SupportShoreline of Infinity
Flash Fiction Competition for Shoreline of Infinity Readers
Back Cover
Pull up a Log
We have another fine crop of story-tellers and poets for you in this issue. There’s a wee tale of what threatens to be from Eric Brown (his novel, The Kings of Eternity, is on my reading list equivalent of speed-dial). We have an elegant story from Jeannette Ng of a sacrifice in an Aztec Cyberpunk Dystopia. Barry Charman writes of isolation and ambition – on a stellar scale; Laura Duerr tests us with a gruesome temptation; Premee Mohamed offers a raw tale of love under fire in an alien war; Michael Teasdale leads us on a spiralling journey into a crumbling reality; and Nathan Susnik hints at what happens when reality is ignored. Chris Kelso, our contemporary writer featured in SF Caledonia, takes us through anguish with the help of a time machine.
When we gather stories for an issue, we don’t look for a theme, but one often emerges. And this issue belies the nonsense that science fiction is just about ray guns and aliens*: it’s people in circumstances that test their humanity, challenge their very being.
And so we come to another aim of Shoreline of Infinity – to encourage you to grab a sheaf of blank paper and demonstrate your penskills. We have a flash fiction competition to tide you over the summer months, with a pair of pictures waiting for their stories to be told.
But before you do, make sure you read Ruth EJ Booth’s The Legend of the Kick-Arse Wise Women to set you on your way: “I began to write in earnest. And once I did, things began to change.”
Settle in and enjoy the ride.
Noel Chidwick
Editor-in-chief
Shoreline of Infinity
June 2017
* though sometimes ray guns and aliens are just what you need to get you through the day.
Congratulations to Barnaby Seddon (age 7) who won our Eastercon 2017 joke competition with:
Q – What do you do if you see a spaceman?
A – You park in it man.
Barnaby, you will go far!
The Pink Life
(La Vie En Rose)
Nathan Susnik
Art: Dave Alexander
On Monday a crisply painted fire hydrant moved into the alcove next to my apartment building. On Tuesday it sang La Boheme. On Wednesday, Carmen. Today, Der Vogelfänger. The fire hydrant has digitally perfect tone and tenor. I walk past it twice a day on my way to work:
#operasingingfirehydrant #pureperfection
I reach my 85th floor office, greet my secretary, and look out at the architecture. The city is an art deco wonderland. #newyork1950s. Market reports waterfall down the Chrysler Building, splashing onto the Theatre des Champs-Elysees. A personal message blinks on the Empire State Building:
@rickstock538 – InComp/Filefunk merger approved. Buy!
I’m halfway through a reply when – flash – #newyork1950s is gone. An endless field of homogeneous, concrete skyscrapers is in its place.
Flash – #newyork1950s.
Flash – endless concrete skyscrapers.
Flash – #newyork1950s.
Flash. Flash. Flash.
“Ava,” I say.
“Yes Ms. van Kamp?” She comes in the room looking different from before, less than perfect. There’s a pimple on her forehead, a large white head pressing out from a glowing red base.
Flash – Silky smooth.
Flash – Krakatoa.
“What do you see outside?” I say. She ambles to the window, limping slightly. She shrugs.
“Buildings?”
“Nothing unusual?”
“Nothing,” she says.
“Thank you Ava. You can go.” I sigh.
#whyisitalwaysme
When she leaves, I message Dsense corp. Five seconds later (poof) they project a representative over the intercerebral computer.
“It’s not an error with the iPerceive app. It must be a problem with your operating system ma’am,” she says. “Turn iPerceive off.”
“You can do that?”
“Do what?”
“Turn iPerceive off,” I say. She winks.
“You’d be surprised how many people don’t know that. But then again, why in God’s name, would you want to turn it off? Anyway, if you have it on while it’s glitching, it can be dangerous.”
“Dangerous?”
