Enter the Labyrinth

I've just sold a reprint of my flash fiction X Factory to Labyrinth Inhabitant Magazine,

The web's first magazine devoted to stories about life in giant artificial structures created by forces beyond human comprehension.

It's a narrow remit, but the interpretation is broad.

Over a dozen of my Friday Flash Fiction stories have now been accepted for reprint or translation.

Friday Flash Fiction: Ar Goñdolour

This is the Breton translation of The Gondolier, one of six Celtic languages. There was a Breton SF magazine until fairly recently, but it has ceased publication as fas as I can tell.

Ar Goñdolour


Penn a-raok ma goñdolenn a oe waet dousik tre doùr sioul ar c'hanolioù. Ar c'hoed lintr en noe jervijet diñ a-feson a-bad ur bochad blezadoù, kaset voaiajerion tre hentoù-doùr ar gêr-sen, renet get daouarnoù rummadoù ma zadoù-kozh.

An heol a oe é vont da guzh a-dreist ar gêr gozh, é lakat an doùr da vout ur seizenn du a-hed batisoù brav a vein-krag. Analet em moe don avel fresk an abardaez.

Daoustoc'h ma oe ur lec'h bravoc'h eit ar gêriad varvailhus-sen get he c'hanolioù? Pa oe ar vag é tizh hec'h amarroù, em moe gwraet un arrast, da sellet get plijadur doc'h oebl Meurzh é tañvalhaat.

Echu.

Translated by Loic Cheveau


See the left-hand side bar for other translations of The Gondolier.

Second Edit

I've sent the last two sections of Roadmaker off to my Orbiter writing groups to be critiqued. Both of these have already been edited by me so it'll be interesting to see what else they find. The last sections didn't get too many comments on the text itself, but mostly general comments on parts of the plot and the characters. I've actioned many of the comments that were straight-forward to fix, but some will need a bit more work - the excessive number of POV characters for example. I guess 26 is too many!

Falling on Twitter

My first twitter fiction Falling appears on OutShine today. Most twitter stories aren't given titles and none appear on OutShine, but I couldn't leave it without a name. Appropriately I've limited it to one word.

Parallels

A revised version of my flash fiction Parallels has been accepted by Flashshots and is scheduled for July 30th. I originaly submitted it along with The Last Adam and Launch, only to discover that it was longer than 100 words. I'd written it down wrong at some point and didn't check before submitting. Let that be a lesson to you! I've edited it down to 100 words for its appearance on Flashshots.

New Jupiter Review

A new review of Jupiter XXIV has appeared, on SF Site. Of my story Dog's Best Friend it says:

To begin at the end, with the shortest story, Gareth D. Jones offers an enjoyable snippet, a little character sketch, in his Roadbuilder sequence.

:o)

Reading Schedule

I’m currently in the midst of Tony Ballantyne’s fantastic robot novel Twisted Metal, a book that takes robots as far away from Asimov as I’ve ever seen. This was released in May, so the review will be a little late. Lined up I have an E-ARC of The Tel Aviv Dossier by Nir Yaniv, who edits a Hebrew SF zine, and Lavie Tidhar, whose name appears in the TOC of almost every magazine and anthology of note. I then have Warren Fahy’s Fragment, that promises to be a cross between Lost and Jurassic Park. Both of these are released today.

I’m expecting the latest issue of Jupiter soon, and a mailing from the BSFA I think, hopefully including my article in Focus. That’s my reading schedule full for the rest of July.

Book Review: The Gift of Joy by Ian Whates

Before opening ‘The Gift Of Joy’ it already comes across as a quality volume. The cover art as another impressive and stylish creation by Vincent Chong and it even feels superior. Inside is a solid collection of stories that Ian Whates has produced in a relatively short space of time. There isn’t a single let-down in the book and several of the stories have already received accolades in their own right from anthologists, the British Science Fiction Association and the British Fantasy Society. I’ll limit myself to telling you about a few of my favourites.

Read the rest of my revies at SF Crowsnest.

Magazine Review: On SPec #76

This is my first look at Canadian magazine ‘On Spec’, a long-running, quarterly, digest-sized magazine that boasts a matte colour and several internal B&W illustrations. Most of these accompany an artist interview plus there’s another interview with veteran author J. Brian Clarke. There’s an enjoyable selection of stories, touching on SFnal themes but leaning more towards the fantastic, completing a good solid publication.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Reveiw: Starship Fall by Eric Brown

Although the novella ‘Starship Fall’ is the sequel to Eric Brown’s earlier ‘Starship Summer’, this book is an entirely independent story that doesn’t rely on previous knowledge. There are references to earlier happenings, but which of these formed the basis of the earlier book was not apparent and didn’t matter to this story.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.