Announcing the Winds of Change anthology

I'm really happy to announce my latest short story sale – the upcoming Winds of Change anthology from the CSFG.

My story 'Watching' is a post-apocalyptic tale of loss and hope within difficult situations. I don't know why I keep writing science fiction stories for CSFG anthlogies – one day it will be a fantasy. Maybe even a paranormal romance [image error]

Here's the opening of 'Watching' – hope it will whet your appetite for the story and the entire anthology, which is launched September 30 at Conflux.

***

The windmill creaks and everyone stops and stares at it. One of the children – little Belle, barely walking – stumbles toward it. Her mother, father, and every other adult scream at her. One of the other kids grabs her arm and pulls her back then spanks her.

It is Belle's turn to learn that you don't go near the windmill.

The blades begin to turn, the screech of metal against metal rendering the air. Some watch the wheel turn, mesmerised. Others turn away and put their hands over their ears. Every time they hear that sound, it takes them back to the day the winds came and everything changed.

With every whine, every scream of the rusty blades rotating, they are back in the moment when they realised it wasn't just a summer storm – it was the beginning of the end. Those that can stare at the windmill, hatred growing in their gaze, clutching those around them and remembering.

I don't look at the windmill. The moment that sound starts, I turn to look at a small bush that grows next to the corner of the machinery shed. I look to the bush, because the high winds that turn the windmill are not such a problem. Sure, they bring the storm – but the ground winds bring the dust. It chokes and cleaves to your lungs and will kill you slowly and agonisingly over several days.

People who lived here never noticed the ground winds – only visitors commented on the strange anomaly of high and low. We used to just shrug and go on with our day, glad for the breeze that cooled but ignoring it.

I think that's why they still don't pay attention to the ground wind. It has become my task to notice, to warn the others and get them inside to safety. So I watch the bush, while they glare at the windmill.

***

Here's the full Table of Contents – a fabulous mix of up and comers and some of us old-timers [image error]

Wraiths - Jason Nahrung
Gravity Express - Naomi Mondello
Time Capsule - Tsana Dolichva
The Tether of Time - Leife Shallcross
Trigger - Zena Shapter
Babel - Robin Shortt
Saint Olivia's Light - Carol Ryles
In Need of Assistance - Chris Andrews
After the Bombs - Adam Tucker
The Horns of Elfland - Crisetta MacLeod
Time Spent - David Coleman
Soul of the Machine - Maxine McArthur
Dream Shadow - Alan Baxter
Giant - Annelise Roberts
Evolution Baby - Lesley Boland
The Princess - Valerie Y.L. Toh
Children of the Ashes - Greg Mellor
By Watcher's Pool - James Goodrum
Turning the Blood - Donna Maree Hanson
Watching - Nicole Murphy
The Stormchilds - Helen Stubbs
The Fool - Jane Virgo
Dragonfly - Cat Sheely
Stone-singer - Joanna Fay