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, and get you out there, perhaps even land you in places you never expected to see — yet won't take hours to read.
Please get to it and read this month's stories.
Nuke.
And Then There was One
By Tim Borella
I figured it was going to be either all good or all bad. None of us guessed the president would need a third speech, not the triumphant one about how Americans walked on the moon for the good of all mankind or the sombre one where our brave boys made the ultimate sacrifice, but another one, far more ambiguous in tone. But here we are, and there he’ll be, less than an hour from now.
Barkeep
By Bethany Tatman
It was a busy night at The Dancing Griffin, but the second the newcomers stepped into the tavern they were impossible to miss. There were three of them. The boy, blonde and wearing shining white armour, walked at the front of the group. He was obviously their leader. A step behind him came the girl. Despite their undoubtedly long journey, through wind and rain and down muddy roads, she wore her skirts long and her hair loose. Not a strand of it was out of place. Behind her walked the last of them, an elf with long, pointed ears. Every head in the room turned to stare at the new arrivals. All except one.
Beyond the Cold Light
By Kevin J. Phyland
In the harsh glare of the overhead fluorescent lights Sisyphus paused.
When the strange keening sounds stopped, the two inquisitors left the cell — both looking weary and frustrated. Sweaty, with rolled up sleeves, one of them lit up a cigarette and walked to a nearby water cooler. I stood at a sort of loose attention by the cell door and watched their flushed faces.
Body Dysmorphia
By Daniel Purcell
“Goodbye, Honeybunch,” called Clara, Michael’s wife, from the kitchen. “Have a good day at work, love you.”
“Loveyoutooseeyalater,” Michael said, slamming the door behind him. He was always rushing and forever forgetful. He did love her, but things had waned over the years. Little things irked when they didn’t in the beginning. That bloody nickname, for a start.
Chase v. Lee, or, The Green Sheep Hip Wiggle Case
By Anya Ow
“The hip wiggle,” said McDougall QC, counsel for Archmagus Hieronymous Lee, “is highly significant, your Honours.”
There was a polite murmur from the peanut gallery, though only the law students were crass enough to giggle. From the bench, Chief Justice Shevki eyeballed McDougall severely. “You’re telling me, counsel, that your client’s spell, the ‘Ovis Avis Ascendancy’, doesn’t infringe on the plaintiff’s copyright because the ‘hip wiggle’ renders it a parody of the original work?”
Read more: Chase v. Lee, or, The Green Sheep Hip Wiggle Case
Hullu City Murder Mystery. East Texas Town Rocked by Killings.
By Wes Parish
We were called to the house of Mr Thompson, CEO of the Love Thy Neighbor Guns Co Ltd. His house was on the corner of Fifth Ave and Hulkkonen Boulevard, not far from the Hullu CBD, and about a mile from his factory.
He was one of the big shots in Hullu, and was rumored to be considering running for Texas Governor in a couple of years.
Read more: Hullu City Murder Mystery. East Texas Town Rocked by Killings.
Implant
Roger Ley
John Smith sat in my office at the hospital looking alert and healthy. He’d come a long way from the unwashed, raving, homeless lunatic that the police had brought in two months ago. We still didn’t know his real name.
‘Things are much better now, Doctor. I don’t hear the voices or see the rolling colours while I’m awake, but it’s the dreams, they seem so real, so meaningful,’ he said.
Smoking
By Kyosuke Higuchi, Translated by Toshiya Kamei
The man takes a long puff on his cigarette. When he slowly blows out a cloud of grey smoke, something tells him things aren’t quite right. He gazes at the smoke, which has a reddish tint.
Sneak
By Robert W. Caldwell
“Pater est in tablino,” I recited.
“That is perfect!” said Old Man Mac. “I'm impressed. Not only can you speak English but you are learning another language as well.”
“I am not the first mouse to speak Latin.”
The Interview
By Chris Gladstone
I stepped into a room flooded with warm, soft light and the smell of something akin to but not quite, cinnamon.
He sat on the lounge waiting, looking relaxed with his long thin legs dangling over the edge and his skeletal three-fingered hands lying in his lap. His white, hairless skin glowed with a silky sheen. Highlighted by a tight black jumpsuit, it was way paler than I'd expected. A feline face, capped with rigid, oversized pointed ears, brought the Easter Bunny to mind. It made me want to laugh.
The Rorne Model
By David Scholes
“We’ve all agreed to attend the meeting in person,” I announced.
“Physically together in the same place?” Christine looked pale. “Why would you do that? When there are so many other ways?” She looked stunned. “Nobody does that anymore,” she said, “It’s downright primitive!”
The Sponsor
By Dr Shaun A. Saunders
The Dean of Admissions glanced again at the cover of the university application before speaking in a kindly manner to the hopeful applicant who sat before him:
“Now Karrin, I have here your application for a position in our undergraduate programs. While you've obviously put a lot of thought into this, there remains one rather glaring omission.” He preemptively raised a hand to silence any possible query. “It seems that in your eagerness, you forgot to list your official sponsor.” He smiled benignly. “Don't worry, we can iron out this little wrinkle here and now. Then you won't even have to —”
The Visitor
By Thomas Tilton
Rod was eating in his favorite recliner which was also his toilet. With his fingers he controlled the different apparatuses around him: digital library, hi-def screens, lotion dispenser. The wires and cables made him look like an absurd life-size marionette.
Life was good, except for Tuesdays. That’s when the agency tested him. Every Tuesday, Rod received a visitor. “Field exercises,” they called it.
Time Warp Donors
By Barry Yedvobnick
Dustin, thirty years old, lay in his bed anaesthetised. The surgical instruments had materialised right beside him, silently. He couldn’t feel the incisions or hear the sounds of cutting and stitching. The operation was finished in ninety minutes and bandaged.
Dustin awoke feeling horrible. His body ached, especially his left back and side. The pain was sharp and unrelenting. He touched his back gingerly.
“What the…,” he thought, feeling something strange. Then he saw bandages covering a large section of his body near his waist.
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 267
An Average Ordinary Life
By Kevin J. Phyland
Bottoms Up
By Harris Tobias
Covid Anzac
By Chris Gladstone
Empty Sky
By Bart Meehan
Never Bathe In Irish Stew
By Wes Parish
Point of View
By Myna Chang
Satire is Hate Speech
By Zebuline Carter
The Commute
By M J Wilkins
The Headphones of Damocles
By Leo X. Robertson
The Last Raisin
By Sarah Pratt
The Perfect Child
By Girish Kamplimath
The Stone and the Stick
By Vicky Chapman
The Thing Itself
By Aden Curran
Tilly Patchcoat
By Brad Gordon
Who Am I
By Daniel Gao
The Contributors
Bethany Tatman is an aspiring writer who currently resides in one of the more hipster suburbs of Melbourne, Australia.
She has previously been published in Lot’s Wife.
In her spare time, she enjoys reading a variety of genres of books — but fantasy will always be her favourite.
She can be found at <@bethany_writes> on Twitter.
Kyosuke Higuchi writes science fiction, speculative fiction, and literary essays. His debut novel, Kōzōsōshi [Structure Elements], won the fifth Hayakawa SF Contest in 2017.
His short fiction has appeared in Syosetsu Subaru, S-F Magazine, and Bungei, among others.
His latest book is a collection of essays entitled Subete namonaki mirai (2020).
Kyosuke lives with his wife and young daughter in Nagoya, Japan. Find him on Twitter at <https://twitter.com/rrr_kgknk>.
Barry Yedvobnick is a recently retired Biology Professor. He performed molecular biology and genetic research, and taught, at Emory University in Atlanta for 34 years. He is new to fiction writing, and enjoys taking real science a step or two beyond its known boundaries in his stories, with sometimes terrifying outcomes.
His stories have appeared at Tales to Terrify, Brilliant Flash Fiction, Flash Fiction Magazine, Kzine and Night to Dawn Magazine.
He also has extensive nonfiction science writing experience, including 35 scientific research publications and reviews. He currently writes a Trends in Health column for his local newspaper, The Dahlonega Nugget. In addition to writing, he enjoys photo-microscopy and sci fi, thriller and horror movies.
He lives with his wife in the North Georgia mountains.
A lifelong science fiction fan, Thomas Tilton attributes this condition to his father, who introduced him to 1950s creature features at a young age.
Born and raised in southeast Texas, he now lives in Michigan with his wife, son, and two dogs.
Daniel Purcell lives with his girlfriend in Scotland.
He studied English at the University of Liverpool — where he was born —and has travelled extensively around the world, living in America for six months along the way.
He mainly enjoys writing and reading speculative fiction.
He has upcoming short-fiction being or already published with Farther Stars Than These, two Black Hare Press anthologies (Dark Drabbles - ‘Oceans’ and ‘Ancients’), 101 Words, a Rogue Planet Press anthology (‘Unexpected Turbulence,’ in the Halloween 2020 edition), Eerie River Publishing (‘The Beast in the Black Isle’ in It Calls From The Forest Volume 2) and Iron Faerie Publishing (FAERIE Anthology).
Born in Singapore, Anya is a graphic designer, illustrator, cat minder, and ex-lawyer living in Melbourne.
Her work has appeared in venues such as Strange Horizons, Uncanny, and Aurealis, and her first novella, "Cradle and Grave", was published this year.
She can be found on twitter: @anyasy or at <www.anyasy.com>.
Toshiya Kamei holds an MFA in Literary Translation from the University of Arkansas.
His translations have appeared in venues such as Clarkesworld, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and World Literature Today.
Tim Borella has never lost his childhood passion for SF and writing in general and has been lucky enough to have worked most of his life as a pilot — in other words, he’s never properly grown up.
He lives in country Far North Queensland, has won awards for songwriting, and has had various other writing achievements, the most recent being an honourable mention in the 2018 international Literary Taxidermy Short Story Competition.
He also has bachelor degrees in science and teaching, and has completed a couple of as-yet unpublished SF novels. He’d dearly love to spend more time writing, but will have to continue juggling for another couple of years until the kids have fully left the nest.
Roger Ley is a retired lecturer in Computer Aided Engineering. He writes speculative fiction because it stops him drinking hard liquor and chasing fast women.
‘Lone Orbit’ is one of the stories in his speculative fiction collection, 'Dead People on Facebook' which will cost you half a cup of coffee.
His three other speculative fiction books are similarly available on Amazon AU or visit his website.
Find Roger at: <https://rogerley.co.uk>.
Roger’s Amazon author page: <https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01KOVZFHM>.
His YouTube playlist: <https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHDmc8dxD57cPaMnsYfuJhQIirRohnaWY>.
Robert, a frequent contributor, grew up in Birmingham, Alabama.
He has three cats, carnivorous plants, and a lot of oak tree seedlings from acorns he gathered from trees that grew at the house where he used to live and grew up. He also has a vegetable garden.
As well as having a green thumb, he is a handyman, caregiver for his mother, a chef, a science fiction writer, a photographer, a researcher, a self-advocate, a journalist, a web designer, an artist, and a streaker, long story; an all-around Renaissance man.
You can find his books on Amazon.
I began writing in 2011 after discovering accurate speech recognition software and my first story 'What If" was published in AntipodeanSF in Jan 2012.
I enjoy the creativity of writing and my stories reflect my passions, namely science, nature, and all things sci-fi.I am a senior citizen, and live in sunny Western Australia with my husband.
Sadly the 'Queen of Cats' – Tilda, is no more, but we now have Tigress, who well and truly lives up to her name.
My Science Fiction novel, 'Upload' is available from Amazon, Smashwords and Lulu. Check out my website where you can find a complete list of my stories at <http://christaleyes.com>.
Living in a Covid19 world has felt like living in the middle of a science-fiction novel where I have had no control over the plot. Hopefully a vaccine will eventuate soon. In the meantime remember kindness and consideration and help others whenever you can.
Old enough to just remember the first manned Moon landing, Kevin was so impressed he made science his life.
Retired now from teaching he amuses himself by reading, writing, following his love of weather and correcting people on the internet.
He’s been writing since his teens and hopes he will one day get it right.
He can be found on twitter @KevinPhyland where he goes by the handle of CaptainZero and his work is around the place if you search using google or use the antisf.com.au archive.
Wesley Parish is an SF fan from early childhood. Born in PNG, he enjoys reading about humans in strange cultures and circumstances; his favourite SF authors include Ursula Le Guin, Fritz Lieber, Phillip K. Dick, J.G. Ballard and Frank Herbert. He lives in Christchurch, NZ, is an unemployed Java and C programmer, and has recently decided to become a mad ukuleleist, flautist and trombonist, and would love to revert to being the mad fiddler and pedal steel guitarist.. "Where oh where has my little pedal steel got to ... ?"
Dave has written over 250 speculative fiction short stories. Some of these are included in his nine collections of short stories (all on Amazon). He has also published two science fiction novellas and been published on a range of speculative fiction sites. Including: Antipodean SF, Beam Me Up Pod Cast, Farther Stars Than These, 365 Tomorrows, Bewildering Stories, the WiFiles and the former Golden Visions magazine. His latest work “Contingency Nine and Other Science Fiction Stories” was published in October 2019 and he is currently working on another collection of science fiction short stories as yet unnamed.
Shaun Saunders lives at the beachside suburb of Merewether, in Newcastle, NSW. He particularly enjoys Asimov's Foundation universe, and stories from the 'golden age' of SF. He is a regular contributor to AntipodeanSF, and winner of 2003 & 2004 AntiSF awards, and the inaugural 2005 SFSSC. His novel Mallcity 14 has been favourably compared with both 1984 and Brave New World.
AntipodeanSF November 2020
ISSUE 266
Speculative Fiction
Downside-Up
ISSN 1442-0686
Online Since Feb 1998
Download AntiSF E-Book
AntiSF's Narration Team
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 (YA/ Fantasy — available now) and White Fire (Sci Fi — available now)
You can read more of her work on her blog Look for her on Facebook <www.facebook.com/WriterLaurieBell/> or Twitter: <@LaurienotLori>
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.
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>.
Carolyn's work spans devising, performance, theatre-in-education and a collaborative visual art practice.
She tours children's works to schools nationally with School Performance Tours, is a member of the Bathurst physical theatre ensemble Lingua Franca and one half of darkroom — a visual arts practice with videographer Sean O'Keeffe.
(Photo by Jeremy Belinfante)
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.
Alistair Lloyd is a Melbourne based writer and narrator who has been consuming good quality science fiction and fantasy most of his life.
You may find him on Twitter as <@mr_al> and online at <alistairlloyd.com>.
Sarah Pratt is an avid fiction writer and a Marketing Consultant.
She is currently working on her first novel but loves diving into short stories to bring a little lightness, intrigue or humour to the day.
Her work has appeared in Sponge Magazine and The Commuting Book.
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>
Although a writer of the baby boom persuasion, Ed has not boomed for quite a while.
He lives with his wife plus a menagerie of non-domesticated — native Australian animals intropical North Queensland.
His writing within the ‘real’ science fiction context of COVID-19 is intermingled by long night sky vigils — searching for pesky aliens intent on maintaining their social distance to the nth degree.
Tim Borella has never lost his childhood passion for SF and writing in general and has been lucky enough to have worked most of his life as a pilot — in other words, he’s never properly grown up.
He lives in country Far North Queensland, has won awards for songwriting, and has had various other writing achievements, the most recent being an honourable mention in the 2018 international Literary Taxidermy Short Story Competition.
He also has bachelor degrees in science and teaching, and has completed a couple of as-yet unpublished SF novels. He’d dearly love to spend more time writing, but will have to continue juggling for another couple of years until the kids have fully left the nest.
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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