Worlds Await!

I’m pleased to have a story in the next volume of Dreaming Robot’s Young Explorer’s Adventure Guide. This anthology series offers vividly futuristic adventures featuring diverse characters. Its stories will appeal to middle grade readers, teens, and grown-ups who dream of future worlds.

The fourth volume in this series, which contains my story, “Fluffy Pets are Best”, got a starred review from Kirkus. Get it from Dreaming Robot today — it makes a great Christmas gift!

The upcoming volume, the fifth in the series, contains my story, “Woomie Saves the Day”. Follow a young girl as she has an adventure with her annoying little brother on a spaceship. When things get dangerous, Kayla has to learn not to freak out. Can the cute little aliens help her find a solution?

Please help fund the 2019 Young Explorer’s Adventure Guide anthology – 24 amazing science fiction stories for girls, boys and robots of all ages – send a copy to your local library today. The Kickstarter is now on: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/815743020/young-explorers-adventure-guide-volume-five-sf-ant

Thanks!

Advertisements

Lost in Spaaace!

In 2015, I was requested to write a story for the China-based SFComet contest. It became a tale of twins who learn to harness quantum entanglement enabling them to travel through interstellar space, only to find themselves enslaved by aliens.

After the story was translated, it was voted on by the large Chinese readership and it came in second, due to one single solitary vote.

“Connecting through the Cosmos” was recently reprinted in the 5th volume of the exciting Insignia series of Asian SFF and is in good company, sharing the anthology with eight other science fiction stories, all of which have Asian characters or settings.

A Dangerous Thing

How much is a “little” knowledge? And how dangerous is it? That usually depends on the situation. In my latest story, now out in The Dark City Crime and Mystery Magazine, a young woman heads out on an adventurous road trip through the Rockies in the dead of winter. When trouble occurs, she has to dig deep into her knowledge banks.

You can find “A Little Knowledge”, along with four other fine stories, here.

You never know who you’ll meet in the mountains…

A very long time ago, in a previous life, I worked for the provincial Forest Service. One day, my colleague and I had driven to a remote logged-over area after the tree planters had left, in order to do some inspections. Due to his error, we were stranded there until we came up with an old-school solution.

My latest story, “Uphill All the Way”, is loosely based on that incident plus, naturally, a certain fantastical addition. It appears in Schreyer Ink’s Canadian Creatures, an anthology of eight “monster” themed stories, each with a uniquely northern twist. Order in Canada here and the US here.

Brace for Impact

Let me tell you about a bear, a famous grizzly bear around Banff known as Bear 148. She was in and out of various news stories for quite a while, after several close encounters with humans. As this article says: When grizzlies mix too freely with people, the grizzlies usually lose.

According to Bill Hunt, a Parks Canada resource conservation manager, Bear 148 “…showed a very moderated response…tolerating less than ideal human behaviours time and time again.”

Despite this, she didn’t last long. Bear 148 was shot and killed by a hunter in 2017 when she wandered outside park boundaries. She was one of the last few bears legally killed before British Columbia ended grizzly trophy hunting last November.

As we hurtle toward the tech-driven future, and brace against a dozen major and minor impacts everyday, we need to figure out how to be better stewards of this little blue planet.

I was thrilled to learn that my story about a bear caught in a rapidly changing world has won Communitech‘s story contest that forms part of the True North conference happening this week in Waterloo, Ontario. This international conference is focused on issues at the intersection of society and technology, as a force for good in the world. It’s inspiring to be a small part of this very worthwhile endeavor.

“Bear #178” is dedicated to Bear 148, may she rest in peace.

Kids will be kids…

And sometimes they’re just mean, am I right? Actually, not. Bullying and other forms of aggression are a learned behaviour.

Inklings Publishing produces the Perceptions Series of anthologies for children, focused on helping educators and parents discuss tough topics with children. I’m pleased to have a futuristic story in the upcoming second volume tackling the difficult subject of Bullies. “Slippery Slope” is a reprint of one of my earliest stories and is based very loosely on a childhood bullying experience. It’s got some strong imagery and an equally strong message. You can pre-order now here

Let’s work together to change attitudes toward violence, even the “little stuff” on playgrounds.

Solarpunk, you say?

As described by the anthologist, Sarena Ulibarri:

Solarpunk is a type of optimistic science fiction that imagines a future founded on renewable energies. The seventeen stories in this volume are not boring utopias—they grapple with real issues such as the future and ethics of our food sources, the connection or disconnection between technology and nature, and the interpersonal conflicts that arise no matter how peaceful the world is. In these pages you’ll find a guerilla art installation in Milan, a murder mystery set in a weather manipulation facility, and a world where you are judged by the glow of your solar nanite implants. From an opal mine in Australia to the seed vault at Svalbard, from a wheat farm in Kansas to a crocodile ranch in Malaysia, these are stories of adaptation, ingenuity, and optimism for the future of our world and others. For readers who are tired of dystopias and apocalypses, these visions of a brighter future will be a breath of fresh air.

My story, “The Call of the Wold,” is, according to Tangent Online, “told in a lightly humorous style with a great deal of wordplay…an enjoyable story with an appealing main character.” I had fun with it and I hope you do too.

It’ll be out in June. Pre-order now for big savings:
Amazon
B&N
iTunes/Apple iBooks
Kobo
World Weaver Press (paperback only)
Goodreads