Okay, technically this came out last year but I completely forgot to post here so you get the Out Now post a few months late. Monstro is a short story set in the world of my Serial Killer Z series. If you’ve read the fourth book, Shadows, then you’ll recognize the name. Set in Hollywood at the beginning of the zombie outbreak, this story fills in Monstro’s (and Otto’s) backround. If you haven’t read the Serial Killer Z books, then Monstro is a good standalone introduction to the world. Monstro is available now, along with a bunch of other very cool zombie stories, in the Run from the Dead from Angry Eagle Publishing. Until next time. Stay safe. [Out Now – Monstro by Philip Harris first appeared on Solitary Mindset on 20th February 2022]
The Jurassic Chronicles Q&A: Terry Maggert
My short story, Glitch Mitchell and the Island of Terror, has just been published in the new Future Chronicles anthology – The Jurassic Chronicles. (Currently on sale for just 99c!) To celebrate the launch, I’m running a few interviews here on the site. Today, I’m talking to Terry Maggert about Noble Savage. What attracted you to the Jurassic Chronicles project? Other than the quality of Samuel’s work? It was a chance to play– without rules– and use dinosaurs with no limits. That’s too tempting. I was in. What was the inspiration for your story? Naturally, I had a teacher who inspired fear and terror in even doses. This was the fourth grade, and when combined with a love of dinosaurs, it seemed like a logical conclusion to marry time travel, dinosaurs, a matriarchal revolution, and school into one narrative. In other news, I don’t sleep much and this seemed quite a good idea at the time. I’ll let the readers decide. Where do you stand on the whole “dinosaurs had feathers” issue? They did. We have the evidence, the feathers are real, and I for one am thrilled. The vibrancy of those animals must have been something akin to magical. What are you … Read More
The Jurassic Chronicles Q&A: Harry Manners
My short story, Glitch Mitchell and the Island of Terror, has just been published in the new Future Chronicles anthology – The Jurassic Chronicles. (Currently on sale for just 99c!) To celebrate the launch, I’m running a few interviews here on the site. Today, I’m talking to Harry Manners about Szcar’s Trial. What was the inspiration for your story? It came from two things. First, whenever I’ve ever had a spacey late-night conversation about alien civilisation, UFOs any whether on day Earth will be visited, my immediate thought is if it’s possible, it probably already happened. Humans in their modern form have existed a mere hundred-thousand-years (with hominids tracing back a few million years). Set that against over half a billion years for which complex life has existed on the land and oceans, an unimaginable stretch of time–a thousand times longer than the time apes have walked on two legs! What if aliens did come to check out Earth and sweep it for intelligence? What if what they found was a primordial planet full of monsters? The second source of inspiration is totally different. It comes from a Top Trumps card. The dinosaur version. It had a funky “evolved” humanoid card somewhere in … Read More
The Jurassic Chronicles Q&A: Emily Mah
My short story, Glitch Mitchell and the Island of Terror, has just been published in the new Future Chronicles anthology – The Jurassic Chronicles. (Currently on sale for just 99c!) To celebrate the launch, I’m running a few interviews here on the site. Today, I’m talking to Emily Mah about Cryptoscience. What attracted you to the Jurassic Chronicles project? I love a good theme anthology, and Samuel Peralta’s been doing some of the very best lately. I also began my writing career in science fiction, but then ended up with a romance career, which pays the bills. I really wanted to come home to the genre, though, and this was a great opportunity. Where do you stand on the whole “dinosaurs had feathers” issue? As I understand it, feathers and scales are structurally very similar. The main difference is the size (I could be completely wrong, there). So it makes sense to me, perhaps according to false information, that they might have feathers. I skirted the issue by not having a dinosaur in my story, but rather a different branch on that family tree, which did have feathers. What’s the setting for your story? Middle America, because I think that served as a … Read More
The Jurassic Chronicles Q&A: Samuel Peralta
My short story, Glitch Mitchell and the Island of Terror, has just been published in the new Future Chronicles anthology – The Jurassic Chronicles. Island of Terror is a return to the characters from my novel, Glitch Mitchell and the Unseen Planet, and as you can probably guess from the title, it’s another pulpy, action adventure tale. It’s a standalone adventure, but if you haven’t read Glitch Mitchell and the Unseen Planet, it’s on sale at the moment for just 99c – CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR COPY. To celebrate the launch, I’m running a few interviews here on the site. Today, I’m talking to the series editor of The Future Chronicles, Samuel Peralta. How did you get started with the Future Chronicles anthology series? I wrote a spec short story, “Trauma Room”, to prove what I could do with a thousand words — build a world, with a compelling main character, in what was at the same time a thriller and a love story. It got me entry into two anthologies that propelled me into the bestseller lists, with the stories “Hereafter” and “Liberty”. That segued into me putting together an anthology with editor David Gatewood, built around the robot theme of my … Read More
The Jurassic Chronicles Q&A: Crystal Watanabe
My story, Glitch Mitchell and the Island of Terror, has just been published in the new Future Chronicles anthology – The Jurassic Chronicles! To celebrate, I’m running a few interviews here on the site. First up, I’m talking to the editor of The Jurassic Chronicles, Crystal Watanabe. What attracted you to the Jurassic Chronicles project? When Samuel invited me, I was, of course, thrilled. I’m always happy to edit another Future Chronicles anthology. I get to work with numerous authors and experience a wonderful range of writing styles. What did you enjoy most while working on The Jurassic Chronicles? I love dinosaurs, and I’m a huge Jurassic Park fan (both the book and the movie). Seeing everyone’s different take on the subject is always amazing to me since the authors are so creative. One of my favorite things is reading reviews and hearing which stories are readers’ favorites, as I like to compare it to my own. And no, I’m not telling which ones those are! What are you most proud of about The Jurassic Chronicles? Having my name appear on such a fantastic cover with so many amazing authors and Samuel is a wonderful honor. What’s your favourite dinosaur and why? I’d … Read More
Out Now – Glitch Mitchell and the Island of Terror
The Future Chronicles is a fantastic series of anthologies created by Samuel Peralta. Starting with The Robot Chronicles, each anthology has a specific theme from AI to Aliens to Telepaths. Appearing in a Future Chronicles title has long been a bucket list item for me so I’m extremely proud that my story, Glitch Mitchell and the Island of Terror, appears in the latest release – The Jurassic Chronicles! Journey back to the most incredible adventure of all, back through the gates of the Jurassic era, back to a time when dinosaurs roamed the earth. In this title in the acclaimed Future Chronicles series of speculative fiction anthologies created by award-winning author Samuel Peralta, thirteen authors assemble an array of astonishing tales around creatures extinct for eons, around prehistoric creatures suddenly, and awesomely, made real. The Jurassic Chronicles features stories by Victor Milán, author of Dinosaur Lords – “a cross between Jurassic Park and Game of Thrones,” according to George R. R. Martin; John W. Campbell Award winning author Seanan McGuire; New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Laxmi Hariharan; plus ten more of today’s top authors in speculative and science fiction. My story is a return to the characters from my science fiction novel, Glitch Mitchell and … Read More
UnCommon Minds Q&A: Elizabeth S. Wolf
My new story, Sitala, has just been published in the UnCommon Minds anthology. To celebrate, I’ve been interviewing some of the authors about their stories. For the last interview, I’m talking to Elizabeth S. Wolf about Lost and Found. What was the inspiration for the uncommon mind in your story? Sounds trite but the opening image really did come to me in a dream. Then when I started to write it down, the voice of the young woman emerged. I often just keep the pen moving. You never know what might come out… What uncommon mind would you like to meet and why? I’d like to meet Rachel Carson. I recently learned that someone I knew long long ago actually supplied some of the research and references for Silent Spring. I also read Rachel’s book Sense of Wonder when I had a young child. It reminded me to slow down and really explore the world of our own backyard. Are there any authors that influenced your story or your writing in general? Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones. It’s the best book on writing I’ve come across. Shutting down the internal editor and just letting the words flow works for me. Shaping … Read More
UnCommon Minds Q&A: Michael Fountain
My new story, Sitala, has just been published in the UnCommon Minds anthology. To celebrate, I’m interviewing some of the authors about their stories. Today, I’m talking to Michael Fountain about Buddy Bolden’s Last Stand. What attracted you to the UnCommon Minds project? The editors’ call for “magical realism”, where I think I belong, though that might be a brown paper bag for people too embarrassed to ask for fantasy. What was the inspiration for the uncommon mind in your story? Ten years as a psychiatric aide and a love of eccentric history, in this case old New Orleans, when Louis Armstrong was a boy soprano and Stalebread Lacombe was in the streets. Which actor would you like to see playing your main character and why? Keith David, because his voice can slide from humor to menace and back again. A great character actor. What do you think the title of the next UnCommon anthology should be? Uncommon Abilities? Uncommon Animals? Come On, Mon: Uncommon Calypso. What are you working on now? Don’t be shy… I have several unpublished novels in constant revision on the inside of my heart: The Fox’s Daughter, a 90,000-word historical fantasy: an Irish witch and her brothers … Read More
UnCommon Minds Q&A: CB Droege
My new story, Sitala, has just been published in the UnCommon Minds anthology. To celebrate, I’m interviewing some of the authors about their stories. Today, I’m talking to CB Droege about Mixers. What was the inspiration for the uncommon mind in your story? Whenever anything bad happens to humans, there are always some who are immune. We’re very resilient animals. If our entire society is disassembled from within our minds, there will be the few who make it out undamaged, whether from planning or by chance, and these will all be thrown together to rebuild, whatever differences they might have had before the disaster. So, I was thinking about the inevitability of continued pressure against artists’ abilities to remix and recreate the art of the past, and where that might lead, and how it might go wrong, and who might be left after. What’s the setting for your story? Our own world. It’s already true that most of the policing of copyright infringement, especially on social media, is performed by algorithms, which are not answerable to humans, as anyone who’s tried to dispute a YouTube copyright violation notice already knows. Even major media creators sometimes have trouble posting their own, legal content … Read More