2025 in Review: Books Read and Stories Published

I read less this year due to a combination of work, prioritising exercise and my health, family commitments and various other distractions. Reading wise, I did a bit more Barnestorming with three more novels from Julian on the list, which takes my overall tally of his to nine works. I’m up to date with Joe Abercrombie, having read everything he’s published. I’ve also read numerous works now from Jeffrey Ford, Poul Anderson, Cormac McCarthy, along with anthologies from Gardner Doizois. 

 

On the parochial, Antipodean side, it was nice to read Kate Forsythe, Gideon Haigh (with Wasim Akram), Eleanor Catton and Laurie Steed. 

 

Books Read 2025

 

 

Olive Kitteridge Elizabeth Strout (collection)

 

A Traveller’s History of Greece 2^nd Edition. Timothy Boatswain & Colin Nicolson (history)

 

The City and the City China Miéville

 

Love, etc. Julian Barnes

 

The Book of Magic Ed. Gardner Dozois (anthology)

 

The Apparatus Almanac: Gizmology & Technomancy Ed. Jessica Augustsson (anthology)

 

All the Pretty Horses Cormac McCarthy       

                                                                                                            

Masque & Maelström: The Reluctant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe Ed. Jessica Augustsson (anthology) 

 

Talking it Over Julian Barnes 

 

Witches of Lychford Paul Cornell (novella)

 

The Devils Joe Abercrombie

 

Steal Across the Sky Nancy Kress

 

Out of Body Jeffrey Ford (novella) 

 

Hard Reboot Django Wexler (novella)

 

Elizabeth Finch Julian Barnes

 

Sultan: A Memoir Wasim Akram with Gideon Haigh (memoir)

 

A Midsummer Tempest Poul Anderson

 

Psykhe Kate Forsyth

 

Comeuppance Served Cold Marion Deeds (novella)

 

The Arkansas International 07 (lit journal)

 

Birnam Wood Eleanor Catton

 

You Belong Here Laurie Steed

 

Standout Reads

 

I’ll just be including a single standout from a collection, a history/expository work, a novel and an anthology. Like always, I could include so many more. I also never include anthologies I have stories in.

 

Collection and Favourite Read: Olive Kitterige by Elizabeth Strout

 My favourite read of 2025 was Olive Kitterige by Elizabeth Strout. This collection sees Strout as the heir apparent to Alice Munro, albeit with more accessible prose and more traditional entry and exit points. I personally would have preferred it published under another name as, although the stories are interlinked, the focus on Olive is not always present. In fact, there are a couple of  stories whereby the very mention of Olive feels forced. 

 

The landscape and town play a significant role in Strout’s work in a similar way to how Steinbeck brought the Salinas Valley to life. Although, unlike Steinbeck’s Salinas Valley, Strout’s town of Crosby is fictional. Olive Kitterige is set in New England, in what can only be called a quintessential coastal town in Maine. Strout’s landscape in Crosby, both in a physical and environmental sense, is completely tangible and authentic, even to an Aussie like me. Many of these relationship-focussed stories centre around the more emotional events in life, along with characters who’ve fallen, or are falling, through life’s cracks —weddings, divorces, funerals, infidelity, suicide attempts, dementia, dangerous robberies, alcoholics, eating disorders, the road to arson and crime— which, on the whole makes the stories louder than Munro’s, however, like Munro’s tales, they often occur from observational angles, which always intrigues. Having stated this, the true jewel here, ‘Pharmacy’, is far more subtle; and interestingly too, it is one of the narratives in which Olive plays a minor backdrop role. 

 

To be fair though, Olive is an intriguing character who ends up being quite complex;  both haughty and caustic yet also vulnerable and  tender, and these complexities are gradually unveiled over the collection. 

 

This one is for lovers of the longer short story form.

 

History/ Expository: A Traveller’s History of Greece 2^nd Edition. Timothy Boatswain & Colin Nicolson

This really is more a history of Greece marketed under ‘A Traveller’s History’. Afterall, much of Greece’s long history occurs in Asia Minor, Constantinople, Venice, Southern Italy and Sicily (Magna Graecia), Northern Egypt and other Levantine areas. The history of the Classical era is extensive, but what I enjoyed more was that it delved into the Byzantine, and the medieval Venetian, Italiote, Frankish and Ottoman kingdoms. Like a few other histories, the style here is more for history buffs rather than lovers of narrative. 

 

Novel: The City and the City by China Miéville

 

A while ago, I had the pleasure of seeing China Miéville speak at the Perth Writers Festival (PWF) alongside the brilliant Margaret Atwood, and Miéville was easily the most erudite person I’ve ever witnessed, even beating Glen Duncan, who I enjoyed seeing at a previous PWF. 

 

Over the last couple of decades, when reading, I have been magnetised to works that fuse genre, perhaps because I often fuse genres in my own writing. I also admire extended figurative layers. Think of writers like Margaret Atwood, Karen Russell, Toni Morrison and George Saunders. 

 

In The City and the City, Miéville fuses the grim and gritty type of crime genre with sci-fi. A Balkan city is made up of two neighbouring entities with a liminal overlap. The city of Beszel and Ul Qoma both neighbour and often intersect each other – at least that’s how I perceived it…Both cities seem to be emerging from the Iron Curtain, with one city having emerged somewhat quicker with aid from foreign investment. It feels like an Albanian/ Bosnian type of cultural meld. At points of geographical intersection, the locals try  to ‘unsee’ the other side. An overriding, somewhat invisible, authority labelled The Breach will act  ruthlessly if you ‘breach’, which means if a denizen of one city attempts to interact or really take in the other city’s inhabitants who occupy the same space. 

 

The story follows the standard crime plot in many ways, with a young woman’s body found in suspicious circumstances, but in this case, there is potential ‘cross border’ foul play. The cross-territory crime case is also often part of the genre, but in Mieville’s ‘city and the city’ world, everything becomes heightened. Inspector Borlu is an old school, likeable protagonist in search of the truth. He’s been around for a while and is determined to solve the case, even though it means formally crossing into the other city, and at times risking being in breach too. There is also a mystery of a potential third city, the sinister Orciny, which may exist in secret at the interstices of both cities. 

 

Miéville’s prose is not figurative or poetic in nature, however, it impresses with vivid imagery and  apt pacing. The dialogue also reads as authentic and suitable for the genre. I wanted a smidgen more in terms of characterisation, especially in terms of character arcs and relationships. This, however, is a minor criticism; The City and the City is original, keeps the reader involved, and successfully fuses genres. The setting and cultures have a strong metaphorical layering, which I always enjoy too. I’m keen to read more Miéville.

 

Anthology (I never include ones that I have stories in for objective reasons): The Book of Magic Ed. Gardner Dozois (anthology)

 

This largely consists of ‘big name’ writers. There are highlight stories on this year’s and last year’s lists (https://anthonypanegyres.blogspot.com/2026/01/top-25-short-stories-read-in-2025.html and https://anthonypanegyres.blogspot.com/2025/01/top-25-short-story-reads-of-2024.html). I would have liked a few new writers or specialist short story writers involved, but as a pragmatist, I realise names often sell books. The story quality is consistently high and entertaining, as you’d expect from a Gardner Doizois anthology. What a legacy he left to readers of short stories and novelettes! 

 

 

Stories published

 

Three reprint stories all out in JayHenge anthologies. A new story was delayed, but will be forthcoming mid-year. 

 

‘The Tic-Toc Boy of Constantinople’ in The Apparatus Almanac: Gizmology and Technomancy Ed. Jessica Augustsson. 

 

‘Lady Killer’ in Masque & Maelström: the Relucant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe Ed. Jessica Augustsson. 

 

‘Crossing’ in Professor Feiff’s Trans-Dimensional Travelogue Ed. Jessica Augustsson.

 

 

 

Hope you all have a meaningful, healthy and happy 2026! We are off to a great start with Meanjin Quarterly finding a new home at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). I t wasn't too long ago that wrote a post expressing my disappointment at its closure and also that I had hope another university would be part of a rebirth. Thankfully, Meanjin's renaissance came via the express train.

Love, read, listen to some music, look after the natural world and each other, and be wary of PAIndora's Box.

Top 25 Short Stories Read in 2025

I read 101 short stories this year. This is my annual list of what I thought were the 25 best of those reads – all  highly recommended gems. As always, many more could be included but I’ve a heart of ice of late regarding the cut-off point. I’m especially careful regarding anthologies I’ve stories in due to a natural bias. These lists also favour the longer short story form over flash fiction. 

Regarding Olive Kitteridge, the story ‘Pharmacy’ is only missing as I’ve read and listed it in previous lists. Do hunt it down – it’s one of my all-time faves! 

 

Top 25 Short Story Reads

 

‘Tulips’ Elizabeth Strout (from Olive Kitteridge)

‘River’ Elizabeth Strout (from Olive Kitteridge)

‘A Little Burst’ Elizabeth Strout (read in Olive Kitteridge, originally published in The New Yorker in 1998)                                          

‘The Devil’s Whatever’ Andy Duncan (from The Book of Magic Ed. Gardner Dozois)

‘The Fall and Rise of the House of the Wizard Malkuril’ Scott Lynch (from The Book of Magic Ed. Gardner Dozois)                                                          

‘The Piano Player’ Elizabeth Strout (from Olive Kitteridge)

‘Winter Concert’ Elizabeth Strout  (read in Olive Kitteridge, originally published in Ms. in 1999)                                                                                           

‘Security’ Elizabeth Strout (from Olive Kitteridge)

‘Ship in a Bottle’ Elizabeth Strout  (read in Olive Kitteridge, originally published as ‘Running Away’ in Seventeen in 1992)

‘Yes, the Opium’ Stephen Myer (from Masque & Maelström: The Reluctant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe Ed. Jessica Augustsson)

‘Root Cellar: A Juke Joint Gothic’ J. Michael Hayes (from Masque & Maelström: The Reluctant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe Ed. Jessica Augustsson)

'Incoming Tide' Elizabeth Strout (from Olive Kitteridge)

‘The Staff in the Stone’ Garth Nix (from The Book of Magic Ed. Gardner Dozois)

‘Acacia’ JoAnna Novak (from Arkanasas International 07)

‘Lenin’s Mausoleum’ Ivan Shipnigov (from Arkanasas International 07)

‘A Night at the Tarn House’ George R.R. Martin (from The Book of Magic Ed. Gardner Dozois)                                             

‘Death Calendar’ Brian Bianchi (from Masque & Maelström: The Reluctant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe Ed. Jessica Augustsson)

‘Tigers in the Sun’ Gabriel Mara (from The Apparatus Almanac: Gizmology & Technomancy Ed. Jessica Augustsson)

‘Criminal’ Elizabeth Strout  (read in Olive Kitteridge, originally published in South Carolina Review in 1994)

‘East Wind in Carrall Street’ Holly Schofield (from The Apparatus Almanac: Gizmology & Technomancy Ed. Jessica Augustsson, originally published in Clockwork Canada)

‘A Different Road’ Elizabeth Strout  (read in Olive Kitteridge, originally published in Tin House in 2007)

‘The Governor’ Tim Powers (from The Book of Magic Ed. Gardner Dozois)

‘The Return’ Shikhandin (read in Masque & Maelström: The Reluctant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe Ed. Jessica Augustsson, originally published by Curious Blue Press)

‘In Blood, In Feathers, In Moonlight’ Deborah L. Davitt (read in Masque & Maelström: The Reluctant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe Ed. Jessica Augustsson. Originally published in Galaxy’s Edge)

‘Grim Diggers’ T. Fox Dunham (from Masque & Maelström: The Reluctant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe Ed. Jessica Augustsson)                                                                                                                                                                

"Crossing" in the anthology Professor Feiff's Trans-Dimensional Travelogue, Meanjin's Closure and the Heinous Shooting at Bondi

I had written this celebratory post, along with the bit on the Meanjin closure, before the heinous event in Bondi occurred. I decided that it would be morally inept though not to express my sorrow and outrage at what went down. This makes the blogpost confusing in terms of tone and events. 

"Crossing" in a New Anthology

One of my stories, titled "Crossing", has found a second home in Professor Feiff's Trans-Dimensional Travelogue Ed. Jessica Augustsson, and the anthology looks an entertaining ride.  It's my third story in a JayHenge anthology this year and the tireless team there of Jessica and Kem have been fab to work with.

"Crossing" was originally published in 2016 in the Sir Julius Vogel Award-winning anthology At the Edge, edited by the talented duo, Lee Murray and Dan Rabarts. The story was scheduled for a Year's Best anthology but it never eventuated due to valid reasons relating to the editor's health. At the Edge had a fabulous little run —what else would you expect from an effervescent, globetrotting promoter like Lee Murray at the helm— but the anthology eventually came to an end and is no longer in print, so it's especially a treat timing wise to see the story find a place in Professor Feiff's Trans-Dimensional Travelogue.  

"The ebook can be found on Amazon US here: https://amazon.com/dp/BOG57TDPM9

And Amazon UK here: ttps://amazon.com/uk/dp/BOG57TDPM9

And the other intentional Amazon stores using the same end number. The paperback and hard cover copies will soon follow. The book in all three formats may not be available yet everywhere, but within a few days it should be. Paperback versions may not be available yet everywhere, but within a few days it should be. Paperback versions are now being released in Australia, I believe." Jessica Augustsson, 5th December 2025

Professor Feiff's Trans-Dimensional Travelogue ToC – congratulations to all the contributors:

The Forecast for the Week / Joyce Frohn 

Astral Amusement / Zary Fekete 

Grandpa’s Birthday Barbeque / Robert Runté 

Triskellion’s Maze / Mike Adamson 

Halfway Home / Rodrigo Culagovski 

Endgame Careful, Careful / Regina Clarke 

The Tourist / Don Bisdorf 

In the Land of Imagination / James Rumpel 

10mg Narvania® From Tranza-Pharm / Matt Bliss 

Rob the Bank, Butter the Kitchen / Susann Cokal 

Ten Thousand Years Walking the Godsroad / Arthur H. Manners 

Prize Exhibit / James Rogers

Perfect Gift / Gustavo Bondoni

Me and Mine / Vincent H. O’Neil 

A Gentleman Explorer’s Perambulation of Wooly Acres via Linear Traverse of Nonrelative Time by Means of a Bicycle, a Saysquack and a Cuckoo Clock, a New Mode of Distanceless Travel / Justin Teerlinck 

Always Let Your Dragon Fly First Class / Wendy Nikel 

Veracity’s Find / Stewart C Baker 

Post-Apocalypse Prix Fixe / Emily Gennis

The Brown Legacy / Kris Ashton 

Seaside / Mia Dalia 

The View from Erebus / Michael P. Boettcher Jr. 

My Best Friend’s Destination Wedding is Taking Things Way Too Far! / Robert Dawson 

The Santa Shank / Terryl M. Asla and Jessica Augustsson 

By Glen Abtor / Eric Del Carlo 

Home Away From Home / Coira MacHaffie 

The Astronaut / Glenn Dungan 

The Price of Success / Jeff Pepper 

The Abandoned Planets of Aediama / Miah O’Malley 

Hot Potato / Liam Hogan 

Jettisoned / Kevin Holochwost and Anna Varlese 

Crossing / Anthony Panegyres 

Confessions of a Space Tourist / Jesse Rowell

Previous Anthology Buddies

I am an unashamed nerd by nature and keep track of previous anthology buddies. Robert Dawson tops the list this time around with homes in the anthologies The Apparatus Almanac and Masque & Maelström: The Reluctant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe. I also shared a home with Mike Adamson, Matt Bliss, Gustav Bodoni and Robert Runté in The Apparatus Almanac and another home with Steward C Baker, Liam Hogan and Kevin Holochwost in Masque & Maelström: The Reluctant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe. 

Meanjin's Closure

Meanjin Quarterly has been a major stalwart on the Australian literary scene for an age, so the news of its closure saddened me. I had a story in Meanjin Quarterly in 2013. I also wrote a review of Swamplandia! by Karen Russell for Meanjin's website back when Meanjin was quite interactive online with blogs and also interviews from writers on what they were reading or recommending to read. It was especially nice to see Isobelle Carmody wax lyrical about Dreaming of Djinn Ed. Liz Grzyb in one of those reading posts. 

Meanjin paid well and was a professional unit. In the edition I had a story in, there was an essay that I loved and read over and again, called 'Speed and Politics' by Waleed Aly, and there was also a part of a witty essay by Estelle Tang, which managed at the end to tie in Margo Lanagan's brilliant Sea Hearts, a novel, which incidentally, and somewhat ironically, won Meanjin's playful 'tournament of books', edging out Tim Winton's Breath in a sea-themed grand finale. In the issue with my own story, my fellow fiction mates were Jane Jervis-Read, Craig Billingham and Angelina Mirabito.           

                                

Towards the end, Meanjin was hamstrung. The journal only had two staff, who I believe had part time roles. In the current climate, it's an impossibility to manage a journal of Meanjin's magnitude —especially when you see the work put into other professional journals in Australia like Overland, Island Magazine and Griffith Review— with such a small team. The editor, Esther Anatolitis and production editor, Eli McLean, did all they could, but their roles were of a Sisyphean nature. Due to the staffing issue, the journal also disappeared in a comparative sense as a web and digital presence, which, whether someone likes it or not, seems integral to gain reading traction in this era. Meanjin, despite the toil and professionalism of its staffers, limped along, albeit proudly, until Melbourne University sent in the Scythe-wielder. 

Part of me does wonder if Meanjin, which once had a reputation for balancing the humorous with the serious (which I'm passionate about in terms of writing and also reading), leant a little too much to the graver side of literature over the last decade or so.

Ultimately though, the lack of support for staff along with a lack of promotion signalled a limited approach to what university education and meaning stand for. The closing of Meanjin was a measure judged by the dollar alone, yet with a bit of support, promotion and people power, I'm sure that Meanjin could have reinvigorated itself and become a cultural powerhouse like Overland, Island and Griffith Review are today.  

There is hope. Part of me can't help but think this is the perfect opportunity for Meanjin's rebirth sometime in the future. We've seen this occur with plenty of American journals, and, who knows, a university, who believes in thoughtful inventive essays and commentary, along with stories and how they can encourage us to think, feel and entertain simultaneously, could champion Meanjin in a renaissance of sorts. A literary institution that's been celebrated for 85 years deserves better treatment. The closure, to use a term coined by a Meanjin contributor Arthur Phillips in 1950, has given me the cultural cringe. 

Darkest Day in Australia During my Lifetime

Utterly disgusted by the recent shooting in Bondi. 

As a nation, although relatively fortunate, we have had some dark days on Australian soil during my lifetime. At the forefront of my mind come the Tasmanian shooting and the bushfires, but the key difference to those disasters is that the Bondi shooting was fuelled by hatred rather than a deranged mind or Mother Nature. 

Much of the Bondi shooting will become politicised when strong bipartisan leadership is what is actually required at present. Our gun laws, which are tight on a global level, will be rightfully tightened further. You only have to look at the US with their slack gun laws and the number of shootings  to see the correlation. But this is about more than simply access to guns. Racism and bigotry have fuelled this, along with misplaced extremist ideologies that have no place here. Australian Jewry has a long and proud history, which makes this all the more awful. The fact that some equate Israeli government policy in Gaza to assign global blame to Jews is heinously wrong. People have a right to be proud of their culture and faith, but not at the expense of breeding hatred and violence against others.  

Hope you're all outraged – let's not allow this vile act any chance of becoming normalised.

"Lady Killer" reprinted in Masque & Maelström Volume 1: The Reluctant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe. ed. Jessica Augustsson

It's a chill and a thrill to have 'Lady Killer'—originally published in the Aurealis Award winning anthology Bloodlines Ed. Amanda Pillar and reprinted in The Year's Best Australian Fantasy and Horror Vol. 6 Ed. Liz Grzyb & Talie Helene—find another home in JayHenge Publishing's Masque & Maelström Volume 1: The Reluctant Exhumation of Edgar Allan Poe. What a fabulous extended title! If it's Poe, exhume away! No reluctance at all from my end.

I always like to salute previous anthology mates and this time around they're L.D Colter, Robert Dawson, Gabriel Mara and Stephen A. Roddewig. We all shared a home in another anthology released earlier this year titled The Apparatus Almanac, also edited by Jessica Augustsson. 

The complete ToC – congrats to all contributors: 

Grim Diggers / T. Fox Dunham

What Happened to Mrs. Eleonora Valdemar, Discovered in a Series of Diary Entries / Carmelo Rafalà

The Family Plant / Gabriel Mara

Terroir / Geoff Hart

Foxley’s Folly / William H. Wandless

A Pinch of Salt / Lorina Stephens

Edgar / Robert Dawson

Root Cellar A Juke Joint Gothic / J. Michael Hayes

The Unread Book / Adam Breckenridge

Ingratitude / J. Weintraub

The Room At the End of the Hall / Anna Cabe

My Foolish Heart / David J. Thirteen

Death Calendar / Brian Bianchi

From Out a Full-Orbed Moon / Laurence Raphael Brothers

The Light Station / Stephen A. Roddewig

Passengers / Kevin Holochwost

The Feast of Saint Mary / David M. Schultz

Annabel Lee, Proprietress, Kingdom by the Sea /LindaAnn LoSchiavo

Behind the Pale Door / Caleb Call

There Has Never Been Anyone Here / J.T. Glover

The Painted Axe / Liam Hogan 

The Return / Shikhandin

Yes, the Opium / Stephen Myer

Poetic Licence / Gregg Chamberlain

The Timeless Mirror / Joshua Hester

The Whipping Place / Nancy S. Koven

Inheritance / Stewart C Baker

The Messenger / Julie Dron

The Quiet Couple’s Clock / Barend Nieuwstraten III

Still Life / Kevin Novalina

Monsters / L.D. Colter

In Blood, In Feathers, In Moonlight / Deborah L. Davitt

Tarr and Fether: Two Cases from the Courts of Ulalume / Robert Borski

A Blemish in His Neighbour / Harris Coverley

Lady Killer / Anthony Panegyres

Behind the Glass / C.B. Droege

The Crossing / K. Marvin Bruce 

 

You can buy Masque & Maelström Volume 1 at the following links, and here in Perth at Planet Books. 

The ebook can be found on Amazon US here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FDKZD1CR

And Amazon UK here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FDKZD1CR

(And it is available on the other international Amazon stores using the same end number, including the paperback, hard cover copies and Kindle version.)

Current Reads

The Devils Joe Abercrombie

This one reads like an alternative Byzantine era version of DC's Suicide Squad, albeit far wittier as it's in Abercrombie's hands. I dig into Abercrombie as soon as his books are released. Fab escape from the mundane.

The Apparatus Almanac Ed. Jessica Augustsson

For my spec-fic short story fix, I'm reading The Apparatus Almanac, an eclectic anthology with variety for all. 

 

Sultan: A Memoir Wasim Akram with Gideon Haigh

Although I'm a bit of a sports buff, I've never read an autobiography by a sportsperson. My first so far has been insightful. Wasim Akram was an all-time cricket great – and you can only imagine how better his already impressive record would be if he had a few more decent slip fielders at the time, especially during his early career. Akram openly discusses issues of disruption within a national team rife with personality clashes and politics, along with addressing accusations of ball tampering. Imran Khan is portrayed as a heroic godlike figure. Without being an expert on Pakistani politics, I can only say Imran's present day incarceration seems incredulous. The memoir also takes me back to my high school era when we were all glued to the ODI World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, when a tremendously colourful and talented Pakistani team eventuated triumphant. 

The Byzantines Ed. Guglielmo Cavallo

And lastly, some Byzantine history dealing with the various socio-cultural groups of the era.  

 

Other Writing News:  A new story out soonish. I'll keep you updated.

"The Tic-Toc Boy of Constantinople" reprinted in the anthology The Apparatus Almanac Ed. Jessica Augustsson; bit on a Goodreads Dilemma, and other writers on stories

 "The Tic-Toc Boy of Constantinople"in The Apparatus Almanac: Gizmology and Technomancy Ed. Jessica Augustsson 

It's always a buzz when stories reemerge from the thickets to find new homes. Although a relatively dark story in a deliberately richer vein, "The Tic-Toc Boy of Constantinople" was originally published in the Aurealis Award finalist anthology Kisses by Clockwork Ed. Liz Grzyb. It was then mentioned by both editors in the introduction to The Year's Best Australian Fantasy & Horror Vol. 5 and was also included in the Recommended Reading List at the volume's end (sadly this anthology with its yearly list of recommended reads is no longer around). 

I thought that was it for the story, although it did get a mention in a captivating essay on steampunk on the Auslit website. But then last year The Conversation had a beautiful article, "Australian writers have been envisioning AI for a century. Here are 5 stories to read as we grapple with rapid change" which included "The Tic-Toc Boy of Constantinople" among the five mentioned. I messaged James Bradley about the article as his novel Clade was also one of the five mentioned. 

And while I added Clade to my TBR list (I have also praised Bradley's retelling of 'Rapunzel', Beauty's Sister, numerous times on this blog) James, despite the fact that he was on a hectic tour with his latest book (a natural history/memoir/homage to the ocean, titled Deep Water: The World in the Ocean) went one step further and read my own story almost on the dot and emailed me this thoughtful message:

Spoiler alert: I've just read the story and I loved it. It's very emotional and the world-building is very intricate, but I think the thing I like the best is the way it manages to weave echoes of other stories into itself – I loved the flashes of Frankenstein in things like the flight into the forest – because it enacts the ideas of assemblage that are at the centre of the story. And he's such a great protagonist – innocent but also alarming. And the questions about bodies and identity it's trying to think about are so important (and questions that often get ignored in SF, which is usually so transfixed by tech and the idea of transcending the physicality of our bodies). I suspect the steampunk elements reinforce that a bit, because it situates it in a more physical and non-virtual universe - I assume that was deliberate! 

I only read Frankenstein in 2019 (which does warrant its reputation as a classic), five years after the "The Tic-Toc Boy of Constantinople"'s original publication. And, ironically, I loathed Kenneth Branagh's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein film, which I'm pretty sure was the only ever time I've walked out of the cinema before a film's ending...but I can definitely see where James Bradley is coming from as there are a few similarities between the two narratives. 

As a lover of the natural world and someone passionate about conservation, I'll definitely be tracking Deep Water down too. 

And now 'The Tic-Toc Boy of Constantinople" has found another home in what looks like a wonderful table of contents in the The Apparatus Almanac: Gizmology and Technomancy Ed. Jessica Augustsson. It's the first story off the ranks, which is always an additional honour, but I'm really keen to devour all the stories. I've had a squiz at the author bios and I think that we are all in for a real reading treat. 

Congratulations to Jessica and the team at JayHenge and to all of the contributors in the ToC listed below:

The Tic-Toc Boy of Constantinople / Anthony Panegyres 

A Place for Broken Parts / Matt Bliss 

The Golden Age of Science Fiction / David Stevens 

 East Wind in Carrall Street / Holly Schofield 

Hubris in Retrograde / Mike Adamson 

To Them We Are Merely Clay / L.D. Colter 

What Washes Ashore / Eric Farrell 

The Needy Needle / Owen Townend

 Veiled Threats / C.J. Peterson 

Thought I Saw Something / Jude Atwood 

Inktomi and the Skyship / Robert Bagnall 

GENIUS Act Response / Pauline Barmby 

The Machine That Makes Things / William Kitcher 

The Clock and the Copernicus / Jay McKenzie 

The Going Price / J.S. Rogers 

The Ethics of Elemental Servitude / J. Scott King 

 One Unchecked Box / Stephen A. Roddewig 

The Case of the Vanishing Pennyweight / Don Norum 

The Breath of Birds / Devan Barlow 

Pulling for Victory / Stefan Markos 

Tigers in the Sun / Gabriel Mara 

Dreams Of Flight / Sarah Darbee 

The Business of Ashes and Dust / J. Aaron Parish 

First Day on Night Shift / Robert Runté 

An Engine with a Difference / Gustavo Bondoni 

The Important Button / Mike Murphy 

Oubliette / Tom Howard 

A Walk in Time / J. David Liss 

Ancient Computer / Susanne Hülsmann 

Working Their Magic / Soramimi Hanarejima 

Thermodemonics / Robert Dawson 

This Far and No Farther / Mike Morgan 

The ebook can be found on Amazon US here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0F29JL6BH

Amazon UK here: https://www.amazon.co.ik/dp/B0F2J9L6BH

And the other international Amazon stores apparently use the same end number. Paperback and hard cover copies are available too. 

Here in Perth, those great folk at Planet Books are stocking print copies too. 

I always like to see whether there are anthology mates from previous publications and this time around there are two. Mike Murphy and I shared a home in the anthology Spawn of War and Deathiness Ed. Tom Easton, which was the third home for my story "Reading Coffee" (originally published in Overland Literary Journal 204); and David Stevens and I shared an anthology home in the Sir Julius Vogel Award winning At the Edge Ed. Dan Rabarts & Lee Murray. Stevens' story there "Crop Rotation" was a beauty with a haunting, creepy and intriguing atmosphere that helped emphasise a powerful overarching theme.

Other writers on stories

There is an uplifting behind-the-scene commentary on stories from other writers who read your work. I suppose we are all governed by our own principles to a degree, and one of my own self-imposed rules is that I read each and every story in anthologies and journals that I have works in. After all, if it's good enough to house your own story, plus the editor and publisher have gone to all that effort to make the publication eventuate, then surely at the very least, it warrants a read of the complete final product. I've never regretted that decision, and in every anthology and journal I've been in, I've discovered some unforgettably great works. 

For instance, I loved "Appearing Nightly", Gregory Norman Bossert's story in Bourbon Penn 25. Bossert is a short story machine...well really more of an artisan jeweller... and a World Fantasy Award winning author, and he posted the following while we were both commenting on a Facebook post by Jonathan Strahan: Hey Anthony, "Anthropophages Anonymous" was fantastic. Best bear story since Bisson!, which meant a lot, both due to the source of the comment and the fact that Bisson did write the canonical bear story with "Bears Discover Fire". 

Goodreads Dilemma and apologies for lack of communication on that platform

I confess to being lazy with regards to the internet and social media world. In fact, the only reason this blog with its slapdash posts exists is that the publisher of my second-ever story demanded a web presence of some kind, and a blog was far easier to create than a website. 

Yet, despite my apathy, I did find Goodreads of interest. As a reader, I was fairly active on Goodreads, and I used to access it via a Facebook link, which was easy to do. But when that link vanished, I could no longer access my own account as the old original email linked to Goodreads was closed years ago due to spam along with the fact that my Gmail account worked far better.

Believe me, I have wasted plenty of time striving to get myself back on to my Goodreads' author account with my current email address. I'll admit to hounding Goodreads on Facebook, via emails, and also the website contact link. To be fair, the Goodreads Team was apologetic, but despite giving them pre-published blogposts as proof, along with ID and other evidence, they cannot update and change my account's long lost and defunct email address. 

So, apologies if I have appeared rude on the site. Any messages and communication that have been sent to me on Goodreads will never find me. The Goodreads blogposts, fortunately, remain linked to this blog and will continue to be so as that link remains the same. But I cannot accept friends, nor reply to any messages sent, nor add books read etc. Some kind Goodreads reps said that they can add books I'm involved in and also edit my profile, but due to security reasons, I will not have access, both now and in the future, to the Goodreads community along with my friends on there. 

But who knows? I hold hope that Goodreads administrators will one day reach out to me at my Gmail address... the one I've harried them on. 

New Story 

I'll also have a new story out later this year, but I'll save that news for another post. 

Currently Reading

The Book of Magic Ed. Gardner Dozois. This was Dozois' final anthology in a celebrated career. As you'd expect, there are plenty of high quality stories within. 

Talking it Over by Julian Barnes. Really amused by this novel so far in, although it's rapidly turning uncomfortably dark. 

The Arkansas International 07.  Two superb stories are well worth tracking down: "Lenin’s Mausoleum" by Ivan Shipnigov and "Acacia" by JoAnna Novak.

A Traveler's History of Greece by Timothy Boatswain & Colin Nicolson. An impressive overview of the history of Greece in its entirety. What's more, they include the often overlooked Venetian era.