The Whalefall in The Colored Lens

22 September, 201425 September, 2014 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

My novelette “The Whalefall” has just appeared in the Autumn 2014 issue of The Colored Lens. The story of a woman searching for her father lost at sea, on a distant planet where the sea life comes somewhat larger than here on Earth.

Cool to be sharing the contents page with, among others, David Kernot from across the ditch. David’s also one of the editors for issues of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine – in fact edited the issue that came out a couple of months ago with my story “Alecia in the Mechwurm”.

Alecia in the Mechwurm in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine

3 July, 20143 July, 2014 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ 4 Comments

Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #59

My short story “Alecia in the Mechwurm” has just come out in the latest issue (#59) of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. ASIM, along with Aurealis, carries the banner for Australian (and NZ, and well, I guess all of Oceania) Science Fiction. This is my second story with them (following “I am Nano” a couple of years ago). This issue is edited by the inestimable David Kernot, and I’m honored to be included in his issue.

“Alecia…” is another story under the Michael Shone penname (probably the last), and is set in the same universe (i.e. Mechwurms) as last year’s “The Flower Garden” which appeared in the Spring 2013 issue of The Colored Lens. If you’ve read that story, “Alecia…” is a slightly different tone – more hard sci-fi compared to “The Flower Garden’s” more literary leaning.

Interesting side-note: also on the contents page is Australian writer Steve Cameron, with whom I’ve shared a previous contents page, just this year in Outposts of Beyond.

“Aerobrake” – short story in The Colored Lens

6 January, 2014 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

My hard sci-fi story “Aerobrake” is out now in the Winter 2014 issue of The Colored Lens. The story’s mostly set in low Earth orbit. Claire’s about to call it a day repairing satellites when she gets a distress call. Another tech, ship scraping the atmosphere, could use a hand. Here’s the opening:

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The galaxy, for a moment, looked frozen. Claire’s ship pitched on its axis and she had a passing view of the stars in lockstep with her view through the forward windows. From orbit, especially this low, the distant blazing suns were always sweeping by. The ship’s current altitude, 326 kilometers, had her completing an orbit in just over ninety minutes.
The ranging radar pinged at her. She was less than thirty kilometers from the errant satellite. With a sweep on the controls, she swung the cockpit around on its internal gimbals. For a moment she was in darkness. Only another couple of hours and she would be done for the month. Back to Levithab for two weeks in the station’s gravity spin. After three months on call–basically meaning out all day every day–and a full week in the Demeter’s tiny cockpit and living quarters, she really needed a break. The ship was starting to feel dank and lived in, like old socks that needed a wash, rinse and airing.

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The Colored Lens is published for Kindle – available at Amazon for $3.58. There are a whole bunch of stories in there – a really great magazine.

On hitting the mark

1 June, 2012 ~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

May turned into my slowest month for the year – just creeping over the 40,000 word mark. A pretty busy time with tutoring kind of kept the lid on a little – in a good way: it’s useful to other things to focus on. I’ve sent off three contest entries, and some new magazine submissions, as well as resubmitting some stories that had been rejected elsewhere. My novella “The Wreck of the Emerald Sky” comes out in June in The Colored Lens, so that’s good news. June is going to be a much slower month, though, as tutoring really ramps up. I’m hoping to hit 15,000 words, which, while many fewer than any other month this year, will take me neatly to a quarter million words. I’ll post soon about some lessons I think I’m learning here as I aim for 300,000 words for the year (yes, I’m ahead of target – that’s one of the lessons).