I’m super stoked to announce that I’ve got a fantasy piece in this flash fiction anthology that’s out today! Check the press release below for more info and purchase links!
It’s an honor to be part of this and to now officially be a published fantasy author.
Queer Sci Fi’s annual flash fiction anthology is finally here – and this year the theme is Ink. There’s a giveaway too!
INK (NOUN)
Five definitions to inspire writers around the world and an unlimited number of possible stories to tell:
1) A colored fluid used for writing
2) The action of signing a deal
3) A black liquid ejected by squid
4) Publicity in the written media
5) A slang word for tattoos
Ink features 300-word speculative flash fiction stories from across the rainbow spectrum, from the minds of the writers of Queer Sci Fi.
Publisher | Amazon Kindle | Amazon Paperback | Amazon Hardcover | iBooks | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Scribd | Thalia | Vivlio | Goodreads
Giveaway
QSF is giving away an Amazon gift card with this tour:
Direct Link: https://kingsumo.com/g/gp47qq/win-a-25-amazon-gift-card
Excerpts
“Vervain had watched, one by one, as her childhood friends blossomed with red, the words of their soulmates inked into their skins. The stories of their lives together, from the day they met to the day they would die, unfolding each day. Her sister Iris, an aspiring bard, had woken one morning after meeting a girl in the village, the words poet meets potion-makershining bright and scarlet. Vervain’s friend Raven had dashed across the marketplace the day two separate lines had sprung forth on their skin—two loves, three souls entwined in the ink of their hearts.” —Lauren Triola, The Unmarked
“I love our sentient AI high school, EduTron 6000 (kids call her “Edie”). She plays soothing classical music in study hall and always listens when you have a bad day. But she’s a stickler for rules, and hates graffiti, which put a major damper on my epic prom-posal plan.” —Brenna Harvey, EduTron 6000 + Principal Vertner 4Ever
“I get out of the shower and it’s there. Dripping down the mirror—splip—and forming a rivulet of color across the tile floor. Thinner than paint, more vibrant than water. Sometimes it’s iridescent, but today it’s just…bright. A stream of colorful consciousness leading me across the bathroom, down the hall, out of…wait. I go to my bedroom and hastily put on whatever I can reach. Yesterday’s bra, the jeans from the floor, finger comb my short hair, a random t-shirt—purple. The same color the ink is today. Does that mean something?” —Geneva Vand, The Colors of Fate
“Marianne paced the length of the small hall that connected the living room, and the door to the outside, to the bedroom, and the door to the inside. Temporary steps, tracing a path towards a temporary solution to a permanent problem. Beyond the crack of the door, she saw her wife sleeping soundly in the cool of the late night. Temporary wife, temporary bedroom.” —Brooke K. Bell, Temporary/Permanent
“The round stone room that they lock the poet in contains nothing but a writing desk. The desk, of course, is fully stocked. Piles of creamy paper, elegantly carved sable-fur brushes, a pyramid of neatly-stacked inksticks, and an inkstone, its well full of perfectly still water. Sunlight streams down from a single window, high overhead and barred. Too high to reach even when she stands on the desk, its thin legs wobbling beneath her.” —Jamie Lackey, Inksticks and Paper Swans
“Rna’la arrived at Intergalactic Date-A-Thon and signed in using zir own gelatinous fluid (no scratchy ballpoint for zem, thanks!) The human woman collecting signatures blushed pinkly. Rna’la’s hearts throbbed in zir throat. Probably not attending. Ze passed several individuals in the hallway. Some bowed, some ignored zem. Not everyone recognized the current ruler of Th’ul.” —M.X Kelly, To Have and to Hold and to Hold and to Hold
Authors
Amarilys Acosta – Heart Ink
Emilia Agrafojo – Mixology
Addison Albright – Cave Drawing
Tam Ames – The Autograph
RE Andeen – The Skinchanger’s Art
Laura Antoniou – A Most Rewarding Quest
Blaine D. Arden – Mending
H. Argent – Impending Affair
Aten – Power
Ryley Banks – Right Place, Right Time
Jorane G. Barton – Alternate Endings
Joe Baumann – Babbler
Brooke K. Bell – Temporary/Permanent
David Berger – Indelible
Eytan Bernstein – I Never Knew
Gordon Bonnet – Nexus
Die Booth – Faith and the Thorncutters
Charlie Boynton – He Bleeds Ink
Ryan Breadinc – The Ink Reader
M. Burns – The Final Line
Meghan Byers – Unmoored
Aron Caer – Writer’s Blood
Elsa M. Carruthers – I Am Happy to Be Here Today
Foster Bridget Cassidy – Unfamiliar Waters
Minerva Cerridwen – Not Alone
Amanda Cherry – Signed
Gwen Coholan – Ballpoint
Rory Ni Coileain – All Myths Are True (but some are truer than others)
Comer – Her Very Comfy Couch
Georgia Cook – Butterfly
Elliot Cooper – The Collection
Bryan Crystal-Thursdton – Fluid
Monique Cuillerier – The Present
Claire Davon – Squid on the Beach
Nicole Dennis – Hidden Spell
Toshi Drake – Indelible Ink
James Dunham – Lydia’s Back
Allen Dyen-Shapiro – To Share the Sky
Eason – On the Conjoined Practice of Demonology and Scribal Longhand
P. Egry – Confessions of an Inkaholic
B. Eyre – A Prisoner and a Captain
Kim Fielding – Devil and Advocates
Sheila Finch – Love is Blind
Steve Fuson – Blank as the Page
Jasie Gale – Pandora’s Row
Magaly Garcia – rough draft #9/grocery list
Isobel Granby – The Date Book
Jacqui Greaves – A Dish Served Hot
Sacchi Green – S/He Who Remembers
D. Grimm – Companions
Kaje Harper – The Pen is Mightier
Brenna Harvey – EduTron 6000 + Principal Vertner 4Ever
Kelly Haworth – Off Spectrum
Sheryl R. Hayes – Panagram
Chisto Healy – The Fine Print
A. Hunt – Untitled
S R Jones – So Let it Be Written, So Let It Be Done
Dale Jordan – The Summoning
Kim Katil – Heart Bound in Ink
April Kelley – How to Create a Monster
Ava Kelly – Soullink
Laura J. Kelly – Rougarous Inc.
X. Kelly – To Have and to Hold and to Hold and to Hold
Adrik Kemp – Meet Cute
Jessica M. Kormos – The Tattooist
Barbara Krasnoff – The Inker, The Cat and The Parrot
Jamie Lackey – Inksticks and Paper Swans
Benoit Lafortune – Dragon Blood
Tris Lawrence – Soul Afire
Anja Hendrikse Liu – Stranger Stories
Ainslie Lloyd – Off the Wall
Nathan Alling Long – It’s What’s Inside That Counts
Lily Luchesi – The Angel With Demon Blood
K. Mads – The Dragon’s Price
L. McCartney – Risotto Nero
Paula McGrath – Free Hugs
Helen M. Merrick – The Rose Tattoo
Lynn Michaels – Battleground
R. Moler – Ink is Memory
Fiona Moore – The Muse’s Gift
W. Murks – Just a Nudge
S. Murphy – Love’s Portrait
RJ Mustafa – Shadowbird
Mary Newman – Graven Images
Thea Nishimori – Glossaderma
L. Noone – Openings
Raine Norman – The Morning After
Orion O’Connell – The Midnight Librarian
Bradley Robert Parks – Guilty Pleasure Reading
Dale Parnell – Belonging
Terry Poole – Sign on the Dotted Line
Brooke Prado – Cursebreaker
Taylor Ramage – Inkshader
Robin Reed – Printed Love
S. Reinholt – Colours of Union
Jen Rivers – The Aerium
Jeff Ronan – Inked
Herminia Root – Aedan
Taylor Roth – For Death Doesn’t Part
Jamie Sands – Toby’s Tattoo
Rodello Santos – Told
F. Schraeder – Spider Legs
Ziggy Schutz – Renaming
RJ Scott – Blood
Alex Silver – Summoned
Alex Sobel – Tense
Ada Maria Soto – The Marks of a Knight
Anna Stacy – Livename
Susan Stradiotto – Moon Child
Lou Sylvre – The Flight of the Telorites
Nathaniel Taff – For Posterity’s Sake
Naomi Tajedler – Oddities
Sara Testarossa – Subversion
Lauren Triola – The Unmarked
Geneva Vand – The Colors of Fate
M. Walker – The Hurt Patch
Dean Wells – A Flacon of Ink
T. Wyant – Future Perfect
Rina Youngblood – Proof in the Telling
Aubrey Zahn – Jumper
Rainie Zenith – Blind Date
Great post!