Happy 2021!
It is a new year, and good riddance to 2020! While I did have some accomplishments last year – we published two books, Untouchable and Joy of the Widow’s Tears, plus I released my very short, short story collection of Pirate Ball and Brush Strokes, and I had a short story published in an issue of SciFi Lampoon. So not a bad year, but also not as productive as I had hoped. But I am giving my self a new writing challenge for 2021. No, not to write several novels (though I hope we can get the next Constable Inspector Lunaria Adventure completed for a 2022 release), or to get more short stories out there (though I hope that will happen too). No, what I have set up as a writing goal for myself this year is to complete at least one science fiction flash fiction story each month, with each month being a difference science fiction theme/sub-genre. Most of my writing has been in fantasy, with a few sci-fi, and I really want to push my craft this year. Science fiction allows for many different themes/sub-genres from which to pick from, and the flash fiction format (a story that is under 1,000 words in length) is also a fun challenge to push me to say more with less. I hope that by the end of 2021 I will have 12 new stories out there either ready to send to publications, or maybe to put together into my own collection. Who knows, but I think it will be fun to try.
There are many, many different science fiction themes that I could choose from. A partial (and certainly not all encompassing) list includes: alternate history, time travel, space opera, hard science fiction, aliens (first contact), military sci-fi, political sci-fi (not dystopian), spy-fi, space western, humorous science fiction (of sci-fi comedy), superheroes, steampunk, genetic engineering, aliens (invasion), generation ship, colonization, dystopian, utopian, solar punk, splatter punk, cyberpunk, apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic, sci-fi horror, climate fiction (cli-fi), supernatural, gothic science fiction, diesel punk, sci-fi romance, and shifter sci-fi (not fantasy or YA).
Out of this list I have chosen 12 themes that I will write on over the course of the year. My list of science fiction themes, sorted by month are:
January – alternate history
February – time travel
March – aliens (invasion)
April – dystopian
May – utopian
June – aliens (first contact)
July – military sci-fi
August – spy-fi
September – space western
October – gothic sci-fi
November – superhero
December – cyberpunk
I will post my stories here on the blog, and maybe I will pitch them around for publication. I also hope that any of you reading this might play along with me. Pick a story theme for a month and write a piece of flash fiction, then share it with the world. You can choose different themes than I did – heck, you can choose to pick a whole different genre! This is something you can all play along at home with.
Cheers, and happy writing!
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