Tag: static movement

Jet-Propelled dieselpunk story in Oil

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

My action-thriller dieselpunk piece “Deadstick” is the lead story in the Oil anthology from Static Movement, available now at Amazon. Would you risk your career and a pricey prototype aircraft for a slim chance to rescue someone? Here are the opening paragraphs:
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Hank pushed Sally-Jean over the crest and slammed on the afterburners. He’d logged more hours strapped into her snug cockpit than in the rest of the test planes put together. The snub-nosed Lockheed felt like she was a part of him. Some of the guys at Ridgecrest were starting to make lewd comments, asking when the wedding was.
He didn’t mind. What they didn’t know was the sheer bliss of pointing her heavy ass at the ground and shunting her into the stratosphere at six-gees, then bending her around, butterfly-like, into a parabolic arc, cutting the engine and letting her float fifty thousand feet down before re-igniting and pulling up, all sense of butterfly gone, screaming along fifty feet above the desert floor. He didn’t need the amphetamines they sometimes offered around, Sally-Jean kept him alert and hopped-up all he needed. She always came back with an empty tank.

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My thanks to editor Marty Zeigler for taking the story – and for working with me on finding a great title.

Two New Anthologies I’m editing

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

As well as Dieselpunk, I’m editing two more anthologies for Static Movement.

Hospital is an anthology about scary hospitals. Think crazed doctors, abandoned asylums, body parts coming to life and so on. This is meant as a horror anthology, but I will look at other speculative genres (and even a literary story or two)

A Butterfly in China: stories of the butterfly effect. This is an anthology about where a tiny change can have a huge impact on an outcome – think about the time you missed that bus by just a moment, went to a diner to wait for the next bus, spilled your coffee and met the love of your life… or something like that. Or, perhaps, how some incremental shift causes disaster. This is a speculative fiction anthology – horror, sci-fi, fantasy and so on. Time travel is popular for this concept, and that’s fine, but I’m keen to see stories that go in other directions too.

As with other Static Movement anthologies, these are non-paying. Click on the titles for full submission details.

Oh, She’s a Witch in Static Poetry

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

My poem “Oh, She’s a Witch” is in the first poetry anthology from Static Movement. It was my first publication for this year, I’d just been waiting for it to appear on the Amazon page.

Nice little book, with a great range of poetry in it, lots of familiar names (well, from the Static Movement stable), and lots of new.

I’ll have another poem – “Devil with Angel Wings” – in the next anthology, Static Poetry II, as well.

Dieselpunk – print anthology – call for submissions

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

I’m editing an anthology of Dieselpunk for Static Movement. See the Dieselpunk thread on the Static Movement boards for full submission guidelines. Steampunk’s bastard cousin, Dieselpunk looks for speculative fiction filled with rugged, chunky engines but no sign of electronics. What would the would be like if we still had those huge 1950s aircraft, locos and cars, but no computers?

This is a non-paying anthology – for the love only.

These Things Are Illusions in Trunk Stories

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 2 Comments

Trunk Stories is another print anthology from Static Movement and editor Chris Bartholomew – an anthology of lost and forgotten stories.

My story – one of the longest I’ve ever had published at around 8000 words – was written about five years ago, went to a few publishers, and didn’t make it to print. I still like the story – about an older stepbrother visiting a blended family, initially grating on everyone, but eventually enthrally his younger stepsisters with an adventure story – and I’m stoked to see it in print.

Trunk stories is available from Amazon and also (at a discount, with reduced shipping for $ break spending) from the Pill Hill bookstore.