Rorqual Saitu – Karnish River Navigations book 9

Finally I’ve made it. Rorqual Saitu has been written, proofed, formatted and sent out into the world. It’s up on preorder now for an August 20th release. The paperback will be out a week or so earlier.

Get them here: Rorqual Saitu, Univeral Book Link


Rorqual Saitu

When Kumi Saitu’s difficult mission to wrest vital data from Hundstein’s criminal network almost kills her, she faces a critical decision.

The maelstrom of danger and intrigue draws in Kumi’s old friends, Flis and Grae.

Facing an ancient harvester and a far-reaching illicit web, they must fight the clock to set things right.

Have they met their match?

 

Cover art: © MerryDesigns | Dreamstime.com (Flis), © Bianca Van Dijk from | Pixabay (Rorqual), © Bertrandb | Dreamstime.com (Background)


Rorqual Saitu is book 9 in the Karnish River Navigations series, started way back in 2015 with Arlchip Burnout. Astute readers will notice that book 10, Tombs Under Vaile came out in 2018, and might ask ‘why the long wait?’ Fair question. The answer stems from the title of the first book, when I noticed that the first letters each word in the title were A and B. It struck me that that was also the first two letters of the English alphabet. So then I wrote Canal Days which came out in 2016.

Suddenly I had a thirteen book series to write. All the way to a book using the letters Y and Z in the title (more about that little problem further down).

The next book I wrote was Guest House Izarra, somehow sneakily using up an extra letter of the alphabet there (and in 2018 later I did the same with Tombs Under Vale – now it was a tidier twelve book series). I had, though, skipped over the letters E and F. I guess I have ‘oooh, shiny’ brain with this series, and just write all over the alphabet.

The books can be read in any order, but if you put them alphabetically you’ll get books one to ten (with eleven and twelve coming next year, hopefully). With the ten books out so far, if you take the order they came out, you get 1, 2, 7, 3, 8, 9, 4, 5, 10, 6. (that is, Eastern Foray the third book in the series, was the seventh one out, and book four, Guest House Izarra, was the third one out).

Possibly this shows some lack of planning. Or perhaps there’s some greater scheme that my subconscious is not letting me in on.

I did mention they can be read in any order. Apparently they can be written in any order too.

I hope that over the years I’ve become a better writer, and that Rorqual Saitu is a stronger book than Arlchip Burnout (though I do stand by that book, absolutely). I wonder if the contrast is notable for readers who go from Liquid Machine (2023) straight into Night Operations (2016). I would hope that seven years of practising at being a better writer would yield a stronger book. Perhaps though, that (slightly) more youthful me wrote with more verve and energy? I don’t know. That’s up to the readers.

Anyway, all that said. I’m having fun with the series and it’s nice having it rebranded and looking good.

Now, though, I do have the challenge of coming up with titles for the WX and YZ books. Didn’t think of that, Sean, did you, when you raced on into Canal Days imagining the alphabetic series. Wiggling Xylophone anyone? Wasteful XerxesWicked X-ray?

It should be out sometime next year. I suspect it may take as long to come up with a decent title as it will take to write the book.

Thanks for reading, and remember to check out the series on the Karnish River Navigations page..

Sean

The Blaze of Pollux – short story collection

Sometimes I write stories that are a little off beat and unusual. At least, I like to think they are – a writer being the worst judge of their own work, it may be that these are simply cookie cutter stories in the same vein as everything else I write, though somehow, I don’t think so. Take a look at the blurb:

The Blaze of Pollux

Ice cream on a space liner headed for disaster. A hike with a difference.  Strange animals on the loose. Odd solutions to trash overload. A scam artist lost in space.

Immerse yourself in another collection of offbeat science fiction stories from award winner Sean Monaghan.

Cover illustration © Eevlva | Dreamstime.com.

 

In the early days of my indie publication explorations – 2014 and 2015 – I put out four collections – Balance, Balance ii, Balance iii and Unbalanced, on the premise that they were neatly balanced collections, but the last one – Unbalanced – brought together quirky stories – a manga character on the loose in the real world, a transcript of a future NASCAR race commentary – and turned out to be a fun collection. It’s even sold a few copies – thanks if you were one of the purchasers. I hope you enjoyed that one.

With the passage of years, I hope I’m a better storyteller, so I would like to think that these ones are a little better than those. Of course, as I mention in the book’s introduction, a writer is the worst judge of their own work. I’m pretty sure that the cover and the interior look better than those early fumbling attempts.

Pick up The Blaze of Pollux from your favorite retailer: ebook $4.99, print $9.99. – Universal book link.

These ones below are still available. No universal booklink, but a search in your faborite retailer will bring them to the top. Sometimes I might even go back and redo those covers. So many covers, so little time!

Indistinct Garbled Static – new long short story out now

I’m working to keep up the release schedule here. I have this backlog of stories that should really get out into the light of day. Maybe a few people will even read them. Considering this is about my only promotion of new titles few people might hear of them anyway. So thanks for being here!

Indistinct Garbled Static” is at the long end of short stories – just crossing that threshhold where the SF community start calling them novelettes (for those interested – that 7500 words, this story is 8400 words)


Indistinct Garbled Static

Cassie hears patterns. Everywhere.

That makes her one of the best interstellar signal analysts around.

When the AI interpreter sends odd data her way, Cassie might have more than even she can cope with.

And the implications of the signal might change everything.

A story that asks the question: Do we know our place in the universe?

 

 


Cover art – which I think fits the story brilliantly – by Grandeluc from Dreamstime. I work hard on my covers and this time I’m feeling I’ve actually got the balance of text and image just about right.

Available now as both an ebook and in print for $2.99 / $6.99. Link there goes to the Universal Book Link which then takes you on to your favorite retailer.

 

Aelonee – new novella out now

It’s been a little while since my last post here. Travel and writing and whathaveyou slowed that all down a little. There are snippets of news about publications, some of which I may have mentioned before, but I’ll start with a a brand new one – Aelonee – a novella/long short story that’s out now.

I’m fascinated by hunter-gatherer culture and the missteps of farming and so on that have led us away from simplicity into the world we have now. I often wonder what it will be like for future interstellar explorers to encounter those kinds of societies, and the moral gray areas around all that.

I do not claim to be an expert on indigenous cultures, and the more I read, the more I discover holes in my knowledge, and the more I want to learn.

And all that said, I hope that Aelonee is an entertaining and engaging tale.


Aelonee

 

Planet Shepherdess.

Simple. Surprising. Deceptive.

Cara Silmar’s lifelong obsession researching the indigenous culture of Aelonee’s people, the Saesse, leads her deeper and deeper into a world she still barely understands.

A new arrival and an old friend throw Cara’s work into disarray, forcing her to consider everything.

Or toss it all away.

A deep space adventure story with a heart.

___

Wonderful cover illustration by PlanetFelicity from Dreamstime.

Available now as a paperback, $9.99, and an ebook, $3.99. Link here.


If you like the idea, my story A Cultural Exchange deals with similar themes – human researchers struggling with indigenous culture.

Arriving in the deep alien forests of Corrul, Tim Maxter and his crew hardly expect instant hostility from the locals.

Sixty light years from Earth to find someone pounding on the spaceship’s door. Welcome to a planet filled with surprises.

Surprises that will cut Maxter to his core.


In other news, I have a story coming out in the July/August Asimov’s and a reprint in Allan Kaster’s The Year’s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 7 out in June.

More details to come. Thanks for reading.

 

Goldie – finalist in the Asimov’s Readers’ Awards

My novella “Goldie” from the January/February 2022 issue of Asimov’s Science Fiction is a finalist in annual Asimov’s Readers’ Poll Awards. Amazingly this is actually my third time as a finalist for this award, following “Crimson Birds of Small Miracles” and “The Molenstraat Music Festival“.

When they put up the finalists lists, Asimov’s also make the stories and poems available to read online for a limited time – see the full page of finalists here, and the the direct link to “Goldie”.

Nice to see Dominic Harman’s cover illustration for “Goldie” as a finalist in the Best Covers category. Dominic captured Goldie herself so well that I was stunned when I received my copies of the magazine. I’d spent a lot of time with Goldie over the course of a year. The novella was a big work and there was a lot of back and forth with Sheila Williams, the Asimov’s editor in getting it right for publication (thanks Sheila!). I was surprised by my own feelings when I saw her so gorgeously realized right there in front of me. Thanks Dominic! Good luck with the award.

And good luck to all the finalists, though of course fingers crossed for me.

 

 

 

 

Dead Ringers – Captain Arlon Stoddard book 9

Dead Ringers, book 9 in my Captain Arlon Stoddard series is available on pre order with an April 20th release – universal book link here

More will come closer to the time (though I will be away from the net on a research trip on the lead up to release day).

I will say now, though, that I’m excited about this one. Nine books now in the series. Who’d have thought, huh?

And, as I type this, I’m working on Tramp Steamers, the tenth book.

I also wanted to mention briefly the wonderful cover by Algol (licensed through Dreamstime) – I actually licensed this years back for a different story. A story I hadn’t written at the time. I loved the image and I grabbed it, and wrote a story based on it, thinking just to indie publish it. But then, I sold the story to a magazine, so that locked it up for a while (generally when you sell – license – a story, part of that is a period of time when it’s exclusive to the magazine, fair enough, they paid for that).

Anyway, in the interim, I’ve just never got around to publishing the story as a standalone (goofing off, I guess, since, you know, apparently I’m a slouch when it comes to putting stories and novels up indie and really should be getting more of them out), but I still hold the license on the image.

Then I wrote Dead Ringers and it was really different and high-concept and stuff like that and ultimately I was struggling to find cover art that fitted the story. Then I remembered I had this. It fits this story well, it’s dynamic and energetic and conveys the action. So here it is.

More soon – a blurb and other details on price and so on. But you know, we do have until April 20th until it’s out.

Thanks for reading.

More soon.

Sean

Liquid Machine – Karnish River Navigations book 6 – on pre-release now

Liquid Machine, Book 6 in the Karnish River Navigation series (though actually the ninth book to come out) will be out on February 20th, but can be preordered now.


Liquid Machine – blurb

An easy minder job, watching a dignitary’s child, should be a simple payday for Flis Kupe and Grae Sinder. Sometimes their little investigations business needs the peace and quiet. Sometimes it needs the money.

But when the job turns sour, Flis and Grae might just find themselves in the firing line.

A Karnish River Navigations novel that changes everything.

Universal book link here.

ebook $5.99, print $18.99


Why, you ask, is this book 6 in the series, but the ninth to come out? Well, it’s one of those series that can be read in any order, and, it turns out, I’m writing it in any order. I started this when I was a younger writer, and the first book was titled Arlchip Burnout and, naively I thought that was neatly alphabetical, why not carry on? (see Toby Litt’s alphabetical series).

So then, Canal Days and Eastern Foray and so on.

But it turned out that titles came to me from different places in the alphabet. Tombs Under Vail came out long before Eastern Foray. In fact, Fantastic Fiction lists them by publication year (fair enough) rather than alphabetically:

Karnish River Navigations
Arlchip Burnout (2015)
Night Operations (2016)
Canal Days (2016)
Guest House Izarra (2016)
Persephone Quest (2017)
Tombs Under Vaile (2018)
Eastern Foray (2019)
Jackpot Kingdom (2022)

Reading order would be

  • Arlchip Burnout,
  • Canal Days,
  • Eastern Foray,
  • Guest House Izarra,
  • Jackpot Kingdom,
  • Liquid Machine
  • Night Operations
  • Persephone Quest
  • [Rorqual Saitu]
  • Tombs Under Vaile
  • [W… X…]
  • [Y… Z…]

You’ll see those three titles there in parentheses/brackets – [ ] – these three are still to be written. I will be embarking on Rorqual Saitu possibly as soon as next month, so it might even be out later this year.

Then, the challenge I seem to have set for myself of coming up with the WX and YZ titles. And good stories to roll around under those. Humph. I suppose that I do like a good challenge.

“Cardinals” – A Cole Wright short story, and Cold Highway – A Cole Wright novella

With my last post, I was deep in the heart of writing the ninth Captain Arlon Stoddard novel, Dead Ringers, and as I write this, I’m deep in the heart of writing the seventh Cole Wright novel (as yet untitled), which shows that I go too long between posts here.


Cold Highway – A Cole Wright Novella – out now

A trip north of the border takes Cole Wright into the heart of snowbound Canada. Friendly people, vast distances, tough vehicles, isolation.

When a breakdown looms, Wright finds himself caught in the white, compacted landscape. A road thirty feet wide, hemmed in by the piled up ridges left by snowploughs. And an endless forest that could hide just about anything.

Unfriendly territory. Dangerous places.

A Cole Wright novella that focuses down on a single moment where the slightest error could be his last.


With “Cold Highway” the first Cole Wright novella came on November 20th, and the sixth novel Zero Kills will be out on December 20th, it’s a busy time for my little thriller series.

Stay tuned for more news – another free story in December, and plans for Cole Wright and other series next year.

“Cold Highway” is available now. $3.99 ebook / $10.99 print.


Cardinals – A Cole Wright Short Story – also out now

Lieutenant Ione Anders of the Spokane Police Department stares at a blade jutting from one of the tires on her new issue vehicle.

Looks like the start of another one of those days.

A day that proves full of surprises.

A Cole Wright story with a difference, putting him right there in the action as he tags along.

Cover illustration © Constantin Opris | Dreamstime.

 

“Cardinals” is available as as an ebook and in print, usual thing of $2.99 and $5.99, since it’s just a short story. Link here.


Keep an eye out for a short story free to read here in December, and Zero Kills released on December 20th – preorder link here


 

“Sea Skimmers” – a Captain Arlon Stoddard short story

I am currently deep in the heart of writing the ninth Captain Arlon Stoddard novel, Dead Ringers, which is proving to be one of the most complex I’ve ever written – I’m taking more notes as I go than ever, and I’m tinkering a whole lot more with early parts of the story. It’s fun and different, and I hope to have it out in the first quarter of next year, all going well.

Also out is “Ortanide Steppers“, the first novella in the series.


Sea Skimmers

Experienced Captain Ulliana Alvis loves skimming above the forty-five hundred kilometer stretch of the Tegh Sea. Her vessel the Mourave carries fifty passengers in safety and comfort. The calm of the water always reassures and moves her at once.

But safety can be an illusion.

A Captain Arlon Stoddard short story that pits the crew against cascading events and into a desperate attempt to save lives.

A great place to jump in if you’re new to the series, and a wonderful addition for fans.

Cover illustration © Savagerus | Dreamstime.

“Sea Skimmers” is out now as an ebook and a little paperback. Usual thing of $2.99/$5.99.


 

 

Novellas in October and November

I like to have new book releases out on the 20th of the month, and for October and November, these will be novellas from two of my series. The first novellas in both. My novellas sit around a quarter the length of a novel – say around a hundred pages. I think Amazon labels them in with “90 minute reads” or something.


First up in on October 2oth is “Ortanide Steppers” from my Captain Arlon Stoddard Adventures series. Think deep space adventures with mysteries and puzzles around the galaxy. Technically a “novelette” in SF terms, but boy, keeping track of the names for the different lengths…

Ortanide. A planet with a unique geography, a rich history and a strange political system.

A political system that defies Captain Arlon Stoddard and his crew.

Restrained in a dank cell by the very people he came to help, Arlon faces the choice of violating the charters he works to uphold.

Or certain death.

A Captain Arlon Stoddard novella that pits the crew against possibly their most heinous foe yet.

 

Priced especially at $2.99 for the ebook, and $6.99 for the paperback. A bargain, right?


Next out on November 20th is “Cold Highway” from my Cole Wright Thrillers series. Pretty standard kind of thriller, adventure, gunplay stuff here. I’ve always liked those frozen highways and figured that might be a fun place to set a story. I was right, at least in writing it. I hope it’s as much fun to read.

A trip north of the border takes Cole Wright into the heart of snowbound Canada. Friendly people, vast distances, tough vehicles, isolation.

When a breakdown looms, Wright finds himself caught in the white, compacted landscape. A road thirty feet wide, hemmed in by the piled up ridges left by snowploughs. And an endless forest that could hide just about anything.

Unfriendly territory. Dangerous places.

A Cole Wright novella that focuses down on a single moment where the slightest error could be his last.

Still reasonably priced at $3.99 for the ebook, and $7.99 for the paperback.

So far all my paperbacks have come through Amazon, but I’m testing this one through Draft 2 Digital as well, in a slightly larger format, and ending up priced at $10.99. We’ll see how that goes.


As with previous months, I’ll have short stories out in the lead up to the releases. “Sea Skimmers”, which is the first Captain Arlon Stoddard short story, and followed by “Cardinals” which is a Cole Wright story with a difference – Lieutenant Ione Anders as the lead character (you’ll remember her from the first Cole Wright novel The Arrival) and Cole himself tagging along as a background character.

Details to come.

Remember you can explore the series from the pages available in the menu at the top of the page on the website here.

Thanks for reading.

Sean