It’s publication day for my story “Steel Swan” which is in issue 010 of Dark Matter Magazine! I’m super excited to share this story with the world. It’s the first story that I wrote with a specific market in mind where it was actually accepted by that market, which was really cool.
The idea for this story started off with a conversation between myself, Anna Madden, and Marie Croke about the animated film The Swan Princess (1994), which was one of my favorite movies growing up, but in hindsight, we all wished that Odette had been more pro-active, especially considering how aggressive swans are in real life. I also wanted to write a cyberpunk story, so I started writing a cyberpunk reimagining of Swan Lake / The Swan Princess that shifted and evolved until it became what it is today: a story of family secrets and control all played out in giant, bird-shaped battle mechs.
The digital editions of the issue are available to purchase now and the print editions are available to pre-order. You can find those along with some cool merch here.
I hope you enjoy “Steel Swan” and all the other excellent stories in this issue.
Thanks for reading!