My story “The Arms Dealer’s Daughter” appears in the electronic edition of the new issue of Space and Time magazine. It’s a bonus story for those who read the ebook, since it doesn’t appear in the print edition.

“The Arms Dealer’s Daughter” is about Ariel Shaad and Raena Zacari, characters from my space opera trilogy In the Wake of the Templars. It isn’t necessary to have read the books to enjoy the story.  In fact, the short story is about how they met. It takes place when they were teenagers.

I’m really proud of how the story turned out.  I wanted to write a twist story, like the ones I loved when I was the age of the characters in the story…which doesn’t mean it’s a YA story at all.  Those hadn’t been invented yet when I was the age to read them.

When I was a teen, my mom worked at a branch of the public library in Flint, Michigan.  I’d go with her to work and check out all the books in the library’s science fiction shelves. I discovered Dangerous Visions that way, which led to the works of Harlan Ellison and Damon Knight, and the short political fiction of Ursula LeGuin.

All those influences are visible in this story.  In it are young people making questionable choices and acting out, all the while blind to the way their society works.  There’s a nod to A Clockwork Orange, too, and Bright Lights, Big City.

The story takes place amongst the multiplicity of creatures that inhabit the galaxy of The Dangerous Type and No More Heroes. That universe is a nod to the original Star Wars movie, where the Mos Eisley cantina scene hints that humans are a minority in the galaxy.

My story is flavored by repeated listening to Gary Numan’s Replicas album, with its undercurrent of menace and the repeated appearance of electric friends.

My whole experience with Space & Time was great. I saw they’d gotten a new editor in January, so I submitted the story at the end of the month.  They accepted it in February, sent a contract a week later, and then sent the payment before the story was published.

The issue I’m in — #133 — is primarily a poetry issue. It contains poems by Terrie Leigh Relf, Christina Sng, Roh Morgon, and so many more, and reviews by Linda D. Addison, along with a story by Gordon Linzer, Sally McBride, and a werecreature story by John L. French.

To be published in Space & Time has been a goal of mine for a long time. I’m thrilled that my story found a home with them.  I hope you’ll check the new issue out.

Space & Time site: https://www.spaceandtimemagazine.net/

Weightless Books: https://weightlessbooks.com/format/space-and-time-magazine-issue-133/

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