of Sawdust” is a personal favorite story for me. It’s about an aging female cage fighter who battles chronic pain as she struggles to survive in a post-apocalyptic world, but amidst her struggle she still finds reasons to hold onto her hope and humanity. But beyond that, this story is about strength in sisterhood, inner strength, the power of art (in this case, music), and the kindness you can encounter even at the most difficult (or even brutal) times. It’s one of many great stories in this anthology, so I hope you’ll give this book a read.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT…
“A World Unto Myself” was published in Apex Magazine. This is a SF flash piece about a decommissioned robot searching for new purpose and meaning that is now free to read online.
“El Bordado” came out in Flame Tree Press’ anthology, Immigrant Sci-Fi. You can get yourself a copy of this stunning hardcover anthology HERE. It includes 50 stories by authors including Ken Liu, Deborah L. Davitt, Jennifer Hudak, E.C. Osondu, Bogi Takács, Tehnuka, M. Darusha Wehm, and more. I’ve been reading it and have yet to find a story I don’t love.
“The Bullet in My Pocket Has Your Name on It” came out in Cossmass Infinities, marking my 4th appearance in this zine. It’s about a man driven by revenge as he hunts down the woman responsible for his being left to die on an Earth with dwindling resources. But all may not be quite as he thinks. This story is also free to read online.
FORTHCOMING FICTION PUBLICATIONS
WIP
Coming this month, I’ll be participating in “Flash, Savior of the Universe,” which is another flash fiction contest run by the Codex writers group. I usually participate in the flash contests each year because they help increase my productivity (which is kind of the point.)
The contest runs over 6 weeks with the goal being to write 3 stories with a maximum word count of 1000 words each.
The pace is a little more leisurely than the “Weekend Warrior” contest, where you write a 750-word story over each weekend for 5 weeks. Both contests have been helpful for me since I started participating in them in 2019. Since then, I’ve sold 8 stories that had their start during Weekend Warrior (including “8 Laws I Wound Up Breaking While Attempting to Restore the Timeline”), and 2 from Flash, Savior of the Universe—all to pro-paying markets.
THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY: “Lost Beyond the Lights”
Spoilers ahead, so if you haven’t yet read the story, you can do so HERE before reading on.
The last time Halley’s Comet swept past Earth, it was 1986 and I was 11 years old and living in Santiago, Chile. My dad offered to take me, my older brother, and our six cousins out late one night to see the comet. He took us out of Santiago where the city lights wouldn’t obstruct our view. My paternal grandmother came along as well. She’d been an infant the last time the comet had passed, and I remembered us all doing the math of how old we’d be the next time it visited us. Sadly, my grandmother’s aging eyes wouldn’t let her see the comet; not even with the aid of the binoculars my dad had brought along.
The memory of that night has stayed with me all these decades and served as part of the inspiration for “Lost Beyond the Lights.” In my story, the grandfather recalls seeing the comet as a child, and now brings his grandchildren and daughter to experience what he did. But like my grandmother, he’s unable to see the comet. This time though, ocular degeneration isn’t the cause, but rather light pollution of the worst kind.
Fun Fact: The song referred to in the story was a real song played over the radio that every school kid I knew at the time had memorized. One of those catchy earworms you just can’t avoid. I tried to find it online so you could check it out, but while I found many other songs inspired by the comet, I couldn’t find that one.
I read an article some time ago about wealthy companies interested in promoting their products through enormous advertisements projected into the sky—and even onto the surface of the moon. It sounds like science fiction, but it’s an all-too-real possibility. The very idea sounded nightmarish to me, so I combined it with my memory of that night in 1986 and wrote this story about the light pollution we’re already responsible for today, and that could very easily get worse and have repercussions on our future beyond simply ruining a special time with family.
The story’s set in Chile, not just because of my memory of seeing Halley’s Comet there, but also because Chile has long been a prime destination for the world’s astronomers. There are observatories peppered through the Atacama Desert that include some of the most sophisticated telescopes we have on Earth. I thought it fitting to show that even there, the light pollution becomes so bad it gets in the way of our study of space. I hope it never gets that bad in reality.
“Lost Beyond the Lights” was originally published in 2021 in Little Blue Marble. It was subsequently reprinted in their annual anthology, Little Blue Marble 2021: Tipping Points. Those interested may purchase a copy of the anthology HERE.
If you’ve read this far, you’re awesome. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share!
P.A. Cornell