Speculative Flash Fiction
Greetings and salutations. Thanks for visiting AntipodeanSF. You are about to launch into an adventure with Australia's longest running online speculative fiction magazine. That's right, almost 300 issues and we're still 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 possibly release your mycophobia — yet won't take hours to read.
Please peruse all of this month's stories, and you can listen to them again in audio a few months on the AntiSF Radio Show...
...Nuke.
Didn't We Almost Have It All
By Jason Bentsman
The atmosphere is always a dim grey, as if almost nighttime and about to rain, presumably due to pollution. Much of civilisation, it seems, has been decimated. Few people. Some buildings and structures stand in ruins, others simply moulder from age.
I’m standing by the glass doorway of the bottom floor of a tall commercial building that once served as a cafe. I see myself at a dusty table, talking with an attractive young woman. I seem a little younger, in better shape. This was some time ago — a year, a year-and-a-half maybe.
An Open Letter to the Ruritanian Ambassador
By Wes Parish
His Excellency Rupert von Hentzau
Ruritanian Ambassador
Your Excellency,
A few days ago, I was involved in an altercation at the recently opened Kew Restaurant, in [censored]. To cut a long story short, some people were injured, and the local community newspaper and both the morning and evening dailies, dubbed me the Kew Brute.
Bacon and Eggs
By Brian Keon-Coen
A solitary man reading a novel in a café. What does he think he’s doing? It’s breakfast time. At one end of the line of tables a middle-aged, attractive couple are on an assignation: why else would they be breakfasting together at 8.05 am? Her hair is golden, her features sharp. They kiss, cuddle, and open the newspapers.
A Tonic for the Lonely
By Chris Karageorge
Dust settled on the upturned glasses protected within the display cabinet. At least three glasses had been used in the last month, the rest had not been touched since they left the packaging.
Timothy’s hundred-yard stare into the cabinet was broken by a direct-notification to his phone.
Goblin Hunter
By Joseph Sullivan
The wizard stood still; her apartment deliberately arranged in the perfect image of a filthy mess. Papers were scattered everywhere, books were strewn about, drawers were open, her tools laid out as though they had not been used in days. She grinned to herself and laughed with the smug satisfaction of intellectual victory. Reltanna Lirane knew she had it this time.
Suddenly, her triumph was disrupted by a knock at her door. Oh, come on, not now! She waded through the clutter on her floor to get to her door, managing to wrench it open ever-so-slightly, pushing aside a pile of plates on the ground.
The Mushroom
By Maks Sipowicz
This morning, when I went into the kitchen to make a pot of coffee, I noticed a mushroom growing out of the corner of one of the cabinets on which I’d painfully hit my head last night. I hit the cabinet hard, and right on the corner, and it cut into my skin resulting in a stream of blood going down my face. I looked like a character in a slasher, someone who’d already gone one or two rounds with a Jason Vorhees or a Leatherface. I remember being stunned at how much blood came out and how quickly it streamed down my face. I stared at myself in the bathroom mirror, neglecting to wipe the blood off, letting it pool in the sink where it slowly seeped down into the drain, its vivid crimson in stark contrast to the white porcelain. And now, a day later, a mushroom grew out of the cabinet in the exact spot from which I must have forgotten to wipe the blood.
The Woman
By Elizabeth Broadbent
On a sooty block in a sooty city, trash catches in gutters — cigarette butts, candy wrappers, a daily newspaper nobody reads, not anymore. People stare at phones and avoid one another reflexively, automatically, stepping left or right in a sidewalk dance that seems as choreographed as any from Versailles. You pass a cafe. A woman sits at its window. You keep walking through the trash and soot, keep dancing your dance as cars idle and traffic lights change.
Time Capsule
By Umiyuri Katsuyama - Translated by Toshiya Kamei
From a crack in a rock 2,400 metres below sea level, you collect a metal object with a manipulator. Based on the thick, scaly coat that has formed around the object, you estimate it’s less than 18,000 years old.
You hurry back to the research ship on the surface. As the object is exposed to air, the exterior begins to oxidise. When you remove the exterior with a knife, a titanium box appears. You touch the lid, and the box shakes.
Too Many Robots
By Alexy Dumenigo - Translated by Toshiya Kamei
I turned to writing because I grew weary of robot stories. My first story was about an old couple living in a cottage in the countryside. It was a mess, but I thought it great, and I sent it to a contest. Three AIs with quite different literary algorithms evaluated the manuscripts and decided, unanimously, that mine was the winner.
I had quite the success. For the first time in decades, a real-life writer won a contest where AIs were allowed to participate. I was on all the television networks and streaming platforms. I signed exclusive contracts. In the literary world, I was promoted as the vindicator of human interests.
Alien Artifacts
By Harris Tobias
“Did you see that?” Arnold asked.
Ida, busy with the map, was trying to find out where in the hell they were. Somewhere in northern Arizona, that much at least was certain. Lost on a road that stubbornly defied identifying itself.
“See what, dear?” she said absently.
“That sign we just passed.”
“No. I was busy trying to find us on the map. Did you see a road sign?”
In The Next Issue...
Coming In Issue 291
Christmas in the Modern World
By William Kitcher
COVID's Conclusion
By Marty Nemko
First Contact of the Third Kind
By Anthony Woolley
Forty-Nine Seconds
By Michael Cheyne
Hermit People of Ermin 4
By Bob Brussack
Hip Gnomes
By PS Cottier
How to Birth A Billionaire
By Elizabeth Broadbent
The First Thanksgiving
By Harris Tobias
Tramp
By Brian Biswas
Up the Ante
By Rhiannonn Stevens
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
AntiSF & The ASFF
AntipodeanSF supports the ASFF
Please consider joining the Australian Science Fiction Foundation, a prime supporter and promoter of speculative fiction down-under.
AntipodeanSF November 2022
ISSUE 290
Speculative Fiction
Downside-Up
ISSN 1442-0686
Online Since Feb 1998
Download AntiSF E-Book
Epub for all e-readers:
AntiSF's Narration Team
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.
Tim Borella is an Australian author, mainly of short speculative fiction published in anthologies, online and in podcasts.
He’s also a songwriter, and has been fortunate enough to have spent most of his working life doing something else he loves, flying.
Tim lives with his wife Georgie in beautiful Far North Queensland. For more information, visit his Tim Borella – Author Facebook page.
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>.
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.
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.
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.
Carolyn's work spans devising, performance, theatre-in-education and a collaborative visual art practice.
She tours children's works to schools nationally with School Performance Tours, is a member of the Bathurst physical theatre ensemble Lingua Franca and one half of darkroom — a visual arts practice with videographer Sean O'Keeffe.
(Photo by Jeremy Belinfante)
Ed lives with his wife plus a magical assortment of native animals in tropical North Queensland.
His efforts at wallaby wrangling are without parallel — at least in this universe.
He enjoys reading and writing science-fiction stories set within intriguing, yet plausible contexts, and invite readers’ “willing suspension of disbelief.”
He believes stories might also contain an element of humour — however small — to enrich the plot and/or heighten the drama.
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 and The Tiger's Eye (YA/Fantasy) White Fire (Sci-Fi) and The Good, the Bad and the Undecided (a unique collection of short stories set during the events of White Fire/Sci-Fi).
You can read more of her work on her blog <www.solothefirst.wordpress.com> Look for her on Facebook <www.facebook.com/WriterLaurieBell/> or Twitter: <@LaurienotLori>
Rambles, writing and amusing musings
Smile! laugh out loud! enjoy the following
<www.solothefirst.wordpress.com>
Timothy Gwyn is a professional pilot in Canada, where he flies to remote communities. During a lull in his flying career, he was a radio announcer for three years, and he is also an author.
In addition to short stories at AntipodeanSF and NewMyths.com, his SF novel is available internationally in print and ebook formats. "Avians" draws on his love of alternative aviation to tell the tale of a girl who runs away from home to join a cadre of glider pilots on a world without metal or fossil fuels.
On Twitter, he is @timothygwyn, and his blogs are at <timothygwyn.com>.
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
Most Read Stories
The Contributors
Jason Bentsman's writings tend to defamiliarise the familiar, including urgent problems facing society, with a metaphysical undercurrent.
He authored the poetic environmental book The Orgastic Future (“A 21st century HOWL,” A.S., New Yorker & Vanity Fair). Writings in The American Bystander, The Blue Nib, FLANEUR, Montreal Writes, Paris Lit Up, Dreich, The Weekly Humorist, and other publications worldwide.
He's also an occasional humorist, and takes fine art photos. His favorite color is: prism. More info: www.linktr.ee/Jason_Bentsman
Joseph Sullivan is a 21-year-old writer and filmmaker from Melbourne, Australia, currently in his third year of university studying for his bachelor's degree in film and television.
He is an avid reader and writer of speculative fiction, and you can find his work at <https://josephsullivanwriter.blogspot.com/>.
Alexy Dumenigo is a Cuban writer.
His debut story collection, Izokumi, won the 2019 Premio Calendario de Ciencia Ficción.
Maks Sipowicz is a writer living and working in Naarm (Melbourne).
His work has previously appeared in Overland, Sydney Review of Books, Meanjin, and elsewhere.
His website is <https://philosophyafterdark.com>.
During her MFA in fiction, Elizabeth Broadbent was a top-ten finalist in William Faulkner-William Wisdom Award's novel-in-progress category; in the same year, her novella placed as a semifinalist.
After having children, she turned to nonfiction; her essays have appeared The Washington Post, Insider, and Time; a six-year staff writer for Scary Mommy, the largest parenting site on the web, Broadbent wrote about everything from chestfeeding to true crime.
Her speculative prose poetry has appeared in Bewildering Stories and Down in the Dirt.
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.
Wes 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 ... ?"
Chris Karageorge is a lover, brother, son, neighbour and a keen observer of all things in sight.
He reads, writes and cooks in his spare time and dreams of coffee darker than a moonless night.
He is from Melbourne, Victoria and can be found walking his pug Monty during the weekends.
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.
In 2022, her translation of S. Qiouyi Lu's short story "Mother Tongues" was a finalist for the Seiun Award. She is currently working on a novel about a female cook in Jiangnan during the Qin Dynasty.
Her short fiction has appeared in numerous horror anthologies in Japan.
Bryan is a writer, activist and retired barrister based in Melbourne, Australia.
He has published numerous legal articles, and the books: A Mabo Memoir (2013) and The Apocrypha (2022).
Bryan’s insightful and engaging short stories have been published in Australiain Woorilla (2010), Idiom (2019), StylusLit (2019), Antipodean Sci Fi (2020), and in the UK, Bandit Fiction (2018).
See further at <www.bryankeoncohen.com>.
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.
Harris Tobias lives and writes in Charlottesville, Virginia.
He is the author of two novels: The Greer Agency & A Felony of Birds. He has written dozens of short stories, many of which are available on line at <quantummuse.com>.
Harris is also the author of many children’s books including At The Robot Zoo, MoonRivet Saves His Skin and An Alphabet Book of Bugs available in print from CreateSpace and as ebooks for Nook & Kindle. You can find links to his writings here: <harristobias-fiction.blogspot.com>
PS Cottier is a poet who lives in Canberra, with a particular interest in speculative poetry.
She has been published widely at home and in Canada, England, New Zealand and the USA.
Two of her horror poems were finalists in the Australian Shadows Awards for 2020. Her latest books are V8, co-wriiten with Sandra Renew, (Ginninderra Press) which looks at cars and other vehicles, and Tuesday’s Child is Full (In Case of Emergency Press) which is made up of poems first published at her blog. (These two collections are non-genre.)
PS Cottier is currently the Poetry Editor at The Canberra Times and blogs at <https://pscottier.com>