Speculative Flash Fiction
G'day flash loving folks, you're about to launch into an adventure at AntipodeanSF, the online magazine that's devoted to the regular monthly publication of fabulous and original science-fiction, fantasy, or horror mini-stories of about 500–1000 words each, with occasional feature stories of 2000 words and beyond.
AntipodeanSF will entertain you, yet won't take hours to read.
Please spend a few moments to read this month's stories. Alternatively, listen to all of them on the AntipodeanSF Radio Show, weekly, as per the schedule.
AntipodeanSF is also made available in e-book format for reading on your i-phone, i-pod, other mobile phone, or PDA device. Read AntipodeanSF anywhere!
The photo above is of me with long-time and valued contributors Sue Clennell (L) and Jan Napier (R) at Swancon. Looking forward to the next time!
Nuke.
A Hand Full Of Sand Can Save Your Life
By Laurie Bell
Terrie sat in his cell. Terrie stared at the wall. Then for something different Terrie stared at the floor. After a while, he glanced up at the camera port in the corner. The red light burrowed into his brain. The suddenly icy steel floor bit into the skin of his bare feet, forcing him to pull them up under his body. He returned his gaze to the wall and counted twenty marks scratched by his chipped and bleeding fingernail.
Only twenty days.
A Man Full Of Shadows
By Eugen M. Bacon
LEAVES CRUMBLE UNDERFOOT. Ralph Cooper steps into the mouth of woodlands awash with starlight. He carries night with him. Darkness chases his path. An owl leaps from a branch with a fearsome cry.
Ralph pushes his way inwards. There is blood on his face, arms, bare legs and feet. No sound escapes his lips. Fear is non-existent. He shreds through forest tight with black trees, gray leaves. Shadows. Claws and toes slash at undergrowth. Slash. Slash.
A Short Tail
By Michael T Schaper
Staring at the young man lying naked next to her in the moonlight, Marika felt a sense of contentment, even if her world had become a little unorthodox.
What, she idly wondered, would her husband say?
Probably very little, if anything.
Ben had always been a difficult man to deal with, even before they'd tied the knot.
FUEL
By Sean Mulroy
The globule floated swiftly through the air, sometimes like a kite or leaf on the wind but mostly in a controlled, unnerving, clerical manner. Often it came close to the girl’s head, swooping silently around then rising high; once or twice the thing zoomed through her legs in an almost joyful manner. Always it asked questions.
“What are you thinking now?”
The girl hated each question, hated the globule. Like all machines it had no voice, instead using telepathy to communicate.
Help Us
By Wendy Campbell
The signals started as jumbled words in different languages, mixed with strange pictures. They came from hundreds of light years away and were getting closer. Who was sending them, what did they mean?
Nora Whitman, Code Breaker and NASA Scientist, joined the experts studying the signals.
“What’s the latest, Nora?”
Meeting With A Misanthrope
By Bart Meehan
Firsts are always tough. First day at school, first dates, first job out of university.
Smith had filled out all the forms and been allocated his "new boy" desk, as far from the window as it was possible to be in in an open plan office. He'd been introduced to everyone, a wave of names that crashed over him, then he was handed a company mug and directed to the lunch room with a friendly suggestion that he get himself some of the “world’s worst” coffee.
Non-Zero
Lynette Frey
“…persistent unflagging effort!”
A bronze-flecked face belonging to a man of perhaps forty or so, hurtled past Orpheus and slammed into the bare wall. Unfazed, the man scampered quickly to his starting point for another run at it. He kept up this wall-slamming in a continuous rhythm, always aiming for the same sweaty spot on the plaster.
There was an eruption of snorts and laughter and several other faces lifted from a game of stones they had arranged about them on the floor.
Senseless
By Kevin J. Phyland
I was investigating the nature of reality. You know. Reality. That part of your life which only YOU experience.
It started to occur to me that maybe MY reality might be different to the reality of other people.
So I started to remove my physical senses. But which one first?
I finally decided on smell...anosmia...kill two birds with one stone.
The Hyperspace
By Botond Teklesz
The hyperspace jump shook them off.
“Where the hell are we, anyways?” asked commander Redding.
“Dunno, sir,” replied Sergeant Pepper from somewhere in the outer circle of the Milky Way’s control room.
“Any landing propositions?” demanded Redding.
Waking Up
By Chris Cole
Malcolm struggled to open his eyes. An insurmountable tide of exhaustion battled his desire to be awake. He blinked hard, shaking his head to clear the cobwebs. He felt alert but mildly disorientated. It was a familiar feeling, the twilight zone between your last dream and the perils of the oncoming morning, typically punctuated by the fading echoes of the alarm clock — unsure of which day it was, or even where he might be. A melange of sensations and memories, inconsistent, and no way to tell which was real, which was now, which was merely remembered.
"Hello there," a familiar voice. Happy. There was a smile hiding in that voice, but tinged with...something else. Close by. Warm fingers closed around his.
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AntiSF & The ASFF
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Please visit the ASFF website and consider joining for up-to-date info about Australian SF cons, awards, competitions, and to receive the Foundation's newsletter, Instrumentality, and more.
AntiSF's Production Crew
Ion Newcombe is the editor and publisher of AntipodeanSF, Australia’s longest running online speculative fiction magazine, regularly issued since January 1998, and conceived back around November 2007. He has been a zealous reader and occasional writer of SF since his childhood in the 1960s, and even sold a few stories here and there back in the '90s.
“Nuke”, who it turns out loves editing more than writing, lives in the New South Wales North Coast holiday destination of Nambucca Heads, where he is self-employed in IT training, computer support, desktop publishing, editing, writing, and website implementation. He is also the resident tech-head, skeptic, and board member of community radio station 2NVR, where he produces a number of shows including The AntipodeanSF Radio Show.
Mark Webb's midlife crisis came in the form of attempting to write speculative fiction at a very slow pace. His wife maintains this is a good outcome considering the more expensive and cliched alternatives. Evidence of Mark's attempts to procrastinate in his writing, including general musings and reviews of books he has been reading, can be found at www.markwebb.name.
One of Mark’s very best forms of writing procrastination is to produce the eBook series for AntipodeanSF, which he has been doing since issue 175.
Main Menu
In The Next Issue...
Coming In Issue 239
Alea Iacta Est
by Chris Cole
Critters
by Kevin J. Phyland
Gathering At The Bubble
by Robert W. Caldwell
History Comes Alive
by Ken Schweda
Leading The Swan
by Hari Navarro
Stupid Robot
by Col Hellmuth
The Centaur
by Salvatore Difalco
The Circus Act
by Ferne Merrylees
Touch
by Robert David
War On Terror Just Blows Me Away
by Wes Parish
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Most Read Stories
AntipodeanSF May 2018
ISSUE 238
Speculative Fiction
Downside-Up
ISSN 1442-0686
Online Since Feb 1998
AntiSF's Narration Team
Margaret lives the good life on a small piece of rural New South Wales Australia, with an amazing man, a couple of pets, and several rambunctious wombats.
She feels so lucky to be a part of the AntiSF team.
Timothy Gwyn is a professional pilot in Canada, where he flies to remote communities. During a lull in his flying career, he was a radio announcer for three years, and he is also an author.
In addition to short stories at AntipodeanSF and NewMyths.com, his SF novel is available internationally in print and ebook formats. "Avians" draws on his love of alternative aviation to tell the tale of a girl who runs away from home to join a cadre of glider pilots on a world without metal or fossil fuels.
On Twitter, he is @timothygwyn, and his blogs are at <timothygwyn.com>.
Mark is an astrophysicist and space scientist who worked on the Cassini/Huygens mission to Saturn. Following this he worked in computer consultancy, engineering, and high energy research (with a stint at the JET Fusion Torus).
All this science hasn't damped his love of fantasy and science fiction. It has, however, ruined his enjoyment of rainbows, colourful flames on romantic log fires, and rings around the moon. He has previously been published in Stupefying Stories Showcase, Everyday Fiction, Escape Pod, Perihelion and also on AntipodeanSF where he is part of the narration team.
David Whitaker is originally from the UK though has travelled around a bit and now resides in India. He has a degree in Journalism, however decided that as he’s always preferred making things up it should ultimately become a resource rather than a profession.
His stories, covering everything from sci-fi to philosophy, have been published across the globe and links to each can be found at <wordsbydavid.com>
Garry Dean lives on the Mid Coast of New South Wales Australia, and has been a fan of SF for most of his natural life. Being vision impaired, he makes good use of voice recognition and text to speech in order to write. Many of his stories have appeared in AntipodeanSF over the years, and his love of all things audio led him to join the narration team in 2017.
You can read examples of Garry's fiction on his website <https://garrydean.wordpress.com>
Pixie is a voice actor, cabaret performer & slam poet From the Blue Mountains in NSW.
She enjoys writing short fiction, plays for radio and stage as well as her own brand of weird poetry.
She hosts the 'Off-Beet Poetry Slam' held bi-monthly in Katoomba,
And is a theatre reviewer for 2SER FM in Sydney.
Laurie Bell lives in Melbourne, Australia. She was that girl you found with her nose always buried in a book. She has been writing ever since she was a little girl and first picked up a pen. From books to short stories, radio plays to snippets of ideas and reading them aloud to anyone who will listen.
She is the author of The Butterfly Stone (available now).
You can read more of her work on her blog Look for her on Facebook <www.facebook.com/WriterLaurieBell/> or Twitter: <@LaurienotLori>
SF News
SF News
Vale Tony Plank
AntiSF contributor Tony Plank was a computer programmer, web designer, SF writer, active member of the Australian SF community and an all-round good guy.
He passed away peacefully on 21 March, 2018. A kind, fun-loving man, he contributed a lot to the Aus SF scene and will be sadly missed.
(Edwina Harvey).
Congratulations Edwina Harvey
Edwina Harvey, a contributor to AntipodeanSF since the very first issue, is a worthy recipient of this year’s A. Bertram Chandler Award. She has been an active member of Australian science-fiction fandom: writing, publishing and with her amazing artwork for 40 years.
Read more information about Ed's Award here at the ASFF.
Ishmael A Soledad Publishes "Hawking Radiation"
Ishmael A Soledad, a recent AntiSF contributor (and more to come in our future pages) has recently published a collection of his SF short stories. Love, telepathy, suicidal androids, purple dragons, and machine-gun-toting rabbits. More information here.
Dimension6 Issue 13 - Mark Webb
AntipodeanSF is an affiliate site for Dimension6 from Coeur De Lion Publishing, the best in Australian Speculative Fiction, free every April, July, and October. In the latest edition (#13), long term AntiSF contributor Mark Webb has a novella length story, “The Reclaimers”, about Ulanda, who travels 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… Dimension6 can be found free on the AntiSF website here in both mobi and epub formats.
For more SF news why not join the ASFF and get the ASFF newsletter “The Instrumentality” delivered straight to your inbox!
Aussie Awards News
2018 Norma K Hemming Finalists Announcement
The Australian Science Fiction Foundation (ASFF) is delighted to announce the 2018 shortlists for the Norma K Hemming Award, which covers works published in 2016-2017. Finalist list is here.
The winners of the 2018 Norma K Hemming Award will be announced at a ceremony taking place on the evening of Friday 8 June, 2018, at Continuum in Melbourne, with citations and a monetary prize being presented.
For more up-to-date Aussie SF info join the ASFF: <asff.org.au>
Upcoming Aussie Cons
Continuum XIV: Conjugation. Melbourne’s SF Convention. 8th – 11th June, 2018. More information: <http://www.continuum.org.au/>.
Conflux 14 - The Unconventional Hero — Vibe Hotel, 1 Rogan Street, Canberra Airport ACT 2609. 29/09/2018 - 01/10/2018. More Information: <https//conflux.org.au>
Nullus Anxietas VII: The Australian Discworld Convention – will be held in Melbourne on April 12-14, 2019, and is themed on Going Postal. More information: <https://ausdwcon.org/>
For more up-to-date Aussie SF info join the ASFF: <asff.org.au>
The AntipodeanSF Radio Show
AntiSF Radio Show
The AntipodeanSF Radio Show delivers audio from the pages of this magazine.
The weekly program features the stories from recently published issues, usually narrated by the authors themselves.
Listen to the latest episode now:
The AntipodeanSF Radio Show is also broadcast on community radio, 2NVR, 105.9FM every Saturday evening at 8:30pm.
You can find every broadcast episode online here: http://antisf.libsyn.com
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SF Quote
There’s no real objection to escapism, in the right places… We all want to escape occasionally. But science fiction is often very far from escapism, in fact you might say that science fiction is escape into reality… It’s a fiction which does concern itself with real issues: the origin of man; our future. In fact I can’t think of any form of literature which is more concerned with real issues, reality.