I have been traveling lately, so I’ve been remiss in reporting that Lightspeed has reprinted my story, “Card Sharp,” in their latest issue (August 2019). They will be publishing the third story in the sequence, “All In,” in September, so now all three stories are available on the Lightspeed website. They don’t need to be read in order, but all three tell one extended arc. The stories and links are:
I haven’t seen it, but I got word this weekend that Wired magazine featured Lightspeed Magazine’s podcast as the Staff Pick for science fiction podcasts in their July issue. As part of that they picked a standout episode and the one they picked was my story, “Second Hand.” Lightspeed publishes so many great stories that I’m really chuffed that Wired singled out my story. Thanks to the folks at Brilliance Audio for putting together the narration. If you’d like to check out the podcast, you can listen to the narration here.
I guess I really should get to work on more stories in that universe, shouldn’t I…
I am very happy to say that my story, “Second Hand,” is currently up to read, for free, at Lightspeed Magazine. This is my first appearance as an author at Lightspeed (I’ve narrated and edited podcasts for them before) and it’s a market I’ve long wanted to appear in. “Second Hand” is a weird western and a sequel of sorts to my story, “Card Sharp,” which appeared in the anthology The Way of the Wizard. “Card Sharp” isn’t available to read online at the moment but the story was podcast over at Podcastle if you’d like to get the full story so far.
“Second Hand” also appears in the anthology, Dead Man’s Hand, which also releases today. It’s an anthology full of weird western tales featuring authors like Tad Williams, Joe R. Lansdale, Ken Liu, Jeffrey Ford, and Christie Yant. Here’s the full Table of Contents. You can also find a list of free reads from the anthology (and related tales) here.
Sound interesting? Why not buy the book?
I’m often aware that I spend way too much web space on self-promotion here. Which is why I’m happy to shine the spotlight on others when I can. Today I’d like to direct you to the story, “The Sounds of Old Earth” by Matthew Kressel, recently posted on the Lightspeed Magazine website. Matt’s in my writing group and we critiqued this story in the group. It started out as a great story, but Matt’s revisions took it into extraordinary territory. I think it might be the best thing he’s written (so far). I’m truly impressed by the power he managed to imbue into it. I would encourage everyone to read it if you haven’t already and please, if you’re part of the science fiction and fantasy community, don’t forget this story come awards season. It’s just that good.
I recently had the pleasure to narrate a story for the newly launched online science fiction magazine, Lightspeed – David Barr Kirtley’s “Cats in Victory”. The podcast was produced by Starship Sofa and is also presented in their latest podcast. It’s a fun story about animal-people. Give it a listen.
And because I neglected to mention it before, I also had the pleasure to narrate my friend Saladin Ahmed’s Nebula-nominated story Hooves and the Hovel of Abdel Jameela over at Podcastle. The story didn’t win the Nebula, sadly, but it could have. Give that one a listen, too.