Tag: Awards

2021 Award Eligibility Post

~ Marc C ~ 1 Comment

Four of my stories were published this year, and I’d be delighted if readers would consider whether any of them rose to a level worthy of a nomination for any of the annual fantasy and science fiction awards.

Thanks for your time. AND for any such consideration as you may give. If nothing else, I hope you found these stories simply to be an enjoyable read.

The new year started off fresh with the publication of my SF short story, “The Golden Rays of the Morning Sun” in the first quarter issue of Abyss & Apex (January 1, 2021). How much of your physical self can you surrender and still remain human? There may be more than one answer.

The creation of this story was helped along by an illustration dashed off by award winning artist and writer Kathleen Jennings during a Twitter conversation.

Click to read more About The Golden Rays of the Morning Sun.

The second quarter issue of Abyss & Apex (April 1, 2021) published my epistolary Americana fantasy story, “Entries From My Grandmother’s Diary Pertaining to My Father’s Early Inflammation.” Dealing with toddlers sometimes takes on a fiery dimension.

I credit my late grandmother as co-author, as a fair number of the diary entries in this story originated as actual entries from her Depression-Era diaries. Click here to read more About Entries From My Grandmother’s Diary Pertaining to my Father’s Early Inflammation.

Sam Tomaino in SFRevu called this “a perfect story”. Read it and see what you think!

My SF short story, “Crossed Paws,” about the impending loss of one’s dog and the efforts one makes to keep more than just its memory alive was first published the in the UK’s Shoreline of Infinity #22 (May 2021). It was then republished in digital and print in issue #23 (June 2021).

Charles Payseur in Quick Sips 6/25/2021 reviewed “Crossed Paws”: “…heavy with tired grief, and beautifully done!”

Listen to “Crossed Paws” for free on Shoreline of Infinity’s “Soundwave Podcast”.

Click here to read more About Crossed Paws and Tammy, the very good girl to whom it’s dedicated.

Now for some shorter fare! Got thirty seconds? Check out Martian: The Magazine of Science Fiction Drabbles. Martian publishes stories of exactly one hundred words. It may sound easy (it’s only a hundred words after all!) but, oh, the trick is picking out the right one hundred words.

A brief SF tale of abrupt loss and perseverance, “Mercury’s Ice” was Martian’s September 27, 2021 story. Read more About Mercury’s Ice to see why I set this story in Mercury’s polar region (Also contains a gratuitous ‘cute kid’ pic :-).

Thanks for your time and consideration!

Marc A. Criley

Awards Eligibility 2020

~ Marc C ~ 1 Comment

I had two short stories published in 2020 that are eligible for upcoming fantasy and science fiction awards if one deems them worthwhile. Both are solidly in the science fiction domain, so nominate accordingly 🙂

Memento Amicum (3400 words) appeared in Issue #3 (September 1, 2020) of Cossmass Infinities.

People, events, practices, and cultural touchstones pass away and slip into the past, kept alive only within the memories of those still around, and only for as long as they care to and can remember. In the future, we may not be the ones doing the remembering, our creations may end up taking on that responsibility–intentionally or not, until they too power down.

“Memento Amicum” by Marc A. Criley is the poignant and touching story of a graveyard populated with AI versions of the deceased.
— Gwen C. Katz, in The Future Fire

(Right now Memento Amicum is only available by purchasing that issue, though the stories are incrementally released online over time. I will add a link here when it becomes available.)

Cossmass Infinities 09-01-20 Cover

He stepped around to the front of the headstone and waited. The mementa screen opaqued, masking the splendidly etched-in-granite rendition of Ellanora Hawks. A moment later her mementa’s well-worn but equally splendid visage resolved on the screen

Be grateful for friends that will remember you.

Glory Whales (4700 words) was published August 23, 2020 in Cosmic Roots & Eldritch Shores.

An unraveling comet! Doomed spaceship! Explosions! Alien artifacts! WHALES!!

Cosmic Roots and Eldritch Shores has a lovely story in August with “Glory Whales” by Marc A. Criley.  A happily married couple [are] diverted to check out an interstellar voyager. [W]ill they live to see what grows from the seeds dispersed by the visitor?
— Karen Burnham, Locus (Recommended Reading)
Glory Whales lead pic
Illustration Credit: Cosmic Roots & Eldritch Shores

I squinted past the reflected comet dazzle on her visor. Yep, a smile that outshone Mars, this blazing comet, and the incandescent golden jewel of the sun. A smile that’s taken me from one end of the solar system to the other.

Come for the whales, stay for true love.

Thanks for your time and any consideration for awards you may give to these stories!

2019 Award Eligibility Post

~ Marc C ~ Leave a comment

As Fantasy and Science Fiction award nomination season nears, I offer for consideration the short story “The Crystal Zyst: A Eula Banks, State Certified Zeitle Engineer, Story“, published at Cosmic Roots & Eldritch Shores.

Crystal Zyst lead pic

The Crystal Zyst is the story of two working class sisters who own a business clearing out zeitles, i.e. exponentially slowed time bubbles.

On a run-of-the-mill remediation job they encounter a rare form of zeitle, leading to a life-and-death situation of CO² poisoning and trapped children. Mounting a rescue requires 450 HP semi-truck engines, silvery fuzzy suits, a team of zeitle engineers, and time–lots and lots of time.

Thanks for reading and for your consideration.

 

2018 Awards Eligibility Post

~ Marc C ~ 1 Comment

Tap-tap-tap… Is this thing on?

So…this is my FIRST(!) EVER(!) Awards Eligibility Post™ for the fantasy and science fiction short stories of mine that were published this year. (Or in any year, for that matter.) This is a whole, brand new world to me.

ohwow

Nomination season for fantasy and science fiction has opened up!

I hope you’ll take a look through these offerings and if, per chance, one catches your eye and your mind as award worthy, please slip it onto your nominating ballot. If not, I hope these stories at least give you a few minutes of reading pleasure.

(The story titles in the larger font I feel are especially worth a good, hard look.)

Time cracks and uhrbuchs rustle. I look up from a half-penciled illustration.

 

  • Shattered Hand, Beneath Ceaseless Skies Issue #258, 16 August 2018. Fantasy, 4600 words

Long shadows skittered before us, cast by a newly risen sun. Kayta and I loped across burnt desert; tracked the wind-eroded dusty treads of uncounted pilgrims, Covenant youth, warriors. Evaded what few sentries patrolled the perimeter. Empty sky, empty land, no one, nothing to see. A banned land. Minimally guarded—uncovenanted entry is death.

 

  • Requires Replenishment, Martian, the Magazine of Science Fiction Drabbles, 20 August 2018. Science Fiction | 100 words

Hot tires buzzing.

Backseat child whimpering.

Dead alien in trunk.

 

I crack time. Part the seam, step into gray-green gloom. I wait as eyes adjust, hear the seam flutter closed. Bookshelves line the corridor, extend into the past. Shelves crammed with books, spines to the wall, smelling of ozone and rose water. Hardcovers, paperbacks, trades, loose leaf. The past as hardcopy, minutes pressed against minutes, fossilizing through time.

 

Where are you? I trace ringing photons, syncopated cosmic ray beats, attenuated quaverings of taut space-time chords. Entangled atoms vibrating in quantum indecision sustain my faith. I range across light-years, plow gigaparsecs of quantum foam, dark matter tides, neutrino cacophonies. 

 

Keep reading! And if you’re a writer, keep writing!

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Tammy and I say Bless all y’all!