The Fourth End

 This weekend, I reached the end of my fourth novel! This one is set on Astropolis, the orbital habitat that is the setting for several of my short stories and collaborative stories. 

Now for lots of editing, re-writing, submitting, etc, etc, etc...

Multi-Author Collaborative Story Now On Line

My collaborative story Something On Your Mind?, co-written with 8 other authors, is now on-line at Kaleidotrope. This is my third blind collaboration set aboard the orbital habitat Astropolis. I gave the other authors the setting and asked them to write a short scene with their own character but with no idea of the overall plot and I then stitched all the sections together into an whole story.

Collaborative Story Sale

I'm very excited to have sold my third blind collaboration, this time to Kaleidotrope magazine. This time my co-authors are Stewart C Baker, Anatoly Belilovsky, Robert Dawson, Kate Heartfield, Holly Heisey, CL Holland, Laurie Tom and Deborah Walker - the most I've ever collaborated with.


Once again the story is set on Astropolis, a two hundred year old orbital habitat that has been the setting for several of my stories.

Space Station Inspiration

Deborah Walker, one of my collaborators on two different Astropolis stories, has just had a story published in Nature magazine, and in this blog post explains how Good For Something started life on Astropolis.

Astropolis

Astropolis is an orbital habitat that has been in orbit of earth for around three centuries, gradually growing and expanding as new modules are built and added until it has reached over a kilometre in diameter. It’s home to several thousand inhabitants, including representatives of some alien races. There are markets and gardens, offices, restaurants, shopping malls and mile upon mile of service corridors and shafts linking it all together. Some of the oldest sections of Astropolis are now defunct, but they lie cocooned within so many layers of newer modules that they have been left in place, abandoned and gathering dust. There are observation decks that look out on nothing but the hull of a new adjunct, docking bays that lead nowhere, recycling systems with nothing to recycle and corridors with no access.


As well as three of my own short stories, Astropolis has been the setting for my three collaborative stories. It’s an ideal setting because the numerous different styles and technologies fused together to form the great habitat allow authors to write what they want without fear of contradicting each other. All three have been blind collaborations, where I give the other authors the setting and minimal guidance, and then I join their contributions together to form a whole.





Astropolis stories:



The Blind Collaborators – Aphelion – Sept 2007
      Reprinted - Aphelion – Feb 2008
Travel by Numbers – Nature – June 2008     
     Serbian translation – Antares – Mar 2009
     Estonian translation – Algernon – Apr 2009
     Spanish translation – Alfa Eridiani – May 2009
     Reprinted – Paralelisomos – Dec 2013
     Galician translation – Nova Fantasia – Sept 2009
Up To My Neck In It – Hypersonic Tales – Aug 2009
     Spanish translation - Aurora Bitzine – Oct 2009
     Reprinted – Paralelismos – Dec 2013
Three AM – Golden Vision – Jan 2010
Crowd Control – Perihiloion SF – Sep 2014
Something On Your Mind? - Kaleidotrope - Oct 2017

Three AM

The new issue of Golden Visions magazine is now out and contains my story Three AM. The story is set aboard the orbital habitat Astropolis, the setting for my previous stories The Blind Collaborators, Travel by Numbers and Up To My Neck In It.

It's a bit of an experimental story - the same incident told from three different viewpoints. It's a bit of a mundane story that is barely SF except for the setting. I enjoyed working on it though.

New Text and Audio Story On-Line

My flash fiction Up To My Neck In It is now on-line at Hypersonic Tales, where you can both read it and listen to it. It’s set aboard the orbital habitat Astropolis, the same location as The Blind Collaborators, Travel by Numbers and the forthcoming Three AM.



As with several of my other stories, this one isn’t written in a standard format. This time I’ve written it as an article from the station newsletter.

Up To My Neck In It

It’s almost like somebody was reading yesterday’s post. I’ve sold Up To My Neck In It to Hypersonic Tales, a relatively new flash fiction webzine that publishes each story in both text and audio format. I’m looking forward to listening to it in next month’s issue as it’s only my second audio story.

This story is based on my real-life experiences from when I worked on a trade effluent plant, though of course that was on Earth and not aboard an orbital habitat.

Three AM

My 2600 word story Three AM has been accepted by Golden Vision, the magazine that recently published White Out. It will appear in the January 2010 issue, my first acceptance for next year.

The story is set aboard the orbital habitat Astropolis, the setting for my earlier stories The Blind Collaborators that appeared in Aphelion and Travel by Numbers that I sold to Nature. My as-yet-unsold story Up to my Neck In It is also set there, if anyone is interested...