Interdimensional forests, atomic ghosts and future tech gone
horribly wrong abound in SHORTCUTS, a new series of ebook novellas from Paper
Road Press.
The Wellington-based press launched the series at the start
of this month with the first of six standalone novellas that use New Zealand as
a jumping-off point for stories about dystopic futures, eerie presents and
potential pasts. Publisher Marie Hodgkinson says that ebooks are the “perfect
format for these stories that would be too short to realistically publish in
print, but which are fantastic windows into the sort of incredible science
fiction and fantasy writing coming out of New Zealand today. SHORTCUTS ebooks
are a way to celebrate New Zealand writers and imagination, and share them with
the world.”
Readers can purchase the individual ebooks from all major
online vendors such as Amazon and Kobo. And since SHORTCUTS is a series,
there’s the opportunity to subscribe to receive each of the new ebooks as
they’re published, one per month for six months.
Find out more about the first three SHORTCUTS stories below.
MIKA | Lee
Murray & Piper Mejia (April)
Mika Tāura arrives in New York in the middle of a storm,
where she accidentally kills a motorist and lands herself with an injured
child. What’s more, she’s missed her rendezvous.
Stan has problems of his own. Several of them just broke into
his apartment and tried to kill him, which may explain why he hitching a ride
in Mika’s armoured waka seems like a good idea. Besides, her business is taking
her across to the West Coast, and so – conveniently – is his.
On the run, Mika, Stan and the girl flee across the country
to Stan’s reservation home, where they encounter a couple who may be the key to
Mika’s mission. But time is running out, for the travellers and for those they
leave behind them.
THE LAST |
Grant Stone (May)
Forty years ago, Katherine St. John disappeared – briefly.
Thirty years ago, she enacted a disappearance of another sort, stepping not
just away from her music career but across the ocean to the other side of the
world.
Yesterday, Rachel Mackenzie’s flight touched down in
Auckland. She’s travelled to New Zealand to interview the reclusive musician
Katherine St. John about her first album in nearly thirty years. But strange
things are happening at St. John's farm and soon Rachel finds herself caught up
in something far larger than the world of music.
BREE’S
DINOSAUR | AC Buchanan (June)
Cam’s ambitions are straightforward: study Business English
in Wellington for six months, then return to Vietnam to build a promising
career. She doesn’t need any complications, least of all those created by Bree,
her host-family’s secretive, troubled, teenage daughter. But when a dinosaur is
being (very noisily) built in the bedroom next to yours, and a meteor-strike is
threatening, it’s not always possible to avoid being sucked in – especially
when there's an extinct animal in your own history. And one winter night in
Karori, Bree's past resurfaces as well.
More information: www.paperroadpress.co.nz/shortcuts
No comments:
Post a Comment