Some Recent and Upcoming Releases

May 6, 2017

I’ve been extremely busy with UFO6 submissions, but various stories have been traveling on the slow road to publication. My Canopus-nominated story “The Race for Arcadia” was podcasted at StarShipSofa. I also received a couple of contributor copies. The recently-published Tales from the Miskatonic University Library (PS Publishing) edited by Darrell Schweitzer and Josh Ashmead includes my Lovecraftian humor short “Recall Notice.” The second anthology received, The Sum of Us from Laksa Press includes my “Ambassador to the Meek,” a post-apocalyptic SF tale, and will be published in September.

 

I’m also very happy to announce that my translation of “Untilted” by K. A. Teryna has been accepted by Apex Magazine. Several of my translator friends called this particular story “untranslateable” because of how much of it relies on linguistic cues to work. even the Russian title (Бес Названия) is a pun. Challenge accepted! This was the most fun I had translating a story, too, because it was so challenging, it felt like solving puzzles. I can’t wait to share it with the English-speaking readers.

#SFWAPro

 

Comments Off on Some Recent and Upcoming Releases | Acceptances & Publications | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Canopus Award Nomination and Storybundle

April 12, 2017

I’m thrilled to find myself on the list of Canopus-nominated works for the second time! Canopus is an award for excellence in interstellar writing and it’s given out by 100 Year Starship think tank. I’m in really good company, too. Last year I lost to Ken Liu, who is nominated as a translator in a different category. But this year I will most likely be losing to Alastair Reynolds or perhaps a number of other really awesome nominees. This is one of those “I’m definitely honored to be nominated” situations. 🙂

The nominated story is “Whom He May Devour” and it was published in Nautilus. You can read it for free by clicking on the link.

You can read the 2016-2017 Canopus nominees announcement press release here.

Another cool thing is that UFO1 is included in the SFWA Sci-Fi Storybundle along with all the other great books listed above.

This is my first experience with Storybundle but it’s a very cool model where you can pay what you want to get these books and you get to decide what portion goes to the authors and what to Storybundle itself, and whether a cut gets donated to SFWA. Check it out!

#SFWAPro

 

1 Comment | Acceptances & Publications, Publishing | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Podcasts Galore

March 15, 2017

This appears to be a District of Wonders week for me!

Yesterday’s episode of Far Fetched Fables includes an excellent narration of “Dante’s Unfinished Business” by Anthony Babington, which starts at about the 10:30 mark. This story originally appeared at Galaxy’s Edge last year and I think it’s one of the funnier pieces I’ve written to date.

And today’s episode of StarShipSofa includes an interview with me, where I talk about UFO6, Kickstarter, and editing small-press anthologies. The interview begins around the 38:00 mark.

Meanwhile, the UFO6 Kickstarter campaign is approaching the 50% mark. Don’t forget to back it!

#SFWAPro

 

Comments Off on Podcasts Galore | Acceptances & Publications | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

New publication: “Golf to the Death” in Galaxy’s Edge

March 2, 2017

ge25

This story is what it sounds like. It’s about golf. With aliens. Played to the death. What’s not to like?

“Golf to the Death” takes place in the same universe as “The Dragon Ships of Tycho” and “The Sgovari Stratagem,” except neither of those stories are at all funny, whereas this one is humorous and should hopefully remind readers of the Retief yarns by Keith Laumer.

I’m also proud to tuckerize awesome writer Ferrett Steinmetz as one of the characters. Ferrett lamented that due to his unusual name he doesn’t get written into stories, so I rose to the challenge. 🙂

It’s free to read at the G.E. website for the next 60 days. After that – or at any point, really – you can purchase the issue!

#SFWAPro

 

 

Comments Off on New publication: “Golf to the Death” in Galaxy’s Edge | Acceptances & Publications | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Green Alert: Humanity 2.0 Anthology on Sale

January 10, 2017

Humanity20-400

For the next few days you can pick up this anthology for $2.99 — that’s less than half the regular price! The sale lasts Jan 10 through Jan 13 so don’t wait.

And before I put away my soapbox and exit salesman mode, I’ve got to mention two other books as well. My darkly humorous flash story “Hell is Other People” is available in the recently released Outliers of Speculative Fiction 2016 anthology (which is also free to read on Kindle Unlimited.) Finally, there’s a mass market paperback issue available of Mission: Tomorrow, another hard SF anthology which I’m guessing anyone who likes Humanity 2.0 would also enjoy.  It includes my Canopus Award-nominated story “The Race for Arcadia.” After six years in the field, this is actually the first time my work appears in a mass market paperback format and I’m very pleased by this, because that’s what the books I devoured as a teenager looked like.

#SFWAPro

 

 

 

 

Comments Off on Green Alert: Humanity 2.0 Anthology on Sale | Acceptances & Publications, Publishing | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Dreidel of Dread: The Very Cthulhu Chanukah Podcast

December 21, 2016

My funny Cthulu Channukah story got the podcast treatment at FarFetchedFables this week. And if you prefer reading to listening, it’s still available here at Every Day Fiction.  This story was originally published in Galaxy’s Edge last year and it seems to have a lot of legs. You will get the chance to read/hear it at least once or twice more in 2017.

This week also marks the reprint of my SF story “Seven Conversations in Locked Rooms” as part of The Prison Compendium anthology edited by Jennifer Word.

prison

#SFWAPro

 

1 Comment | Acceptances & Publications | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

New publication: “Noun of Nouns: A Mini Epic” in Upside Down

December 13, 2016

upsidedown

Upside Down: Inverted Tropes in Storytelling is an anthology from Apex Publications which launches today. It includes my humor story “Noun of Nouns: A Mini Epic” which makes fun of the epic fantasy genre. (I wrote it while writing an epic fantasy novel, so…)

If you enjoyed “Dreidel of Dread” or “How Earth Narrowly Escaped an Invasion from Space” you will likely dig this story. It’s that kind of humor. So grab your copy, eh?

#SFWAPro

 

 

Comments Off on New publication: “Noun of Nouns: A Mini Epic” in Upside Down | Acceptances & Publications | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

New publication: “Masquerade Night” in In a Cat’s Eye anthology

October 22, 2016

catseye

There have been lots of cat anthologies and there surely will be lots more. But that’s only because we never get tired of reading them! In a Cat’s Eye features original stories by Jody Lynn Nye, Gail Z. Martin, Elektra Hammond and others, as well as an all-new horror (well, horror-adjacent at least) story from yours truly.

“Masquerade Night” is about a dance club in 1920s New York City where ancient gods and monsters mingle with unsuspecting humans.  Here are the opening lines

The first time Harat saw Ada was when she was dancing with the goddess of death.

It was masquerade night, and cub Rhythm was full of monsters. An orchestra blasted the latest European tunes at their highest volume setting, filling the cavernous dance hall with music. Dance beats reverberated in Harat’s temples. An engine rotated an enormous lantern of painted glass suspended from the high ceiling, which cast shards of colored light across the hall. It was the glint of light against the lapis lazuli amulet that drew his attention.

Want to read more? Grab the e-book or a paperback here.

#SFWAPro

Comments Off on New publication: “Masquerade Night” in In a Cat’s Eye anthology | Acceptances & Publications | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

New publication: “How Gaia and the Guardian Saved the World” at Amazing Stories

October 16, 2016

On the heels of my Nature AI story comes my Amazing Stories AI story. and they were kind enough to create a cool illustration for it, too! (this is not an easy story to illustrate as you’ll find it when you read it!) I’m excited to be among the first authors to have original fiction appear in the resurrected Amazing Stories and happy to share this story with readers!

Read “How Gaia and the Guardian Saved the World” here.

#SFWAPro

 

 

4 Comments | Acceptances & Publications | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

Two Stories at StarShipSofa Podcast Today

October 5, 2016

starshipsofa-logo

This week’s episode of StarShipSofa features a pair of stories that were not previously available online for free. The first is “Dominoes Falling,” the story written in the Dark Expanse video game universe which appeared in the Dark Expanse: Surviving the Collapse anthology. It’s followed by “The Far Side of the Wilderness” which appeared in Beyond the Sun anthology from Fairwood Press. Both are space opera adventures with a bit of a dark bend, so kudos to editor Jeremy Szal for bundling them together as they do complement each other nicely.

Dark Expanse cover

The episode also includes a flash piece by Stephen S. Power from Nature magazine.

Listen to the podcast here.

This is the second time in a week I had a story (or stories) published without advance warning. (i.e. I knew they were going to appear in DSF and SSS at some point, just not when.) Honestly, I can get used to this kind of pleasant surprise.

The next up is “How Gaia and the Guardian Saved the World” which I do know the publication date of; it’s scheduled to appear at Amazing Stories on October 12 and I’ll post the link when it goes live!

#SFWAPro

 

 

Comments Off on Two Stories at StarShipSofa Podcast Today | Acceptances & Publications | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Alex Shvartsman

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »