Back Issues – an index of fiction posted on this site

University writing: The stories below were all written during my undergraduate days and found their way into a university literary journal – the piping shrike. They are included here for comparison to more recent (and hopefully better) writing… and for old time’s sake. These are the first stories which, even in hind sight, I am happy enough to let see the light of day. Many reams came before which will not. Ever.

Lateral Shift Illumination – A 2200 word short story written in 2002, published in the UniSA student journal piping shrike in 2003.

Fallen – A 1440 word short story written in 2002, published in the UniSA student journal piping shrike in 2004.

Memory Latch – A 1660 word short story written in 2002 and published in the UniSA student journal piping shrike in 2002.

Post University: The stories below were written sometime after I left university, when I was (and remain) immersed in professional contexts and working to more rigorous standards.

Ribbons – This is the first 800 or so words of a 5800 word short story written in 2007, published in the Altair Australia anthology Leaves of Blood (edited by Mike Brown). I have included a sample only, as I think the anthology Leaves of Blood is still available at http://www.altair-australia.com/altair/leaves.html

Cultural Delegation – This is the first couple of thousand words of a 12 000 word short story/ novelette. I completed it in 2010, and the full version was published in the online speculative fiction periodical Surprising Stories. I have posted only a sample here as last I checked the full story could still be accessed at http://dcwi.com/~thiel/SSV29/cultural.htm

Hemispheres – This is the intro section from a novel I completed several years ago. Since then I have tweaked and edited it on occasion, trying to get it to a point where it has a running chance of being publishable. I am convinced the core story, concept and characters would work, but the overall package has problems – some style focused, some structural. I might post the whole thing one day with an open invite for anyone with sufficient masochism to edit the bastard…

Protection – This is a short story I have been wrestling with for too long. While I personally like it, there are some problems with the story from a publish-ability perspective. I submitted it to Aurealis, and got a pretty rough response, then submitted it to Crowded Magazine, and managed an above average score, but nowhere near enough to get published. There are things I could do to spice it up, but am at my tether for trying to fix the bits that might mark it up in someones slush pile, so it can live here instead.