Book Review: Freefall by Mercurio D Rivera

I have read and enjoyed several of Mercurio D Rivera’s ‘Wergen’ stories in ‘Interzone’ over the past few years, so I was very pleased to receive a review copy of his new novella ‘Freefall’, set in the Wergen universe.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

The Gondolier in Thai

I attempted unsuccessfully to make contact with various Thai SF sites, so having failed to find this translation a home I thought I'd kick off the new year with The Gondolier in Thai.

ผู้พายเรือกอนโดลา

หัวเรือกอนโดลาที่ดำสนิทของฉันได้ตัดผ่านน้ำที่สงบนิ่งของลำคลอง เรือที่มันปลาบนี้ได้รับใช้ฉันมาอย่างดีเป็นเวลาหลายปีแล้ว บรรทุกผู้โดยสารมากมายผ่านการเดินทางทางน้ำของเมืองภายใต้การนำทางของฝีมือคนรุ่นแล้วรุ่นเล่าของบรรพบุรุษของฉัน

พระอาทิตย์กำลังตกลับเมืองเก่าแก่แห่งนี้ เปลี่ยนสายน้ำให้เป็นดั่งริบบิ้นสีหมึกที่ทาบอย่างสวยงามอยู่ระหว่างสิ่งก่อสร้างหินทรายเหล่านี้ ฉันสูดอากาศเย็นของยามค่ำสู่ลมหายใจลึก ๆ

มีที่ใดที่จะสวยงามมากไปกว่าเมืองแห่งลำคลองที่น่าอัศจรรย์นี้อีกบ้างไหม เมื่อเรือเข้าจอดอย่างสงบนิ่งที่ท่าเทียบเรือ ฉันหยุดเพื่อที่จะเพ่งมองขึ้นไปในท้องฟ้าที่มืดมิดแห่งดาวอังคารด้วยความพึงพอใจ

 

จบ

Translated by Mei Lim

Hiking Review

Several months later, Hiking in My Head has been reviewed at Diabolical Plots, home of the Submission Grinder. The last line of the review sums up what most readers seemed to think:

'An odd tale I had to read twice to partially understand it.'

Strangely, I had to write it twice before I understood it!

Paralelismos Out Now

My Spanish short story collection Paralelismos is out now as a free ebook, with an introduction by Santiago Eximeno.

A Year of Writing

In terms of sales and publications, 2013 has been my most successful yet, though certainly not my most prolific. In terms of writing I’ve done pretty well too.

I’ve written 8 stories this year – 5 of them flash fiction and 7 of them in the first half of the year. I wrote Hiking in My Head in January and it was published in Daily Science Fiction in August. Ode to an Earthworm was completed in May and published in Looking Landwards in October. The book launch for Looking Landwards at BristolCon was my first, in which I sat on the platform and talked about my story, as well as signing 100 sheets for the limited hardback edition. The others stories are still biding their time, or being edited. From April onwards I concentrated on my novel Galaxy’s Game and wrote 60,000 words to complete it in December.

In total I’ve had 4 semi-pro and 2 professional publications this year, along with 3 more appearances for The Gondolier, in Serbian, German and Ligurian. The year was rounded off nicely with the sale of The Sound of Death to IGMS, due out in the spring.

Meanwhile I’ve collected together my 10 stories that have appeared in Spanish and with permissions from the various translators put them together into an e-book that should be ready to launch early in the new year.

So another half dozen short stories are queuing up to be written, one novel is several thousand words in, several more novels are suggesting themselves to me. Looks like 2014 could be pretty busy!

Review of Anthology of European SF - Romanian Translation

My review of the Anthology of European SF, published earlier this year in SF Crowsnest, has been translated into Romanian for SRSFF, the Romanian fantasy and SF website.

The anthology included stories translated into English, so it's only fitting that the review is translated back out of English!

Galaxy's Game Complete

Weighing in at 105,000 words, Galaxy's Game is finally complete. It was the first novel I started writing, and the third to be completed.

Phew.

Spanish Collection Cover and Title

I've almost finished work on my Spanish short story colection, which wil be called Paralelismos, after one of the stories. Here's the cover, featuring the artwork Last Man Standing by John D Stanton that first appeared alongside my story The Last Adam in Static Movement magazine. The translation of that story is also included in the collection.

Story Sale to IGMS

I'm exceedingly excited to anounce that my 6300 word alien detective story The Sound of Death has been bought by Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show, aka IGMS. I love the character and setting I've created for this story and reallly want to write more in the same world. No publication date confirmed for this yet, but probably next spring.

The Lighthouse Keeper

Issue #9 of Plasma Frequency magazine is out now, containing my Welsh SF story The Lighthouse Keeper. I had the idea for this story several years ago while visiting South Stack lighthouse on Anglesey.