What the heck, May? I had three stories appear in three different publications this past month. Not that I’m complaining or anything… quite the opposite!
The lovely threesome:
- The Machine of the Devil in Flash Fiction Online. (Read for free, subscribe, buy the issue.)
- Metal, Sex, Monsters in Gamut. (Subscribe, or buy the issue.)
- Firstborn in Capricious. (Subscribe, or buy the issue.) There is also an interview with me in Capricious, talking about the inspiration for ‘Firstborn’, writing, super powers, and more!
Plus two podcast stories:
- In April, I contributed a story called ‘Magpies & Moonshine’ to R.B. Wood’s Word Count Podcast: read it / listen.
- In May, I contributed a story called ‘Hungry Beasts’ to R.B. Wood’s Word Count Podcast: listen.
Story sales:
I had two reprint sales in May.
- The YA podcast Cast of Wonders picked up my science fiction / alternate history story ‘Tunguska, 1987’ for a future episode. The story was originally published in the anthology ‘Tales From Alternate Earths’ (available from Amazon).
- The podcast The Overcast picked up my science fiction story ‘Long As I Can See The Light’ for a future episode. This short story originally appeared in the anthology ‘People Are Strange’ (available from Amazon.)
Reviews:
The ever-wonderful Charles Payseur reviewed ‘The Machine of the Devil’ at Quick Sips. He said many great things about the story, but my favourite line (because it really goes to the heart of the story for me) is this: “…yet the story manages to reach for a sort of hope, for all it is a fragile one — it shows that sometimes even survival is a rebellion…”
Author Christopher La Porte also had some very kind words for ‘The Machine of the Devil’ on his blog: “A little haunting, surreal, all with beautifully descriptive language. A short story that creates real feeling and the sense of a greater world in a very small amount of words.”
Author and book-blogger Robert Zimmermann very kindly reviewed my flash fiction collection ‘Dark Flash’ on his website A Life Among The Pages (well worth a look if you’re into books, poetry, short stories, and, well, anything book-related!). He gives it 4/5 stars and says: “She’s able to work a lot of “story” into each story, keep the pace fast without making them feel short, and come up with a variety of ideas that also work together nicely.”
Author Leo McBride reviewed my science fiction short story collection ‘Odin’s Eye’ over at the Altered Instinct blog. (I was in some excellent company for this review: he also reviewed a book by Naomi Kritzer and an issue of Gathering Storm Magazine.) ‘Odin’s Eye’ got 4/5 stars, and I love this bit of the review that mentions the story ‘On Our Way’: “…it’s a softly told, thoughtful tale, and plays on my mind after reading it. That description could sum up quite a lot of Maria’s writing for me – she shifts one’s world view and makes one consider broader horizons.”
Maria Haskins 