Einstein Ring: A Flash Fiction Story

by D.A. Xiaolin Spires

Our worldly encounters flit in our minds — like static .

From science fiction and fantasy author D.A. Xiaolin Spires, published and forthcoming in pro-publications Clarkesworld, Analog, Retro Future, Grievous Angel, Eye to the Telescope and several professional anthologies and more; Honorable Mention in the Writers of the Future Contest , comes a scintillating look into our emotional psyche.

In this flash short story, Einstein Ring , Spires takes you on an exquisitely crafted journey through the mechanics of a raw and heartfelt confrontation. Poetic and energetic, the work reads like an electric surge of current— charged and dynamic. With references to the expanse of space and relative speed and motion, Einstein Ring raises metaphysical questions that bear on our human endeavor for real contact and meaning.

37 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 24, 2017

About the author

D.A. Xiaolin Spires writes from the Finger Lakes, New York—and has stepped into portals and reappeared in sites such as Hawai’i, NJ, Chicago, various parts of Asia and elsewhere, with her keyboard appendage attached. Her work appears in publications such as Clarkesworld, Analog, Strange Horizons, and anthologies of the strange and beautiful: Make Shift, Deep Signal, and Sharp and Sugar Tooth. Her stories have been selected for The Year’s Top Robot and AI Stories, Year’s Best Hardcore Horror, The Year’s Top Hard Science Fiction Stories and The Year’s Top Tales of Space and Time Stories, with poetry nominated for Rhysling, Best of the Net and Pushcart awards. Select stories can be read in German, Spanish, Vietnamese, Estonian, French and Japanese translation. Wintry ecologies of residences past and present inspire her sci-fi novella, ELLIPSES, from Infinivox.

She has a Ph.D. in socio-cultural anthropology and has conducted National Science Foundation-funded research. Her multifaceted writing reflects her interest in food systems, ecology, technology and society. She has mentored through SFWA and has taught academic and creative writing to students at the college level. She speaks multiple languages, savors durians, dekopon, and rose-apples and teaches stick-fighting and weapons-based martial arts. Brush in hand, she also paints fantastical art in sumi ink, gouache, watercolor and acrylic. When she’s not doing all these things, she is playing with meeples, cards and tiles, convening with good folk around a board game or RPG.

She can be found on her website at daxiaolinspires.wordpress.com, Patreon @daxiaolinspires, Facebook @daxspires, Instagram/Threads @spireswriter and Bluesky @spires.bsky.social.