Concept Sci-fi - Issue 05.pdf - Concept Sci-fi - allforjesus2001

WWW.CONCEPTSCIFI.COM

April 2009 Issue #5

Featuring:

- Mind Games by Dylan Fox

- A Second Burial by Lawrence Buentello

and more. Plus...

- An interview with Lou Anders from Pyr SF

APRIL 2009 ISSUE #5

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- Controlling Pace and Flow

In This Issue

Editorial.......................................................................................................................................................3

Mind Games................................................................................................................................................3

by Dylan Fox

Concept Sci-fi 2009 Short Story Competition.......................................................................24

88 Miles Per Hour................................................................................................................................25

A column by Andrew Males

A Second Burial....................................................................................................................................29

by Lawrence Buentello

Controlling Pace and Flow..............................................................................................................32

by Gary Reynolds

An interview with Lou Anders from Pyr SF..........................................................................37

by Gary Reynolds

The Beacon...............................................................................................................................................42

by Jonathan Lowe

APRIL 2009 ISSUE #5

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Editorial

Welcome to the fifth issue of the Concept Sci-fi Ezine - Concept Sci-fi has now

been running for almost a year!

Over the past twelve months I hope you'll agree that a considerable amount of

content has been added to the website - and I sincerely hope that you've enjoyed

reading it. I'm hoping that there'll be much more to come in the next year as

well.

We currently have our short story competition which is being judged by Sean

Williams and I'm hoping to run a smaller, flash-fiction competition later in the year. I also have plans to interview

some of the larger publishers and this is all on top of the usual reviews, novel excerpts and the occasional article on

writing.

Anyway, enough of my ramblings.

As always if you have any suggestions or comments, please email feedback@conceptscifi.com . And if you'd like to

subscribe and get future issues directly to your in-box for free, then visit http://www.conceptscifi.com . I hope that

you enjoy issue #5.

Gary Reynolds.

Editor .

Artwork

Stu Driver at http://obsidianhawke.deviantart.com

Fiction

Dylan Fox, Lawrence Buentello, Jonathan Lowe

Non-fiction

Andrew Males, Gary Reynolds

Special Thanks To

Lou Anders

APRIL 2009 ISSUE #5

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Mind Games

by Dylan Fox

“She won't be long,” Peter tells me.

I'm glad: I didn't come all this way to hear someone being sick, and it's not a nice thing to listen to.

“Mind if I smoke?” I ask.

Peter shakes his head, but looks a little disappointed in me.

“A lady shouldn't smoke,” he tells me. I assume he's talking to me, but I haven't been called a 'lady' since I was five

and adults were patronizing me.

I look around. It's a nice room. There's a double-bed, a wardrobe which is older than me, a dresser which matches it

and space enough to pace. There's a window which opens so you can breath in the views of the cobbled road, the

clean air and the pale winter sunlight. There's thick curtains so you can block it all out.

The en-suite toilet flushes, there's the sound of water running into a basin and the door unlocks.

Peter stops his pacing, and looks up at Talia as she comes back into the room. She refuses to meet anyone's eyes and

pushes her long, dark hair out of her face.

“I'm sick of this shit hole,” she mutters. “It's like living in the third world.”

She slumps into a comfortable chair and hugs her knees. Peter goes over and sits on the floor beside her. She lets

him take her hand. She feels the warmth and love in it, and smiles weakly.

I go over to the window and open it. The afternoon air is cold, but it's clean. I take in a deep lungful, and start to

cough. There's a lifetime of smog and sweat and grease and dirt in my lungs and it doesn't like being disturbed.

Peter and Talia look at me. I take a cigarette out, and light up. It's just cheap smoking mix, but it tastes like home

and right now I'm grateful for it.

“How long are we going to have to stay here for?” Talia asks.

Peter is quiet for a moment before he answers.

APRIL 2009 ISSUE #5

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“Until it's not safe here any more. Then we'll find somewhere else to hide.”

Talia sighs and closes her eyes. Peter squeezes her hand. They think they're being subtle, but the cuff-links on

Peter's shirt would pay the rent on this room for a week.

“We went to the doctor,” Peter says, and I realise he's talking to me. I sit on the windowsill so I can breathe my

smoke outside.

“They can't find anything wrong with her,” he tells me, “but it's getting worse. The headaches are causing major

stress to her whole body. When they took her blood pressure, the doctor's eyebrows raised like he'd caught a

dragonfly. She's shaking up.”

“Maybe it's the food,” I say. They look like they're used to the organic stuff, not the stuff grown in stinking vats

they've been eating the past few days. Weeks, maybe.

“I got the first headache just before I met Peter,” Talia says. Her voice is tired, like someone fighting cancer.

“What happened before that?” I ask.

Talia shrugs. “Nothing.”

“Nothing?” I echo. She shrugs again.

“There was... your brother,” she glances up at me, “drinks, food. I dunno. Just normal.”

“Nothing at all?”

“No,” she says, getting annoyed at me. “Just... drinking, eating.”

“Treatment,” Peter adds.

“Yeah,” she agrees, squeezing his hand. “The day before I met you.”

They exchange a 'just fallen in love' smile.

“You don't think someone going into you psyche, de-constructing your memories and rebuilding them is going to

give you a headache?” I ask.

They look at me.

“I never reacted like this when they were doing all the mapping,” she tells me like I'm stupid.

I close my eyes so they can't see me rolling them, and finish my cigarette in silence.

***

I'd been unemployed for almost a week when Hugo called. In my defence, it wasn't my fault that I lost my job. The

Somniuns have an unfair advantage, I tell myself. They work harder, complain less and actually believe all that

APRIL 2009 ISSUE #5

Concept Sci-fi - Issue 05.pdf

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