One Bad Apple & Other Stories by Holly Schofield

SF Canada member Holly Schofield has been busy with some new short story publications recently.

The No Police = Know Future anthology examines worlds where funding for police is redirected to other social services. The publisher, Amazing Selects (a division of Experimenter Publishing which publishes the 94-year-old Amazing Stories magazine), says it’s a “unique showcase for our authors’ creativity and problem-solving capabilities, offering much food for thought.  It will get you to think, to engage, to understand that this genre is a tool for exploring, examining and, hopefully, helping us to discover the kind of futures we desire.”

In the near-crimeless and heavily surveilled world of Holly’s story, “One Bad Apple”, a protective father has to make some tough choices when he and his young daughter are confronted by a mugger.

Get No Police = Know Future from Amazing Stories today in print or ebook.

Another of Holly’s stories, “Stubborn as Dirt”, is about rewilding a marsh — a school science project gone wrong! — and appears in And Lately, the Sun.

This 20-tale solarpunk anthology, probes at “how we could build a working world using the resources available to us – the natural, the social, the political, and the technological”. It’s published by Calyx Create Group, an international team of writers, science fiction enthusiasts, media types, and people who don’t want to see humanity crash and burn. The group is registered in Australia as a non-profit association for the purpose of supporting, generating, and disseminating creative works on themes of science, technology and the future.

Details on ordering And Lately, the Sun, and audio excerpts (including one from Holly’s “Stubborn as Dirt”), are here: https://latelythesun.com/ .

When Holly saw the submissions call for the Magic Pens anthology, she knew she had to write a story for it. The result was “Writ Large”, a surprisingly timely tale of the creation of a “new normal” and a possible way to vastly improve the world.

This eclectic, multi-genre collection of original stories is about the power of communication, the magic of writing instruments, and the strength of community, curated to inspire wonder, hope, and joy.

Treat yourself to the ebook or the print version of Magic Pens today!

A more literary look at what we are doing to the environment is Holly’s story “Passengers All”. An otter investigates an abandoned ferry and uncovers some universal truths. Find it in the October 2020 issue of Honeyguide Literary Magazine.

Environmental concerns are not the only topic Holly writes about. In “Reaching Up, Reaching Back”, familial relationships are examined through the lens of time travel. This story was recently reprinted in The Trouble with Time Travel from Smoking Pen Press.

Holly Schofield is the author of over eighty short stories. Her works are used in university curricula, have been translated into multiple languages, and have appeared in Analog, Lightspeed, Escape Pod, the Aurora-winning Second Contacts, and many other publications throughout the world. She hopes to save the world through science fiction and homegrown heritage tomatoes.

Find Holly at hollyschofield.wordpress.com.

And be sure to watch for Holly’s upcoming stories in the Fix the World anthology, the Very Much Alive anthology, and Analog Science Fiction & Fact magazine!

The Human Template by Dale L. Sproule

SF Canada member Dale L. Sproule is launching a new book, The Human Template. This title is the first in a series, Book One of the Arboreal Realm Diptych.

Get ready to meet the BioGrid and reconsider what it means to be human.

Join the book launch for The Human Template online today at 2pm EST via Zoom.

The BioGrid is a vast biological computer housed in the root network of a genetically engineered forest. When it self-identified as a forest and refused to work with its creators, someone had to teach the newly sentient trees to see the world from a more human perspective. Dr Veejay Naidu’s breakthroughs in transferring the consciousness of his terminally ill son into an AI made him the obvious choice, but only one upload was completed before a catastrophic solar event took humanity to the brink of extinction.

Fragmented into diverse factions and locked in a never-ending feud, the badly damaged BioGrid lost contact with humanity for hundreds of years. When one of the factions discovered the remains of the human template and resurrected Raine Naidu, the BioGrid started working together toward the common goal of re-establishing an interface with humanity. But the attempt ended in betrayal; with the mind of a curious toddler named Glory turned into a stew of unsalvageable data. At least the data seemed irretrievable, until the child’s older sister, Adoris, worked out a way to access it.

Re-introducing 21st century technology to the ravaged world enabled Adoris to eliminate all opposition on her path to leadership; gaining direct access to the BioGrid and bending the most powerful of the factions to her will. When she took the entire BioGrid hostage, Raine was forced to rally his arboreal friends in a desperate bid for survival.

Dale L. Sproule is a writer who has published over 50 short stories in a wide range of media. In the late 90’s he co-published/edited a magazine called TransVersionsLiterature of the Fantastic. The magazine sought out work that came at the genre sideways and published work by a wide range of amazing voices. He has been privileged to interview some amazing writers and has published dozens of non-fiction articles for venues ranging from SF Signal to Books in Canada, from AE Science Fiction to Rue Morgue.

Learn more about Dale and explore his other titles at dalelsproule.com.

Order your copy of The Human Template at Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Chapters, and more.

Issue 15 of Polar Borealis Available for Download

Polar Borealis Issue 15The latest issue of Polar Borealis, edited by SF Canada member R. Graeme Cameron, was published this past June.

Discover poetry from SF Canada members Melanie Marttila and Lisa Timpf, along with fiction from Robert Runté.

Graeme has been nominated for a 2020 Aurora Award for both Polar Borealis and Amazing Stories.

Polar Borealis is currently closed to poetry and fiction submissions, but is open for cover art. Check the website for an announcement in February 2021 regarding the next submissions window.

Download Issue 15 for free. Visit polarborealis.ca to view back issues and find more information about this paying market.

53rd Street Publishing Announces Russ Crossley’s Latest Release

53rd Street Publishing is proud to announce the second novel in the War of the Lushites series by British Columbia author, Russ Crossley, Revenge of the Lushites. The book is available worldwide in ebook and trade paperback formats from your favorite retailer.

In the year 4444 and a 1/4 the Lushites have returned. Piper Cleaner, First Assistant to the Assistant Surveillance Officer discovers a Lushite intergalactic vessel heading their way.

Alarm bells ring throughout the galaxy! Have the Lushites returned to seek revenge?

Join Piper and Major Virginia Slim on a crazy, outrageous ride across the galaxy in the far future where addictions are rampant and conspiracies thrive.

The second book in War of the Lushites series is a satirical space opera revealing the future of addiction.

Revenge of the Lushites