Tag: climate fiction

SFF, Short stories

Resilience

OJ

I have a new story out! “Resilience” has been published by Stuff, and is free to read at the link there. It’s the second in a series of cli-fi shorts commissioned by Stuff, so it was a lovely surprise to get that email from them. They said they were looking for a more positive story about the future, and how it might play out in a changing climate. They also said it had to be family friendly, which I admit gave me brief pause. (There’s often more than a touch of horror in my stories, and so when I heard “family friendly” my first reaction – thankfully internal – was “No killing characters off this time, then.”)

So I came up with this story about two kids, Coral and Elsbeth. I reckon they’re about ten years old. Anyway, they meet each other one summer day and run off to play hooky, messing about on the beach and discovering the nesting sites of some very special birds. The emphasis on conservation is going on in the background, really, with the urban landscape they live in having undergone an enormous ecological makeover. Increased biodiversity increases resilience, remember, and with climate change likely to inflict significant disturbance on our ecological systems, supporting biodiversity in our environments is one way of building healthier and more sustainable ecosystems.

And there’s some art to go with it too. Isn’t it pretty?

Science, SFF

Pre-order: The Stone Wētā

OJ

I have a new book coming out! The Stone Wētā, from Paper Road Press, is due out on April 22. That’s Earth Day, which is deeply appropriate for a novel about climate change and how it can affect us and our planet. The Stone Wētā is based on the short story of mine, of the same name, which was published a couple of years back in Clarkesworld.

We talk about the tyranny of distance a lot in this country. That distance will not save us.

With governments denying climate science, scientists from affected countries and organisations are forced to traffic data to ensure the preservation of research that could in turn preserve the world. From Antarctica, to the Chihuahuan Desert, to the International Space Station, a fragile network forms. A web of knowledge. Secret. But not secret enough.

When the cold war of data preservation turns bloody – and then explosive – an underground network of scientists, all working in isolation, must decide how much they are willing to risk for the truth. For themselves, their colleagues, and their future.

Murder on Antarctic ice. A university lecturer’s car, found abandoned on a desert road. And the first crewed mission to colonise Mars, isolated and vulnerable in the depths of space.

How far would you go to save the world?

You can pre-order hard copies of The Stone Wētā at the Paper Road Press site. E-copies are also available to pre-order at Amazon, Kobo, Apple, and Barnes & Noble.