Four Faces of an Alien God

Posted on December 23, 2014 by Rati Mehrotra

lamplight-thumbIsn’t that a really cool title? It’s the name I gave to my most experimental piece of flash fiction, which is now published by LampLight, a quarterly magazine of literary dark fiction. The issue is available for USD 2.99 in a variety of formats, if you’re interested in reading some really cool stories! Submission guidelines are here. Continue reading →

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Ghosts of Englehart

Posted on December 16, 2014 by Rati Mehrotra

ghostsAE-lrI’m pleased to report that my story Ghosts of Englehart is now live at AE – The Canadian Science Fiction Review. I love the illustration by Roan Carter. It’s beautiful and captures the feel of the story perfectly, I think. It’s worth clicking and hopping over to the story to see the full illustration. Continue reading →

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Schrödinger’s email

Posted on December 10, 2014 by Rati Mehrotra

schrodingers-catAh! An email from magazine xyz, where my story has been held for the last several months. My fingers hover over the mouse, anxious. In this moment, there are two possibilities – acceptance or rejection. Once I click and read the email, the possibilities will appear to collapse into one cold certainty. But while the email remains unread (and ignoring statistical information from the past, which veers heavily to form rejections), both are equally possible. Continue reading →

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Laughing my way through Heinlein

Posted on November 25, 2014 by Rati Mehrotra

I knew, before I picked up Stranger in a Strange Land, that I would probably find parts of it dated and offensive to women, and possibly racist. It was, after all, written in 1961. What I did not expect was to laugh immoderately at nearly every page.

The book won a Hugo, and the cover claims it is the ‘most famous science fiction novel of all time’. The plot, briefly: Valentine Michael Smith is a human who has been born and brought up among aliens in Mars. He is brought back to Earth, and thus has to deal with the ‘alien’ culture of humans. He is innocent and yet all-powerful, able to ‘disappear’ people merely by thinking it. Also, women faint when he kisses them, because, apparently, he does it so well. Continue reading →

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Another year, another Con: SFContario 5

Posted on November 17, 2014 by Rati Mehrotra

I’d been looking forward to Toronto’s SFContario 5 for months, and then a few days ago I read Michael Matheson’s disturbing blog post on why he wasn’t going to attend. My spirits plummeted. I almost did not go myself. In the end I did go – my crit group buddy Ariella was going to be on a couple of panels on Medieval Weaponry, and I wanted to support her. Plus this is the only sf/f convention in Toronto and I have found it both interesting and useful in the past.

So, the good stuff first. The Science Guest of Honour was Dan Falk, a well-known science journalist. I’d missed his ‘Science of Shakespeare’ talk at another venue, and I wanted to hear him. I was not disappointed. The Author Guest of Honour was fantasy writer Robin Hobb, a lucid and gracious speaker it was a delight to listen to. Continue reading →

Posted in Science fiction and fantasy | 10 Comments

Short story now live at Inscription Magazine

Posted on October 28, 2014 by Rati Mehrotra

AnjaliWoohoo! My YA science fiction story Anjali is now live at Inscription. Inscription is a great new magazine that publishes science fiction and fantasy for teens. All the stories are free to read online, and you don’t have to be a teen to enjoy them. 🙂

I think Inscription is filling an important niche. It’s one of the very few pro-paying markets for Young Adult science fiction and fantasy, and among those, perhaps the only one that actively seeks diversity in its content. While they are currently closed to submissions, they will hopefully re-open next year and publish lots more fantastic stories. Continue reading →

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Reality as a Mathematical Construct – really??

Posted on October 14, 2014 by Rati Mehrotra

tegmarkI’m reading cosmologist Max Tegmark’s Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality. I’m a sucker for popular science books on maths and physics, especially when they’re as well-written as this one. Max Tegmark argues that not only can our physical world be described by mathematics, but that it is a mathematical structure. Continue reading →

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Short story now live at Abyss & Apex

Posted on October 1, 2014 by Rati Mehrotra

Hatyasin-picYay! My short story Hatyasin is now live at Abyss & Apex, a great speculative fiction magazine. You can read my story here.  I enjoy perusing the fiction they publish every quarter and am so pleased to find Hatyasin among them. All the stories are free to read, so if you have the time, I highly recommend you pop over and check them out. Continue reading →

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Literary agent news

Posted on September 8, 2014 by Rati Mehrotra

kimberley-cameron-logoNews! I am now represented by the lovely Mary C. Moore, literary agent with Kimberley Cameron & Associates. Mary wears many hats – she’s a writer and editor as well as being a literary agent. You can read one of her short stories here.

Now, before you ask me when my book is coming out, my short answer is that I don’t know. An agent is not a publisher. An agent represents your interests to publishers, making submissions and managing contracts on your behalf. Most commercial publishers do not accept unagented submissions, so this is the way to go if you wish to be “traditionally” published. Continue reading →

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Spaceships, Magicians and Walruses

Posted on September 1, 2014 by Rati Mehrotra

Ah, September. The smell of new backpacks, the rude 6 am alarms, and the return, one hopes, to a writerly routine. Eventually, once the dust has settled…

Yes, I know I totally missed posting in August. One of the reading highlights of the past month? Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie. I’m not at all surprised that it won the Hugo award. It’s one of the best sf books I’ve read, period. The fact that the protagonist’s first language is gender-ambiguous, and everyone is referred to as ‘she’ by default, is just the icing on the cake. Without the cake, the icing would be mere yucky sugar. As it is, the book is an excellent read. Also, I am now in love with a spaceship. Continue reading →

Posted in Books and media, Science fiction and fantasy, Writing | Tagged , , | 3 Comments