Rise

Queer Sci Fi's Tenth Annual Flash Fiction Contest

RISE (noun / verb)

Eight definitions to inspire writers around the world, and an unlimited number of possible stories to tell:

1) An upward slope or movement
2) A beginning or origin
3) An increase in amount or number
4) An angry reaction
5) To take up arms
6) To return from death
7) To become heartened or elated
8) To exert oneself to meet a challenge

Rise features 300-word speculative flash fiction stories from across the rainbow spectrum, from the minds of the writers of Queer Sci Fi.

Published:
Publisher: Other Worlds Ink (https://www.otherworldsink.com)
Editors:
Ryane Chatman
Genres:
Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Romance, Sci Fi
Tags:
anthology, bisexual, fantasy, flash fiction, gay, lesbian, LGBT, QSF Flash Fiction Series, transgender
Excerpt:

Tales From Tharassas

Tharassas Cycle Book 0

These three tales tell the story of Tharassas before the Tharassas Cycle, including the origin of the hencha queens, the ce’faine, and the colonization of the Highlands, essential companions for the four novels that make up the cycle:

The Fallen Angel

Charlie Fah, Cha’Fah to most of the world, has never fit in with the other citizens of Gully Town, thanks to his darker skin that sets him apart. But one day, an Angel arrives on a supply run from Earth, and what happens next sets Charlie on a new path that will turn his life upside down.

The Last Run

Sera is the last runner from Earth, bringing badly needed supplies to the Tharassas Colony across a twenty-five year gulf between the planets. Jas works on a hencha farm to make ends meet, harvesting berries from the semi-sentient plants. Neither one that knows their lives—and worlds—are about to change forever.

The Emp Test

Jey awakens to find himself in the care of a handsome stranger—a cheff from one of the mountain tribes. Afraid for his life, Jey has no choice but to let the man take care of him and his broken leg. Avain is on his Aud'ling—the coming-of-age test that requires him to spend a couple months away from his own people. The two of them will have to come to an understanding if they're going to help one another.

The Last Run and The Emp Test have been published before in previous stand-alone editions, but The Fallen Angel is a new story written exclusively for this collection.

Published:
Publisher: Other Worlds Ink (https://www.otherworldsink.com)
Editors:
Ryane Chatman
Cover Artists:
J. Scott Coatsworth
Genres:
Fantasy, Lesfic, Romance, Sci Fi
Tags:
fantasy, J. Scott Coatsworth, lesbian, LGBT
Excerpt:

“Grappa, tell me a story.”

I sit back and stare at little Ellya, looking up at me from my lap—all of six years old, and beautiful, her skin the color of the wet earth down by the river. Lighter than mine, but her hair is kinky too, a throwback to one of our ancestors. Probably an Angel.

Wind whips the heavy cloth of the tent. Outside, a summer storm lashes the mountain valley where we make our home in the warmer months. Their parents are likely happy for the break from all those inquisitive minds.

Inside it’s warm and comfortable, and all the children of the village have gathered here for story time, seated on the woven purple rug that takes up a good part of the tent.

Ioyo, my grandson, sits in the front row, next to his best friend Onley, watching me eagerly.

I kiss Ellya on the forehead, feeling her eagerness through the emp nestled in its pouch on my neck. “What would you like to hear?”

READ MORE

I have many stories from my life of almost seventy years—more than fifty of them spent here in the mountains, taking care of my little flock. In that time, the ce’faine have grown to almost five hundred, living a nomadic life spanning three generations. They are my family in the truest sense, my proudest accomplishment.

She reaches up to touch my cheek, her little fingers warm against my skin. “Tell me about the Long Trek.”

I close my eyes, a mixture of pain and pride filling me. Such a long time ago, but I still dream about it often, that rough passage that brought us out of Egypt and into the holy land.

I laugh at my own erudition. None of the children here have even the slightest idea what Egypt was. What Earth was.

In our great wisdom, or perhaps our obstinate stubbornness, we decided to make a clean break with the old culture of the Heartland, discarding everything we've been taught and beginning fresh.

I rub my wrinkled chin. “Let's see. It was a very long time ago. You weren’t even a wisp in your mother's eye.” I look at her—my granddaughter—so perfect in every way. I don't want the world to change her. I don't want her to face the ugliness that I did, growing up in a repressive culture. I want to shelter her from all of that.

Of course, none of us can protect our children from the beauty and peril that life brings.

I stretch out my hands, cracking my old knuckles—a bad habit, that. I take a sip of the herbal tea Merwyn, Ellya’s mother, made for me, measuring my time. It’s a poor substitute for akka, one of my only regrets about leaving the Heartland.

So many years passed. So few left to me. I must teach them while I can, this new generation.

I clear my throat, and the chatter of little voices silences. “Once upon a time, I lived in a wicked place, a cruel city by the sea called Gully Town. There were five islands, like five long fingers—we called them spines. And beyond, only a few small villages and many farms.” I close my eyes, remembering that dark time. “They called me Charlie back then. Or Cha’Fah…”

COLLAPSE

Androids & Aliens

Collected Stories

Androids & Aliens is Scott's third short story collection - eight sci fi and sci-fantasy shorts that run the gamut from cyborgs to (comedic) alien invasions:

Rise: The rise in sea levels caused by climate change swallowed Venice beneath the lagoon half a century ago. But what if we could bring it back?

Ping: I was a real estate agent by day, and a museum curator in the evening at a sci-fi museum. What I saw one night changed everything.

What the Rain Brings: Miriam struggles to make a living in post-climate-change Vancouver. But her friend Catalina has it even worse in the Arizona desert. So Miri hatches a plan.

High Seven: Zan dreams of making full reals - immersive live virtual reality skins - but his low score may doom him to a life of cheap coding.

Full Real: Dek's given up his life of spying for the city. But one more case awaits him. Will he regret it more if he takes it, or turns it down?

Shit City: The Bay Area is being walloped by a hurricane, and seventeen-year-old Jason Vasquez has been relocated to a refugee city in the Nevada Desert. Will it be temporary shelter, or change his life?

Firedrake: Kerry has always wondered about his deadly powers. But a mysterious bunch of violet roses starts him on the path to discovery - even if he's not sure he's going to like what he finds.

The Last Human Heart: I'm one of the Remainers, the few cyborg humans still living on this busted planet. But if my still-human heart finally gives out, I may not live to find out the truth about who I am.

This is the first time all of these stories have all been collected in one place, and the first publication of the Pacific Climate Tryptich - What the Rain Brings, High Seven, and Full Real - in any form.

Published:
Publisher: Other Worlds Ink (https://www.otherworldsink.com)
Cover Artists:
J. Scott Coatsworth, Kelley York
Genres:
Sci Fi
Tags:
climate change, gay, J. Scott Coatsworth, lesbian, LGBT, Seattle
Excerpt:

Clarity

Queer Sci Fi's Ninth Flash Fiction Contest

Clarity (noun)

Four definitions to inspire writers around the world and an unlimited number of possible stories to tell:

1) Coherent and intelligible
2) Transparent or pure
3) Attaining certainty about something
4) Easy to see or hear

Clarity features 300-word speculative flash fiction stories from across the rainbow spectrum, from the minds of the writers of Queer Sci Fi.

Published:
Publisher: Other Worlds Ink (https://www.otherworldsink.com)
Editors:
Ryane Chatman
Cover Artists:
J. Scott Coatsworth
Genres:
Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Sci Fi
Tags:
anthology, bisexual, fantasy, flash fiction, gay, gender fluid, lesbian, LGBT, transgender
Excerpt:

Liminal Sky: Ariadne Cycle Complete Box Set

Liminal Sky: Ariadne Cycle Complete Box Set
Part of the Ariadne Cycle series:

Liminal Sky chronicles humankind's first journey to the stars. The first three books - the Ariadne Cycle - cover the creation and launch of Ariadne (aka Forever) as she was grown from seed on an asteroid and then launched across the interstellar void. The books are told in epic fashion, with each broken into three parts that span generations.

THE STARK DIVIDE

Some stories are epic.

The Earth is in a state of collapse, with wars breaking out over resources and an environment pushed to the edge by human greed.

Three living generation ships have been built with a combination of genetic mastery, artificial intelligence, technology, and raw materials harvested from the asteroid belt. This is the story of one of them—43 Ariadne, or Forever, as her inhabitants call her—a living world that carries the remaining hopes of humanity, and the three generations of scientists, engineers, and explorers working to colonize her.

From her humble beginnings as a seedling saved from disaster to the start of her journey across the void of space toward a new home for the human race, The Stark Divide tells the tales of the world, the people who made her, and the few who will become something altogether beyond human.

Humankind has just taken its first step toward the stars.

THE RISING TIDE

The Earth is dead.

Five years after the Collapse, the remnants of humanity travel through the stars inside Forever: a living, ever-evolving, self-contained generation ship.

When Eddy Tremaine and Andrissa “Andy” Hammond find a hidden world-within-a-world under the mountains, the discovery triggers a chain of events that could fundamentally alter or extinguish life as they know it, culminate in the takeover of the world mind, and end free will for humankind.

Eddy, Andy, and a handful of other unlikely heroes must find the courage and ingenuity to stand against the rising tide. Otherwise they might be living through the end days of human history.

THE SHORELESS SEA

Rise of the Inthworld.

The fight for the future isn’t over yet. It could lead to a new beginning, or it might spell the end for the last vestiges of humankind.

The generation ship Forever has left Earth behind, but a piece of the old civilization lives on in the Inthworld—a virtual realm that retains memories of Earth's technological wonders and vices. Lilith leads the uprising, and if she sets its inhabitants free, they could destroy Forever.

But during the ship's long voyage, humanity has evolved. Liminals with the ability to connect with the world mind and the Inthworld provide a glimmer of hope as they face not only Lilith’s minions, but the mistrust of their own kind as homotypicals fear what they can't understand.

The invasion must be stopped, the Inthworld healed, sothe people of Forever can let go of their past and embrace their future.

Published:
Publisher: Other Worlds Ink (https://www.otherworldsink.com)
Editors:
Gus Li
Cover Artists:
J. Scott Coatsworth, Kelley York
Genres:
Fantasy, Romance, Sci Fi
Tags:
Black Friday, fantasy, gay, J. Scott Coatsworth, lesbian, LGBT
Excerpt:

Skythane

Liminal Sky: Oberon Cycle Book 1

Jameson Havercamp, a psych from a conservative religious colony, has come to Oberon—unique among the Common Worlds—in search of a rare substance called pith. He’s guided through the wilds on his quest by Xander Kinnison, a handsome, cocky wing man with a troubled past.

Neither knows that Oberon is facing imminent destruction. Even as the world starts to fall apart around them, they have no idea what’s coming—or the bond that will develop between them as they race to avert a cataclysm.

Together, they will journey to uncover the secrets of this strange and singular world, even as it takes them beyond the bounds of reality itself to discover what truly  binds them together.

Published:
Publisher: Other Worlds Ink (https://www.otherworldsink.com)
Editors:
Gus Li
Cover Artists:
J. Scott Coatsworth
Genres:
Fantasy, Sci Fi
Tags:
Black Friday, fantasy, gay, J. Scott Coatsworth, lesbian, LGBT
Excerpt:

Ithani

Liminal Sky: Oberon Cycle Book 3

Time is running out.

After saving the world twice, Xander, Jameson and friends plunge headlong into a new crisis. The ithani―the aliens who broke the world―have reawakened from their hundred millennia-long slumber. When Xander and Jameson disappear in a flash, an already fractured world is thrown into chaos.

The ithani plans, laid a hundred thousand years before, are finally coming to pass, and they threaten all life on Erro. Venin and Alix go on a desperate search for their missing and find more than they bargained for. And Quince, Robin and Jessa discover a secret as old as the skythane themselves.

Will alien technology, unexpected help from the distant past, destiny and some good old-fashioned firepower be enough to defeat an enemy with the ability to split a world? The final battle of the epic science fiction adventure that began in Skythane will decide the fate of lander and skythane alike.

And in the north, the ithani rise….

Published:
Publisher: Other Worlds Ink (https://www.otherworldsink.com)
Editors:
Gus Li
Cover Artists:
J. Scott Coatsworth, Kelley York
Genres:
Fantasy, Sci Fi
Tags:
bisexual, fantasy, gay, J. Scott Coatsworth, lesbian, LGBT
Excerpt:

Now it is the time of night
That the graves all gaping wide,
Every one lets forth his sprite,
In the church-way paths to glide:
And we fairies, that do run
By the triple Hecate’s team,
From the presence of the sun,
Following darkness like a dream.
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

READ MORE

Erina’s iridescent wings fluttered in distress.
The time of the Great Migration was almost upon them. Overhead, the sun turned redder day by day. Soon it would unleash a torrent of heat and radiation that would destroy the ithani, the Heart, and Erro itself.
Ze had foreseen the end of the war years before and had passed zer knowledge on to Thshnel’Jirron, trusting zi to protect them all. But zis plan had gone too far, and soon the ithani would destroy themselves in a bid for immortality.
Only zi would survive, immensely more powerful than now. A virtual vengeful god.
Ze had seen that, too, but it had come to zer far too late.
Each generation of the ithani had a seer, and ze had been born from the Heart with that heavy responsibility upon zer small shoulders. Even a seer didn’t know everything about what was to pass. Only the bits and pieces that were passed on to zer from the athrà. Besides Jirron, no one else knew ze had the gift.
Something, or someone, was coming, ze didn’t know what yet, but ze could feel it in zer bones.
Ze was at a loss for what to do next. Ze let out a whoosh of breath, resigned to waiting. It would come to zer, the vision she needed. When the gods thought it was time.
Until then, ze would keep zer wings low to the ground and do nothing further to draw attention.

COLLAPSE
Reviews:Melanie on Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words wrote:

"This book is magical in its reach and edifying in the joy and depth of its conclusion... an absolute tour de force... That’s just the way this whole novel goes…like dancing lights above a lake. It will entrance you, pull you in, leave you to wonder at it all. And then make you want to take the journey all over again."

Joscelyn Smith on Goodreads wrote:

"FINALLY! This was an absolutely brilliant ending to the Oberon series. The cliffhanger ending of Lander left me desperate for more but Ithani more than made up for the wait. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it, my only complaint is that this is the end and I'm going to miss these amazing characters. I have no doubt that I'll be rereading this series more than once."


The Last Run

Sera is the last runner from Earth, bringing badly needed supplies to the Tharassas Colony across a twenty-five year gulf between the planets. Jas works on a hencha farm to make ends meet, harvesting berries from the semi-sentient plants.

Neither one that knows their lives—and worlds—are about to change forever.

Published:
Publisher: Other Worlds Ink (https://www.otherworldsink.com)
Cover Artists:
J. Scott Coatsworth
Genres:
Lesfic, Sci Fi
Tags:
J. Scott Coatsworth, lesbian
Excerpt: