Ali Abbas's Blog

My story The Bloody Briar is now available at Swords and Sorcery magazine. It is another folktale mash-up, this time wholly European. Head over there and take a look.  Everyone will be familiar with some version of “The Briar Rose” (Sleeping Beauty), which I have intertwined with “Tam Lyn,” an originally Scottish story with variants […]

Acts of Rebellion is published today by the good people at Singapore Unbound, in their journal Suspect. The origins of this story are a patchwork quilt. I have borrowed liberally from those around me in my university days, both my own alma mater of St Johns, and Homerton, home to many dear friends.  At its […]

How do you take your scones? It is a debate very much reflective of our times. Polemic vituperation rather than objective analysis. Cream first with a dollop of jam, or a jam smear with a pile of cream? It’s not just a matter of taste. I’m here to tell you there is a right answer; […]

I have come to bury human creativity not to praise it. My thoughts today are not with those employed in creative industries, but that army of creative people toiling away at what they love to do in the solitude of their own homes. I might get to the former another day. Gen AI has launched […]

My short story Tombstones to the Wind is in the winter issue of The Sprawl Mag. Check it out here: https://www.thesprawlmag.ca/vol-2-1 It is a brief moment in the lives of three generations of a family living in the aftermath of environmental collapse. END Head over to my author page to see what else I have […]

The Concept Sometime in 2014 I had my first experience with an anechoic chamber. This is a room with surfaces that are designed to stop the reflection of sound and electromagnetic waves. What you feel when you walk in is a deadness, no timbre or resonance when you talk. I didn’t stay long and my […]

Bubbling with excitement, at my age you’d think I’d know better. My second novella “Silent Running” will be coming out July 25th. This one is hard sci-fi, built around three strong female characters and their interweaving intentions. Head over to Lost Colony Magazine to read the preview and pre-order your copy. PREVIEW – Silent Running […]

Write what you know. And what do you know better than your own stories? (We’ll park the question of my notoriously poor memory.) Published today at Piker Press, “Calculus, Charlotte and the Breaking of Waves” is at its heart a true story. Except the bits that have been inserted because I just can’t recall across […]

Big business decisions aren't made on rigorous analysis.

This one has been available in Kindle format for a while but it took a bit longer to get the paperback ready. I’m hoping it is an oddity you will enjoy. The brief from Phoebe, the publisher, was a creature-themed fairy tale punking. With me so far? Well, I decided to take things a bit […]