NEW RELEASE: My Battery Is Low and It Is Getting Dark

It's here! Starting today, you can pick up a brand new sci-fi anthology featuring one of my stories, MY BATTERY IS LOW AND IT IS GETTING DARK. The theme of this one is various forms of technology finding renewed purpose in obsolescence.

The immediate comparison is Wall-E, but for some reason my mind goes right to The Brave Little Toaster.

Anyway, here's the synopsis for the anthology:

A military attack drone turned shepherd. A train on the London Underground evolving into something new and wondrous. A troupe of robotic actors struggling to find meaning when the audience has disappeared. Explore the myriad ideas of what happens when out-of-date and abandoned technologies are given a second life—one that takes them in a new direction, far outside their intended programming and beyond their original purpose.

MY BATTERY IS LOW AND IT IS GETTING DARK features fourteen stories of quiet hope, heartbreak, creation, and death from fantasy and science fiction authors Dana Berube, Merc Fenn Wolfmoor, Jacey Bedford, Anthony Lowe, Chris Kocher, Brian Hugenbruch, William Leisner, José Pablo Iriarte, Alethea Kontis, Kari Sperring, Edward Willett, John G. Hartness, Alexander Gideon, and Stephen Leigh. You may never look at your smart speaker the same way again.

I was able to take a look at some of the stories while doing some edits and there's some good stuff in there. My story is titled, "Ain't Done Haunting," and I'm pretty proud of this one. I'll probably talk about it more at-length once the anthology has been out there a bit, since I don't want to give anything away.

You can pick up MY BATTERY IS LOW AND IT IS GETTING DARK almost anywhere books are sold online. You can also purchase through the publisher if you want to support a small press directly.

I'll make a proper update about some upcoming projects in the near future, but in the meantime I've recently started a Twitter account. Still getting used to how to even, like, Tweet and stuff, but if you want to see me geek out about Star Wars or whatever game I happen to be addicted to recently (LOTRO), then look me up: @AntonymLowe

Thanks -- and be safe!

MY BATTERY IS LOW AND IT IS GETTING DARK

Zombies Need Brains LLC Official Store:

(Supports the publisher directly)

- Trade Paperback

- Kickstarter Paperback Edition

- eBook (Mobi, ePub, or PDF)

- Cover Art Print by Justin Adams

BookShop
(Support a community of indie bookstores)

IndieBound
(Buy directly from your local bookstore)

Amazon:

- Kindle

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Barnes & Noble:

- NOOK Version

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Google Play

Rakuten Kobo

NEW SHORT STORY: "Our Sun Is Shining on the City"

One of the very few perks of the self-quarantine lifestyle is that it has freed me up to start packaging some short stories that I had intended to get onto Amazon at some point. Well, that point has arrived!

"Our Sun Is Shining on the City" is a science fiction/post-apocalypse short story about people surviving inside the guts of decaying alien machinery that was once used to hollow out the planet's core. Here's the synopsis:

From origins unknown, towering machines descended upon the planet of Narashi and forcibly hollowed out its core, leaving behind an uninhabitable world, a decimated civilization, and a sprawl of interconnected drilling rigs that dwarf even the tallest mountains. 

Inside these decaying rigs, what remains of Narashi's natives endure, subsisting on captured oxygen, water from cooling lines, and what little food can be grown with scant sunlight. 

Taura and Carth are young siblings who scavenge abandoned settlements in the dark for their benefactor. As they pick through emptied shelters and shops, they begin to wonder just how long any of them have, as the alien machinery that sustains them begins to show signs of death throes.

I really liked how this story turned out. The inspiration for it actually came out of some books I read that centered on environmental justice. Stories about outsiders coming in, taking what they need out of the ground, and then just leaving, usually devastating communities in the process. I wanted to extrapolate that out to a planetary scale, where people literally have nowhere to go and just have to survive in what's left.

By the time this is posted, the story should be published. It should also be included in Kindle Unlimited, if you happen to have that!

Stay tuned for some more stories! Also, if you missed my last post, I have a story coming out soon in the sci-fi anthology, MY BATTERY IS LOW AND IT IS GETTING DARK.

Be safe, everyone!

ANTHOLOGY ANNOUNCEMENT: My Battery Is Low and It Is Getting Dark (July 1, 2020)

I'm finally able to announce that I'll be contributing a short story to another ZNB anthology this year on July 1st! The story is called "Ain't Done Haunting" and it'll be published in MY BATTERY IS LOW AND IT IS GETTING DARK, a sci-fi anthology about various forms of technology finding renewed purpose in obsolescence.

Here's the synopsis for the collection:

A military attack drone turned shepherd. A train on the London Underground evolving into something new and wondrous. A troupe of robotic actors struggling to find meaning when the audience has disappeared. Explore the myriad ideas of what happens when out-of-date and abandoned technologies are given a second life—one that takes them in a new direction, far outside their intended programming and beyond their original purpose.  

MY BATTERY IS LOW AND IT IS GETTING DARK features fourteen stories of quiet hope, heartbreak, creation, and death from fantasy and science fiction authors Dana Berube, Merc Fenn Wolfmoor, Jacey Bedford, Anthony Lowe, Chris Kocher, Brian Hugenbruch, William Leisner, José Pablo Iriarte, Alethea Kontis, Kari Sperring, Edward Willett, John G. Hartness, Alexander Gideon, and Stephen Leigh. You may never look at your smart speaker the same way again.

I was very excited to be able to work with Zombies Need Brains again. They are just a well-oiled machine at this point after so many successful projects and they put out quality products by unique voices.

And "Ain't Done Haunting" is a story I'm particularly proud of, so I'm glad it was able to find a home here.

You can preorder the anthology right now, either directly through the publisher or through Amazon. It'll also be available through the usual suspects (Nook, Scribd, Kobo, Baen, etc.) on the release date. If you're all about physical copies (like me), those will be available, as well.

Hope you'll consider giving the anthology a look when it's released on July 1st!

MY BATTERY IS LOW AND IT IS GETTING DARK

Zombies Need Brains Official Store

(Supports the publisher directly)

Kickstarter Paperback Edition

eBook (Epub, Mobi, PDF)

Cover Art Print

Amazon

Kindle Version

"All the Stars in My Eyes" and "In the Land of Dead Dragons"

                 

And they're up! The last of the three short stories that I planned on putting up before the summer.

Just like "Alive," these are two stories that I just had a ton of fun writing. Both in the first person, both characters who could safely be accused of being a little heartless.

The first, "All the Stars in My Eyes," is a near-future sci-fi story about a doubler, someone who uses state-of-the-art tech to take the place of celebrities when they have to tap out for a bit. Seems like the need for the actual actor/actress to be on set is diminishing over time, so this is about a time when the need to actually be at their own meet-and-greets and on their own press tours is tenuous.

Here's the synopsis:

She's a doubler. Hired to take the place of imperiled celebrities.

She lives in the spotlight that isn't hers, revels in adoration she never earned. A composite of a failed actress and state-of-the-art disguises, she's lived the celebrity life for so long that she's starting to believe she deserves it.

The second story, "In the Land of Dead Dragons," is a LitRPG short story about a woman trying unriddle her brother's lifestyle. In the absence of anything to go on in realspace, she dives into the most popular VR-RPG in the world, The Realm of Avarill, and tries to find anyone who might have encountered her brother in the years that he played the game.

And the synopsis:

Orin the Dragonslayer has vanished from The Realm of Avarill -- the most popular VR-RPG in the world. In his place, Valystra de Fere approaches.

She comes seeking Orin's legacy, tales of his heroics, and the cold trails he left behind. All so that, back in realspace, she might better understand the brother she fell out of touch with so many years ago.

I added a series title, because I'd genuinely like to write some more stories using this setting. The one I'm starting to outline probably won't be nearly as silly!

Thanks and enjoy!

Alive in Obsolescence: A Cyberpunk Short Story

It's up! The first of three short stories I'll be self-publishing through Kindle for now, each of which will feature cover art from my talented sister.

This is a story I wrote about a year ago as a return trip to a post-apocalyptic setting, this time with a cyberpunk slant. Here's the synopsis:

The world is dying. Thick smog chokes the skies and the oceans are acrid and toxic. As a pleasant alternative to riding out extinction, humanity is retreating into battery-powered VR simulations.

Unfortunately for Shilo, his battery has run out -- and hard reality awaits.

The other two will be up within the next week or so, with one being a litRPG story and the other a kind of sci-fi take on celebrity worship. I'm wrapping up final edits on them now.

Enjoy!

Angry Robot Accepting Submissions!

The adult sci-fi/fantasy publisher, Angry Robot, is accepting unsolicited manuscripts through the end of the year! I haven't been able to read anything from them yet, though I have a copy of Paul S. Kemp's The Hammer and Blade sitting on my shelf waiting to be read. I would love to be able to get something done for them, but I'm not so sure I'd be able to make the deadline, since they only accept manuscripts with a minimum of 75,000 words and I'm nowhere near that right now.

Still! If anyone has a manuscript to send their way, here's the link!

http://angryrobotbooks.com/opendoor

Short Stories!

Since my last entry in the Writers of the Future contest didn't make the cut, I've posted it over on my Tumblr in its entirety. It's called "Termination Shock", and it's about two women trying to save their strained relationship in a place where the sun (strangely enough) hasn't risen in over a week.

Also, to be more on topic, I have another short story available that acts as a pseudo-prequel to The Outcasts of Vampire Flats. I say "pseudo" because a few little details don't sync up so perfectly with the novel, but it's still by-and-large the basis for Outcasts. It's where I jokingly made up a place called Vampire Flats just to show how inept these three can be on occasion, and decided to run with it when the idea of a novel started to come about. If you're interested, it's called "The Lords of Reluctance."

Anyway, here's the link to the short stories RIGHT HERE.

Enjoy!