fiction – P.G. Galalis

A Superhero Story

The last time I posted, I alluded to some additional story news I hoped to share soon. Well, here it is, albeit rather belatedly: “Three Times Dad Saved the World, and One Time He Didn’t” appeared in the December 2021 issue of Future Science Fiction Digest, edited by Alex Shvartsman.

I’m really honored to have a story in Future SF, a magazine that specializes in publishing international science fiction, whether in translation or penned by writers from non-anglophone countries. Every so often, Alex will open to submissions from other authors, and I was thrilled that he liked this one of mine. It’s my take on a superhero tale, from the eyes of a mourning son. I hope you enjoy! And be sure to check out the other stories in the issue by Wanxiang Fengnian and Christine Lucas–they’re superb.

A Drabble and a Podcast

Two new publications to share with you since my last (*ulp*) very-long-ago update:

Cover of Martian: The Magazine of Science Fiction Drabbles Issue 1, Fall 2021, picturing an alien cityscape against a blue and orange sky, with a lone cloaked figure walking towards it on a road.

Jupiter Mission One is a drabble–a complete story of exactly 100 words—in Martian Magazine, a new publication from editor Eric Fomely specializing exclusively in such stories. While this is the first drabble I’ve published, I’ve played around with the form before (dare I say, I’ve dabbled in drabbles?), and it’s delightfully challenging! It’s easy to pump out a hundred words of description or narrative; the challenge is to tell a whole story, beginning, middle, and end, with a conflict and resolution, rather than just a vignette or sketch. If you’ve ever attempted to write a sonnet, writing a drabble is a similar experience, where limitation and structure breed creativity, only in narrative prose rather than verse. I hope you’ll give this one a read and drop me a line if you enjoy it!

In another first, my story Knock, Knock, Wolf, originally printed in Footsteps in the Dark from Flame Tree Publishing, has been produced for audio by the best in the business over at the long-running PseudoPod horror podcast. I thought narrator Rish Outfield did an amazing job bringing the widow Clarabel to life in this dark, chilly tale, and it was a real thrill listening to a voice actor perform my work! The episode dropped back in July, but it makes a great listen right now at this time of year here in the American northeast, when the bare trees rattle their bone song to an empty sky…

That’s all for now, but I should have another new story to announce soon… Stay tuned, and thanks for reading!

Read for Free: “Dear Parents, Your Child Is Not the Chosen One”

I’m a few days behind announcing this here on the blog, but my short story, “Dear Parents, Your Child Is Not the Chosen One,” can now be read for free at Diabolical Plots!

This story came out of two things I was wondering when I wrote it:

(1) My kids had been listening to a lot of Harry Potter audio books (still are, in fact), and as a teacher, I kept wondering what kinds of professional responsibilities the Hogwarts faculty were dealing with behind the scenes.

A story about all the grading work they probably have wouldn’t have been that interesting (one supposes the faculty all have time turners to get through the marking), but a story about dealing with overbearing parents? Now that might be something… (Lord knows the Malfoys must have eaten up a lot of Dumbledore’s time).

(2) I was wondering about the kinds of people who crave some special mantle they feel entitled to, but just… aren’t. We all know about sf’s actual Chosen Ones: the Harry Potters and the Skywalkers, the King Arthurs and the four Pevensie children, and so on.

But what about the ones who want to be Chosen, but just aren’t cut out for it? Or worse yet, the ones whose parents want them to be the Chosen One?

And so was born one Ms. Madeleine Whimbley, teacher of Intermediate Feats and Virtues at the Avalon Preparatory Academy for Adventurers, and the present story, collected from her correspondence with the parents of one Rodney Goodblood, unacceptably average student.

I had a lot of fun writing this one! Hope you enjoy.

https://www.diabolicalplots.com/dp-fiction-55b-dear-parents-your-child-is-not-the-chosen-one-by-p-g-galalis/

Out Now: “Sir Geoffrey and the Dragon”

My story, “A Truer Account of Sir Geoffrey and the Dragon,” is out now in Galaxy’s Edge Magazine No. 40! It will be free to read there from now through October.

Two or three years ago, while teaching The Hobbit, I was talking with my class about Smaug and dragons in general, and their propensity for hoarding gold, and how it might symbolize (among other things) the greed of a bad king. You can certainly see this in Beowulf, and it also resonates in The Hobbit, where the real antagonist turns out not to be Smaug, nor even really the goblins, but the dragon hoard that the good guys nearly come to blows over.

In the course of that class discussion, I quipped that it might be funny if there was one dragon who had actually earned all his gold legitimately, but knights-in-shining-armor kept challenging him anyway. It got a chuckle from the class, but the idea stayed with me. Eventually it turned into this story. Whether or not the dragon narrator actually has earned his hoard legitimately…? I’ll let you be the judge!

Hope you enjoy!

Out Now: “Dear Parents…”

My story, “Dear Parents, Your Child Is Not the Chosen One,” is out now in Diabolical Plots: Year Five!

As a teacher, I’ve often wondered what kinds of things the Hogwarts faculty in Harry Potter have to deal with in their professional lives, when they’re not helping save the world from–or secretly serving–He Who Shall Not Be Named. This story, collected from the correspondence of one Ms. Madeleine Whimbley of the Avalon Preparatory Academy for Adventurers, is the result.

I hope you enjoy it!