This is how it started: I livestreamed my latest painting, left it on display while I went to bed alone, and woke up in another universe.
“The Copenhagen Exhibitions” (source link)
Hi There!
I hope your new year is off to a good start.
I’ve been pretty busy with short story and game writing. Here’s an update on what I’ve been writing and reading, along with some music to enjoy.
The Copenhagen Exhibitions
My flash story “The Copenhagen Exhibitions” is available to read for free in the Quantum Shorts competition.
Quantum Shorts is a long-running competition where authors and film-makers create work inspired by quantum physics. I think quantum physics is fascinating, so I’ve entered it several times over the years.
My entry this year is about every SF author’s favourite quantum oddity: the idea that the universe splits into multiple universes with every decision we make. It’s also got romantic discovery and heartbreak! Which maybe shouldn’t have an exclamation mark after it, I guess.
You can read “The Copenhagen Exhibitions” online on the Quantum Shorts website.
Take a Journey with Ithya
This month’s musical recommendation is the YouTube channel of French illustrator and animator Dorian Cotterau, called Blue Turtle.
Dorian collects relaxing, inspiring, or adventurous (and free-to-reuse) music from around the web and uses it to create digital albums on YouTube.
Paired with illustrations like the one on the right, they make for great writing soundtracks. The one pictured here is called Sunset in the Mountains.
Short Story on the BSFA Longlist
I’m thrilled and agog to have a short story on the BSFA Awards Longlist for the first time!
My story “Six Ways to Get Past the Shadow Shogun’s Goons and One Thing to Do When You Get There,” which appeared last May in the final issue of Galaxy’s Edge, has made the list for best short fiction.
The BSFA awards use a three-tiered voting process, whereby anything with at least one vote appears on the longlist. Longlist entries are then voted on by the BSFA membership to create the shortlist, which is voted on by anyone with a membership to Eastercon (an annual British SFF convention).
I don’t have any expectations of appearing on the shortlist considering all the other great work in the short story category, but it’s nice to know that somebody liked my work enough to consider it worthy of an award.
You can read or listen to my story at Escape Pod (the Galaxy’s Edge link no longer works) and check out all the other great work on the longlist on the BSFA Longlist web page.
What I’ve Been Reading
I lately finished Alix E. Harrow’s latest novel, Starling House.
If you like dark fairy tales, living houses, metafiction1 or protagonists who use sarcasm to hide their gooey, vulnerable center, you might enjoy it as much as I did!
Next up I’m starting on Anita Harris Satkunananthan’s Watermyth, an epic story of mermaids, storytelling, and war. What I’ve read so far is engaging and immersive, so I’m really looking forward to diving in more. (Get it? Mermaids? Diving?? I’ll show myself out.)
The ebook for Watermyth is half price until the end of February, so now’s a great time to pick it up in your preferred ebook storefront!
1. Starling House has footnotes!
Gigantea: Age of Rot update
My new choicescript game is one thing that’s been taking up my time these days.
I have most of the first chapter finished now, a little bit ahead of schedule, and I also wrote some kind of fun minigames to include in a festival scene in the chapter. (I always enjoyed the festival scenes in old-school JRPGs like Chrono Trigger and Wild Arms.)
If you want to try one out, why not see if you can solve a sliding puzzle or play a round of Spirits and Gods?