A brand new SciFi Story bundle just went live today and I’m kinda thrilled. You should be, too.
First off, Issue 001 of Boundary Shock Quarterly is in the bundle, so you get a whole bunch of fun and interesting science fiction inspired by the phrase “Captain’s Log…”, including one of the weirdest stories I have seen yet from Robert Jeschonek: Where No Furry Has Gone Before. (Yes, you read that right. Yes, that’s what happens. Yes, it is Planet Bob, so you’ll go AWWWWWWW)
My piece in Issue 001 is an Alexandria Station story, set at the height of the Concordancy War. Last Leaf Falling. One of the heroes is a colony ship named Lansdowne. She’t not Suvi, but maybe Suvi’s great-granddaughter. The villain of the story is none other than CW Kinnison, first introduced in Queen Of The Pirates, but you learn far more here, and in several other stories coming out in the near future, as I fill in history.
And there are other great stories to read. Michele Callahan starts us off with the first of a five-part serial story: ESS Defender. M.E. Owen gives us a Station story. The list goes on and on.
And a note on Boundary Shock Quarterly. I’m the Editor in Chief, but I’m also one of the writers. My contracts with the Syndicate give them back the rights to their stories three months after initial publication. However, I have made the deliberate choice that many of my stories that go into the magazine will not come out separately for a significant amount of time. (Think years.)
What I figure is that I have a tendency to write in series, and several of these stories exist in larger arcs. In some cases, I have written second stories as part of exploration, but probably need five or so before I publish a collection of them, so you’ll see them in Beyond The Mirror editions before you see them in the wild.
Hint: buy yours today when you can get a whole bunch of stuff with it, because once it is gone, it is gone foreverish.
🙂
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Then the fun second piece: When Allyson approached me about her bundle, she asked if I had anything that fit her project, in addition to Boundary Shock. I had been planning to save the new novel series until next spring/summer, but this was Allyson asking, so I showed her the new Star Dragon novels (2 done, 4 to go), and she loved it.
Book One: Awaken The Star Dragon sets off a new universe as different from Alexandria Station as I could get. First, I went pulp. My goal was to set myself down in 1950 and try to describe a Science Fiction future as they might have done it in one of the old Republic Serials, like King of the Rocket Men. Getting the social context was more fun than the tech, but that was a ball as well.
Next: aliens. Silly, sly, bizarre, fun.
And the Fermi Paradox: If there are aliens out there, where are they? Answer: hiding from us, because humans are the most dangerous, violent species in the galaxy.
Problem: A crime boss has captured a human to use as an assassin. But nobody counted on losing control of a killing machine, who has now taken over the gang, and plans to take over the entire Accord of Species.
So now, two criminal scientists must capture another human, and hope this one can help them save the galaxy from falling under the tyranny of the humans. To do that, they need a special kind of human.
They need a cop.
I have six novels about Gareth Dankworth (aka The Star Dragon) mapped out, plus a variety of short stories that actually pre-date Awaken The Star Dragon to help set Gareth and his old world up. I think you’d enjoy this one, and there will be a bunch more soon.
So go get your copy today.
And here’s Allyson’s pitch:
The SF Plot Twist Bundle, curated by Allyson Longueira: I’m a hard reader to surprise. That’s to be expected, really, given what I do for a living. As a writer, editor and publisher, I’m far too involved in what makes a good story to be easily taken in by one. So, when I can’t forget a story—or find myself getting sucked in to it again and again when I’m supposed to be doing something, you know, work-related—I take note.
And if a writer can surprise me, well, that’s something truly unexpected.
Every writer in this bundle did just that: gave me something unexpected. Be it a twist I didn’t see coming, a voice I didn’t expect to hear, or an expression of emotion I wasn’t prepared for, these wonderful stories gave me a great gift. And that’s why I’ve chosen to share them with you in the SF Plot Twist StoryBundle.