Daniel Ausema's Blog, page 5

Spire City: Occupied, slight change of plans...

I've been getting ready to start promoting my serialized novel Spire City: Occupied on both Vella and Curious Fictions, after a soft launch earlier this month.

With yesterday's news about Curious Fictions closing at the end of August, I'm still releasing it there, but faster and cheaper: https://curiousfictions.com/stories/3975-daniel-ausema-spire-city-occupied. I've lowered the price within Curious Fictions, and I'll be releasing five (very short) episodes at a time, every weekday until mid-August, when the entire novel will be available there. For a short time.

I know some of you can't access Vella because of geographical restrictions. And some of you prefer to avoid Amazon at all.

So give the story a look at Curious Fictions. But read it fast... 

Giant riding beetles!

Trench warfare!

Mad science & weird creatures!

 

"The Pelagic Colossus" published in Star*Line 44.3

I've just returned from a two-week family road trip (and feeling rather tired from it), but a couple of cool things happened publishing-wise while I was away. I'll start with this news, that Star*Line 44.3 was published. It includes my poem "The Pelagic Colossus" and many of poems to enjoy. If you're a member of the SFPA, you've already received your copy. If you're not, you can get a copy at that link!
 

Spire City: Occupied--a serial return to Spire City!

 

Wow, I didn't know if I'd ever be writing those words. But there it is, at last a chance to revisit Spire City, once again in a serial format.

But this time somewhat differently...

Spire City, the city of beetle-drawn carriages and chained singers, of airships, inventions, and all manner of strange wonder.

You'll have two ways to stay up-to-speed on the story. Sometime later this month (I have not seen an official date yet), Amazon is releasing its Kindle Vella app for serializing stories. And at the same time, I will begin releasing the novel, episode by episode, on my Curious Fictions page. 

I'll leave all the nitty-gritty details for later. For now, let me introduce the story to you:

***

The death of Spire City's greatest inventor couldn't come at a worse time. The fabled city of beetle-drawn carriages is occupied by a foreign power, and that country is at war with another. 

Five people find their lives spiraling together in the aftermath of his death: 

Temli, an airship captain; 

XXXXX, an unnamed correspondent from the front lines; 

Keene, a grizzled beetle hunter; 

Jensha, a singer chained to one of the city's spires; 

and Alless, the former apprentice to the late inventor.

***

I will have so much more to say about each of these characters--and the wonderfully, lyrically weird ways their stories intertwine--in the weeks ahead. The story itself has been dear to me for several years, and the announcement of the Vella app fits perfectly with how I wanted to present the novel. For now I'm just so excited that you'll have the chance to read their stories!

Stay tuned, subscribe to my newsletter, and keep your eyes on social media for any breaking news!

"Triptych of the Final String" in the latest issue of New Myths

The latest issue of New Myths came out this past weekend, including my flash story "Triptych of the Final String." It's a fable, of sorts--about music and stories and especially learning new stories from each other. Or you could consider it a fairy/folk tale from another world. 

As a matter of fact, this one has a connection to the world of The Arcist Chronicles. If you've read The Silk Betrayal, you know that the people of that land refer to their original homeland as The Forgotten South, which is the setting for this flash story. The novel itself never goes there (not book 1, anyway [*whistles*]), but they tell stories of that land and place many of their own fables back there. 

This is not the only Forgotten South fable out there. "The Ship of Silk on the Calmest Sea" is also labeled as "a Fable of the Forgotten South," and in a familiar folk tale move, there is a character in "Triptych" that shares a name with the main character in "Ship of Silk." (As well as a character who shares a name with one of my favorite characters from the actual trilogy...)

This is the third story of mine published in New Myths and the second flash fiction story--but the last was nearly a full decade ago! It's also the second story I've had published with the word "triptych" in its title, after "Peace, a Triptych." I have another story--composed of three drabbles smashed together, all connected with my Spire City setting--with that word in its title that I've never submitted anywhere. Clearly I should... 

What's with all the triptychs? Mostly I just love the Garden of Earthly Delights painting by Bosch. And as there's never a bad time to share that image, here it is:

 

(public domain, original hangs in El Prado, Madrid, España)

"The Mirror Merchant's Tales" sold to Daily Science Fiction!

If you get my newsletter, you may have seen the news that I've sold another short story to Daily Science Fiction. This will be my sixth story in DSF, and it's a story I'm excited to have out there, a fantasy story with a touch of Lord Dunsany (in my mind, anyway) of a city where everyone is required to carry a mirror with them while inside the city's walls.

Two more poems sold!

 This past week or so I've sold two more poems, and I'm ecstatic about it! First, I "The Forbidden Path to Forgetting" to Fantasy Magazine. Fantasy! Magazine! I've been sending them since (I just checked) December 2005, and I love the feel of the newly resurrected zine. 

And then I sold the poem "Hands That Cannot Grasp" to Kaleidotrope. And I'm thrilled with that as well! I've had five stories published by Kaleidotrope, but this will be the first time one of my poems appears there.

I will certainly share the links as soon as each of them is published!

Poem sold to Star*Line!

 My poem "The Pelagic Colossus" has just sold to Star*Line. That's a nice bit of news to get during National Poetry Month. Look for it in one of the next two issues. 

Birthday gift--a free novelette!

 

It's my birthday today. To celebrate, I'm giving you a gift, a free copy of my novelette "The Spire Singers." This week (through Friday, February 12) the story is free to purchase on Amazon.

It's a strange story, in the best of ways, a touch of Kafka's frustratingly opaque bureaucracy, a touch of a mystic's view of the city of chained singers, plus Spire City's iconic beetle-drawn carriages. I hear now and then from readers who have loved it, but for whatever reason it doesn't get much in the way of reviews. Maybe it just falls between the cracks of the sub-genres, a steampunk setting but an odd, weird-fantasy story that doesn't entirely fit any specific norms.

So if you're an in-the-cracks reader like me, drifting happily between whatever strange wonders catch your fancies, maybe this story will be for you, too.

If you get a chance, leave a review. But mostly I want people to have a chance to read it.

Cartesz is a man of routine and propriety, of clockwork schedules and regimented footsteps.

And most importantly, a man bound by spire songs that fill the city. The singers, chained to the roofs of the city's spires, give him the pattern of how to conduct his life.

When one of those singers is knocked to the cobbled street, it falls to Cartesz to help her.

As his carefully counted life becomes an uncertain mess of bureaucracy and mystery, he discovers what he's never given thought to, the cruelty of a city that so callously chains the singers to its roofs.

Trapped by the Kafkaesque bureaucracy stifling so much of the city, what can he do to help the singer? Especially when his own grip on life seems to loosen...

Get if for free from Amazon!

"Triptych of the Final String" sold to New Myths

 Excited to announce the sale of this flash fiction to New Myths. There's even a loose connection to The Silk Betrayal with this story. I'll say more about that when the story comes out, likely in June.

It will be my third time having something in the zine, second time having a flash fiction there, and second time having a story with "triptych" in the title published somewhere.

(Ever since I saw the triptych below in person in El Prado, I've just liked the word.)

Bosch, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

2020 publications

Here is my year in review for 2020 stories and poems. I don't usually make a big effort trying to garner interest in nominating things for awards, though I probably should. But mostly I want everyone to have a chance to give this stories and poems a read:

"Carnival Days and Days" in Daily Science Fiction (flash fiction), a story of stopped air travel and clowns and terror."The Library of Whispers" in Polu Texni (poem), a poem of architecture and sound waves and whimsy"The Flying City" in Liminality (poem), a people look at their doomed flight and decay"Heroes Never Die" in Frozen Wavelets (flash fiction), so many people tell tales of their heroes of old who will come back to rescue them, but the promise may not be all they think it is"Body Double for the Oldest Organism" in Star*Line 43.3 (poem), to protect the oldest known organism in the universe, a false one takes its place"Assailing the Garden of Pleasure" in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly (short story), a cruel master, the adepts who pay the price, and the struggle to unite them against his magic"The Huntress and the Conveyor Worlds" in Mythaxis (short story), a scavenger desperate to find something worth dragging across strange worlds for a reward"Six Views of the Wall" in Dear Leader Tales (short story), a short-sighted leader obsesses over the crumbling wall he insists on building"The Bridge Fugue: Variations on Emptiness" in Daily Science Fiction (flash fiction), a bridge with one end fixed and the other variable, a person trying over and over to find a connection across itThree short stories, three flash fictions, and three poems. Doesn't get more balanced than that.
This also means my 2020 publications began in January in DSF with a story about travel interruptions and ended in December in DSF with a story about loneliness and someone desperate to reach out and make some kind of connection. Make of that what you will... But both stories were written (and the first published) pre-lockdowns, for the record.
And not exactly fitting above, but worth pointing out in this 2020 overview:Three-Lobed Burning Eye has reprinted my story "Scolyard's 'The Constructs Foresee Their Doom'" along with the stories of three full online issues in a limited edition print version, Volume IV. It even includes an illustration for my story.Since July I've been posting episodes of a serialized story, "The Market of Magical Goods," each episode exactly 100 words (according to my word processor count), each one detailing a quirk or character or event of the magical, whimsical marketplace.
Happy reading, happy holidays, and here's to more great stories and poems in the year to come!