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!

No Lack of Courage – the Cole Wright short story collection

My Cole Wright series is now at six novels, with the seventh due in July (more on that in another post). Kevin J. Anderson mentioned in a seminar I was attending that most series don’t take off until book six. Maybe that’ll be book seven for me (or eight, or nine, grin – yes I will keep writing them).

Through 2022 each time I released a new Cole Wright novel, I also put out a short story, as an ebook, a print book and, for a limited time, free to read here on the website.

There was also a novella Cold Highway, and a limited free story with that. That’s enough stories for a collection, I figure. Even though releasing a collection kind of effectively kills the sales of those individual stories. It’s nice to see them gathered together like this.

Available here from the Universal Book Link.

ebook $6.99 (preorder for March 20th), paperback $16.99, hardback $21.99 (both available now)

Contents:
Dark Fields
Schedule Interruption
The Forest Doesn’t Care
One Little Broken Leg
The Handler
Cardinals
A Steep Climb
What Do You Say Gus?
Cold Highway


Probably a good time to mention that the seventh novel in the series is almost out for preorder, for release in June.

More news on that soon.


Then there’s other writing happening. The next Captain Arlon Stoddard novel Tramp Steamers has been copyedited and proofed and we’re looking at scheduling that for October, though the next Karnish River Navigations novel Rorqual Saitu is complete, just awaiting those edits. We were hoping to have that out in August, but we might switch those around.


And then with the day-to-day writing, I’m deep in the heart of a new book which started out as, I thought in my naivety, a short story that might break 5000 words (think twenty pages) and is now somewhere north of 30,000 words. Yes, it will be another novel. This is good news for fans of my Morgenfeld Saga, on which nothing has happened for a few years (busy with other series as you see above) – the new book is tentatively titled The Wintermas Paintings and might even be out before the end of the next year.

At the risk of extending that naivety, I thought I’d pop in the draft of Chapter One below for any who might be interested. This is raw, remember, not tinkered with, not copyedited, not even proofed. But it might still give a feel for where this book is going.

Art not final – just an ai version of what it thinks of Morgenfeld’s Tower of Bats.


The Wintermas Paintings

Chapter One

Despite the size of the space, the air in the old cavernous hall was musty and damp and thick.

Jason Trone shivered, pressed up to one of the windows. The glass was cold, and from somewhere came angry bellows.

Someone shouting his name.

Far off for now. He had a moment.

Jason sat on a low wooden bench seat. It was hard and had once been polished to a fine shine. The lustre was long gone, and the vanish was cracked and pitted and discolored. Probably oak, with a strong grain and a few knots. The legs were still strong.

Lying on the bench were the spoils of his plunder. Trinkets and baubles mostly. Two iron necklaces with gold plating that was already wearing off. Some glass sapphires and emeralds set in brass brooches. The pins on two were snapped. A pair of pearl earrings that might have been genuine, but they wouldn’t fetch much.

He scooped them back into his soft leather satchel. It had been a gift from his grandmother and wouldn’t she be disappointed now with the use he was putting it to.

Jason sighed.

The windows behind stood thirty feet high. They hadn’t been cleaned in decades. A dust patina lay across them, and bright green lichens spread on some of the panes, with darker green mosses looking lush and vibrant in edges and corners of the framing.

Jason wiped at one of the windows, removing just enough dust to be able to see through. The next part of the building stood about forty feet away, and he was about level with the edge of the roof. There were rows of windows, leading down three, no four, stories. The brickwork was festooned with dead vines, as if someone had cut the poor plant off at the roots.

An orange cat strolled along the parapet–the building’s walls rose higher than the roof, so there were gutterings hidden behind. The cat stopped and turned to lick at its side, stripes showing and tail flicking.

If Jason could get around to where the cat was now, then that would give him more options. The question was how to reach it.

Looking over the hall again, Jason marveled. It would have been quite impressive back in its day.

The vaults of the ceiling was a good forty feet from the wooden floor. The remains of chandelliers hung, sad and drooping.

Across from the windows there was a long mezzanine balcony, rather than a wall. Stiff plaster pillars still showing signs of their original gilding held the floor in place, and the railing was complex and twisted. Probably wrought iron. It had once been painted white, but now the only remaining paint was a few chips, and rust showed.

Perhaps it had been a ball room, or even a throne room. Perhaps there had been huge thick woollen curtains over the windows and where he sat now had been occupied by a stage. There might have been performances held of Crespin’s The Draper’s Revenge, or any number of Peart’s complicated plays. Or chamber quartet shows.

Jason closed his eyes a moment, imagining the hall filled with chairs, the audience chattering away until a master of ceremonies stood at the stage front and cleared their throat.

Another bellow from the distance brought him out of his reverie.

Closer.

What he hadn’t figured on, when he began fleeing with his purloined jewelery, was getting chased by constabulary with the mindset of zealots. That, with finding his escape route blocked, had thrown him into disarray.

Probably shouldn’t have even taken this moment to catch his breath.

Jason scooped the pauper’s jewels back into his satchel. One missed and fell to the floor. One of the faux-sapphire brooches. It glass jewel glinted with a fabulous blue.

With a quiet curse, Jason slipped off the bench and reached around for the jewel. An big black spider scuttled away. Jason caught a glimpse of its tunneled web, leading back from a hole beneath the window framing.

As he stood, he heard another bellow.

“Jason Trone! Stay right where you are.”

The voice echoed around the hall.

Turning, Jason saw a hefty officer just at the entry door at the far end.. Dressed in a dark blue uniform with gold buttons and brocades. His hat was slightly askew and his mustache was thick.

Another officer came up behind him. A woman. Smaller, with narrowed eyes and an angry mouth.

“Stay right there,” the male officer said. “You’re nicked.”

Jason tucked the flap of his satchel in.

“Don’t think about it son.” The officer took another step.

Jason slung the satchel over his shoulder.

“Get on your knees,” the female officer said, coming around, drawing her baton.

Jason ran. He sprinted right at one of the old plaster pillars.


copyright 2023 Sean Monaghan

Image by Dorothe | Pixabay

In Custody – New collection out now

In custody cover 28621 ebookAfter releasing six novels over the first six months of 2021, I have a little change of pace with a collection of short stories for July. In Custody is a set of five of my off-beat stories.

Available from the universal book link for $5.99 (ebook) and $9.99 (print) – click here to find it from your favourite retailer.

“In Custody” the first story in the collection opens like this:

_____________

Jaine Mar took a deep, slow breath of the tangy Phline air and cast her eyes up along the lines of the crystalline alien tower.

Getting inside that was going to be tricky, that was for sure.

The Phline city spread out around her. Curved swirls of stony buildings, other towers, the shallow slope of the hardened banks of the wandering canal. The bustle and hum of Phline traffic surged and fell, like the swell of a cluttered, polluted ocean. Bleak gray clouds grew in the distant sky, preparing to roll in and dump maybe a cubic kilometer of water as heavy raindrops. Right now the air was warm, but in a few hours the temperature would plummet.

_____________

More coming next month.

Late updates

So in a world in a little turmoil, it has been a while since I’ve posted here.

As with most people I suppose I’ve been in an interesting headspace. While I’ve continued to write every day, the writing has slowed down. I’ve consumed too much news and too many zombie movies. I suspect that last is perhaps something to do with attempting to deflect how terrible this pandemic is. It feels like we are an awful long way from seeing the end.

I do have three new books out, or at least available for pre-order.

Landslide Country is a collection of my more literary stories. Available now.  $5.99 ebook, $8.99 print.

Good Ship Hartford is the first novel in a new teen series – The Matti-Jay and Dub Adventures – following on with characters from The Chronicles of the Donner series. Available on preorder, coming June 30th. $3.99 ebook, $7.99 print (book one, so it’s smaller and at a discount. Book 2 Pirates is coming in August).

Chasing ‘Oumuamua is a collection of my science fiction stories. Available on preorder, coming on July 20th. $5.99 ebook, $12.99 print.

Thanks for reading. I hope to have something more soon, as I start getting my head back into writing and publishing, and away from all those zombie movies.

Take care out there.

Planning Releases for 2020

 

This year we’re targetting getting twelve releases out. This will be a mix of standalone short stories, novels and collections. If we can really get things together, a couple of the collections will be omnibuses of a few of my earlier novels.

For January, February, March and April there will be four science fiction releases, three standalone short stories, “Life-Span”, “Fabulous Skies” and “Mem, and Cyborg”, and the novel Deuterium Shine.

The novel is the first in a new series – The Jupiter Files. The second book, Tritium Blaze will be out later in the year. There are no concrete plans for a third book, so this might well be a duology. Of course, the obvious third book would be Hydrogen Something. Can’t use Sonata since Ian M Banks did that so well already. Would it be cheeky to call it Hydrogen Coda? After all it would be the last book. Perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself there.

“Life-Span” is available for preorder from Amazon, Smashwords, and other retailers. Just $2.99 for the ebook and $5.99 for print, since it’s a short story. Release day is January 31st.

The blurb goes like this:

Cody Albine watches as her elegant and well-organized presentation collapses. Right in front of her last chance at getting corporate funding for the project of a lifetime. Her absolute passion.
But hope lies with her friends. It might take compromise, but a little compromise between friends never goes astray.
A short biological sci fi thriller with a heart. From the author of Overrun and L-Own.

 

“Fabulous Skies” will be available from February 29th, Deuterium Shine from March 31st and “Mem, and Cyborg” from April 30th. All will have preorders for about a month. Short stories stay at $2.99/$5.99, but the novel will be $5.99/$16.99 (probably – still working on the layout and the size of the print book dictates the price).

 

Moving on from there, May will be a collection of literary short stories, with some previously published. June will be the novel Desert Creepers, the fourth book in my Captain Arlon Stoddard series. It’s been a while since the last volume, so it will be great to get this series going again. There are two more already written in the series – Core Runners and Underworld Climbers.

July will likely be an omnibus of shorter sci-fi novels, August will have a collection of sci-fi stories, September should be Tritium Blaze. For October we’re targetting another omnibus, this one of earlier thrillers, November another sci-fi stories collection, and December will be book three of the Morgenfeld fantasy series, The Black Chimneys in Atterton.

That’s it. A big year that will push me out there into some areas that challenge me.

Exciting times.

That time of year again

A quick post here about short story contests. Specifically the Sunday Star Times Short Story Contest, here in New Zealand.

sst-logo

Each year around this time, my site gets a lot of views because I’ve written over the last few years about this contest, and, I guess, people are looking for information about when it opens, what the prizes are, when it closes and so on. A google search brings my posts up on the first page when you search up the contest.

I have written about the contest because over those years, their rules have been egregious: their terms and conditions allow them to effectively publish any entry without having to pay the author.

I don’t think that they go ahead and use those rights – they seem to just publish the prize winners. The thing is that rights are all writers have, and we need to protect them.

I don’t know if they’ll retain that this  year. I did get in touch with the contest organisers about the issue, and had a positive to neutral response; to the effect that they would look at those conditions again for the next time they run the contest.

So, I’m hopeful that when they next run the competition, that the conditions will be more favourable to writers. Also hopeful that they will run it this year, and announce the details soon.

Sargeson Prize – competition for New Zealand writers

sargeson-small-fileOver the last few years I’ve railed against the terms and conditions of the Sunday Star Times short story contest – where they effectively retain the right to publish any entry without paying the author. I have been in touch directly with them, and had a positive response, indicating that they will look again at those terms and conditions should they run the contest again.

In the meantime, there’s another contest open for New Zealand writers – the  Sargeson Prize, run through the University of Waikato. The contest is named for celebrated New Zealand writer Frank Sargeson.

Under the terms of this contest, writers retain the rights to their story, win, lose or place. That’s fair. There is no entry fee (my advice, avoid contests that charge a fee: money flows to authors, not from).

There’s a nice prize too.

You can enter here. Entries are restricted to residents of New Zealand.

Entries close on June 30th, so there’s still a little time to get something in. You could write it tonight and send it in tomorrow, if you’re really keen.

 

Trusty old submissions tracking book.

trusty tracking booktrusty tracking book interior pageEver since I’ve been writing and submitting manuscripts to publishers, I’ve needed a way to keep track of those submissions. I’ve been around long enough that those first submissions went as a printed manuscript, inside a full-sized envelope, with postage on a slightly smaller envelope inside. To match the very physical nature of this, my tracking system also exploited the benefits of paper and ink. An accounting book, to be precise. And mostly pencil, since it lends itself to updates more readily than ink.

I’ve continued the practice into the present day. I’ve just come to the last page of my second book.

I do subscribe to Duotrope, which has a built-in tracking system for stories. That might be the way to go. But I do have another blank book all set. Starting next week, when my latest story will be ready to venture out into the wilds.

Q&A with me at Asimov’s From Earth to the Stars editor’s blog

asimovs march april 2018I neglected to give anything more than a passing mention that I got interviewed at the Asimov’s blog, specifically about my story in the March April 2018 issue.

The interview is here. I talk with the editors about my process for creating “The Billows of Sarto”, and my general writing process, and a few other things.

Check out the other interviews on the site too. You’ll build up a pretty good picture of authors writing for Asimov’s today.