Speculative Flash Fiction
G'day flash loving folks, you're about to launch into an adventure at AntipodeanSF, the online magazine that's devoted to the regular monthly publication of fabulous and original science-fiction, fantasy, or horror mini-stories of about 500–1000 words each, with occasional feature stories of 2000 words and beyond.
AntipodeanSF will entertain you, and get you out there, perhaps even land you in places you never expected to see — yet won't take hours to read.
Please get to it and read this month's stories.
Nuke.
The Oracle
By Kevin J. Phyland
It started as a random question between two editors at a science fiction convention at the club bar of the hotel after the forums had finished for the day.
“Who is your most perceptive writer?” asked Deelie Sampson the editor of Future Perfect, a semi prozine specialising in science fiction, horror and general flotsam that the better paying markets passed on.
The Darkland Crier
By Ben F. Blitzer
Enter Louis Eldridge, a quiet, elderly man harbouring a wretched secret of guilt and remorse. A man whose own basic understanding of morality confounded even himself to question his right to live.
A once personable man relegated to a subhuman form of existence, Mr. Eldridge resigned himself to the most primitive of thoughts. He was the archetype of the downhearted man, the embodiment of everything immoral. For Mr. Eldridge, life as he knew it became a distant memory, a kaleidoscope of hazy moments in time and space. Mr. Eldridge, for want of a better word, was an abomination.
The Comedian
By Clayton Graham
The sound of applause. The silly creatures.
Applause. I hate it, but I can’t do without it. Like most entertainers, I need it. It’s like a drug. It’s the only way I can exist. I tell jokes. I know nothing else. There is nothing else I can do. I cannot do mechanical things, nor can I understand how this world’s system works. It is too complicated for me, too haphazard, much too severe.
The Big Question
By Tim Borella
It started up out of nowhere, as these things seem to do. I was a bit slow to catch on as usual, so at first I didn’t really notice much except that some of the people at work were acting funny, wandering around with faraway expressions on their faces, pausing to talk in low tones in the corridor or to look at you a few seconds too long like they were searching your face for something. None of those things in themselves were of any great importance, but together they added up to something that made me suspect that all the air had been pumped out of the building and replaced with some insidious mind-altering gas.
Brian, whose patterns of movement around the office were as predictable as the tides and who in the five years I’d known him had never ventured any opinion deeper than who was going to win the footy, suddenly started popping up in unusual places looking unsettled, like a ghost who’s forgotten what he’s supposed to be haunting.
Tea-Brewing at the End of Humanity
By François Verret
Making tea by hand was tricky business. She had researched plants, flowers, and spices, recipes written up to two centuries beforehand. But time was growing short. It had taken months to acquire cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, and the non-C spices. In the end, she had ordered loose black tea from a reseller in China.
The Omnioven was not designed to boil water. Rather, it was designed not to let its users boil water themselves. As long as she provided it with packaged food, it provided her with dinner. There were modders and tinkerers who played around with the appliance, and their communities had tricks for her. She had settled on one such hack, filling a glass container with water and sealing it partway, but hers was a newer model and would not be fooled.
Seize the Day
By R.J. Sadler
The machines wake Tom at 7:00 am. He crawls from bed and slinks down the steps in slow motion as the machines catch him up on what he’s missed while asleep. Approaching the kitchen, Tom hears the machines preparing his breakfast. He sits at the already set table and lifts his fork to his eggs as the machines put his napkin on his lap. He is hungry. Before he puts the first piece of egg in his mouth the screens illuminate, displaying a 12-minute video titled “Carpe Diem,” where the protagonist is declared a hero for living and embracing an everyday life. Smiling at the show, he continues eating. He checks his personal screen for messages. No messages but a list of programs and articles designed for his daily personality.
Seaweed Sister
By Louise Lannink
A boundary line. I touch it with my toes. Push it into the sand. It’s a length of seaweed: green like paddocks, green like gumnuts, unripe berries, limes and aphids. All that green, plaited together, and strewn across the shore. As I play, it’s my jelly fish without a head. It’s my mermaid’s tail; it’s my hair, and like Medusa, I stare and stare.
Don’t go any further than that seaweed! Dad said.
Off With Her Weave
By Andrew Dunn
Klarriza was upset ‘cause too much static electricity was caught up in her weave, like that was a problem or something. She didn’t have the problems I had. Orcs were moving on the kingdom from the east — a couple thousand riding dirt-bikes and beater trucks. Nagathresha up north wasn’t helping. The old dragon reneged on his contract and was holding out for a bigger cut.
DJ Rayz said to me, “I think old red and the orcs are in on it, boo. Think about it.” I did. It made sense. Orcs were on the move and out of the blue Nagathresha wanted fifty-one percent of the gold coming from mountains out west in exchange for handling my orc problem. Timing, as they say, is everything.
Of Course Not
By Colin L. Howe
“Of course not,” Tim replied. “there’s no way that I can fit into there.”
The older boys crowded round him, moving closer.
Tim looked up at the tall boy, saw the cruel smile across his face, and repeated, “I’m not going to get in there,” pointing to the small metal fire hose cabinet.
In Matters of Movement
By Zebuline Carter
“Welcome stranger,” said the town clerk at the village of Skrie, whiskers dancing with his smile. “I understand that you’re looking for some temporary work before you move on elsewheres. Perhaps if you told me a little ’bout yourself, I might be able to point you in the right direction,” he added amiably.
“I can milk a cow, till a field, mend a harness, and fix most machines,” said the visitor. “All I ask for is a few coins if they can be spared, food and lodgings if not.”
Five Years
By Roger Ley
In September 2212, the artificial intelligence running the Near Earth Object Observation Program at Big Pine announced impassively that it had discovered a new asteroid that would impact the Earth in about five years’ time. It estimated the size of the rock to be similar to that of Australia. I’ve always wondered who it told first, and how they reacted.
‘Ragnarok’ was a world killer and no mistake. So, time to leave, no other choice, the Earth was going to be largely uninhabitable from the 20th October 2217 and we had five years to prepare.
A Tale of Tyl Feánn - In which a step toward destiny is taken
By steve duffy
The High King was dying; may even be dead by now; age and ailing health taking its final toll.
A messenger demanding his father’s immediate attendance in Tyl Feánn had arrived and left within a tumultuous hour; just over a week ago. While not yet a member of The Conclave — who would accompany the body to the burial cairn when that day arrived — he would nonetheless have a role to play at Court.
Read more: A Tale of Tyl Feánn - In which a step toward destiny is taken
A Strange Incident at Mount Luofu
By Umiyuri Katsuyama - Translated by Toshiya Kamei
In the time of the Sui dynasty, a man named Zhao paid a visit to Mount Luofu. Eternal spring reigned over the sacred mountain, but it was early spring according to the lunar calendar.
During the day, the mountain was crowded with hikers and pilgrims to a Taoist temple, but once night fell, a dead silence spread over the area. Zhao wanted to take a stroll and feel the night air. The innkeeper warned him not to go out, saying, “It gets awfully cold out here at night,” but he lent him a sleeveless fox-fur coat. Zhao thought the coat would suit a hunter or a woodcutter better, but it felt warm and comfortable once he put it on for his stroll.
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AntiSF's Production Crew
Ion Newcombe is the editor and publisher of AntipodeanSF, Australia’s longest running online speculative fiction magazine, regularly issued since January 1998, and conceived back around November 2007. He has been a zealous reader and occasional writer of SF since his childhood in the 1960s, and even sold a few stories here and there back in the '90s.
“Nuke”, who it turns out loves editing more than writing, lives in the New South Wales North Coast holiday destination of Nambucca Heads, where he is self-employed in IT training, computer support, desktop publishing, editing, writing, and website implementation. He is also the resident tech-head, skeptic, and board member of community radio station 2NVR, where he produces a number of shows including The AntipodeanSF Radio Show.
Mark Webb's midlife crisis came in the form of attempting to write speculative fiction at a very slow pace. His wife maintains this is a good outcome considering the more expensive and cliched alternatives. Evidence of Mark's attempts to procrastinate in his writing, including general musings and reviews of books he has been reading, can be found at www.markwebb.name.
One of Mark’s very best forms of writing procrastination is to produce the eBook series for AntipodeanSF, which he has been doing since issue 175.
Main Menu
In The Next Issue...
Coming In Issue 263
A Very Special Treatment
by Daniel Verón
Against Stupidity
By George Nikolopoulos
Alien Seditions
By Ted Silar
Coming of Night
By Sarah Jane Justice
Eye and Larynx
By Nick Lee
Getting to No 1
By Shaun A. Saunders
Ghostriders in the Sky!
By Wes Parish
Job Search
By David Scholes
Otherworldly Matters
By Ben F. Blitzer
Planet MXCIV
By Matthew Legge
Second Man
By Ishmael A Soledad
Soulmates
By Roger Ley
The Contributors
Louise Lannink grew up in the Yarra Valley, Australia.
She later studied English and Philosophy at the University of Graz, Austria, and currently lives in the foothills of the Swiss Alps.
Umiyuri Katsuyama is a multiple-award-winning writer of fantasy and horror, often based on Asian folklore motifs.
A native of Iwate in the far north of Japan, she later moved to Tokyo and studied at Seisen University.
In 2011, she won the Japan Fantasy Novel Award with her novel Sazanami no kuni.
Her most recent novel, Chuushi, ayashii nabe to tabi wo suru, was published in 2018.
Her short fiction has appeared in numerous horror anthologies in Japan.
As a youngster growing up in the cobbled streets of Stockport, UK, Clayton Graham read alot of science fiction. He loved the 'old school' masters such as HG Wells, Jules Verne, Isaac Asimov and John Wyndham. As he left those formative years behind, he penned short stories when he could find a rare quiet moment amidst life’s usual distractions.
He settled in Victoria, Australia, in 1982. A retired aerospace engineer who worked instructural design and research, Clayton has always had an interest in science fiction and where it places humankind within a universe we are only just starting to understand.
Clayton loves animals, including well behaved pets, and all the natural world, and is a member of Australian Geographic.
Combining future science with the paranormal is his passion. 'Milijun', his first novel, was published in 2016. Second novel, 'Saving Paludis', was published in 2018 and won a Readers’ Favorite International Award. The stories are light years from each other, but share the future adventures of mankind in an expansive universe as a common theme.
The sequel to 'Milijun', entitled 'Amidst Alien Stars' was published in December 2019.
In between novels Clayton has published 'Silently in the Night', a collection of short stories where, among many other adventures, you can sympathise with a doomed husband, connect with an altruistic robot, explore an isolated Scottish isle and touch down on a far-flung asteroid.
He hopes you can share the journeys.
Web Site: <https://claytongraham.com.au/>.
You can follow Clayton on Twitter <@CGrahamSciFi>.
His Facebook author page is at: <https://www.facebook.com/claytongrahamauthor/>.
François Verret studied literature at Rosemont College, in his hometown of Montreal. On top of writing fantasy and science-fiction, he is a translator and a homemaker. His sister Aimée Verret is also a writer.
François has been a big fan of the Harry Potter books since he discovered them late in his teenage years. Some of his favourite recent reads come from Nnedi Okorafor, Becky Chambers, and Joanne M. Harris.
In his free time, François plays video games, especially of the role-playing variety. Pizza and ramen are his great food loves, though good sushi is unbeatable.
Oh, and he draws The Mr. Biscuit Webcomic (mrbiscuit.blog). Biscuit would say this is one of his main duties. You can find more about this author at <fverret.com>
Inspired by original episodes of The Twilight Zone, Ben F. Blitzer’s “The Darkland Crier” pays homage to Rod Serling’s storytelling, particularly to his unique opening and closing narrations.
Ben F. Blitzer is also a fan of Night Gallery, and Amazing Stories. He lives in Western Australia.
Toshiya Kamei holds an MFA in Literary Translation from the University of Arkansas.
His translations have appeared in venues such as Clarkesworld, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and World Literature Today.
Colin has branched from non fiction to fiction.
If you liked this, check out his short story collections now on sale on Amazon Kindle: 100 Breaths (10 stories that occur in 5 minutes, the time it takes to breathe; you guessed it; 100 Breaths) and I M A G I N E (6 longer short stories about people getting what they want... or are they?)
Andrew settled in the state of Maryland on the eastern coast of the United States after living in southern California for many years.
Andrew’s goal with each story he writes is to produce something readers will enjoy without relying on the typical, the predictable, or the cliché. That said, Andrew likes to put people, places, and things into his stories that often aren’t found in fiction.
When Andrew isn’t writing chances are he’s at work, out for a jog, playing blues guitar or reggae bass, exploring abandoned things, or quite possibly spending quality time with the pets. Andrew hopes you enjoy his work, and he will continue to work to give you stories that entertain.
Tim Borella has never lost his childhood passion for SF and writing in general and has been lucky enough to have worked most of his life as a pilot — in other words, he’s never properly grown up.
He lives in country Far North Queensland, has won awards for songwriting, and has had various other writing achievements, the most recent being an honourable mention in the 2018 international Literary Taxidermy Short Story Competition.
He also has bachelor degrees in science and teaching, and has completed a couple of as-yet unpublished SF novels. He’d dearly love to spend more time writing, but will have to continue juggling for another couple of years until the kids have fully left the nest.
R.J. Sadler is writer and educator from eastern Pennsylvania. He has been previously published in 365 Tomorrows. He lives with small human-like creatures whose existence challenges his ability to read, write, edit, and keep his home clean. When it comes to his fiction writing, R.J. neither enjoys nor regularly adheres to publishers’ serialized thematic guidelines. He is uncomfortable talking about himself, even in third person.
Roger Ley enjoys writing in a variety of speculative genres.
This story is from his anthology, 'Dead People on Facebook'. His other books include, ‘Chronoscape,’ a science fiction novel about time and alternate realities and, ‘The Muslim Prince. What if Diana hadn’t died?’ which is an alternative reality techno thriller.
Find him at: <https://rogerley.co.uk> and <https://www.goodreads.com/author/list/14211596.Roger_Ley>.
Zeb writes:
Last week, on a whim I submitted some of my own musings to ‘Nuke’, and when I checked back today — my time in my ‘verse, which is plus six years comparative to you — I saw that he had published some of them! I wasn’t even sure the contrived email and attachment would get through, let alone end up published on your internet of things. (BTW — We have nothing quite like your ‘net, but we’ve gone far further into the solar system than you have. Figure that!) Now that I know a connection is possible, I thought I’d tell you a little more about myself and where I’m from. So, from the beginning…
Hi. My name is Zebuline Carter — that’s Zeb for my friends or Zeb-you-leen if you want to get formal — and I’m a forty-two year old former astronaut now working as an administrator at Farside, on Luna. Farside is a research base, where innerscopes are just starting to peel back layers of our sheath of the local multiverse. Because our work is so sensitive to em influences, Farside is situated within a one hundred klom diameter exclusion zone.
In my late teens I earned a double major in aerospace and business but passed over grad school for civilian astronaut training. As a kid I collected coupons from cereal boxes until I had enough for my first telescope, and built scale models of all the commercial shuttles and orbiters. Growing up, I’d always felt slightly out of place, like I was meant to to be somewhere else and part of me already was — until, that is, I had my first trip into low orbit aboard a high-riding intercont-cruiser, or ICC. That was a high-school graduation present from my Uncle Jim, and during the fifteen minutes of freefall I found that other part of myself, grabbed it tight, and never let go since.
Did I also mention I’m 180 cents tall with bobbed chestnut hair? Or that because of heart damage from a bad landing, I’m also marooned in low gravity? But heh, there are now six bases around Luna, supporting a permanent population of around twelve thousand Lunans, and a transient population of several thousand tourists and stopovers returning form the outer system, so it never gets boring and I don’t get lonely. And living in low G means I won’t age or sag as fast, either.
Until next time —
Old enough to just remember the first manned Moon landing, Kevin was so impressed he made science his life.
Retired now from teaching he amuses himself by reading, writing, following his love of weather and correcting people on the internet.
He’s been writing since his teens and hopes he will one day get it right.
He can be found on twitter @KevinPhyland where he goes by the handle of CaptainZero and his work is around the place if you search using google or use the antisf.com.au archive.
husband, father, brother, son
poet, writer, artist, friend (et al.)
the list of pigeon holes
into which I fit, is endless
AntipodeanSF July 2020
ISSUE 262
Speculative Fiction
Downside-Up
ISSN 1442-0686
Online Since Feb 1998
Download AntiSF E-Book
AntiSF's Narration Team
Tim Borella has never lost his childhood passion for SF and writing in general and has been lucky enough to have worked most of his life as a pilot — in other words, he’s never properly grown up.
He lives in country Far North Queensland, has won awards for songwriting, and has had various other writing achievements, the most recent being an honourable mention in the 2018 international Literary Taxidermy Short Story Competition.
He also has bachelor degrees in science and teaching, and has completed a couple of as-yet unpublished SF novels. He’d dearly love to spend more time writing, but will have to continue juggling for another couple of years until the kids have fully left the nest.
Timothy Gwyn is a professional pilot in Canada, where he flies to remote communities. During a lull in his flying career, he was a radio announcer for three years, and he is also an author.
In addition to short stories at AntipodeanSF and NewMyths.com, his SF novel is available internationally in print and ebook formats. "Avians" draws on his love of alternative aviation to tell the tale of a girl who runs away from home to join a cadre of glider pilots on a world without metal or fossil fuels.
On Twitter, he is @timothygwyn, and his blogs are at <timothygwyn.com>.
Although a writer of the baby boom persuasion, Ed has not boomed for quite a while.
He lives with his wife plus a menagerie of non-domesticated — native Australian animals intropical North Queensland.
His writing within the ‘real’ science fiction context of COVID-19 is intermingled by long night sky vigils — searching for pesky aliens intent on maintaining their social distance to the nth degree.
Pixie is a voice actor, cabaret performer & slam poet From the Blue Mountains in NSW.
She enjoys writing short fiction, plays for radio and stage as well as her own brand of weird poetry.
She hosts the 'Off-Beet Poetry Slam' held bi-monthly in Katoomba.
Geraldine Borella writes adult short stories and stories for children and has been published in anthologies for both. In 2018, one of her children’s short stories placed second in The Buzz Words Short Story Prize and she won an ASA Emerging Writer’s Mentorship. She currently works part-time as a hospital pharmacist and as an online creative writing tutor.
She’s fascinated by stories that expand upon today’s technology, addressing the moral and ethical issues that might arise. Equally, she enjoys the creative freedom that writing for children allows. Right now, she’s writing a young adult novel, reworking a middle grade novel and writing adult short stories when inspiration strikes. She lives with her husband, Tim, in Yungaburra, Far North Queensland and dreams of one day taking a European gap year.
Garry Dean lives on the Mid Coast of New South Wales Australia, and has been a fan of SF for most of his natural life. Being vision impaired, he makes good use of voice recognition and text to speech in order to write. Many of his stories have appeared in AntipodeanSF over the years, and his love of all things audio led him to join the narration team in 2017.
You can read examples of Garry's fiction on his website <https://garrydean.wordpress.com>
Mark is an astrophysicist and space scientist who worked on the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn. Following this he worked in computer consultancy, engineering, and high energy research (with a stint at the JET Fusion Torus).
All this science hasn't damped his love of fantasy and science fiction. It has, however, ruined his enjoyment of rainbows, colourful flames on romantic log fires, and rings around the moon. He has previously been published in Stupefying Stories Showcase, Everyday Fiction, Escape Pod, Perihelion and also on AntipodeanSF where he is part of the narration team.
Alistair Lloyd is a Melbourne based writer and narrator who has been consuming good quality science fiction and fantasy most of his life.
You may find him on Twitter as <@mr_al> and online at <alistairlloyd.com>.
Laurie Bell lives in Melbourne, Australia. She was that girl you found with her nose always buried in a book. She has been writing ever since she was a little girl and first picked up a pen. From books to short stories, radio plays to snippets of ideas and reading them aloud to anyone who will listen.
She is the author of The Butterfly Stone (YA/ Fantasy — available now) and White Fire (Sci Fi — available now)
You can read more of her work on her blog Look for her on Facebook <www.facebook.com/WriterLaurieBell/> or Twitter: <@LaurienotLori>
Carolyn's work spans devising, performance, theatre-in-education and a collaborative visual art practice.
She tours children's works to schools nationally with School Performance Tours, is a member of the Bathurst physical theatre ensemble Lingua Franca and one half of darkroom — a visual arts practice with videographer Sean O'Keeffe.
(Photo by Jeremy Belinfante)
SF News
Upcoming Cons
Most up-coming cons have been postponed until next year because of the current COVID-19 situation, but please visit the ASFF for up-to-date information.
CoNZealand the 78th Worldcon from July 29 till August 2 is to be a "Virtual Worldcon", held online. More information at <https://conzealand.nz/>
<asff.org.au>.
The AntipodeanSF Radio Show
AntiSF Radio Show
The AntipodeanSF Radio Show delivers audio from the pages of this magazine.
The weekly program features the stories from recently published issues, usually narrated by the authors themselves.
Listen to the latest episode now:
The AntipodeanSF Radio Show is also broadcast on community radio, 2NVR, 105.9FM every Saturday evening at 8:30pm.
You can find every broadcast episode online here: http://antisf.libsyn.com
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