SF Crowsnest Reviews "The Masked Messenger"

Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, issue 52 edited by David Kernot got a great review on SF Crowsnest. Here is what reviewer Rod MacDonald said about John Goodrich and my collaboration, "The Masked Messenger", which is another tale in my Harrison Peel series:
   

"David Conyers and John Goodrich are the joint authors of ‘The Masked Messenger’ which features Harrison Peel in another Cthulhu Mythos story. The agent is in Morocco to investigate strange deaths where people end up being cut into thousands of pieces. Is this a conventional terrorist act or is it an act of a cult belonging to the Masked Messenger? There is a strange book, centuries old, which contains deadly secrets and there is also a portal in the Sahara Desert which leads on to another world completely different from our own. An excellent tale full of suspense and action, it's worth purchasing the magazine for this alone."

Andromeda Spaceways 52 is Released

Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine (ASIM) issue 52 is released.

David Kernot edited Issue 52 and amassed a collection of 19 modern Australian and overseas speculative fiction selections from the following authors: Sean Monaghan, Dominik J Parisien, Nicky Drayden, Kathleen Jennings, Brenda Anderson, Felicity Pulman, Liz Colter, Ray Tabler, Melanie Typaldos, Linda Jenner, Rachel Kolar, GR McLeod, LK Pinaire, Margaret Karmazin, Pam L Wallace, David Conyers and John Goodrich, Peter Cooper, Natalie Nikolovski, and Ken Liu.

Poetry is from Alexander Seidel and Jack Horne and artwork is from David Conyers, Kathleen Jennings and Olivia Kernot. I think the cover is fantastic.

My contribution in a new Harrison Peel tale, "The Masked Messenger", co-authored with John Goodrich.

More details and how to purchase issues are found here.

"The Masked Messenger" in Andromeda Spaceways 52

The Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, ASIM, Issue 52 is about to go to print.  It is edited by David Kernot and features a new Harrison Peel tale, "The Masked Messenger" co-authored with John Goodrich.

This tale takes Harrison Peel to Morocco investigating temporary improvised explosive devices, and an encounter with another well-known deity of the Cthulhu Mythos. As a bonus, I have an illustration included, but they will pale in comparison to the works of Olivia Kernot (who also did the very striking cover illustration) and Kathleen Jennings.

David Kernot is a very talented author and I had the priviedge of working with him on Midnight Echo 6: The Science Fiction Horror Special, so I'm looking forward to what he has come up with this issue.

The line up for Issue 52 is as follows:

Stories:

• A Routine Diplomatic Incident by Ray Tabler
• Eternal Youth by Melanie Typaldos
• First, Do No Harm (Unless They’re Zombies) by Rachel Kolar
• Golden Years in the Paleozoic by Ken Liu
• I am Nano by Sean Monaghan
• Love As You Find It by Margaret Karmazin 
• Midnight Rhino by Brenda Anderson
• Ronnie Linton, High School Flame by Dominik J. Parisien
• Taking Care by Pam L. Wallace
• Taking Over by Felicity Pulman
• The Last Resort by L.K. Pinaire 
• The Masked Messenger by David Conyers and John Goodrich
• The Speed of Darkness by G.R. McLeod
• The Undying Fans of an Unknown Cover Band by Nicky Drayden
• The Unseen Truths by Liz Colter
• Undine Love by Kathleen Jennings
• Vivienne by Natalie Nikolovski
• Wonder In Alice Land by Linda Jenner 
• Zombie Dreams by Peter Cooper

Poetry:

• Babylon by Alexandra Seidel
• Broken Towers by Alexandra Seidel
• City of Clay by Alexandra Seidel
• The Loneliness of the Long Distance Singer by Jack Horne

Non Fiction:

• (H)ER(G)E, Now and Forever by Jacob Edwards

Illustrations by:

• Olivia Kernot
• Kathleen Jennings
• David Conyers

"The Masked Messenger" A New Harrison Peel tale

I caught up with fellow speculative fiction writer and editor David Kernot on a recent trip to Adelaide for the Christmas holidays. We talked many things including issue 6 of Midnight Echo, the science fiction special we are editing for the Australian Horror Writers Association, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine where David is a co-op member and editor, and writing in general. David and I have been friends for some time and he is a very talented author, whom I'm certain we'll see more of his work out there in the future. David and I are working on two collaborations.

David's wife, Olivia Kernot, is a very talented photographer and offered to take some author photographs of myself, which I was very excited to see, especially compared to my ameuter self-portraits I've been using of late. More news (and images) when they are complete.

The great news David Kernot had for me was that my collaboration with John Goodrich, "The Masked Messenger" has been accepted for issue 52 of the Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine due out in Aug 2011. A very nice way to end the year, with a sale. "The Masked Messenger" is a new Harrison Peel tale set in Morocco and Algeria, part of an ongoing series. That's four Harrison Peel tales potential out next year.

Other exciting Harrison Peel news, publisher and editor of Perilous Press informs me that my Harrison Peel novella, The Eye Of Infinity, has been upgraded from a chapbook and will be out in trade paperback next month.

New Review of Two Magazines

Albedo One has just posted a review I did of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #46 and On Spec #77, which can be read here.

"Overall, I believe both On Spec and Andromeda Spaceways do a great service to speculative fiction communities, because each has produced some exceptional tales over their long lives, fostering some respectable authors, and providing many a reader with many hours of entertaining reading. If you want to get a handle on what some of the other English language speaking countries other than the United Kingdom and the United States are producing, these are the best from each nation."

Another Review of Andromeda Spaceways #43

David Kernot's edited issue of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine Isssue 43 gets another review, this time on ASIF, "An eminently readable collection, well-balanced with long and short stories, fantasy and science fiction and horror, so something for everyone."

This is what was said about my story, "Emergency Rebuild":

"The victim of an accident on Mars suffers massive injuries and is progressively ‘fixed’ as parts of him fail. An old school style science fiction story that shows compassion and humanity don’t require a biological body."

I wonder what 'old school' means. I guess I have been reading science fiction since I was ten, and started with some of the originals, like Asimov, Heinlein, Niven, Herbert, Aldiss and Dick, so their influence would be in there somewhere.

"Emergency Rebuild" reviewed on SF Crowsnest.com

SF Crowsnest likes me, or at least Rod MacDonald does who reviews for the site, with his very generous review here of "Emergency Rebuild". This short science fiction story appeared in David Kernot's edited issue of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Issue 43. This is what Rod said:

"'Emergency Rebuild' is an exploration into what it is to be human. An excellent story, very well told and I hope I will be reading more of his work in the future."

Rod jokes that I haven't given him a brown paper envelope stuffed with money, but (jokingly) perhaps I should. He's also given me great reviews for "Black Water" and "The Octagon" which appeared in Jupiter Magazine. Thanks Rod!

For further information on Andromeda Spaceways #43, David Kernot posted this interesting article on his website on how it came to publication.

Andromeda Spaceways 43

My first new story for the year "Emergency Rebuild" is out now, in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine Issue 43. This issue is edited by my good friend David Kernot, whom I'll be editing an issue (along with Jason Fischer) of Midnight Echo later this year.

"Emergency Rebuild" is a science fiction story set on Mars. It was a challenge to write this story, because it was a lot shorter than most tales I've attempted, 3,000 words compared to my usual 8,000 to 12,000 words. On the plus side it makes it easier it sell, which is was.

The stories appearing in this issue of Andromeda Spaceways are:

• "Thief of Tears" by Jason Crowe
• "Instructions for Lighting Candles" by Martin A Reed
• "From Little Things" by Felicity Dowker
• "Star" by Aimee Smith
• "Emergency Rebuild" by David Conyers
• "Relative to Elsa" by Martin A Reed
• "By the Banks of the Nabarra" by Daniel Russell
• "The Prize" by Carine Heidmann
• "The Painted City" by David Tallerman
• "Fairy Gothic", by Tracie McBride
• "Scars that Let the Light Shine Through" by Victorya

Poetry includes "My Naked Hand" by Helen Patrice and "Higg’s Boson" by Don Webb. The cover is by Greg Hughes, whom I think has done the best cover I've ever seen for this magazine.

New Short Story Sale

I've just sold a short story to Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine Issue 47, out in time for WorldCon 2010 (or AussieCon4) which will be held September 2-6, 2010 in Melbourne, Australia. The story is a short science fiction piece called "Emergency Rebuild" set on Mars. This is my second sale to Andromeda Spaceways.

Adding to this news I've been reliably informed that Scenes from the Second Storey from Morrigan Books featuring my tale "Dream Machine" will also be launched at WorldCon 2010, so two stories out at once at this major sci fi convention for Australia. This publication is the brain child of Mark S. Deniz, who always wanted to do an anthology of short stories with each tale based on the track listing of the album of the same name by God Machine, and as often happens with these things Mark decided to do two books. One features Australian authors and the other authors from the rest of the world. I guess it's pretty easy to work out which one I'm in. When I was asked to write the openning tale I couldn't turn the offer down. Finally, I'll appear in a Morrigan Books anthology (not for want of trying).

"Dream Machine" (my version) is set in Hell and in the same series as other dark fiction tales of mine that include "Cactus", "The Lord of the Law" and "Hell's Ambassador". I'm certain I was also influenced by Barry Adamson's album As Above, So Below as much as I was by Scenes from the Second Storey.

On Writing, Editing and Slush

I caught up with David Kernot this weekend and we had an interesting chat about science fiction, from both the author and editor viewpoints. I’ve edited Cthulhu’s Dark Cults and have another book in the works for a US publisher, and David is a member of the Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine Co-op, and he’s editing Issue 47, so we’ve both got some practical experience behind us now on the editing front. At the same time we both write, predominately science fiction with about 50 published stories between us.

David told me that when he reads slush he tends to read the first and last pages before he reads anything else. This allows him to see if the story grabs him from the onset, and whether it concludes itself in an interesting manner. I thought this was a rather novel approach and started thinking about how he might perceive some of my stories read that way.

My viewpoint on slush is that I believe dialogue is important, and that I like to see it early on in a story. I don’t believe there is any better tool to create a character than dialogue and to propell a story along in real time (as opposed to telling a story after the events have occurred as Victorian Era writers were fond of doing). I also like the first line to grab me, something unusual, something that makes me sit-up and go, ‘oh, that’s interesting’ and want to keep reading.

It’s nice to have discussions like this with one’s peers. Writing and editing can be a very isolated experience and sometimes it takes an outsider to point out new approaches that can make a world of difference in the products (stories, books) we each produce.

So David and I have decided to collaborate on a short story, and see what new ideas come from that.

David Kernot to Edit an Issue of Andromeda Spaceways

I just got news that my good writing friend David Kernot is going to be editing his own issue of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine next year. David recently joined the ASIM co-op, where he is a regular reviewer, and it looks like all his hard work has paid off. Congratulations David, looking forward to your issue.

New Team at Andromeda Spaceways

A good friend of mine and fellow science fiction writer, David Kernot, has recently joined the team at Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, as a reviewer and slush pile reader amongst other roles.

David's an up and coming writer best known for his short stories regularly appearing in the e-zine Antipodean SF, and I'm sure we'll see more of his work in the near future. He said he decided to join the Andromeda Spaceways team after being impressed with Issue #37 edited by Tehani Wessely, which amongst other stories included my space opera tale "Terraformer" from my Earth Central series, so that was nice to hear. I'm looking forward to seeing what David does when he gets to edit is own issue of the magazine.


Also joining the team is Felicity Dowker, an new Australian horror writer who in the last six months has made a big impression locally with her output of quality tales.

Both writers are different to what I've seen in the Australian speculative fiction market of late, so hopefully this translates into so really interesting issues of Andromeda Spaceways in the future. Best of luck to them.

Now the big question is, what crew positions will they take up?