Author Graham J. Darling: Fiction

Graham J. Darling (Full Member SFWA, Active Pro Writer HWA, Member SF Canada) of Metro Ottawa Canada writes stories of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror, and singular hybrids thereof. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

Stories

“A Pleasant Walk, a Pleasant Talk” — who are they and what do they want with us? we bring you the breaking news (1300 words; available for reprint).

• 2019-01 Pulp Literature magazine, Issue 21 (print, digital).
• 2020-10 Jay Chakravarti (ed.) Breathe (print, digital).
• 2020-12 MetaStellar (digital).
• 2020-12 The Fifth Di… (print).
• 2021-06 The Sirens Call (digital).
• 2023-08 Helen E. Davis (ed.) Yay! They’re Here! (print & digital).

“Immaterial Witness” — even the latest forensic technologies don’t always work the way we’d hope (3000 words; available for reprint).

• N3F Short Story Contest 2017 — Honorable Mention (National Fantasy Fan Federation).

• 2022-10 Dark Matter Magazine, Halloween Special 2022 (print & digital).

“Jon Carver of Barzoon, You Misunderstood” — the strange culmination of a planetary romance (250 words; available for reprint).

• “Short but outstanding… tantalizing hints at a complex fantasy world” (Publishers Weekly).
• “Oddly impeccable” (epiphany_maria).
• “Stood out for me… beautiful in its simplicity” (Sepiidae: The Right Venue).
• “Cleverly deconstructing the Mars of Edgar Rice Burroughs” (Martian Migraine Press).
• “Stayed with me… a powerful prose poem that brilliantly brings to life a faraway world with vivid, alien imagery” (Benito Corral Reviews).
• “[Among] standouts… which, in just a few pages, completely subvert their source material” (Lisa’s Reviews).
• “Indescribable…. very well written” (Reading the Book of Deeds).
• “Made my brain hurt… I like it” (OBIR Magazine).
• Best Short Fiction of 2014 – Honourable Mention (Apex Magazine).

• 2014-05 Silvia Moreno-Garcia & Paula R. Stiles (eds.) Sword & Mythos (more info).
• 2017-01 Great Jones Street subscription app (2017-2018; more info).
• 2018-03 Manawaker Studio’s Flash Fiction Podcast, Episode 307 (more info).
• 2018-04 Odd Tales of Wonder, Issue 8 (more info).
• 2018-08 Wizards in Space, Issue 3 (print).
• 2018-10 The Quilliad, Issue 10 (print).
• 2018-10 Sub-Saharan Magazine (digital).
• 2019-03 Polar Borealis Magazine, Issue 9 (digital).
• 2019-04 Eldritch Science, Number 4 (digital).
• 2019-12 Jessica Augustsson (ed.) Sensory Perceptions (print & digital).
• 2020-02 The Collidescope (digital).
• 2020-07 Mason Street Review, Issue 1 (digital).
• 2020-07 Illumen, Volume XVI, Number 4 (print).
• 2020-10 Jay Chakravarti (ed.) Breathe (print, digital).
• 2021-04 The Sirens Call, Issue 53 (digital).
• 2021-04 Flash in a Flash, Issue 2021-04-27 (digital).
• 2021-06 Penumbric, Volume V, Issue 1 (digital).
• 2021-08 H&E Davis (eds.) Universe of Attractions (digital).
• 2022-05 View From Atlantis, Issue 48 (digital).
• 2023-09 Medium.com (digital).
• 2023-10 Black Sheep, Number 5 (digital, print).

“Tea for Two” — what could be more romantic for a newlywed couple than to go shopping together? (1400 words; available for Best of Year)

• “An intriguing story, and so believable, it makes one wonder what is ahead of us in the near future” (Bernadette Gabay Dyer).
• “Fun with a side of creepy” (Melanie Marttila).
• “Yikes, that was pretty dark! Good story” (Robert Runté).

• 2023-06 Frivolous Comma Magazine (digital).

“The Eternity Machine” — the end of the end of Time came just in time (5000 words; available for reprint).

• “Darling is on top of his form every step of the way … I particularly love concept-driven fiction. This is a masterful, indeed spectacular example of such … Best of all, the ending strikes me as thoroughly Lovecraftian in technique, but works better than it ever did for Lovecraft. Amazing.” (Amazing Stories).

• 2021-11 Dark Matter Magazine (print & digital, more info).
• 2023-10 Pulp Literature (print & digital).

“The New Season”—It was the plague that kept on giving; now it’s giving advice (1800 words; available for reprint).

• “Transforms the current Covid-19 crisis into black comedy… The main appeal of this story is its deadpan portrayal of outrageous events.” (Tangent)

• 2020-10 Juliana Rew (ed.) Brain Games: Stories to Astonish (print, digital).
• 2021-06 Jean Goldstrom and Arthur Sanchez (eds.) ReAd, White and Blue: Stories inspired by The Worst of Times (digital).
• 2022-04 MetaStellar (digital).
• 2022-09 (in Portuguese) Lu Evans (ed.) Fator Morus / The Morus Factor (digital).
• 2022-12 Laureen Hudson (ed.) Corporate Catharsis: The Work From Home Edition (print & digital).
• 2022-12 Polar Borealis Magazine, Issue 23 (digital).

“The Queer” — This one weird kid was a different kind of different (1000 words; available for reprint).

• Editors’ Choices: Order of the Hot Potato Q2 2023 — First Place (Bewildering Stories).

• 2020-03 Robert J. Krog (ed.) No Greater Love: Martyrs of Earth and Elsewhere (print).
• 2022-10 Jan-Andrew Henderson (ed.) That is ALL Wrong! An Anthology of Offbeat Horror: Vol III (print, digital).
• 2023-04 Bewildering Stories, Issue 991 (digital).

“The Tim Machine” — From A Christmas Carol to The Time Machine and back again—and beyond (4000 words; available for first publication).

• “A re-telling — no, a complete re-inventing! — of H.G. Wells ‘The Time Machine’, featuring a surprise guest as The Time Traveller” (The National Fantasy Fan magazine).
• N3F Short Story Contest 2018 — Second Prize (National Fantasy Fan Federation).

A Life of Fiction

Graham J. “GrayJay” Darling has long been a voracious consumer of speculative literature. The first novel he ever read was Alice in Wonderland: after learning that by heart, he went on to sip from entire fields of such flowers of the imagination. Eventually he was moved to share the wonder with like-minded fans in clubs, conventions, productions and games. He now writes as fiction what the world isn’t ready for as fact, in parallel to his activities as a scientist and as a medieval reenactor.

• • Interview by Joshua Pantalleresco for his Aurora-winning podcast show Just Joshing, May 2018, Episode 180 (YouTube).
  • Interview by Christel Bodenbender for Reality Skimming, a blog hosted by Lynda Williams, January 2015.