Innovation Anthology

Check out this year’s Queer Sci-Fi’s Flash Fiction Anthology Innovation as part of the blog tour with Other Worlds Ink.

“Innovation” Unique Excerpt: Cat’s Meow by Nicole Dennis
Jacob hit the intercom system. “Alex, where are you?”

“Lab. Had a breakthrough!”

Jacob went to the ‘danger zone’, the basement, where his crazy innovator husband worked. They came close to blowing everything up.

Four times.

A machine scanned his palmprint before it opened the secured door.

“Mrrow!”

Their black housecat sat on the metal lab table. His husband fiddled with something.

Jacob scratched Lucky behind his ears. “Don’t blow up the cat. Please?”

“Not that kind of experiment.” Alex used fine tools to secure a small device. He flicked through multiple magnification lenses while he worked.

“Mrrow?”

“What are you doing?”

“If I did my calculations and created the precise alignment of sensors, he can talk to us with this device.”

“He does talk.”

“Meow.”

Jacob pointed to the cat. “Proof.”

“Human words. His thoughts. We’ll learn if cats can understand humans and what they desire.” Alex twisted the tool again. “There. Done.” The red collar had a strange metallic box attached. He secured it around Lucky’s neck and activated it. “Hello, Lucky.”

Lucky lifted a paw to lick his pads. His green eyes focused. “Really? Those are your first words to me, science human?” a metallic voice said. “My feline name is Ignatius.”

“It works!” Alex crowed. “What would you like to tell us, Ignatius?”

“The box is dirty. Again. So is your shoe. More wet morsels must be provided. That activity you do upon my large bed is unacceptable. You removed my balls.” His claws flexed. “I shall do the same to you to stop—”

Jacob ripped the collar off. “Enough of that.”

“Jacob—”

“Some innovations should never come to light. Or be heard.” Jacob glared at Lucky-Ignatius.

Lucky licked his butt.

“Agreed,” Alex said. “On to the next project.”

Jacob carried the cat out.

Queer Sci Fi’s sixth annual flash fiction anthology is here – “Innovation” – and there’s a giveaway too!

IN-NO-VA-TION (Noun)

1) A new idea, method, or device.

2) The introduction of something new.

3) The application of better solutions to meet unarticulated needs.

Three definitions to inspire writers around the world and an unlimited number of possible stories to tell. Here are 120 of our favorites.

Innovation features 300-word speculative flash fiction stories from across the rainbow spectrum, from the minds of the writers of Queer Sci Fi.

Other Worlds Ink | Amazon Kindle | Amazon Paperback | iBooks | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Goodreads

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Giveaway

Queer Sci Fi is giving away your choice of a $20 Amazon gift card OR a print copy of four of the other five flash fiction books in the series – Flight, Renewal, Impact, and Migration (US only unless you are willing to pay the shipping outside the US) with this tour. Enter via Rafflecopter:

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Direct Link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/b60e8d47138/?

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Excerpts

“The fields are overgrown, have been for years with all the Bios underground. The wind kisses the grass in serpentine patterns long forgotten, patterns the Bios couldn’t imagine anymore. My mechanical hand stores the seed envelope in the mechanical pocket in my androgynous torso. In these suits, there is no gender. Gender is, always has been, in the mind. And I am finally, unequivocally, female.” —Seed, by Val Muller

“No one in the village knew what the Change would bring. They never saw it happen. They only knew what they had been promised: the Change would bestow three gifts.” —A New Way, by Rory Ni Coileain

“The girl kissed her, hard. Then backed away, grinning, teasing, drawing her to the end of the hallway and a flight of stairs leading downward. She took two steps and gazed back up at Lilian, one hand outstretched. Her brilliant red lipstick wasn’t even smudged. Her skin glowed in the harsh white torchlight.” —The Thing With the Bats, by Mary Francis

“Interspecies sex is outlawed on the Freespec Interplanetary Space Station. Politicians call it a safety measure. But I’ve been in the Medical Corps for half my lifecycle, and I call it criminally negligent prudery. Leaders would rather let innocents die needlessly—punctured by sperm darts and dissolved in sacks of voltaic pleasure mucus—than give them the knowledge to express their feelings safely.” — Are My Underwater Sperm Darts Normal?, Brenna Harvey

“The bell’s brassy gong echoes through the flat; the walls blush crimson. See, see! He’s at my door. The live feed shows him sniff his armpit; cup his breath. He wants to impress, but I’m impressed already. His lips softly part; he brushes them with stubby fingers, as he waits. Ugly fingers. Ugly hands. Scrawny neck. Milky eyes. But those lips, see, they’re perfect, just perfect. Plump n’ pale, a slither of my future.” —Just perfect, by Redfern Jon Barrett

“Lekke looked down over the valley, First People’s home for as long as any tales or dreams could tell. Now only Spirit Dreamer Manoot, neither he nor she but both, and Lekke, elder healer, were left. Lifetimes of Long-legs’ raids had driven First People to their deaths—or, some few, to the Way. If there truly was a Way.” —Going Back,” by Sacchi Green

“Savinna limped into her lover’s workshop, her hip still sore from tangling with the marabbecca which had knocked her into its well before she managed to kill it. Such was the life of a monster hunter. Not at all surprised to see Larissa hunched over her bench, hard at work tinkering with something, Savinna ghosted her hand over Larissa’s back.” —Those Who Hunt Monsters, by Jana Denardo

“The baby cried as Freya lowered the bartering bucket into the wishing well. Many had come to the tree-shrouded clearing to make exchanges—a bushel of azure apples for a sword, a woven blanket for a day of rain. The well had been the final creation of a thousand-year-old inventor. But dead wizards often don’t anticipate how their gifts birth consequences.” —The Bartering Bucket, by Diane Callahan

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Author Bios

120 authors contributed stories for this volume:

• Adrik Kemp
• Alex Silver
• Alex Stargazer
• Allan Dyen-Shapiro
• Andi Deacon
• Andrea Speed
• Andrew Vaillencourt
• Ava Kelly
• Barbara Johnson-Haddad
• Barbara Krasnoff
• Beáta Fülöp
• Benoit Lafortune
• Blaine D. Arden
• Bob Milne
• Brenna Harvey
• Brooke K. Bell
• L. McCartney
• Cassidy Frazee
• Chet Gottfried
• Chloe Spencer
• Chris Bannor
• Christine Wright
• Christopher Koehler
• Clare London
• J. Clarke
• M. Rasch
• David Gerrold
• Devon Widmer
• Diane Callahan
• L. Harrison
• Romeis
• D.E. Bell
• M. Hamill
• Edie Montreux
• Elaine Burnes
• Eloreen Moon
• Emilia Agrafojo
• Emma Johnson-Rivard
• Eric Warren
• Evelyn Benvie
• Gareth Worthington
• Ginger Streusel
• Howard V. Hendrix
• Needham
• Zachary Pike
• S. Garner
• Jade Black
• James Alan Gardner
• Jamie Lackey
• Jana Denardo
• Jasie Gale
• Jeff Jacobson
• Jennie L. Morris
• Jet Lupin
• Jon Miller
• Jonathan Fesmire
• Joshua Ian
• Julian Maxwell
• Kitts
• L. Townsend
• S. Marsden
• KA Masters
• Katelyn Cameron
• Kellie Doherty
• Kevin Andrew Murphy
• Kevin Klehr
• Kim Fielding
• Kitt Harris
• Koji A. Dae
• S. Reinholt
• V. Lloyd
• LC Treeheart
• Lee Jordan
• Lee Soeburn
• Lou Sylvre
• X. Kelly
• Maria Zoccola
• Mary E. Lowd
• Mary Francis
• Mary Kuna
• Matt Doyle
• Mere Rain
• Milo Owen
• Minerva Cerridwen
• Naomi Tajedler
• Nathan Alling Long
• Nathaniel Taff
• Nicole Dennis
• Nina Kiriki Hoffman
• Noah K. Sturdevant
• Patricia Scott
• Paul Uebler
• E. Carr
• L. Merrill
• Raine Norman
• Ray Lidstone
• RE Andeen
• Redfern Jon Barrett
• Rory Eggleston
• Rory Ni Coileain
• Rosalie Wessel
• S S Long
• Sara Testarossa
• Sean Ian O’Meidhir
• Shannon Brady
• Shannon Yseult
• Skip J. Hanford
• Stephen B. Pearl
• Stephen J. Wolf
• Steve Carr
• Stone Franks
• Stuart Conover
• Susan James
• Sydney Blackburn
• T. Thomas
• W. Cox
• Tom Jolly
• Val Muller
• Warren Rochelle
• William Tate