Present-day SF stories
Published by Deanna Hoak July 17th, 2007 in blogI know. I promised to respond to everyone and haven’t. I plead summer. :-) Once the kids are back in school and I’m still not posting, then I’ll have to admit I just suck. :-P
But over on my MySpace page (which has exceeded 1100 friends now, which I find amazing since I never go in search of them), someone wrote to ask me the following question:
I’m looking for an author who writes short sci-fi stories with a good twist set in the present day. Who would you suggest I look up?
Would any of you wonderful readers like to offer up suggestions? Feel free to self-pimp, friend-pimp, etc. I’m curious too!
6 Responses to “Present-day SF stories”
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I'm a freelance copyeditor specializing in fantasy and science fiction. SF/F novels I have copyedited have been finalists for (and have sometimes won) the Hugo, Nebula, Arthur C. Clarke, Golden Spur, John W. Campbell Memorial, Quill, Locus, Philip K. Dick, British Science Fiction, British Fantasy, and World Fantasy awards. In 2007 I was short-listed for a World Fantasy Award for my copyediting.
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Most of the stories at Futurismic (http://futurismic.com/category/fiction/) are set in present day/immediate future and they have the double bonus of being free and online for immediate reading.
In the interest of full disclosure, they’ve published me, but more importantly people like Will McCarthy, Carrie Vaughn, Jay Lake and others!
Not quite what was specified but close enough to maybe qualify — the anthology REVISIONS (edited by Julie Czerneda, DAW). Alternate history/alternate futures based on tweaks in our scientific knowledge. Definite twists, there!
(ObDisc: my story “Site Fourteen” is in this anthology)
You can check out Humanitie’s Edge by Tamara Wilhite. She’s a good friend of mine and she wrote an amazing book of short stories.
Also anything by Jim Butcher (but it’s not sci fi it’s fantasy but still really good)
Many of the stories Stan publishes as “Probability Zero”s, in addition to being very short, have a twist, and are often set in the present day (or some time very close).
The self-revelation is that I’ve sold him ten PZs myself, and currently have one in inventory there. So check out my stuff; probably half of them fit the bill you’re looking for.
Me! Me! Shameless self-pimpery! Buy the August issue of Realms of Fantasy for a short story set in modern day and yes, with a bit of a twist!
Ahem. Oh my. I have lost all sense of perspective, haven’t I.
I have nothing to add, but I didn’t know you had a MySpace page! You’ve mentioned it several times, I now see. I will send you a friend request (from D.B. Echo) as soon as I leave here. It may just consist of the words “wow u r sexy”, so if you get a message like that, you’ll know it was me.