It’s been an action packed couple of months here at chez Harris and the thrills keep coming with the release of Tales from the Canyons of the Damned in Space 3 featuring my story, Pod Fifteen. As you can probably guess from the cover, Pod Fifteen is a creepy science fiction tale. It features ship’s pilot Ellis, an AI and a cargo hold full of corpses. I don’t want to spoil anything about the story, but suffice to say, things don’t quite go according to plan. This Fourteenth issue of Tales from the Canyons of the Damned consists of Four sharp, suspenseful, thought provoking short stories—each from a different featured master of speculative fiction. Philip Harris invites us on a journey with Pod Fifteen. Ernie Howard takes us to court with Cosmic Jury Duty. In his tale Historic, Paul K. Swardstrom shows us that the past is always near. And Daniel Arthur Smith shares the third episode of The Off World Kick Murder Squad Dark Sci Fi Slipstream Tales like you’ve never read before. I’m a big fan of Paul, Ernie and Daniel’s writing so it’s a real pleasure to have a story appear alongside them in the latest in this fantastic series of publications. … Read More
Get Glitch Mitchell and the Unseen Planet for 99c
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’ve put the Glitch’s full length adventure – Glitch Mitchell and the Unseen Planet – on sale for 99c as well. That’s 75% off its normal price. A gateway to another world. A lucky contest winner. An adventure across the cosmos! Dwayne “Glitch” Mitchell has always been obsessed with space. When he learns that NASA has discovered an alien gateway, he’s the first to enter a contest to see the incredible phenomenon. Glitch wins and he travels deep within the Colorado Rockies to get a peek. He’s in awe, but he’s also in danger. As project head Dr. Zheng discusses the gateway, an armed man calling himself John Smith takes Zheng hostage and causes an explosion. When the rubble clears, Glitch is alive but trapped with Air Force Captain Scarlett Anderson on the other side of the gateway! Far from home on an alien world, Glitch and Anderson must find Zheng before the planet’s inhabitants can eat, crush, drown, or execute them. Even if they can escape in one … Read More
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
Coming Soon – Glitch Mitchell and the Island of Terror
I could have sworn I’d mentioned this here, but in all the excitement of Christmas and the release of Sitala in UnCommon Minds, I must have missed it. 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. These books really are the cream of the anthology crop and every one of them has been a bestseller at some point or another. The list of authors that have appeared in the series is a who’s who of speculative fiction and includes people like Ken Liu, Seanan MGuire, Hugh Howey, Annie Bellet, Susan Kaye Quinn, and Robert J. Sawyer (among many more). All of which is to say that I am incredibly pleased to say that I’m appearing in the latest Chronicles title – The Jurassic Chronicles. My story is a return to the characters from my science fiction novel, Glitch Mitchell and the Unseen Planet. It’s called Glitch Mitchell and the Island of Terror, and I’m pretty sure I don’t need to explain the plot. Suffice to say, the idea of throwing my pulp adventure heroes into a world filled with blood thirsty dinosaurs was irresistible. The Jurassic … Read More
Out Now – UnCommon Minds
The UnCommon Minds anthology was released today and is already getting some excellent reviews. This is the third of the UnCommon series of anthologies and it’s a cracking collection. My contribution, Sitala, is about a young girl called Mika. While out scavenging at the edge of a retreating ocean, she discovers the remains of a crashed spacecraft. At first, it’s just an opportunity to find salvage she can trade for food, but deep within the ship she finds unexpected life and a mind with a tale to tell and memories to share. The ebook is available on Amazon right now. Enter into the hidden world of the mind, where the laws of nature don’t apply and nothing is as it seems. Straight from the minds of 20 UnCommon Authors come tales of tragedy, triumph, and bittersweet gratitude. You’ll find augmented realities and mental persuasion that force you to question everything. Stories of military suspense, psychological horror, dream walkers, and psychic mediums await their turn to crawl into your head. “Inamorata” by J.D. Harpley “Chief Canis and the Helpful Locals” by Patrick S. Baker “The Arms of Mother” by Harlow C. Fallon “Trouble Signs” by Jonathan Shipley “Juliet’s Possessions” by Erica Ruhe “Through Dreams She … Read More