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, yet won't take hours to read.
Please spend a few moments to read this month's stories. Alternatively, listen to all of them on the AntipodeanSF Radio Show, weekly, as per the schedule.
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This very magazine issue comes to you, no fooling even though it's April 1, from SWANCON, in Perth, on the other side of this great continent.
Nuke.
Belted About
By Kevin J. Phyland
<final report of test>
Reorienting in D4 space. We are rotating with both Magnus forces and wind resistance. The swing is within tolerance. Large force on impact, however. Level checks indicate a human foot. Momentum shift is consistent with this. Velocity vector has changed substantially in last second.
Revectoring.
Death Is No Obstacle
By Wesley Parish
Hi Vicar. My name is Andrew Mayhew. Please share a drink with me: I need to talk.
Thank you. I used to travel with a troupe of entertainers, singers, musicians, dancers, magicians. I was a musician: kids loved the sound of my trombone and would come running to see what made that awesome sound resounding between heaven and earth.
I'm getting to it. I fell in love with a magician in the troupe.
Evening Star
By Paul Alex Gray
“It should be rockets,” says Sandra.
Smoke slips from her mouth with each syllable. We’re standing outside the back of The Essex Arms, watching the sky turn a sickly yellow.
Up above I see one star that’s been shining bright these last few days. Maybe I’ve been mooching off longer on my breaks and spending more time outside. I remember my dad telling me something about Venus being mistaken for a star.
Heisenberg's Witness
By Nemo
I sit at the computer in my back room, trying to escape the noises from the street and concentrate. It’s the best way make sure that what shows on the screen is what I intend when punching the keyboard.
Oh no. There it goes, that damned ringing. Is it the phone, the ice-cream man, the front doorbell? Or is it my tinnitus acting up again? It’s an incessant, thin ringing. Annoying. Wednesday is ice-cream day. Today is Tuesday, so it might or might not be … anything.
Hell Is A Witch
By Pamela Jeffs
My bathroom window looks out over Hell. It frames, to great effect, the glowing lines of the far brimstone mountain ranges and the red of the Hades fire pits. It is usually a magnificent view but of late it’s marred. Mrs. Appleby, the witch I killed last week, haunts me from that window. She stands there every morning, watching me.
That old witch … if only she would concede that she deserves to be in Hell.
Programmed
By Tee Linden
I was programmed to play the piano in a bar named Sue’s. I play every night.
The stage echoes my heeled footsteps as I walk to the old piano. I bow perfunctorily before perching on the cracked leather seat. As I move into position for my performance, I reach out and reverently stroke the keys. They are slippery bones beneath my fingers.
I play Bach to start.
Roof o Green
By Ishmael A Soledad
I’m drunk. Hell, I’m worse than drunk and way beyond, even the Miley Cyrus floating through the smoke sounds good, damn white bitch muzac, damn. Cyril’s laughin’ at me across the plie of empties, I know he is even as he’s layin’ face down I can see his back shake, fingers twitchin’ round the neck of his Bud, damn black fool, damn black fools the both of us. Fool maybe, friend for sure. When he’s home she’ll tear him a new one ‘cause of me, out drinkin’ an bitchin’ until he don’t know which ends for shittin’ and which ends for spittin’. Keeps me from Kath while he’s like this, trod on, down, like my daddy but he didn’t stay away from mom when he drank an’ I aint goin’ there with Kath, no man, I gets like this I go grab Cyril an we hit it till I sleep out in the back forty at his place an’ he gets poured home. She hates it but she’d hate the other worse, she don’t know but she would.
The Chocolate Bar
By Matthew Harrison
Mackay at last had the chance to raise the question of funding. But Henderson the Project Director just sat, fingers pressed thoughtfully together, gazing through the window at the rolling parkland outside the headquarters. His bald head segued into his round smooth-shaven face as if the whole had been an inflated ball. Strange, Mackay thought — he hadn’t noticed that before. A chocolate bar, lying among the papers on Henderson’s desk, was the only redeeming note.
“An extraordinary feat,” Henderson was saying, without conviction.
The Gamer
By Cam Kirk
‘Humans are notoriously inconsistent in their evolution. They jump around like, what’s the analogy, bloody cats on hot tin roofs and all that, to use one of their expressions. Some of them are capable of astonishing feats.’ X3R4 was supping on a red wine and watching the two moons rise. His sixth finger delicately raised in a gesture that never failed to irritate his companion.
T2G9 rubbed all four of his eyes; he was feeling an unusual amount of strain, and not even the sumptuous hotel room overlooking the spectacular three-leveled beach of Antari 5 did anything to settle his nerves.
The Mintfresh Disaster
By Kim Rose
Watching TV by myself. A typical Friday night. Typical of loners who prefer to lie around and think of the people they like rather than go out and do things with them. Yep. Alone — again — in a pile of washed … Sniff … no wait ... unwashed clothes. I don’t have time for washing. Between staring at my crush at school and working part time to afford the flat, clearly I have no time to do anything else. Like clean the flat. How long have these corn chips been here?
I suppose I should introduce my crush.
AntiSF & The ASFF
AntipodeanSF supports the ASFF
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.
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In The Next Issue...
Coming In Issue 238
A Hand Full Of Sand Can Save Your Life
by Laurie Bell
A Man Full Of Shadows
By Eugen M. Bacon
A Short Tail
By Michael T. Schaper
Fuel
By Sean Mulroy
Help Us
By Wendy Campbell
Meeting With A Misanthrope
By Bart Meehan
Non-Zero
By Lynette Frey
Senseless
By Kevin J. Phyland
The Hyperspace
By Botond Teklesz
Waking Up
By Chris Cole
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Most Read Stories
AntipodeanSF April 2018
ISSUE 237
Speculative Fiction
Downside-Up
ISSN 1442-0686
Online Since Feb 1998
AntiSF's Narration Team
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.
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>.
Laurie Bell lives in Melbourne, Australia. She spent years writing and making audio plays with her sister using an old tape player. Life is a performance! She is a singer and has performed on stage once for her local theatre company. Now she helps out as a volunteer. She loves to read her stories out loud to anyone who will listen. She has recorded several audio readings of her own short stories here at Antipodean SF and is now a member of the audio team.
You can read more of her work on her blog Look for her on Facebook <www.facebook.com/WriterLaurieBell/?fref=ts> or Twitter: <@LaurienotLori>
Laurie's debut book The Butterfly Stone will be published in Autumn (Aus) 2018 and another titled Blood Fever will be published in Winter (Aus) 2018.
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>
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.
David Whitaker is originally from the UK though has travelled around a bit and now resides in India. He has a degree in Journalism, however decided that as he’s always preferred making things up it should ultimately become a resource rather than a profession.
His stories, covering everything from sci-fi to philosophy, have been published across the globe and links to each can be found at <wordsbydavid.com>
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,
And is a theatre reviewer for 2SER FM in Sydney.
SF News
SF News
Congratulations Edwina Harvey
Edwina Harvey, a contributor to AntipodeanSF since the very first issue, is a worthy recipient of this year’s A. Bertram Chandler Award. She has been an active member of Australian science-fiction fandom: writing, publishing and with her amazing artwork for 40 years.
Read more information about Ed's Award here at the ASFF.
Swancon (Natcon) ASFF Short Story Competition 2018 Results
Under 14s
- First place: "Butterflies - Rebecca" by Bryn Eremaea
- Runner-up: "The Dark Night Labyrinth" by Cayley Adams
Under 18s
- First place: "Advik, Chantelle, and That One Time a Portion of the Moon Was Turned Into Leeks" by Annie Budgie
Open
- First Place: "A Burning Thing" by Lachlan WaterRunner-up: "A Light Over Fathom" by Brett AdamsCongratulations to all the winners. We look forward to seeing your future work.
For more SF news why not join the ASFF and get the ASFF newsletter “The Instrumentality” delivered straight to your inbox!
Upcoming Aussie Cons
Speculate <https://www.specfic.com.au> — Victorian literary festival that celebrates Fantasy and Science Fiction by bringing together Australia’s finest speculative writers for a day centred around the craft of writing. April 28 2018, Gasworks Theatre, Middle Park, Melbourne.
Supanova, Peter Capaldi and John Barrowman. Melbourne Show Ground 20-22 April. Gold Coast Convention & Exhibition Centre, 27-29 April: <http://www.supanova.com.au/events/melbourne-2018/about/>
Continuum XIV: Conjugation. Melbourne’s SF Convention. 8th – 11th June, 2018. More information: <http://www.continuum.org.au/>.
Conflux 14 - The Unconventional Hero — Vibe Hotel, 1 Rogan Street, Canberra Airport ACT 2609. 29/09/2018 - 01/10/2018. More Information: <https//conflux.org.au>
Nullus Anxietas VII: The Australian Discworld Convention – will be held in Melbourne on April 12-14, 2019, and is themed on Going Postal. More information: <https://ausdwcon.org/>
For more up-to-date Aussie SF info join the ASFF: <asff.org.au>
AntiSF will be at the National Convention, Swancon (2018) over Easter in Perth. Rock up and say hello!
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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When I die I’m going to leave my body to science fiction.