Guess what I’m holding in my hand? My contributor copy of the July/August issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction! ❤️😊

My story “Knock, Knock Said the Ship” is the first one, on page 11. Think sentient spaceships, space piracy and some truly terrible jokes! With many thanks to editor Charlie Finlay for his insightful edits. This is one of the longest running SFF magazines which has published some of my favorite authors in the genre, and I’m so happy this story found such a fantastic home!

Here is how it begins:

     Knock knock, said the ship.
Deenu, seated at her console, started. Even though she should have been used to Kaalratri’s voice in her head by now, the interruption made her lose track of the route she’d been trying to calculate. What? she subvocalized.
     It’s a human joke. You are supposed to say, who is there?
     Okay. Who is there?
     You’ll . . .
     What?
     Now you are supposed to say, you’ll who? said the ship patiently.
     You’ll who?
     You’ll never know unless you open the door.

As a reviewer helpfully pointed out, it should be “Yul” and not “You’ll” in order to preserve the pun, LOL. Let’s pretend I wrote “Yul”.

If you’d like to read the story (and several other fantastic ones!) you can subscribe to The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction here. You can also purchase individual issues here. Unless you’re my mother, in which case I will mail you a signed copy, heh.