Journal
Short Story: Big Mother
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 …
Short Story: In Real Life I Wouldn’t Hurt a Fly
In Real Life I Wouldn’t Hurt a Fly is a short story for Perihelion SF that was inspired by my lifelong love of video games. The agency got a few toys over the last couple of years: we tried out an Oculus Rift (didn’t work with our Macs), Google Cardboard (really cool! if low res) …
Short Story: Pride Children
Pride Children is my first short story with the fledgling speculative fiction magazine Empyreome. It was inspired by Ann Leckie’s incredible sci fi Ancillary series, which takes place mainly within a society where there are no gender constructs: it helped redefine how I read and thought about gender in books. I highly recommend her books–they’re some …
Flash Fiction: The Dragon and the Lemon Tree
The Dragon and the Lemon Tree is my second flash fiction published with Daily Science Fiction. The original version was a tweet-length short story sent to Dave McKean as part of his mini tweet story competition, and although it didn’t win, it got an honourable mention. I’d always meant to turn it into something a little …
Short Story: The Dreaming Wounds
The Dreaming Wounds is inspired by a story that my mom liked to tell us about our late grandmother. She used to say that Poh Poh (as we called her in dialect) had the “Third Eye”, an inborn ability that lets you see ghosts. Poh Poh was completely blasé about this gift (curse?), though admittedly, …
Short Story: The Magpie Bridge
The Magpie Bridge is my first cover story–for Issue #66 of Andromeda Spaceways Magazine. ASM is an Aussie-based magazine for speculative fiction. Love the gorgeous cover artwork! The short story was inspired by one of the oldest Chinese fairytales in the world,牛郎织女, one that would be familiar to many Asian kids. Some places still celebrate Qixi/Qiqiao …
A Long Overdue Firebird Post
I should have made a firebird post earlier, but it’s been a crazy last month, with unfortunate coincidences. My debut novel The Firebird’s Tale, is now available for purchase. Check it out, get a copy if you haven’t! If you’re a new reader, hello and welcome. If you found me from my previous short stories, or …
2016 has been a bit of a wtf year
This had been gearing up to be a bit of a wtf year from the beginning, but I admit the last few weeks still took me by surprise. Getting my first book deal early this year was unexpected, and nice, but the rest of the year has often been strange and downright depressing. David Bowie? …
Short Story: The Mourning Hour
My science fiction short story The Mourning Hour has been published in Giganotosaurus! It was inspired by the near-future sci fi stories like the Martian, and targeted advertising. I only realized this year how intricately people can get tracked online by Facebook, Google etc, when we were doing an ad buy for a client. You can literally …
Flash Fiction: Old Mother
My flash fiction, Old Mother, has been published by Daily Science Fiction. It’s a (very) short story about history, tea, hunting qilin, and good manners. Hope you like it~~ The story was inspired by one of my favourite authors, the late, great Sir Terry Pratchett. While I loved The Last Hero, I found myself wishing …