The New Neighbours – Tim Jones

The Apex Book Of World SF Volume 2 Now Available For Pre-Order – Including My Story “The New Neighbours”

Posted on February 16, 2012

A while ago, I blogged about how pleased I was to have my story “The New Neighbours”, first published in my second short story collection Transported, included in The Apex Book Of World SF, Volume 2, edited by Lavie Tidhar.

Things went quiet after a while after that, but I am now delighted to report that The Apex Book Of World SF, Volume 2 is now available for pre-order. Take a look at the cover below, then check out this impressive list of contributors from all over the world. I am really looking forwards to reading this!

Apex Book of World SF, Volume II: Table of Contents

Rochita Loenen-Ruiz (Philippines)–Alternate Girl’s Expatriate Life
Ivor W. Hartmann (Zimbabwe)–Mr. Goop
Daliso Chaponda (Malawi)–Trees of Bone
Daniel Salvo (Peru)–The First Peruvian in Space
Gustavo Bondoni (Argentina)–Eyes in the Vastness of Forever
Chen Qiufan (China)–The Tomb
Joyce Chng (Singapore)–The Sound of Breaking Glass
Csilla Kleinheincz (Hungary)–A Single Year
Andrew Drilon (Philippines)–The Secret Origin of Spin-man
Anabel Enriquez Piñeiro (Cuba)–Borrowed Time (trans. Daniel W. Koon)
Lauren Beukes (South Africa)–Branded
Raúl Flores Iriarte (Cuba)–December 8
Will Elliott (Australia)–Hungry Man
Shweta Narayan (India)–Nira and I
Fábio Fernandes (Brazil)–Nothing Happened in 1999
Tade Thompson (Nigeria)–Shadow
Hannu Rajaniemi (Finland)–Shibuya no Love
Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Mexico)–Maquech
Sergey Gerasimov (Ukraine)–The Glory of the World
Tim Jones (New Zealand)–The New Neighbours
Nnedi Okorafor (Nigeria/US)–From the Lost Diary of TreeFrog7
Gail Har’even (Israel)–The Slows
Ekaterina Sedia (Russia/US)–Zombie Lenin
Samit Basu (India)–Electric Sonalika
Andrzej Sapkowski (Poland)–The Malady (trans. Wiesiek Powaga)
Jacques Barcia (Brazil)–A Life Made Possible Behind The Barricades

Since I wrote my initial post, I have got to know several of these authors a little over Twitter – so, as well as the stories by Ekaterina Sedia and Nnedi Okorafor, whom I mentioned in the post linked to above, I am also especially looking forward to reading the stories by Joyce Chng and Fábio Fernandes, plus the many other authors whose work I don’t yet have the pleasure of knowing.

My Story “The New Neighbours” Is Included In The Apex Book Of World SF, Volume II

Posted on November 2, 2010

Earlier this year, I was delighted to hear from author and editor Lavie Tidhar that my story “The New Neighbours”, first published in my short story collection Transported (2008), had been accepted for inclusion in The Apex Book Of World SF, Volume II, scheduled for publication in mid-2011.

At the time, the news wasn’t public, and so I duly sat on it. But I sat on it too long – engrossed (embroiled?) in revisions to my current novel manuscript, I missed Lavie’s September announcement of the Table of Contents for the anthology.

Apex Book of World SF, Volume II: Table of Contents

I’m delighted to be included in such a rich lineup of authors from around the world, from Argentina to Zimbabwe, with such fine authors as Ekaterina Sedia and Nnedi Okorafor, plus many others whose work I don’t yet know and look forward to reading. Science fiction is so often thought of as being an Anglophone preserve, and in particular the preserve of American and British writers: good on Lavie, and Apex, for demonstrating through this anthology series, and through the World SF blog, that this is not the case.

In the meantime, I suggest you check out The Apex Book of World SF, the first volume in the series, which received this detailed review by Andy Sawyer in Strange Horizons.

The Penguin Book of Contemporary New Zealand Short Stories

Posted on August 30, 2009

I haven’t quite got it in my hands yet, but there is a copy of the Penguin Book of Contemporary New Zealand Short Stories, edited by Paula Morris and including my story “The New Neighbours” (first published in my recent collection Transported), on its way to me.

As Beattie’s Book Blog reveals, the lineup of authors included is:

Barbara Anderson, Jo Randerson, Charlotte Grimshaw, Selina Tusitala Marsh, Tim Jones, Damien Wilkins, Alice Tawhai, Duncan Sarkies, Fiona Farrell, Emily Perkins, Owen Marshall, Eleanor Catton, Sue Orr, Fiona Kidman, Tracey Slaughter, C. K. Stead, William Brandt, Patricia Grace, Vincent O’Sullivan, Carl Nixon, Elizabeth Smither, Julian Novitz, Justin Eade, Kate Duignan, Sia Figiel, Sarah Laing, Anna Taylor, David Geary, Kirsty Gunn, Bernard Steeds, Witi Ihimaera.

It’s a lineup that I’m very pleased to be a part of!

I am also pleased that Paula Morris chose “The New Neighbours”, which is an out-and-out science fiction story, albeit with a New Zealand setting, for inclusion. It’s another sign that science fiction is gaining a least a measure of acceptance in the wider New Zealand literary community, something which New Zealand Speculative Fiction Blogging Week should also encourage.

Here are the first few paragraphs of “The New Neighbours”, to give you the flavour of the whole.

“The New Neighbours” In Good Company

Posted on December 31, 2008

A little piece of good news from the tail end of 2008: I received confirmation that my short story “The New Neighbours”, first published in Transported, had been selected for inclusion in the Penguin Book of Contemporary New Zealand Short Stories, an anthology edited by Paula Morris that covers the last ten years of short-fiction writing in New Zealand. It will be published in September 2009.

I’m very pleased to see “The New Neighbours” in such illustrious company. Here, to give you the flavour, are the first few paragraphs. All those references to high property values look nostalgic already.

The New Neighbours

High property values are the hallmark of a civilised society. Though our generation may never build cathedrals nor find a cure for cancer, may never save the whales nor end world hunger, yet we can die with smiles on our faces if we have left our homes better than we found them, if we have added decks, remodelled kitchens, and created indoor-outdoor flow.

Reaction in our street to the news that an alien family would soon move into Number 56 was therefore mixed. Number 56 was the proverbial worst house on the best street, and any family who could improve it — regardless of skin colour or number of limbs — was welcome, in my view. My wife Alison said she’d wait and see. Josh wondered if they had any kids his age.

Others near to the action, and particularly the Murrays at No. 54 and the Zhangs at No. 58, were less sanguine. “But it’s not as if they need a resource consent,” said my wife to Jessica Zhang, and she was right. Having bought the house at a legitimate auction through a telephone bidder, and paid the deposit, the alien family were well within their rights to settle in our street, and the rest of us would simply have to make the best of it.

But not everyone does try to make the best of it, and complications ensue … In my next post, a little about my writing and blogging plans for 2009.

Another Good Review for Transported

Posted on August 27, 2008

This review of my short story collection Transported, by reviewer Mandy Evans, appeared in the Marlborough Express on 19 August 2008.

Transported by Breadth of Imagination

Expect to be transported by this collection of short stories and you won’t be disappointed.

From a neighbourhood debate about aliens moving in next door, a changing climate resulting in kiwifruit growing in Otago, an eye transplant that allows a man to better see the stars, and a country so crowded there’s standing room only, Tim Jones’s imagination and his pen range freely.

Jones has previously published two volumes of poetry, and one earlier collection of short stories, however, this is the first work of his I’ve read.

I found his writing polished and easy-to-read. His protagonists are all distinctive characters and the writing tone for each story reflects this. I particularly like that Jones has taken such diverse situations that at times seem like stray thoughts that would flit through most people’s minds and disappear, and turned them into thoughtful stories.

While not every story in the book was to my taste this just serves to prove the breadth of Jones’s imagination. I loved The New Neighbours which featured aliens living among humans. After The War, which tells the tale of one of Tolkien’s Orcs, also appealed to me.

One of the essential ingredients in a short story is its power to surprise; to produce the unexpected. I derive a great deal of satisfaction from reading a collection that does so with a flourish. Most of the stories in this collection finished with a satisfying element of doubt, ensuring the stories linger in the mind.