Tag: St. Ann Continuum

Apparition Lit story free to read

On By Julia AugustIn Fiction elsewhere, Short Story

And it’s out!

Anna’s reference to the university at Felsina, the city where Violante had been born, made Violante lean happily forward in her chair. “Do you know people at the university? I always wanted to go to the anatomy at the carnival, but my parents wouldn’t let me. That was before I was married, of course.”

“I studied the anatomy with Jacopo Barigazzi,” Anna said. “He spent some time here not long ago. We dissected one of Pietro’s criminals.” She poured herself wine, then filled Violante’s cup too. “Is that enough? How is Baldesar? I thought he might bring you. Pietro would have liked to see him again.”

“Oh no, he’s too busy with his writing. I’ve brought letters from him, though.”

“Last time, he wrote that you had a problem for me. Do you still?”

Read the rest of ‘Passavanti’s Fantasima’ (and buy the whole amazing issue) here.

Kaleidotrope + Big Echo

On By Julia AugustIn Fiction, Fiction elsewhere, News, Short Story

I have a new story and a reprint out this month.

  1. Doll’s House follows directly on from God Thing, which also appeared in Kaleidotrope back in 2017. They are both bouncy adventure stories about Rob and Lettie, a couple of kids doing inadvisable things in a ruined city, under the disapproving supervision of Rob’s goddess, Ann. You shouldn’t need to read both of them, but of course you may want to. 

    This issue also includes great stories and poetry by Anya Ow, Cat Sparks, William R. Eakin, Santiago Belluco, Helen Stubbs, Megan Arkenberg, Jennifer Crow, Karolina Fedyk, R.K. Duncan, Cassandra Rose Clarke and Hester J. Rook. 

  2. Under Dead Marsh originally appeared in Lackington’s Magazine in 2016 and I am really happy it has been reprinted in Big Echo’s Avant Garde issue, which looks fantastic. 

    The other stories are by Brendan C. Byrne, Stephen Langlois, Ahimaz Rajessh, Yurei Raita, Dan Grace, John Shirley, Victor Fernando R. Ocampo, Peter Milne Greiner, Laurence A. Rickels and Rudy Rucker. Mine remains a mix of Dylan Thomas and town council planning application squabbles, on Mars.

 

Flash Fiction in Grendelsong #2

On By Julia AugustIn Fiction, Fiction elsewhere, Flash fiction, Short Story

Issue 2 of the new Grendelsong is out and I have a piece of flash fiction in it: The Wardrobe of Metaphysical Maps, involving unsatisfactory relationships and maps of a non-geographical nature. The issue’s gone out to Patreon subscribers and will be available for Kindle/Nook shortly; in due course the content should appear on the website too. I’ll post again then.

Table of contents:

[non-fiction]
Editorial – Paul Jessup
The White Snake Part 1 – Humberto Maggi

[fiction]
We Ride the Stillness – Deborah Walker
Sisters – Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam
The Tale that Wrote Itself – Berit Ellingsen
On the Acquisition of a Very Fine Steed – Virginia Mohlere
Verses on St. Andrews – Berrien C Henderson
Carnival Microbial – Octavia Cade
Eat Me, Drink Me, Set Me Free – Julie Reeser
What the Hoffenphaafs Know – Samantha Henderson
Wardrobe of Metaphysical Maps – Julia August
A Lover’s Discourse: Five Fragments and a Memory of War – Fábio Fernandes
Lunching with the Sphinxes – Richard Bowes

(It’s all great. I love Octavia Cade’s ‘Carnival Microbial’ especially, though. It’s so inventively icky.)

Around the Internet (September 2015)

On By Julia AugustIn Fiction elsewhere, News, Reading Short Fiction, Short Story

In case you missed it, I had a couple of short stories out this month: (1) Voice and Silence appeared in The Sockdolager this month. It’s a dark little piece featuring kittens being horrible to even smaller animals, among other things. If you cohabit with cats, you may appreciate it. (2) Rites of Passage appeared in Kaleidotrope. It’s a dusty desert adventure featuring empire-building, false amber, Ann and a dragon, among other things. (Helpful note: when I say “dragon”, I’m thinking of something that looks rather like this.)

FICTION

The Unicorn by Amanda C. Davis (poem, unicorn, magic)

Your Future and Mine by John Grey (poem, space, not so glamorous as you thought)

Ghostalker by T.L. Huchu (practical necromancy, vivid landscapes, cultural references)

The Closest Thing to Animals by Sofia Samatar (artists, jealousy, friendship)

Prospero by Bruno Dias and Edgar Allen Poe (interactive, red death, masque)

The Peal Divers by Francesca Forrest (poetry, sunken churches, sound)

Grandmother by Leslianne Wilder (poetry, grandmother, ageing wolfishly)

Note to the Caretaker by Lisa Bellamy (poetry, mole, earth artistry)

Scythia by Marinelle G. Ringer (poetry, myths, Greece and Rome)

Hide Behind by Jason Kimble (monster, mystery, jackalopes)

Storm on Solar Seas by T.L. Huchu (space shipwreck, cannibalism, unhappy ending)

Lock and Key by Mike Reeves (assassination attempts, vizier, lady alchemist)

Dustbaby by Alix E. Harrow (end times, dust bowl, old worlds)

The Oiran’s Song by Isabella Yap (war, abuse, prostitution, demon)

OTHER THINGS

Plasma Frequency are holding a kickstarter to fund their return.

The Strange Horizons 2015 fund drive has launched.

Lightspeed is open to fantasy subs until 31 October.

The Book Smugglers have a call for novellas.

Lackington’s Magazine editor Ranylt Richildis went to Nantes and saw a clockwork elephant!

Free fiction thisaway!

“Drowning in Sky” at PodCastle

On By Julia AugustIn Fiction, Fiction elsewhere, News, Podcast, Short Story

So this is the other good news about ‘Drowning in Sky’: you can’t read it for free, but you can now listen to it over at PodCastle! So many thanks to Abra Staffin-Wiebe for a wonderful reading, and to Rachael K. Jones for a wonderful introduction. ❤ And if you did want to read it, you can get all of Women Destroy Fantasy! here.

Announcement! New fiction available!

Short Story in Women Destroy Fantasy!

On By Julia AugustIn Fiction, Fiction elsewhere, Short Story

So Women Destroy Fantasy! is a real thing that definitely exists (I have external confirmation that I am not solipsistically hallucinating this… though I guess that doesn’t mean much if we’re going to carry solipsism to its logical conclusion) and I have a story in the book version, which you can get hold of here! I am thrilled and amazed and slightly terrified about this: it’s my first pro sale and the first story that sold on first submission, and I am so deeply grateful to Cat Rambo for picking ‘Drowning in Sky’ out of slush. ❤ Importantly, I’ve had the proofs of this for the last couple of weeks, so I can say for certain that everything in this massive special issue is amazing, starting with Kate Hall’s story The Scrimshaw and The Scream, which you can read for free on the Fantasy Magazine site.

All going well, there should be another piece of news about ‘Drowning in Sky’ soon, but since it isn't currently available for free I'll say here that it's a pretty busy story. There's an author spotlight in which I talk about some of the things that went into it (the Arachne myth / the sinking of Helike / the statue of Nike Apteros), but other ingredients include a line borrowed from Aristotle, the ancient Athenian festival of Anthesteria, and probably some things I’ve already forgotten. And if you were curious about how Ann, who certainly hasn’t read Plato’s account of the death of Socrates in the Phaedo, jumped to a certain conclusion so quickly, well, my Lakeside Circus flash Aqua Vitalis has the answer.

Free fiction thisaway!

Flash Fiction at Lakeside Circus

On By Julia AugustIn Fiction, Fiction elsewhere, Flash fiction, News

I have a piece of flash fiction in Issue 2 of Lakeside Circus! Woke up this morning to find it’s gone up here: Aqua Vitalis, a poisonous little story in which, I’m afraid, the dog dies. It’s from the St. Ann collection, though, so you should expect that.

There are some really lovely stories in this issue. I like dan campbell’s siren, Sonya Taaffe’s Skerry-Bride and Alexandra Grunberg’s The Seam of Creation particularly.