My original science fiction stories “The Future, One Summer Behind” and “Letters Submitted in Place of a Thesis to the Department of Chronology” are out in two anthologies currently available for purchase.
In keeping with the season, both are summery kind of stories, with big storms, summer jobs, festivals, and doomed short-term relationships because one of you is a time traveller from a post climate-collapse timeline!
You know, the usual.
Letters Submitted in Place of a Thesis to the Department of Chronology
When Miki signs up to study in the late 21st century, she expects to meet an entire culture of selfish fools who care more about their own luxuries than the state of the planet. The truth, of course, is much more complex than that.
Caught up in the thrill of experiencing real weather on her first trip out of the 32nd century’s carefully protected arcologies, Miki will have to choose between her studies and her present or her new friends—and humanity’s future on the planet.
Told in a mishmash of formats, including a thesis excerpt, emails, and actual letters, “Letters Submitted to the Department of Chronology in Place of a Thesis” is a story about deterministic pessimism, time travel, climate change, academia, and not giving up, with a queer/poly romance among the central characters.
Published in Black Eyed Peas on New Years Day: An Anthology of Hope from Book View Cafe, April, 2021. To purchase a copy, visit the publisher’s website.
The anthology also features stories by Laurence Brothers, Michael M Jones, Holly Schofield, Liam Hogan, and many other excellent writers. Go check it out!
The Future, One Summer Behind
Every year since she was six years old, Kirsi has dreaded Maricourt Crater’s summer festival. The festival’s famous darkroom—supposed to let you experience a thirty-second burst of your own future, one summer ahead—has only ever showed her a feedback loop of anxiety and anticipation.
Now that she’s out of creche, she’s really too old for kids’ stuff like that. As her summer job kicks off, though, she can’t help wondering: what if it’s her own indecision and uselessness to blame for what the darkroom shows her every year? What if she decides to change, before visiting the festival one last time?
Published in A Quiet Afternoon 2, an anthology of “lo-fi” science fiction and fantasy stories from Grace & Victory Press in July, 2021. To purchase a copy, visit the publisher’s website.
The anthology has stories by L. Chan, Rebecca Gomez Farrell, Liam Hogan (yes, again!), Aimee Ogden, and many other great writers as well. This one is a breath of fresh air in these turbulent times and definitely worth picking up.
My story is technically a prequel to another story featuring Kirsi and Aala and the Maricourt Crater community, “Maricourt’s Waters, Quiet and Deep,” which came out in last year’s No Police = Know Future anthology from Experimenter Press. If you missed that one, now you have an excuse to go add it to your bookshelf as well!