Blog Tour ~ Impact Anthology (Excerpt + Guest Post + Giveaway)
Queer Sci Fi is releasing its fourth flash fiction anthology: Impact. The book has just come out!
IM * PACT
(noun)
1) One object colliding with another
2) An impinging of something upon something else
3) An influence or effect on something or someone
4) The force of a new idea, concept, technology or ideology
Four definitions to inspire writers around the world, and an unlimited number of possible stories to tell, but only 110 made the final cut.
A difficult choice to be made. An object hurtling recklessly through space. A new invention that will change the world. So many things can impact a life, a society, or a planet.
Impact features 300 word speculative fiction ficlets from across the queer spectrum from the minds of the writers of Queer Sci Fi.
Welcome to Impact.
About the Series:
It's hard to tell a story in just 300 words. Each year we ask writers to take the challenge, turning in stories across the queer spectrum. The rules are simple. Write a complete sci fi, fantasy, paranormal or horror story, include LGBTIQA characters, and do it all with just 300 carefully chosen words.
Giveaway
Queer Sci Fi is giving away a $25 Amazon gift card with this tour – enter via Rafflecopter for a chance to win:
Excerpt
Since this book is composed of stories of no more than 300 words, we can’t really do a standard excerpt, so we’re offering you the teaser first lines from a number of stories.
“She’d needed new oil. She felt her joints grow stiff, her muscles grow tight, her follicles thickening. If she didn’t get fresh quarts soon, people she passed would start calling her sir, asking, Where’s your gun?” —Crossville Station, by Nathan Alling Long
“The mallet's impact on the hard, bright disk shattered the silence in the talking chamber. The resulting deep tone reverberated through the vault, through Saskia, as she fidgeted beside her lover.” —Settled, by Aidee Ladnier
“This is how the world ends, or so they say. From where I'm standing, it simply looks like a rolling darkness as distant lights flicker and die.” —Visitors, by LJ Phillips
“’What have you done?’ The mechanical eyes came to rest on his face, the droning beepsounding loud in the small room.” —Identity and Change, by Jo Tannah
“’Once upon a world, we were the same,’ he said, lifting my hand to his lips; the ground shaking beneath us.” —Impact, by Jack Ladd
“I been a tinker and soothsayer long enough to know this country's at the cusp of war. They stir up hate easy as breath. And, oh, it pains my soul to see it. “ —Impact of Intervention, by Patricia Scott
“All lives begin with a messy impact of some kind. The crash of zygotes and gametes. Splats of silica gel between cybernetic synapses. Two women slam into each other carrying full cups of coffee.” —Quintessence, by E.M. Hammill
“If I venture far enough into the house, I’ll find my closet.” —The Closet, by K.S. Trenten
“It touched Ligaya when she was a child. Or she touched it. A half-glimpsed shape under her bed.” Mas Mabuti An Answang, by Foster Bridget Cassidy
“Jam zipped down the neon track, feather-light in low gravity. She rocketed forward, a glowing haze in her starred helmet, and shot past the pack. “Space Jammer!” echoed as she neared the line. Time to rack up the points.” —First Bout: Andromedolls Vs. Crotch Rockets, by Ginger Streusel
Guest Post:
Why Impact?
J. Scott Coatsworth
Every year, we choose a new theme for the Queer Sci Fi Flash Fiction Contest. We rotate it around – the first year I chose it, the next it was my husband Mark, the third was Angel’s, and the fourth came from Ben. This year it was my turn again.
The past year and a half has been a difficult one for many of us. The country seems hell-bent in going in a different direction than during the Obama years, and I genuinely fear for the future of our country.
It’s with that background in mind that I chose “Impact” for this year’s theme.
I have been struggling for a way to feel like I had control of my life, of the world around me, of the direction of the world.
And so I started thinking about words that embodied that desire to effect change.
In the end, I came up with impact. It’s a word that immediately conjures up images of asteroids and catastrophic violence, but it also encompasses forces of change and good in the world—ways that we can change the minds of others, and shift the currents of the world.
In the end, we got stories that covered a huge array of interpretations of the theme, and vindicated my choice for this year.
It’s a privilege and an honor to choose the theme, and I’m already rolling around ideas for the next time it’s my turn.
I hope you enjoy Impact.
About Queer Sci Fi:
At Queer Sci Fi, we're building a community of sci fi, fantasy, paranormal and horror writers and readers who want a little rainbow in their speculative fiction. We run a great discussion group on Facebook, a twitter feed, and have a website full of useful materials, news, and announcements for readers and writers of queer speculative fiction.
Website: https://www.queerscifi.com
Facebook Discussion Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/qsfdiscussions/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/queerscifi/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/QueerSciFi
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