Awards News and Latest Story
Just a little bit of news to share as we enter May.
Shortlisted!
First, I’m thrilled that Arachne’s Web, which appeared in Aurealis #132 last year, is a finalist for Best Short Story in the Sir Julius Vogel Awards 2021. This is my third year in a row making it onto the shortlist, with The Glassblower’s Peace and Proof of Concept previously making it. I would say “third time’s a charm” for actually winning it - but it’s a very strong shortlist, with some very talented writers on it, so I’m happy just to make the cut. You can find Arachne’s Web at Aurealis, who I am very fortunate continues to see something in my writing and publishing it.
New Story!
In other news my first story of 2021 has been published in Issue 2 of Wyldblood Magazine. “Interview with Sole Refugee from the A303 Incident” is, much like an SCP or a Magnus Archive episode, a written record of an interview from someone who witnessed something very strange - a never-ending traffic jam that leads to the development of a society based around it. It was partly inspired by the Dover traffic jams from a couple of years back (which Brexit decided to then reintroduce in an unexpected form of viral advertising for this story) and my own experience in being stuck on the A303…
The Year Ahead
It’s quite possible that this year will be a quieter one on the short story front because I’m currently working on finishing a novel. I’m around one-third of the way through the rewrite and I’m feeling positive about it. I haven’t worked out the elevator pitch for it yet, but if Terry Pratchett or P.G Wodehouse ever decided to invert an outdated adventure story (people exploring a deeply strange Victorian England, instead of Victorian Brits going around colonising everywhere) and also throw in some Cthulu mythos, then maybe that’s it? We’ll see. I’m hoping that by the end of the year (if not a little sooner) I’ll be in a position to start querying.
In the meantime, I’ve got a few stories out on the submissions cycle, and one more story at least scheduled to be published later this year. Looking forward to sharing the tale of Simon the alien space octopus with you in the future!
