Queer Sci Fi is releasing its fourth flash fiction anthology: Impact. The book has just come out!
IM * PACT
(noun)
1) One object colliding with another
2) An impinging of something upon something else
3) An influence or effect on something or someone
4) The force of a new idea, concept, technology or ideology
Four definitions to inspire writers around the world, and an unlimited number of possible stories to tell, but only 110 made the final cut.
A difficult choice to be made. An object hurtling recklessly through space. A new invention that will change the world. So many things can impact a life, a society, or a planet.
Impact features 300 word speculative fiction ficlets from across the queer spectrum from the minds of the writers of Queer Sci Fi.
Welcome to Impact.
About the Series:
It's hard to tell a story in just 300 words. Each year we ask writers to take the challenge, turning in stories across the queer spectrum. The rules are simple. Write a complete sci fi, fantasy, paranormal or horror story, include LGBTIQA characters, and do it all with just 300 carefully chosen words.
Amazon Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FC91HH2
Amazon Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1732307520/
Angus & Robertson: https://www.angusrobertson.com.au/books/x/p/9781732307537
Giveaway
Queer Sci Fi is giving away a $25 Amazon gift card with this tour – enter via Rafflecopter for a chance to win:
Direct Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b60e8d4721/?
Excerpt
Since this book is composed of stories of no more than 300 words, we can’t really do a standard excerpt, so we’re offering you the teaser first lines from a number of stories.
“She’d needed new oil. She felt her joints grow stiff, her muscles grow tight, her follicles thickening. If she didn’t get fresh quarts soon, people she passed would start calling her sir, asking, Where’s your gun?” —Crossville Station, by Nathan Alling Long
“The mallet's impact on the hard, bright disk shattered the silence in the talking chamber. The resulting deep tone reverberated through the vault, through Saskia, as she fidgeted beside her lover.” —Settled, by Aidee Ladnier
“This is how the world ends, or so they say. From where I'm standing, it simply looks like a rolling darkness as distant lights flicker and die.” —Visitors, by LJ Phillips
“’What have you done?’ The mechanical eyes came to rest on his face, the droning beepsounding loud in the small room.” —Identity and Change, by Jo Tannah
“’Once upon a world, we were the same,’ he said, lifting my hand to his lips; the ground shaking beneath us.” —Impact, by Jack Ladd
“I been a tinker and soothsayer long enough to know this country's at the cusp of war. They stir up hate easy as breath. And, oh, it pains my soul to see it. “ —Impact of Intervention, by Patricia Scott
“All lives begin with a messy impact of some kind. The crash of zygotes and gametes. Splats of silica gel between cybernetic synapses. Two women slam into each other carrying full cups of coffee.” —Quintessence, by E.M. Hammill
“If I venture far enough into the house, I’ll find my closet.” —The Closet, by K.S. Trenten
“It touched Ligaya when she was a child. Or she touched it. A half-glimpsed shape under her bed.” Mas Mabuti An Answang, by Foster Bridget Cassidy
“Jam zipped down the neon track, feather-light in low gravity. She rocketed forward, a glowing haze in her starred helmet, and shot past the pack. “Space Jammer!” echoed as she neared the line. Time to rack up the points.” —First Bout: Andromedolls Vs. Crotch Rockets, by Ginger Streusel
Next
Year’s Theme
J.
Scott Coatsworth
The 2018 Queer Sci Flash Fiction
Contest is over, and the theme, “Impact,” was a great success. So I thought I’d
share with you a few ideas for next year’s theme:
Bacon: There are so many ways you could
go with this one. Crispy. Limp. Bits. BLT’s and candied bacon and bacon
milkshakes. So many possibilities.
Squish: When you stick your foot in your
shoe and there’s something cold and wet inside. Or when you bite into rotten
apple. Or that sound when you step on a cockroach.
UFO: Unidentified Frying Object. Under
Five Oranges. Urgent Feeble Oranges. You get the idea.
Moist: See “squish.”
Trapeziod: Because regular squares are so
2018.
And finally, my favorite new theme
of all:
Liminal: OK, this one could actually work.
It means a transition, an edge, or a threshold. Things are definitely super
liminal lately, so this word could lead us to what is coming next.
About Queer Sci Fi:
At Queer Sci Fi, we're building a community of sci fi, fantasy, paranormal and horror writers and readers who want a little rainbow in their speculative fiction. We run a great discussion group on Facebook, a twitter feed, and have a website full of useful materials, news, and announcements for readers and writers of queer speculative fiction.
Website: https://www.queerscifi.com
Facebook Discussion Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/qsfdiscussions/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/queerscifi/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/QueerSciFi
