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.
Conflux & CSFG 2020 Short Story Competition Extended
Here's an opportunity!
This year's Conflux and CSFG 2020 short story competition deadline has been extended until Friday October 16 2020.
Get writing!
Stories must be 4000 words or under, in any speculative fiction genre, on the theme, “Apocalypse”. The competition is open to all Australian residents and members of either the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild or Conflux 16. Entry is $5, unless you are a member of the CSFG or Conflux 16 or you are aged 16 or under, in which case it is free!
The winning stories will be published online as part of the Conflux October 2020 activities.
Read more: Conflux & CSFG 2020 Short Story Competition Extended
Subman to the Rescue
By Wes Parish
Subman to the Rescue!
He slips into the telephone booth, out of his suit, into his bearskin.
He charges down the street, through all the traffic, as though they’re not there. He hears the shouts:
White Peach Village
By Umiyuri Katsuyama - Translated by Toshiya Kamei
My grandmother used to tell me tales of a past long gone. My favorite one concerns my grandfather’s return from his border deployment. I would beg Grandma to share her stories over and over again while nibbling at a peach by her side.
Back then, my grandmother was a rosy-cheeked country girl. She had spent the last two years working in the fields and growing silkworms while waiting for her husband’s return. A few thousand miles away from his home, my grandfather stared at the dry horizon every single day. It took his unit twelve months to build a fort in a wasteland resembling the end of the world. Another year passed while he and his fellow soldiers guarded the fort. They were scheduled to go home in a year.
To Our New Home In The Stars
By George Nikolopoulos
The journey was an endless ordeal, but I cherished every single moment of it. Through wormholes and black holes, hyperspace jumps and subspace crawls, in the face of all my duties and yours, we had the blessing of working together, confronting all our hardships together.
"My limbs are your limbs," you said. "My eyes are your eyes." We interfaced, and our minds melded; there was a sense of togetherness that I had never experienced before. Normal space, hyperspace, subspace, darkspace — we were one as we moved through all.
The Touch of Her Hand
By D. Milne
Jenner knew the Timeshifthub could unpick his past. Not everything, that would be too draining, but there were a couple of things he would be glad to expunge for ever.
The text he had sent Juby on her birthday. How he wished he could unsend that. And the night at Ell’s when they had met…
The Thief
By Kevin J. Phyland
The clock is ticking. Time is still moving forward but for me the countdown has begun.
I've got a secret.
I've been stealing from you for years.
What's that you say? Oh, goodness me no. From everybody! Of course you haven't noticed anything missing, that's the beauty of my secret. I take things that you don't miss, but that I can use, or more correctly, I use what you misuse more efficiently.
The Origins of magic: The thief who slept, died and was Dreamt.
By Benny Thang
My body shivered and convulsed as my aching eye pried itself open and, through the haze, stared at the creature that had woken me. It reared its regal-slick black-gold body and swayed to the sound of its own hissing. The cobra undulated, its yellow hood flaring augustly like a crown or mantle beckoning supplication. I tried to spit at it, but my throat was dry and cracked. It ignored my feeble groans and coiled within itself and rested. It was only then that I realised this had been long-awaited.
Read more: The Origins of magic: The thief who slept, died and was Dreamt.
The Big Able
By Shaun A Saunders
“I'm afraid that you're focussing only on the 'dis', not the 'able'!”
That was about all the nonsense I could take. I screwed up my face, closed my eyes, shook my head. And that was about all I could shake, albeit very slowly, gently. Unfortunately, when I opened my eyes again, the gobble-nonsense generator — otherwise known as a human services facilitator — was still there.
She fumbled with a data pad, tapping it repeatedly on the same spot with a blunt forefinger, as though if she hit the magic number all would be revealed. She gave up. “Ah, what was your name again? Roger?”
Sew it is Said
By Michael T Schaper
A little while ago, in a distant little unhappy republic, it was decided by the ruling despot that the government needed to know more about its citizens. The people, the president and his advisers resolved, needed to tell their stories to their ruler.
Not via the electronic, pointless gibberish called social media that was so common in the rest of the world. The junta, realising that these tools could also be used to spread subversion, had banned electronic devices. Likewise, the dangerous world of written ideas had also been censored, and books removed long ago; libraries were now just empty spaces and bookshops a forgotten piece of history.
Same Journey Road
By Ben F. Blitzer
Elmore shuffled back into his bedroom of the retirement village. He saw the Italian lying on his bed again, his eyes fixed to the ceiling, about to nod off. Elmore told him to take his shoes off the bed. The bed belonged to Elmore.
“They’re clean,” Giuseppe protested.
Elmore used the end of his cane to poke him in the ribs, but Giuseppe grabbed it from him and threw it away. That impressed Elmore because Giuseppe was legally blind.
Lone Orbit
By Roger Ley
Mary woke, floating tethered in her sleep sack. She felt more relaxed than she had for months, now that she had been alone for a while. The latest Soyuz had brought supplies up and taken back the three other occupants of the International Space Station as they finished their mission. There’d been the usual cheery goodbyes undercut by the tense knowledge of the risks inherent in the drop to Earth, but the Soyuz design had gained a well-earned reputation for reliability during its fifty years of service.
“Best of luck, Tovarich, say hello to Moscow for me.”
Livingstone
By Rudy Diaz
“Her name was Hope." My words spread puzzlement over her flawless features. "You won’t remember her.” Incomprehension stills her full lips in mid word and then we tumble over the edge together.
“The womenfolk are incidental to you, aren’t they? They are just patterns, to be copied and then drained of the dreams we all keep deep inside; just so you can be the perfect bait. But I remember her: childhood friend, wife, love of my life... until you came.
Fate of the Nameless Child
By Alistair Lloyd
It lay in his hand. Lifeless.
A throbbing ache filled his head; an acrid, burning stench seared his nostrils. He shook it gently, but there was no response.
It was dead.
Behind him, the Father rolled back and forth on the floor. The Regulator could not tell if he was crying or laughing.
Crazy for Crab
By Kyosuke Higuchi, translated by Toshiya Kamei
I tear apart the flesh of a horsehair crab—shipped directly from Hokkaido—to prepare my favorite dish, crab soup. But this one gives me more trouble than usual. Is it supposed to be this grotesque? On top of that, its putrid odor keeps assaulting my nostrils.
“I can’t even handle a crab. How’m I gonna butcher somebody and cut ‘em into pieces? I’ve got no stomach for it.” I let out a nervous laugh.
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 266
And Then There Was One
By Tim Borella
Barkeep
By Bethany Tatman
Beyond the Cold Light
By Kevin J. Phyland
Body Dysmorphia
By Daniel Purcell
Chase v. Lee, or, The Green Sheep Hip Wiggle Case
By Anya Ow
Hullu City Murder Mystery; East Texas Town Rocked by Killings
By Wes Parish
Implant
By Roger Ley
Smoking
By Kyosuke Higuchi - Translated by Toshiya Kamei
Sneak
By Robert W. Caldwell
The Interview
By Chris Gladstone
The Rorne Model
By David Scholes
The Sponsor
By Shaun A. Saunders
The Visitor
By Thomas Tilton
Time Warp Donors
By Barry Yedvobnick
The Contributors
Daniel is a sociologist, social entrepreneur, sci-fi fanatic and belligerent optimist.
Raised on Star Trek, other early influences include Kim Stanley Robinson and Douglas Adams.
In addition to writing, Daniel is a former diplomat, cofounded media transparency organization 'Write In Stone', spent 4 years studying revolution and democracy in the Arab Spring and leads workshops on collective decision making.
Umiyuri Katsuyama is a multiple-award-winning writer of fantasy and horror, often based on Asian folklore motifs.
A native of Iwate in the far north of Japan, she later moved to Tokyo and studied at Seisen University.
In 2011, she won the Japan Fantasy Novel Award with her novel Sazanami no kuni.
Her most recent novel, Chuushi, ayashii nabe to tabi wo suru, was published in 2018.
Her short fiction has appeared in numerous horror anthologies in Japan.
Benny Thang was born to immigrant parents and lives in Melbourne, Australia.
He enjoys stories in all its forms and hopes to write more things in the future that others might perhaps one day come across in-between the mundane things of their everyday lives.
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>.
Daphne has read SF since childhood. She writes poems, flash fiction and short stories which vary from the darkly humorous to the vaguely sinister. She is currently working on a flash novella, and a collection of short stories.
Daphne reads regularly at Perth Poetry club and has recorded two podcasts for ILAA on Kalamunda radio.
She lives with her partner and a holographic cat.
Her pamphlet The Blue Boob Club is published by Indigo Dreams Press: <https://www.indigodreams.co.uk/daphne-milne/4594486684>.
A Physicist in Engineer’s clothing, Rudy worked 20 years in the Defense Aerospace Industry, from performing Lightning Protection analysis on the Space Shuttle to the design of Radar Absorbing Materials. He then joined Academia as a Professor of Electrical Engineering, where for another 20 years he attempted to infect unsuspecting students with a love for Maxwell’s equations.
Since High School he has spent most of his free time either writing Science Fiction or trying to figure out how to make Science Fiction a reality. (His students' latest work has led to the demonstration of efficient RF antennas that radiate using true magnetic (not electric) currents.) His speculative fiction short stories have appeared in Residential Aliens, Ray Gun Revival, The Untold Podcast, and the Crossover Alliance Anthology Volume 2. The rest of his work is in the peer reviewed Physics and Engineering literature.
Rudy has also been involved in Jail Ministry for about 30 years. He and his wife Marcy live in Phoenix, Arizona.
In recent years, Ben F. Blitzer has produced three unpublished literary novels and an unpublished novella, set in or around Perth, Western Australia.
Some of his shorter works of fiction, however, feature science-fiction, fantasy, and horror themes.
He lives in Western Australia.
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.
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>.
Maree Collie loves the idea of Flash Fiction. So much to say in such a little space. She also dabbles in short stories, monologues and plays.
Maree has had pieces published in anthologies, a play performed in 2018, and a monologue slated for performance October 2019.
She has completed a BA in Professional and Creative Writing at Deakin University.
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>.
George Nikolopoulos is a speculative fiction writer from Athens, Greece, and a member of Codex Writers' Group. His short stories have been published in Galaxy's Edge, Daily Science Fiction, Factor Four, Grievous Angel, Helios Quarterly Magazine, Unsung Stories, Best Vegan SFF, The Year's Best Military & Adventure SF, Bards & Sages Quarterly, Havok, SF Comet, Mad Scientist Journal, Truancy, Digital Fiction QuickFic, The Centropic Oracle, StarShipSofa, 600 Second Saga, Antipodean SF, Manawaker Studio's FFP, Fifty Flashes, 9Tales from Elsewhere, Event Horizon 2017, and many other magazines and anthologies.
Where you see strange dreams, cockatoos and other nonsensical nostrums congregate, there’s a good chance you’ll also come across our author.
By day he’s all manner of mundane things: a board member, business association manager, policy adviser, researcher and scholar - in Canberra.
At night he lets those wild ideas of his run, well, wild.
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 ... ?"
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 October 2020
ISSUE 265
Speculative Fiction
Downside-Up
ISSN 1442-0686
Online Since Feb 1998
Download AntiSF E-Book
AntiSF's Narration Team
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.
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>.
Geraldine Borella writes adult short stories and stories for children and has been published in anthologies for both. In 2018, one of her children’s short stories placed second in The Buzz Words Short Story Prize and she won an ASA Emerging Writer’s Mentorship. She currently works part-time as a hospital pharmacist and as an online creative writing tutor.
She’s fascinated by stories that expand upon today’s technology, addressing the moral and ethical issues that might arise. Equally, she enjoys the creative freedom that writing for children allows. Right now, she’s writing a young adult novel, reworking a middle grade novel and writing adult short stories when inspiration strikes. She lives with her husband, Tim, in Yungaburra, Far North Queensland and dreams of one day taking a European gap year.
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>
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.
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.
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.
Margaret lives the good life on a small piece of rural New South Wales Australia, with an amazing man, a couple of pets, and several rambunctious wombats.
She feels so lucky to be a part of the AntiSF 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.
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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