Story Sale: Rose Coloured Tentacles

My flash fiction story Rose Coloured Tentacles has been bought by Perihilion, the second story they've taken from me. They published my multi-author collaboration Crowd Control last year.

This is my 6th acceptance of the year, which I'm very pleased with, following second-time sales to Domain SF and Daily SF, as well as translations into German and Afrikaans. I still have quite a few stories out there looking for homes though.

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

Crowd Control Comment

I spotted a nice review of / comment on Crowd Control on the blog of Hungarian author Haralambi Markov whos says of the story:

“Crowd Control” by Gareth D. Jones, Aliette De Bodard, Nancy Fulda, Deborah Walker, John Murphy, and Sylvia Spruck Wrigley: It’s a short story experiment with six authors writing a segment following the minimal of guidelines and then stitching all fragments into a whole narratives. It’s clean, tight and explores science fiction through a relaxed plot lens. The plot threads come together seamlessly in the last segment. The whole story is a brilliant example of the virtues of collaborations and experimentation. I feel very satisfied having read this.

I'm glad the story came across so well.

I was once published in Hungarian magazine Galaktika, which os one of the best-looking magazines I've seen.

Crowd Control at Perihilion SF

My multi-author collaborative story Crowd Control is on line today at Perihilion SF.

See if you can spot the joints!