“The Journey of the koi” and other good news

My short story “The journey of the koi” got accepted to Paris Lit Up 6 an English-speaking magazine based in Paris. (This is the second time I’ve been accepted and again with a Japan inspired story. The previous one, Suikawari (watermelon splitting) is the story of a Japanese summer and was inspired by a fleeting crush. You can buy Paris Lit Up 5 here. Suikawari will be available as a podcast on 600secondsaga in the autumn. I can’t wait!

“At dragon’s gate” by Marco Antonio Aquilar

The journey is an episode in my forever-in-progress novel, Londemonium, an urban fantasy about London,Hell and multicultural underworlds. I found out that I like to include stand-alone stories, folk tales, legends in my stories because I think these give a real depth to a world. In the beginning I added these kind of little episodes to advance on my word count in Nano, but then I have realized that stories and tales are very important to me and what seems like unrelated episodes embedded in the text of the novel are actually reflections either on characters or on themes, so they actually make sense (Yay!)

I submitted this story numerous times and was rejected, but like the tiny koi against the waterfall, I never gave up either.

“The koi died the moment he reached the top.
His skin had grown cold and his body felt heavy like a life well spent. The sun stopped shining for a moment and the moon held her breath on the other side of the world. The great gods had seen the little fish’s heroic journey and they were humbled by the power of his love. They nodded and life returned to the koi. His body felt strange: it wasn’t broken, it wasn’t tired and when he stretched as he usually did after a good night’s sleep, his tail seemed to hit the water far away. He looked at his reflection in the water.
He was no longer a small fish, but a majestic red dragon, strong enough to fight the waves.”
I also had my Greek myth themed short story “Oranges and Lemons” accepted by Fantasia Divinity Magazine to their Greek myth themed anthology. I am super happy about it. I started that story for the Daphne competition on Mythraeum,but I didn’t manage to finish it in time. Mythraeum has a new competition by the way, this time about the figure of Icarus.

I am also delighted to say that I am guest editor on Fantasia Divinity’s upcoming “Masquarade” anthology.

There are so many things happening, yet I feel like I’m not doing enough.But that’s just how I am, I guess.

 

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