news – markwebb.name

Antipodean SF 300-25 on sale now

Last year I posted that one of my stories, “Indistinguishable from Science”, had been selected as a part of the 25th anniversary celebrations of Antipodean SF.

Ion “Nuke” Newcombe has combined the stories from the 25th anniversary edition with those from his 300th publication to create a book – Antipodean SF 300-25.

In the words of Nuke himself:

“AntipodeanSF 300–25 is a special dead-trees-and-ink anthology of stories from the online monthly magazine AntipodeanSF. This book celebrates two remarkable waystations: 300 issues and 25 years of publishing fabulous and original science-fiction, fantasy, and horror mini-stories from around the world, many of them by authors making their publishing debuts.”

It’s wonderful to have another short story in actual print. Most of my published stories have been online early, so to get something into a physical book is a rare treat.

If you’re an Antipodean SF fan and you’d like to buy a copy, you can order it here. All proceeds go to supporting Antipodean SF and keeping it free, and ad free.

Where Everybody Knows Your Name – now available

Issue 250 of AntipodeanSF is out, and my short story ‘Where Everybody Knows Your Name‘ is available for reading amongst over 50 stories and images produced exclusively for this edition.

Image by Michael Connolly https://www.antisf.com.au

AntipodeanSF was the first place I published a story, way back in 2012. Writers out there will know what that feels like, the first time someone believes in your work and likes it enough that they are willing to put their name to it as editor, and send it out into the world. AntipodeanSF will always have a special place in my heart as a result. But over the years, what has really struck me is how many authors I admire and respect have a similar story to tell about AntipodeanSF. So many excellent people producing work to this day in part because Ion “Nuke” Newcombe believed in them, and gave them an early credit. You only have to look down the table of contents of this excellent anthology to see what I mean.

Congratulations Nuke on 21 excellent years, with hopefully at least another 21 in front of you.

Dimension6 2018 Annual Collection

You might remember that my novella, The Reclaimers, that was published earlier in the year in issue 13 of Dimension6. Each year, Keith Stevenson, the editor, creates a collection of all the stories from that year.

I’m pleased to say that this years collection, the Dimension6 Annual Collection 2018, is out now for the low, low price of $0.99. You can buy it directly from the Coeur de Lion website, or from Amazon etc depending on your preference (links available to various ebook retailers at the website).

I am very proud to be part of this collection. The Reclaimers is my first novella length work, and it is a source of great pride to have it published with such a fantastic collection of wonderful stories.

You won’t find much better value than the Dimension6 Annual Collection 2018.

Dimension6 Issue 15 out now

The latest issue of Dimension6 is out now, a free Australian magazine of speculative fiction. You can get your copy at the Couer de Lion website, or download a copy here.

My novella, ‘The Reclaimers’, appeared in Issue 13 of Dimension6, so you know the editor has excellent taste. Well worth checking out.

Issue 15 features:

‘Zodiac’ by Mark Barnes
She was the only living woman in the Never Never. They didn’t stand a chance.

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‘Easy Like Arsenic’ by Ephiny Gale
This ‘once upon a time’ is nothing like the others.

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‘The Shaming’ by David Coleman
Never question a Scrutineer. Ever. But Rosie would.

Dimension6 Issue 14 out now

The latest issue of Dimension6 is out now, a free Australian magazine of speculative fiction. You can get your copy at the Couer de Lion website, or download a copy here.

My novella length story, ‘The Reclaimers’, appeared in Issue 13 of Dimension6, so you know the editor has excellent taste. Well worth checking out.

Issue 14 features:

‘#WhiteWitch’ by Shauna O’Meara

Facing danger at the top of the world? You need #WhiteWitch.

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‘All in Green’ by Adele Gardner

Rappo and Finn were joined in life like no-one else. But what if one should face death?

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‘In The Nexsphere’ by Doug Bost

It’s the next big thing in tech. Maybe you should read the user manual first.

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‘The Giant’s Servant’ by Trent Jamieson

Did you know giants come in all shapes and sizes?

The Reclaimers – out now in Dimension6 #13

Well, it has finally happened. My novella, “The Reclaimers”, is available in issue 13 of Dimension6.

I’m very excited to have this novella see the light of day. Regular readers might recall my post when the story was first accepted by Keith Stevenson. In that post I talked about some of the history of the story, and thanked a few people who helped along the way. Go back and have a read of that post if you’re interested. Don’t worry, I’ll wait.

A little blurb to whet your appetite:

Ulanda wanders along the edge of civilisation, cleansing border towns of a deadly residue that lingers from the magical weapons of mass destruction that ended the war. It’s the only job still allowed for the paranormally-inclined and life is adequate, until an old girlfriend appears with a questing opportunity that Ulanda knows she absolutely should refuse…

Or the much more succinct:

Wizard garbage disposers – the pay stinks but the hours… yeah, they’re pretty bad too.

Not only will you get to read “The Reclaimers”, but you’ll also get to read two other excellent stories by Emilie Collyer and Robert Stephenson:

‘Reckoning’ by Emilie Collyer
The Earth was broken. Gia was broken. Could they save each other?

‘Water for Antiques’ by Robert Stephenson
Dravid couldn’t believe his luck. Maybe he was right not to.

And how much will these three stories cost you? Well, inexplicably Keith gives away Dimension6 absolutely free! Now you can’t ask better than that.

Go to the Dimension6 page at Coeur de Lion Publishing, or you can even get the issue here (this site is an affiliate for D6). I hope you enjoy reading “The Reclaimers” and would love to hear from you with feedback (good or bad!).

Welcome to 2018 and Ditmar reminder

Hi all,

Welcome to 2018 – I hope your speculative fiction year is both happy and productive.

I suspect I am not alone in using the new year to try and develop a sense of renewed purpose in my writing (including this website). Best of luck to everyone!

Don’t forget that the Ditmar award nomination process is currently open. The Ditmars are the Australian speculative fiction voted awards. If you loved a piece of Australian speculative fiction during 2017, why not get in and nominate it?

If you want to remind yourself of what happened in 2017, there is a very excellent Ditmar eligibility wiki kept here.

I loved books like Nexus by Deborah Biancotti, Margo Lanagan and Scott Westerfeld, Lotus Blue by Cat Sparks, Crossroads of Canopy by Thoraiya Dyer and Corpselight by Angela Slatter in the novel section.

In the novella section, all the novellas by Tansy Rayner Roberts were excellent. If I had to pick one, I’d probably go with The Bromancers but it would be a line ball call.

There were some very excellent publications during 2017 – feel free to give a shout out to some of your favourites in the comments.

Dimension6 Issue 12 out now

The latest issue of Dimension6 is out now, a free Australian magazine of speculative fiction. You can get your copy at the Couer de Lion website, or download a copy here.

Issue 12 features:

‘The Curious Child’ by Paul Speller

Cats are not the only things that shouldn’t be too curious.

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‘Correlation’ by Paul Stephanus

Perspective is everything, even when it comes to garbage disposal.

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‘The Gods of Mwaia’ by Bryce Stephens

Renai just wanted some land for his family; he nearly lost everything.

‘Narration Blues’ stars in the AntiSF radio show Abnorba

My recently published flash fiction piece ‘Narration Blues’ was included in the AntiSF radio show this week (the show is codenamed Abnorba). The editor, Ion ‘Nuke’ Newcombe, runs the radio show out of Nambucca Heads on 2NVR Nambucca Valley Radio. Fortunately for everyone in the rest of the world Nuke provides the radio show as a podcast.

Nuke encourages authors to narrate their own stories, so you get to hear my dulcet tones. I’ll leave it to you, dear reader, to decide whether that is a good thing.

Dimension6 issue 10

Dimension6 is a free speculative fiction magazine, produced by Coeur de Lion Publishing.

This website is an affiliate of Dimension6, where you can download each issue.

Issue 10 is just out, and features:

‘The Other City’ by Rjurik Davidson
It was the time of life when everything falls apart. He had to get out of the city. But where would he end up?

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‘Glide’ by Natalie J E Potts
There are lots of species of Australian fauna that want to kill you. We just found one more.

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‘The Seven Voyages of Captain Cook’ by Craig Cormick
Cook was a Company man on a voyage of exploration. The son that accompanied him was dead. And wanted him dead too.