Publisher: Mischief Corner Books
Author: Various
Cover & Illustrations Artist: Mila May
Length: 33.6 K
Format: ebook, print
Release Date: General release 9/21/16
Pairing: LGBTIQA
Price: $4.99 eBook, $12.99 print b/w*, $24.99 print color*
*Book contains 5 illustrations inside.
Blurb:
A 300-word story should be easy, right? Many of our entrants say it’s the hardest thing they’ve ever written.
Queer Sci Fi’s Annual Flash Fiction Contest challenges authors to write a complete LGBTQ speculative fiction micro-story on a specific theme. “Flight” leaves much for the authors to interpret—winged creatures, flight and space vehicles, or fleeing from dire circumstances.
Some astonishing stories were submitted—from horrific, bloodcurdling pieces to sweet, contemplative ones—and all LGBTQ speculative fiction. The stories in this anthology include AI’s and angels, winged lions and wayward aliens. Smart, snappy slice of life pieces written for entertainment or for social commentary. Join us for brief and often surprising trips into 110 speculative fiction authors’ minds.
Rory Ni Coileain – Life/Flight
Funny. Of all the places she and Torvald could have chosen to build their dream home, they ended up with such a good view of Fenixport from the porch. Lucy rocked in her grandmother’s wicker chair in the lilac twilight, her eyes on the horizon, her heart seeing the plascrete bunker and the tower beyond it.
Not how she’d planned to say goodbye. Or to meet the end of everything. But the end of everything wasn’t something you planned for.
The keel of the first of the generation ships had just been flown when telescopes first picked up what had come to be called the Harbinger. Doomsday weapon of an extinct race, enormous mass accelerated to hyperlight speed. It had missed its unknown target, and Farhame was now in its crosshairs, awaiting annihilation.
She imagined Torvald in his berth on the ship. The berth he hadn’t wanted, not without her. The berth she’d made him accept. Waiting, as she was, for the launch. A brilliant nanobiologist of demonstrated fertility, where so many were sterile. He’d earned his chance to live.
Lucy was a writer. A good one. Too bad. And sex had never been part of her makeup, or part of her relationship with Torvald. They were so in love with one another, it had made perfect sense for him to go to the courtesans for that one thing it wasn’t in her to give. The one thing that had mattered so little, compared to everything else.
But they had given him children.
Brilliance flared on the horizon, became a plume of light, a blazing feather ascending. She imagined the heat, the roar. Life, taking wing.
She wished she had been strong enough to let him see her tears at the last.
Low in the eastern sky, the Harbinger burned.
LINKS:
In the first year of the Queer Sci Fi Flash Fiction contest, we received about 15 entries for the theme “Endings”. In the second year, it was 115 for “Discovery”.
This year, we had more than 170 entries from people around the world, and from all parts of the LGBTIQA rainbow. “Flight” represents 110 of those people and their stories.
The authors:
Colton Aalto Kiterie Aine Odin Alexander John Allenson Tam Ames R.R. Angell Bran Lindy Ayres
Jeff Baker Jessica Bansbach J.P. Barnaby Capri S. Bard Jonah Bergen Michael J. Bode L.M. Brown Marie Brown Michelle Browne ‘Nathan Burgoine Iona Burnfield A.M. Burns
Katelyn Cameron Hank T. Cannon Foster Bridget Cassidy Skylar M. Cates H.J. Chacon M.A. Church Rebecca Cohen S.A. Collins J. Comer Ross Common Elliot Cooper Gretchen Crane
Jase Daniels Claire Davis and Al Stewart Avery Dawes Zev de Valera Bey Deckard Jana Denardo Nicole Dennis Kellie Doherty Jude Dunn Tray Ellis Rhi Etzweiler Thursday Euclid
K.C. Faelan Christina Mary Francis L.E. Franks J.R. Frontera Liz Fury Elizabella Gold Ofelia Gränd S.E. Greer M.D. Grimm Jenna Hale Kaje Harper Qaida Harte Saxon Hawke Kelly Haworth Cheryl Headford Valentina Heart
Jaylee James Jambrea Jo Jones Michael M. Jones Ryvr Jones Ellery Jude Jon Keys K-lee Klein Jennifer Lavoie A.M. Leibowitz Mario K. Lipinski L.V. Lloyd Clare London Meraki P. Lyhne
Lloyd A. Meeker Eloreen Moon John Moralee Christopher Hawthorne Moss E.W. Murks Rory Ni Coiliean Jackie Nacht Thea Nishimori Bealevon Nolan Alicia Nordwell Mathew Ortiz Nina Packebush Donald Qualls
Kirby Quinlan Mann Ramblings Loren Rhoads Jojo Saunders Brent D. Seth L.M. Somerton Rin Sparrow Andrea Speed Paul Stevens Ginger Streusel Jerome Stueart Julia Talbot Jo Tannah Natsuya Uesugi
T. Allen Walton A.T. Weaver Missy Welsh Eric Alan Westfall Brandon Witt Alexis Woods Christine Wright P.T. Wyant Victoria Zagar
