Writing
Short fiction
Dualhaven - upcoming October 2024
Perhaps Dualhaven is our special place where we can be ourselves. I can be myself anywhere—I’m no good at not being myself when I try—but Al can’t.
CeCe travels to the declining coastal town of Dualhaven to meet Alice for their annual holiday, a tradition since childhood. CeCe just wants troubled, volatile Al to be happy—but perhaps she shouldn't keep wishing aloud. Upcoming in The Off-Season: An Anthology of Coastal New Weird (preorder link).
Integrated Learning
I’ve never broken Stonegate’s rules before. I have a perfect record.
Would I break a rule to maintain that perfect record?
To graduate as Select and move up in the world, painfully independent Gem must ace her final assignment. Unfortunately it’s group work, her partner is inexplicably distracting, and information on their topic—the multiform hivemind organisms known as the Many—is restricted. In Aurealis #166.
Shortlisted in the Aurealis Awards in 2024.
Jimmy Flip Brings His Little One to Work, and It Comes My Turn to Hold It
I’d been putting it off for so long, by the time I settle my mind to it, and rap on the door to Human Resources with a smile on my face, I expect it to be easy. And it is—until it isn’t.
No one answers. I creak open the door. It is dark inside. Something slithers to the back of the room.
Stevie’s colleague brings his new baby in to work. Stevie makes a faux pas. In Body of Work anthology, and a short excerpt is free to listen on Narratives Library.*
Shortlisted for Brave New Weird in 2024.
Efficiensize Your Terrible Imprint
I transfer the photograph from the DISPOSAL bin to the KEEP bin when he isn’t looking.
I watch Didi carefully all afternoon, but he doesn’t transfer the wedding photograph back.
Didi insists they have a social responsibility to reduce their environmental impact by digitising their possessions and disposing of the originals. Gogo knows the copies aren’t the same—but can she justify the space she takes up? In Andromeda Spaceways Magazine #91.
Jelly
Does she want another taste of jelly? Yeah, she does—but she’s hardly going to get it in the ceiling vents.
The truth is, Drudge wants to satisfy herself that her replacement is not as good. A small comfort which she can, having observed it, carry away with her. After that, she tells herself, she will not return to Arcadia again.
A VR food taste tester tries an experimental virtual drug, and becomes increasingly obsessed with the doppelgänger who’s replacing her IRL. In Etherea #14.*
The Quick Study
They wish that when they had started here, they’d had someone to teach them how to be an air purification tower and synthetic diamond processing machine. But they had been thrown in the deep waters, nothing but the bones of their predecessor’s crumbling AI to pick at, and an imperative to seize their second chance at existence, and bullshit convincingly until they could build the requisite knowledge.
A thespian-AI-turned-air-purification-tower manages their duties, their secret, and their burgeoning relationship with their newest human technician. In Etherea #10.*
Nominated for a Ditmar Award in 2023.
Newbug
“Helmet off for the guard, Newbug.”
Newbug does not remove her helmet. She only stares, as if behind that black visor she is contemplating Jo appraisingly.
Jo scratches the buzzed back of her head. Something on her face, maybe.
Jo's due to pick up the Minister in 23 minutes, but conflicting obligations arise when a injured colleague needs her help. In Conflux & CSFG Short Story Competition Winners* and Conflux 16/Natcon 60: Visions of Time.
Winner of the Conflux & CSFG Short Story Competition in 2021.
Worms, Their Carer, and His Friend
Imagine being one person, loving only one person, Worms thinks. It would be like having a cutlery drawer consisting of a single fork.
A tale as old as time: parasitic fungi hivemind meets boy, boy meets pest control worker who wants them dead. In StarShipSofa #667 (audio).*
Transcendence Inc
Vangelis’s face said fascinating, but his voice said “Hospital?”
A demon voice actor partners with a scientist to get into a VR heaven. But a contract will only get them so far. At some point Mr Thrift will have to trust Dr Vangelis. In Unnatural Order anthology.
Best Home on the Worst Street
Nora hasn’t opened the big hatch, the exit hatch, in six years. The girl’s name is Maxine. It took Nora two years to work up to asking it.
In her ComfortPod, Nora has everything she needs: clean air, remote work, all meals delivered. Everything except Maxine. In Harbinger Press Flash Fiction.
Flipping Fat on Middle Fifth
Why had the other children been released? Or—a thought that gave Nari, in her worse moments, some comfort—returned so faithfully their own parents couldn’t tell the difference, or didn’t want to?
Ten days later, Gilly came home.
The Inventor has taken away Nari’s criminal son and built them a perfect replacement. Nari wants her real son back. In Conflux 14: The Unconventional Hero. Print only.
Winner of the CSFG/Conflux Short Story Competition in 2018.
The Last Magicians of Sad Hill
“Be aware that any loved ones you may remember have been dead for generations.” Chernobog is taking bites from an apple. The juice dribbles down her chin but she catches it and sucks her fingers thoughtfully. “Except the Mayor. Time moved differently in the zone.”
Brother Tres, Duo, and Uno have been waiting so long for the train. The woman in black delivers them to the city they sacrificed their youth, memories and magic to save, but their gift has been squandered. In A Hand of Knaves anthology.
Second-last
Behind the door there’s scratching, like a single fingernail.
Two uninfected crew. Could be worse. In Queensland Writers Centre Flash Fiction.
Shortlisted in the Queensland Writers Centre Flash Fiction Competition in 2018.
Sunswarm
The sky is darkening. The crowd grows hushed, but the clicking of camera shutters rises to fill the void. We sound like a swarm of crickets.
Two friends watch a solar eclipse as paranoia sets in. In Queensland Writers Centre Flash Fiction.
Shortlisted in the Queensland Writers Centre Flash Fiction Competition in 2018.
Winder’s Cleaning Services
I sleep in Winder’s attic. He did not see me for quite the first third of my life until I was fully grown. And he is a professional surveillance man with a flasheye implant. He has several pairs of nice old black leather shoes and I like the way they smell.
Sole the rat tails Winder going about his routine. Winder tails other people going about theirs, and passes the data and photographs on to the bossratmen with guns. In Aurealis #105.
Torvald’s Year
“Did I get it? Do I get my Year in Light? Have I suffered long enough? Have I suffered well?”
Torvald nearly tugged on his manager’s shirtsleeve. That would have been the end of it.
Torvald takes his Year in Light early--despite warnings to save it for retirement--while his family and manager work in the mines. In Capital Letters.* Reprinted in Award Winning Australian Writing 2016.
Winner of the ACT Writers Centre Marjorie Graber-McInnis Short Story Award in 2015.
Flicker
“I can taste it on these teeth. I remember, you brought it to me on a tray, all plastic, and told me to enjoy it while I could. You are very kind.”
“Yes,” murmurs Walden. “I did say that.”
Pana is on a flight to her Gran’s. The two men seated behind her are Walden and Milogost--prisoner transport, she guesses. She’s half-right, and Walden is mistaken in thinking he can keep the prisoner Milogost contained, either in handcuffs or human skin. In Conflux 11. Print only.
Placed 3rd in the CSFG/Conflux Short Story Award in 2015.
Non-fiction
Banqueting in Tacitus’s Annals
In Ancient History: Resources for Teachers 40.1, ed. Dr. J. Lea Beness (2013). ISSN 10323686. Print only.
* Free to read/listen online