Spring Into Scifi -An anthology of stories from across the world

Spring into SciFi, the recent release from Cloaked Press,LLC, brings together 13 authors from all around the world to offer their unique take on the science fiction genre. Space travel, aliens, AI, advanced technology and even time travel wait within the pages of the book. Scroll down to know more about the stories written by Anthony Engebretson, John Haas, MatthewMcKiernan, Nick Morrison , MykeEdwards, Tony Conaway, Ewan Chapman, Mike Adamson, Desmond Warzel, Sandy Stuckless, Nick Korolev.

Name of the Story: The Portal

Written by: Anthony Engebretson

Description: A young man participates in a radical new weight loss procedure, but finds it’s consuming his life and his body.

 Inspiration: Many things inspired me when writing this story. But what made me write it in the first place was my struggle with an eating disorder, and the fact that eating and body image are disordered in American society in general.

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Name of the Story:  Hero’s End

Written by:  John Haas

Description:  A super-hero wakes up in a hospital with no memory of how he got there, and in a body that is decidedly not his.

Inspiration: Without giving the story away, I wanted to write a story about the side of a super-hero that doesn’t often get examined. Originally the main character was a James Bond type of super-spy.

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Name of the Story:  Invaders

Written by:  MatthewMcKiernan

Description:  This story is about a teenager protecting an infant during an alien invasion.

Inspiration:   This story was inspired by the Twilight Zone and similar series.

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Name of the Story:  Data Transfer 

Written by:  Nick Morrison 

Description:  In a future where personalities can be uploaded to artificial intelligence programs, a mentally ill woman goes to desperate lengths to rid herself of her disease. 

Inspiration: Data Transfer was inspired by my own struggles with mental illness, and the video games Portal and System Shock.  

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Name of the Story:  The Man Without a Planet

Written by:  Myke Edwards

Description:  One line description on what the story is all about: In search of a greater meaning after a tragic accident, a man finds his true calling.

Inspiration: What would happen if everything you knew, everyone you loved, was suddenly taken from you?

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source: www.pixabay.com

Name of the Story:  The Radium Room

Written by:  Tony Conaway  

Description: The New York Police Department hires a mysterious troubleshooter to find a dangerous source of radiation, which requires him to time-travel into the past.

Inspiration: My late mother once mentioned the real-life Radium Girls to me; years later, I used them in a story.

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Name of the Story:   Deepest Blue

Written by: Ewan Chapman

 Description:  A game of chess between an AI creator and politician on the day of the android rights act, despite the advances of humanity all is not as it seems within the android community.

Inspiration: I like traditional hard sci-fi, Asmiov's work is a great inspiration for me. In this story I wanted to highlight our inability to learn from our mistakes as a society, which will again come back to haunt us in our future.

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Name of the Story:  One Shot Kill

Written by:  Mike Adamson

Description:  In a war centuries from now, a lone sniper in the midst of an elaborate trap becomes the first human being to ever lay eyes upon the enemy.

Inspiration: Individual heroism against the wide background of a great conflict is an eternal trope, and will hold good in future wars -- it was a story that cried out to be told.

source:www.pixabay.com

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Name of the Story:  Look for the Union Label

Written by:  Desmond Warzel

Description:  In the future, we've figured out how to make lifelike humanoid robots, but it turns out they're not much use; one can barely make a living maintaining them, especially when powerful interests keep interfering.

Inspiration: : It struck me that robot actors might break down, and that diagnosing the problem might require some acting talent on the part of the repairman; combine that with the protectiveness of theater unions (stagehands, electricians, etc.) toward their territory, and there we are.

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Name of the Story:  Date Date

Written by:  Sandy Stuckless

Description:  Date Night is the story of Tobias Rana, a half-android assassin who goes on a blind date with his next victim. Will either of them leave alive?

Inspiration: My inspiration wasn't anything really profound. I had a little snippet of an opening for a story in my files and when I saw Cloaked Press's call for submissions I thought I could spin it into something worth submitting.

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Name of the Story:  Eyes of the Lion

Written by:  Nick Korolev

Description:  An archaeologist on a dig on Mars discovers more than ancient ruins from an extraterrestrial civilization.

Inspiration: The famous "Face on Mars" reported in February 1992, by Richard Hoagland, head of the Mars Mission, when he was invited to the United Nations to present a summary of the Mission’s findings.

To buy a copy of SPRING INTO SCI-FI , click here.