N. R. M. Roshak's blog
I’m releasing my novelette The Auditor and the Exorcist as a free ebook, CC-licensed, for the enjoyment of anyone who needs entertainment while self-isolating or social distancing… bc who doesn’t? Please enjoy, share, and leave comments.
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The end of the year is a time to look back, to reflect on the new stories I’ve had published this year… and to note which of them are eligible for genre awards, in case anyone’s tempted to nominate one.
Here’s my list of award-eligible fiction for 2019. I note also that it’s my second year of eligibility for the Astounding award.
| SFF Short Stories | |
|---|---|
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🚀 “The Zest for Life,” – published in Future Science Fiction Digest, Issue 2, March 2019. The plastic-pollution problem is solved by our appetites. |
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Kori and Nori Go Out For T. A. C. O.s – published in Young Explorers’ Adventure Guide Volume 6, December 2019. Two adventurous child-droids go on a mission. Outrageous puns, post-apocalyptic adventure, and maybe even a TACO at the end. |
SFF Novelette |
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🚀 “The Auditor and the Exorcist” – published in Working Futures, October 2019. A story about the future of work in a near-future world with AI-mediated social credit. |
Literary Flash Fiction |
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🚀 Salt, Spices, Fat, Honey – published in Flash Fiction Online, January 2019. A brief meditation on hunger, need, and co-dependency. |
I have a story in the Young Explorers’ Adventure Guide, Volume 6, which is now available on Amazon. YEAG is a fantastic anthology series packed with fun SF for middle-grade explorers of the universe. Plus, I’m sharing a TOC with Nancy Kress! Woot!
My story, “Kori and Nori Go Out For T. A. C. O.s”, features two adventurous child-droids on a mission. I promise outrageous puns, post-apocalyptic adventure, and maybe even a TACO at the end.
If you have any elementary-aged science-fiction readers in your life, the Young Explorer’s Adventure Guide is stuffed with new worlds and new adventures written for kids. Or, as the Kickstarter put it, “24 more amazing science fiction stories for girls, boys and robots of all ages.”
The people behind the American tech industry blog TechDirt have put together an anthology of stories about the future of work called (appropriately) Working Futures, and I’m excited to have a story in it. Continue reading “New story out today! “The Auditor and the Exorcist””
I have a story coming out next week in a very interesting anthology, Working Futures: 14 speculative stories about the future of work.
There are a couple of really cool things about this anthology: (1) All the stories in it are CC licensed; and (2) it was created via an unusual process. Continue reading “New story out next week”
My story in the current issue of Future SF, “The Zest for Life,” is available to read online now.
Humanity had been hoping for some transformative, revolutionary technology, but what the aliens left us was a salad dressing recipe.
I’m excited to have a story, “The Zest for Life,” in issue 2 of FUTURE SF, which drops today, March 15th. “The Zest for Life” will also be published on their website mid-April, the week of Earth Day.
Future SF is a collaboration between the Future Affairs Administration, which publishes excellent SFF in China, and UFO Publishing, which is much-loved for its annual Unidentified Funny Objects anthologies. Issue 2 has stories from MIKE RESNICK, DAVID WALTON, BETH CATO, DANTZEL CHERRY, WANXIANG FENGNIAN, TAIS TENG & JAAP BOEKESTEIN, NATALIA THEODORIDOU, and SVYATOSLAV LOGINOV. I’m quite chuffed to be sharing a TOC with these authors.
My young son was excited to make out the constellation of Orion for the first time this winter. Unfortunately for us, we live right downtown and can barely make it out, thanks to skyglow. The image above is a terrific side-by-side of Orion with and without the skyglow of Orem, UT. Here in Ottawa, Ontario, all we can see of Orion is the 7 brightest stars: the belt, shoulders and toes. I was inspired to write a short piece on skyglow for kids.
I’m very excited to have a story appearing in Flash Fiction Online’s January 2019 food-themed issue.
The editor, Suzanne Vincent, on this month’s issue: “This month, we invite you to experience a gamut of emotions—grief, longing, frustration, humor, and one very disturbing peek into codependency–all revolving around our favorite subject—FOOD!” My story, Salt, Spices, Fat, Honey, is the “very disturbing peek.”
Update: Charles Payseur reviewed “Salt, Spices, Fat, Honey” in his review of the issue on his site, Quick Sip Reviews. Thank you for the thoughtful review, Charles!
My winning science fiction story for Writers of the Future vol. 34, “A Bitter Thing,” was inspired by hard science. In the story, an intergalactic traveller falls for Ami the moment he sees her. It seems to be love at first sight, but can she really trust her understanding of his alien emotions?
The story revolves around the intergalactic traveller, Teese. His alien emotional system was inspired by two disparate pieces of real, Earthly biology. The first is the biology of cephalopod skin, and the second is known as mirror-touch synesthesia. Continue reading “The science inside the story”
