Download or read book Chimerascope written by Douglas Smith and published by Lucky Bat Books. This book was released on 2016-11 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sunburst Award Finalist | Aurora Award Finalist | CBC Bookies Award Finalist Chimerascope [ki-meer-uh-skohp] — a story of many parts... A young artist hungers to draw you. A dinner conversation takes three lifetimes to finish. A geologist faces a planet-sized, eons-old puzzle to save her crew. The hero of the Fall of Earth must choose between love and revenge. A mysterious dancer leads a businessman to a most exclusive nightclub. A man is born each day into a new life — only to die each night. A sentient aurora threatens the last of humanity. A Norse god’s bar in Toronto hosts an unplanned family reunion. A woman descends into insanity — or is it the end of the world? A house as big as the world. Chimerascope is the first full collection of short fiction from the multi-award winning Douglas Smith, containing sixteen of his best stories, including an award winner, a Best New Horror selection, and eight award finalists. Sixteen stories of fantasy and science fiction that take you from love in fourteenth-century Japan to humanity’s last stand, from virtual reality to the end of reality, from alien drug addictions to a dinner where a man loses everything.

Download or read book The Last Ride written by Douglas Smith and published by Lucky Bat Books. This book was released on 2016-11 with total page 32 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vaya is an immortal Valkyrie and favorite daughter of Odin All Father, sworn to carry dead heroes from the battlefields of Earth to live forever in Valhalla. One day, she intervenes on the battlefield to save the life of a soldier who has captured her heart, and is forced by Odin to choose between immortality and the man she loves. Vaya chooses love, not knowing that the hardest choice still lies ahead of her. "...exemplifies the best elements of Douglas Smith’s writing. A Valkyrie falls for her hero, gives up her immortality for him then has to make that inevitable and awful choice afterwards. As always, even for such a brief time, there is so much life in these characters. I don’t bother to marvel at how quickly I come to care for Douglas Smith’s people anymore, it’s a given." —SF Crowsnest Reviews "A gripping portrayal of Vaya, a Valkyrie, and the ultimate sacrifices one makes for love." —SFRevu

Download or read book A Taste Sweet and Salty written by Douglas Smith and published by Lucky Bat Books. This book was released on 2016-11 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The man known only as Stranger lived and died in a town with no name. Each day he lived. And each night he died... “...absolutely masterful...a kind of much, much creepier Quantum Leap: the amnesiac protagonist awakes in a new body each morning only to die in it by nightfall.” —Strange Horizons “Another superb story ... unpredictable and with a great ending, this story is another highlight of the [Chimerascope] collection (A++).” —Fantasy Book Critic “...wonderful...has a taste that lingers...” —SF Crowsnest “A charming tale about a man cursed to die every day and be reborn as someone else.” —SFRevu “A fascinating fabulist premise...” —Internet Review of SF

Download or read book Enlightenment written by Douglas Smith and published by Lucky Bat Books. This book was released on 2016-11 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aurora Award Finalist Think of human emotion as a geography, with peaks of pleasure and valleys of pain. Imagine a drug that flips the valleys and makes them peaks, too. You react now to an event based not on the pleasure or pain it brings, but solely on the intensity of the emotion created. Pain brings pleasure, grief gives joy, horror renders ecstasy. Now give this drug to a soldier. Tell them to kill. Not in the historically acceptable murder of war, but in a systematic corporate strategy--of xenocide. They will kill. And they will revel in it. Welcome to the world of Scream. Jarrod is a Scream-addicted soldier forced to take part in the destruction of entire races. But when his unit encounters the Be’nan, aliens who hold the secret to true enlightenment, no one is prepared for the result. "...reaches far past the muddled mediocrity of swashbuckling tales forgotten before the page is turned to the next story. I enjoyed the alien anthropology and the details are tremendous...in this tale of tremendous sacrifice" —Tangent Online "My favourite of the selection was 'Enlightenment' by Douglas Smith. A strange story indeed about Earth people engaged in strip-mining planets and relocating indigenous populations. ... The end is horrific in many respects but it's also thought-provoking." —SF Crowsnest Reviews "...[tells of] a spiritual undertaking by a member of a brutal planetary occupation force who "goes native" in which Douglas Smith provides a riff on Ray Bradbury's famous rationale of space travel: for Man to find God in the cosmos. A science fictional depiction of the mistreatment of "aliens" to subvertly criticize the atrocities of imperialist colonization." —SF Site "... unexpected twists and a superb ending; the story is as powerful as any in the [Chimerascope] collection (A++)" —Fantasy Book Critic "Douglas Smith...succeeds in evoking an alien society with mythic/religious overtones in his moving tale ‘Enlightenment’." —New Hope International Review Online "Another strong story, looking at humanity's treatment of indigenous people." —Best SF "...oppressed inhabitants of distant worlds making the ultimate sacrifice in order to bring mankind back to the realisation of what right and wrong truly mean." —Whispers of Wickedness reviews "Nicely judged depictions of alien customs..." —SF Site "...was my favourite of the issue. ‘Enlightenment’ went exactly where I expected it to, but that was where I wanted it to go--I was there for the ride" "Stories [were] great, particularly ‘Enlightenment.’ [I] was just engrossed in the whole thing...and applaud it thoroughly!" "...just blew me away...I was taken away by the lovely prose." "...provoked some really interesting ideas..." "...mind-blowing..." —InterZone readers forum

Download or read book The Red Bird written by Douglas Smith and published by Lucky Bat Books. This book was released on 2016-11 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aurora Award Finalist. When the Shogun’s soldiers burn his village and kill his parents, young Asai is rescued by a strange red hawk and led to a fabled temple. Here, he trains under Ikada, the Warrior of the Red Bird and seeker of the Hidden Light. Asai will be the last Warrior, and unless he can succeed where all other Warriors have failed—to discover the Hidden Light—then his people will suffer a thousand years of misery. But when Sawako, a beautiful young woman, challenges him, Asai must choose between his heart, his people, and his destiny. "I loved this tale. ... It has the feel of a myth or legend about a boy who finds that his destiny is closely entwined with the destiny of a people. But rather than repeat a tale we’ve all read before, the author has written something subtly new. ... Honestly, I could have read it forever. The ending was that perfect combination of sadness and hope." —SF Crowsnest Review "A spellbinding piece of writing set in a Japan-that-never-was that is both well-plotted and elegantly paced" —Strange Horizons "A superbly told, involving, and brilliantly paced short story, complete with an ending made more tragic by its inevitability... Worth the price of the issue." —Tangent Online "A mini-epic about a young boy named Asai and the phoenix that saves him from death while his village is being raided... If you love Japanese and Samurai stories, this one will give you goose bumps." —Tangent Online "Powerful, moving and not quite predictable (A+)" —Fantasy Book Critic "A wonderfully recounted story, with an excellent pace and a perfect ending." —Bibliopolis

Download or read book The Walker of the Shifting Borderland written by Douglas Smith and published by Lucky Bat Books. This book was released on 2016-11 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aurora Award WINNER. The Walker is a child of the two Realms of the Continuum, a prince of Order and of Chaos—and a rebel against both. When he falls in love with an ephemeral, a mortal woman who is the key to the balance between the Realms, he triggers a struggle for her life—and the fate of her universe. "A very different sort of tale. ... A cosmic story of gods which seems to be inspired by the works of Michael Moorcock, and I think he would not be ashamed of it." —SF Crowsnest Reviews "A tale of epic love when a mortal gets caught between a battle of the gods. Smith reminds us that we have the potential to change the world around us and that self-sacrifice can be a means of making the world around us better." —Speculating Canada "The descriptions here have cosmic sweep..." —Locus Online

Download or read book The Last of a Thing written by Douglas Smith and published by Lucky Bat Books. This book was released on with total page 31 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Impossibilia written by Douglas Smith and published by Lucky Bat Books. This book was released on 2016-11 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aurora Award Finalist. We all have things we hide inside — secrets, fears, aspects of ourselves we keep locked away. Or try to. In that respect, the characters we meet in IMPOSSIBILIA are like any of us. They have things inside them too. Only their things are a little...different. A dead wife that won’t leave. A wolf with a past. The secret to being the luckiest man alive. And through all the stories, these characters share one more thing beyond what they hold inside. In the decisions they face, in the choices they make, they do what they do out of love. Lost love, found love, the love of their child. But love. So maybe they aren’t that different from us after all. “Doug Smith is, quite simply, the finest short-story writer Canada has ever produced in the science fiction and fantasy genres... His stories are a treasure trove of riches that will touch your heart while making you think.” —Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo Award-winning author “One of Canada's most original writers of speculative fiction.” —Library Journal "A great storyteller with a gifted and individual voice.” —Charles de Lint, World Fantasy Award winner

Download or read book Doorways written by Douglas Smith and published by Lucky Bat Books. This book was released on 2016-11 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aurora Award Finalist story from a multi-award winning author. The House promised Jack wealth, fame, and revenge...if it didn’t kill him first. ~~~ Dr. Lucius Rainer, head of research at GenTech, is dead. But to Jack, it seems that his old mentor still lives on through his house. Certainly, Rainer’s strange island retreat exudes the personality of its late owner: isolated and eccentric, brooding and uninviting. But when GenTech learns that the house holds a working model of Rainer’s final project, Jack discovers that the house shares one other trait with its former owner. Dangerous. The house will open only to Jack’s biometrics, and will only allow two very specific people to accompany him: Wendy, Jack’s now ex-wife, and Deak Sanderson, Wendy’s new lover and Jack’s former rival at GenTech. As the three of them explore the house and its secrets, Jack discovers that some doors—in this house and in life—should never be opened. “A couple months ago I was introduced to Douglas Smith by way of his collected short stories, Impossibilia. So I was looking forward to his story 'Doorways' and was not disappointed. ... This story has a cunningly satisfying conclusion. I find a good short story falls into two categories: There is the complete story, the novel miniaturised, which is a nearly perfect art form. These are hard to capture but constantly illustrated by such writers as Douglas Smith.” —SF Crowsnest Book Reviews “...is based on an interesting concept ... The puzzles [in the story] and the final invention that they hint at are intriguing ... Smith ties [the story's] denouement’s metaphorical significance in well with the technological concept at the center of the plot.” —The Fix

Download or read book Memories of the Dead Man written by Douglas Smith and published by Lucky Bat Books. This book was released on 2016-11 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mary and her teenage son, Jase, survive by their own wits in a post-plague Earth. On the run from a vicious gang, they are saved by Bishop, a man with mysterious powers who just may be the Dead Man, the legendary hero of the Fall of Earth. But Bishop’s dark past catches up with them all, forcing Bishop to choose between his love for Mary and Jase, or revenge against the men who killed his family. "All that you want in a sf short story is here from powerful characters, to action, mysterious happenings, and a dark, violent, but excellent tale. ... A bittersweet ending adds to the power of the story. (A++)" —Fantasy Book Critic "...again shows off Smith's flair for the cinematic. ... In his preface to the story, Smith announces his plan to write a novel about the Dead Man...I do look forward to reading it." —Strange Horizons "...has echoes of Stephen King wandering about its post-apocalyptic narrative." —Quill and Quire "...a wonderful example of the places this author is unafraid to go." —SF Crowsnest Reviews "...would make a great movie...a unique, post-apocalyptic blend of The Road Warrior and X-Men. ... It was very well done." —Tangent Online "I liked the style and subtleties of the storytelling that kept me firmly on the edge of my seat. ... The characters were what really impressed me, though—by a few lines into meeting each one you had a clear and definable presence in your mind." —SF Crowsnest Reviews

Download or read book The Dancer at the Red Door written by Douglas Smith and published by Lucky Bat Books. This book was released on 2016-11 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aurora Award Finalist. Alexander King has everything--wealth, power, a business empire over which he rules. But lately, the corporate game in which he excels has lost its thrill for him. He needs a new game. And then, on the crowded streets of Toronto, in the dead cold of winter, she appears before him. The Dancer. Achingly beautiful, half-naked, and dancing to a song that only she and King seem to hear, she becomes King’s new obsession, an obsession that draws him into a journey through a secret world hidden within the city he thought he knew...and to a very special club. "'The Dancer at the Red Door,' with its mix of oblique horror, urban fantasy, and monsters ... recalls British horror novelist Clive Barker at his most disturbingly fanciful." —Quill and Quire "An excellent story ... urban fantasy at its best." —Fantasy Book Critic "...intriguing meditation on escapism...evoking Gaiman's Neverwhere, the obligatory helping of Lovecraft, plus a touch of something like Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut" —Strange Horizons "Just as the song of the city leads King throughout his journey, so too does it lead the reader throughout Douglas Smith's beautifully crafted 'The Dancer at the Red Door.' The writing is lean and evocative; every element of the story works double-time as setting informs character, action creates mood, and nothing is superfluous. The song becomes a living, breathing creature which, more so than hearing, I could feel viscerally as I read Doug's wonderful story. Highly, highly recommended." —Rainbow Dragon Recommends

Download or read book Murphy s Law written by Douglas Smith and published by Lucky Bat Books. This book was released on 2016-11 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As First Officer on the part passenger ship, part space freighter, The Fiscal Restraint, Jack Dexter (Dex to his friends) thinks he knows all there is to know about "Murphy’s Law": If anything can go wrong, it will. And on the perpetually under-staffed, under-funded Restraint, it generally does. But he never expected to actually meet Murphy. The real Murphy. Dex hires Orville Sod onto the Restraint just before the ship makes the jump to deep space. Unfortunately, by the time that Dex figures out that Orville is a real-life "Murphy"—one of those sad souls who attract more than their fair share of calamity—things have become, uh, complicated. A VIP is almost killed... Food systems have shut down... The navigation computer has been destroyed. Well, at least things can’t get any worse... Oh...wait... "Douglas Smith showcases his talent for creating strong characters who are believable and sympathetic—even when they inhabit an absurd world. That world is painted vividly with efficient brush strokes as Smith expertly weaves between Murphy's misadventures on board the Fiscal Restraint and Dex's retelling of the same to his captive audience at The House Limit. 'Murphy's Law' is a hilarious, yet poignant read." —Rainbow Dragon Recommends

Download or read book Symphony written by Douglas Smith and published by Lucky Bat Books. This book was released on 2016-11 with total page 29 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aurora Award Finalist. The colony ship, The Last Chance, has fled a plague-poisoned Earth with the remnants of the human race. Launched before completion of its biosphere, the ship is only partly self-sustaining. Humanity has to find a new home—and time is running out. It isn’t called The Last Chance for nothing. When they find the planet, it seems a dream come true. Earth-like, breathable atmosphere, unpopulated. They name it Aurora, for the beauty that dances in its skies. At least, it had seemed beautiful at the time. Now they aren’t so sure. Now people are dying. Gar Franck is the ship’s communication expert. When signs point to a non-human intelligence on the planet, Gar becomes the key to communicating with it. But how can he communicate with an alien being when he can’t even talk to his autistic son, Anton, or his increasingly distant wife, Clara? "There are two stories in "Symphony"...both converge in a spectacular, explosive finale. Smith's prose is poetic and evocative. He creates an intricate fabric of light, color, and sound with effortless flair. The story’s fluid style and the abundance of complex, wrenching emotions [make this] another recommended story in this issue." —Eugie Foster and Marsha Sisolak, Tangent Online "A strong SF-nal story about a 'sentient light symphony' that objects to humans colonizing 'its planet.' How would you communicate with such and how would it react to a baby who lacks all 'human baggage' are some of the issues addressed here. (A+)" —Fantasy Book Critic

Download or read book Going Down to Lucky Town written by Douglas Smith and published by Lucky Bat Books. This book was released on 2016-11 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charlie the Pearl—con man, gambler, and ever absent father—is about to catch the dream that he’s chased his entire life—the secret of good luck. But it’s a secret that could cost Charlie the only thing in the world that he loves more than a winning streak—his daughter.

Download or read book Playing the Short Game How to Market Sell Short Fiction 2nd edition written by Douglas Smith and published by Spiral Path Books. This book was released on 2024-05-15 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Short story writers have needed a book like this for decades. ... It's spectacular.” — Kristine Kathryn Rusch, multi-award-winning author & editor Fully revised and current, this second edition addresses every change in the short fiction landscape since the classic original edition came out a decade ago. “Doug has gone through this new volume carefully, updating every possible detail. That makes the second edition as indispensable to the short fiction writer as the first.” — Kristine Kathryn Rusch, multi-award-winning author and editor Take your first step to becoming a professional short fiction writer—Buy this book! In an engaging and conversational style, multi-award-winning author Douglas Smith teaches how to market and sell short stories—and much, much more. Even experienced writers will find value here as Smith takes you from your first sale to using your stories to build a writing career. Topics include: The Fundamentals: The different types of writers. The benefits of short fiction. Rights and licensing. Selling Your Stories: Knowing when it's ready. Choosing markets. Submitting stories. Avoiding mistakes. How editors select stories. Dealing with rejections. When to give up on a story. After a Sale: Contracts. Working with editors. What your first sale means. Dealing with reviews. A Writer's Magic Bakery: Selling reprints. Foreign markets. Audio markets. Selling a collection. The indie option. Becoming Established: Leveraging your stories. Discoverability and promotion. Career progression in short fiction. Douglas Smith is the ideal person to write this book. His stories have appeared in thirty-seven countries and twenty-six languages. He has three acclaimed collections and has won five awards—three for his short fiction alone. “Douglas Smith is, quite simply, the finest short-story writer Canada has ever produced in the science fiction and fantasy genres.” —Robert J. Sawyer, multi-award-winning author “Lots of writers write good books on craft. Few have the experience to write good books on the publishing business. Doug is one of those few, and this book shows it.” — Kristine Kathryn Rusch, multi-award-winning author and editor

Download or read book Bouquet of Flowers in a Vase by Van Gogh written by Douglas Smith and published by Lucky Bat Books. This book was released on 2016-11 with total page 66 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Maroch, ex-CIA, reluctantly agrees to coach a beautiful young woman “remote viewer” in a scheme to locate lost paintings. But the woman, who bears an uncanny resemblance to his dead wife, has her own secrets. Together, they set off a chain of events that may alter the past and destroy both their lives. “The pièce de résistance of the collection and one of the best and most moving novellas I have read in a while. Haunting and evocative... Just astounding. ...” —Fantasy Book Critic “This is one of those heady and ambitious stories that throw so many different elements into the narrative mix that one wonders whether the author is going to be able to pull it off. In fact, Smith does so very skillfully, so that the plot arc, character development, and denouement come off feeling effortless and elegant, and quite satisfying.” —Dead Reckonings review magazine “...a beautiful and haunting tale of love, loss and remote viewing. “ —Hellnotes

Download or read book The Wolf at the End of the World written by Douglas Smith and published by Lucky Bat Books. This book was released on 2013-10-18 with total page 475 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A shapeshifter hero battles ancient spirits, a covert government agency, and his own dark past in a race to solve a murder that could mean the end of the world. The debut novel from the multi-award winning author that Library Journal describes as "one of Canada's most original writers of speculative fiction." "I can't remember the last time I read a book that spoke to me, so eloquently, and so deeply, on so many levels. ... I'll be rereading it in the future because it's that sort of book. Richly layered and deeply resonant. An old friend, from the first time you read it." -Charles de Lint, World Fantasy Award winner The Heroka walk among us. Unseen, unknown. Shapeshifters. Human in appearance but with power over their animal totems. Gwyn Blaidd is a Heroka of the wolf totem. Once he led his people in a deadly war against the Tainchel, the shadowy agency that hunts his kind. Now he lives alone in his wilderness home, wolves his only companions. But when an Ojibwe girl is brutally killed in Gwyn's old hometown, suspicion falls on his former lover. To save her, Gwyn must return, to battle not only the Tainchel, but even darker forces: ancient spirits fighting to enter our world... And rule it. Cree and Ojibwe legends mix with current day environmental conflict in this fast-paced urban fantasy that keeps you on the edge of your seat right up to its explosive conclusion.