Big Mother is my first short story sold to Strange Horizons, making it my first pro short fiction sale, and my first story published in 2018. Happy new year! And wow, it’s been a long time since I last posted on this site. I’ve been trying to keep busy, not just at work. I’ve written a couple of books in the tail end of the year, one in time for DVPit and one that I’m still cleaning up, a third attempt at Tor, this time not as a novella but as a resubmitted novel.
As to Big Mother itself, it’s inspired by a favourite pasttime of mine, growing up with my brother and my neighbours just a short cycling distance away from one of those grassy, overgrown drainage canals in the Seletar area, which forms part of the rain catchment zone. When I was a kid, a lot of this district was forested, a gnarly, dense forest thick with insects and birds and snakes and such. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen migratory birds now. And on my latest trip back to Singapore for the holidays, even the small, old drains in the residential area where my parents’ place is are being concreted over. A little sad, but that’s Singapore for you–forward, always forward.
As kids, we never did actually catch any snakehead though. Hope you guys enjoy the story here (x).
Big Mother Stats
Submitted: 6 June 2017
Accepted: 12 July 2017
First Edit: 10 September 2017
Second Edit: 15 September 2017
Final Edit: 30 December 2017
Published: 1 January 2018
Image Source: Youtube. Not the actual picture of the canal in question. That’s long gone now.