My search for the lost Siren Island had ended, and I planned to end my life there. But when I landed, suffering from cancer with not many hours left to live, I found that there were other things at stake besides my inevitable death.
Find out more in Sisland. Story #34 in the Science Fiction Weekly series. Available in digital format from Amazon.
Some rambling from Neil A. Hogan
This simple short story, with the predominant theme of cancer, is dedicated to a few people. My birth mother, who I finally met in 2004, died from cancer in palliative care at the age of 49. (She adopted me out before I was born. The 70s wasn’t the place for a single teenage mother.) I only saw her awake once, though I spoke with her a couple of times on the phone before she died, and I was able to be there briefly during her final hours. It was difficult to meet her before then as I lived in another city and couldn’t get away from my work and other responsibilities without months of planning and saving. I thought she would live longer than she did as she seemed strong when I met her. I thought she would be fine. I had originally planned to visit again three months after that time.
This story is also dedicated to a friend who had helped me set up a business in the 00s, and worked with me on it for a few years, who died in 2019 from cancer at the age of 33. I hadn’t contacted him for over a year and only learned he had died a couple of days before the funeral, which I couldn’t attend as I had moved to another city and couldn’t get away from my work and other responsibilities without months of planning and saving. I had thought he would win his fight as his Instagram and Facebook pages were full of happy selfies. I thought he would be fine. Unfortunately the cancer reached his brain and he died just four weeks after his last post. I had originally planned to visit again three months after that time and reconnect then.
My dad has prostate cancer. I haven’t visited him in a few years as I have moved to another city and it’s difficult to get away from my work and other responsibilities without months of planning and saving, but we’ve had a few Skype calls and he’s looking good for his age. I’m sure he’ll be fine. Hoping to be able to visit him within the next few months.
Getting Old
I am learning of the sad reality that approaching fifty years old means more and more of my family and friends are dying for one reason or another. Having met thousands of people over the years, it’s now simply impossible to attend every funeral. I’ve already had to miss five relatives’ funerals just in the past five years. When my mother died in 2016 from a heart attack, one of her closest friends who she’d known for over fifty years wasn’t able to attend her funeral due to distance and cost and her own health. It helped me to understand that the funeral is not that important. It’s being with that person while they’re still alive that is.
Science has proven we are genetically predisposed to live for 38 years (CSIRO) and anything past that is a bonus. No wonder a lot of people have a mid life crisis at that time. They’ve suddenly found that they’ve been given an extra life. Like being given a new set of regenerations. So, if we’re all predisposed to live until 38, then that explains why there is an uptick of funerals after that time. It might also explain the increase in life insurance premiums.
Plan Forever
Speaking of which. Check out another site I’ve been working on. Life Insurance Articles. I’ve owned the domain www.PlanForever.com for over 10 years and I had developed a software program for it that can enable you to look up the day of the week for any period in the past 2020 years and future 7979 years (up to the year 9999)! I’m not a programmer. I designed it and worked with a programmer to put it together. Great for time travel writers who like to be a bit more accurate. (NB: Due to a change in the Gregorian calendar in the 1700s, the software program isn’t entirely accurate for dates before then.) Unfortunately the underlying PHP program that it is based on is no longer current and so I have to shut the software down on the 16th January. If you wish to check out the century planner, or just to find out what day your 100th birthday will be on, you can visit the site and click on ‘Plan System’
To make the site pay for itself, I’ve converted it into a Life Insurance Articles repository, and am collecting reproducible articles for it from around the world. I don’t know if I’ll ever get around to writing one myself. We’ll see.
Delays
My friend dying late last year knocked me for six. I just could not write anymore after that. I took a few weeks off from writing, for reflection. #34 is the last story in the science fiction weekly series for now. I do have another one that I had started a few months ago but I’m not in any mood to finish it just yet. I’ve also delayed Stellar Flash Book 4, Fantasy Short Stories Book 4 and Alien Dimensions #19 for another month. I’d prefer to write with a better frame of mind. I’ll post again when I get back to things. Apologies to anyone who is waiting on a reply from me. I’ll start replying to emails next week.
Constable Jennifer McLean has been sent on a routine mission to investigate an honest gun seller in her precinct in Mars City. But when she gets there she soon discovers that he might be dealing in technology not allowed on Mars.
Where is he getting the spacer stuff from? What has happened to the missing 47 residents? And will Jen be able to arrest her suspect before he escapes?
Find out more in Phase Shift. #33 in the Science Fiction Weekly Short Reads Series.
TBH I had a lot of fun writing this. Quotes from Doctor Who “Are you interested in lepidoptera at all?” Always one for the obscure! And weaving in ASIO and ASIS as well as playing around with genetics… Yeah, it’s a weird one. I’ve also snuck it in as an Easter egg in Hoganthology, so anyone who gets that now will have a surprise at the end. Then again, maybe they’ll have a disappointment at the end. I hope not!
Stellar Flash IV is so far behind schedule that I don’t think I can catch up to my projected release of May 2020. I’ll do my best, but so many crazy things have happened in 2019 that I’m tempted to take 2020 off and just retreat from the world for awhile. We’ll see.
In other news, it had been a half-a-life-long dream to release Hoganthology. And now that it is out there, I thought a collection might be eligible for a Hugo Award nomination. Nope. No collections are accepted. So, if you’re a member or supporting member of CoNZealand and wish to nominate Hoganthology, maybe nominate Temporal Incursion instead? Or even one of the Science Fiction Weekly Short Stories released in 2019 that are in it?
You read something better? Oh. Okay. Fair enough. Let me know the title in the comments and I’ll check it out.
Fanged moths, enlarged animals, and now something was affecting his team of lepidopterists. With an Australian government department involved, and attacks on the rise, Bruce is tasked with finding a cure to whatever climate change has brought the world this time.
But can he reverse the effects of something that had previously been dormant for over 13,000 years?
Find out more in Of Moths and Men. #32 in the Science Fiction Weekly Short Reads Series
When an ethereal voice begins calling Karol from her bed, she has to investigate. She quickly finds herself in a hidden underground cavern being shown images of the past by a ghost.
What is really going on? Why does the apparition need her to see this? And what is she going to do when she finds out the real truth?
Find out more in Layers. #31 in the Science Fiction Weekly Short Reads Series.
On the 28th November 2015, the BBC
broadcast an episode of Doctor Who called Heaven Sent, starring
Peter Capaldi. It was a very different kind of Doctor Who story in that it
was almost completely carried by Capaldi, apart from a wraith-like creature
that silently chased him the entire episode. Not only was it a mystery, a horror,
a convoluted time conundrum tied up in a shifting puzzle box maze, it was well
shot, well executed with amazing detail that kept you not only guessing while watching
it, but rewatching it in your head long after the episode had finished.
So taken with this story, I not only watched it about twenty times, (on ABC iView, among other places), but I also wrote a short story as a homage to it about the underlying cycles across time that we sometimes end up in. I released this in issue two of Alien Dimensions in November 2016. I don’t know whether it was this story, or simply a coincidence of timing, but that issue shot to the bestseller list on Amazon for two weeks.
But I didn’t want to stop there.
Once the creative bug had been born, I wanted to do other things in relation to Heaven Sent, so I then downloaded and rewrote Stephen Moffat’s script and put together a short video starring myself, emulating as much as I could. I also hired Genelyn Javier, who did many of the illustrations for my Alien Characters series, to create an animated theme tune and a wraith-like image for my character to run away from. It’s called Tutor Who Heaven Cent, and you can watch it online here:
For the full effect, you should watch Doctor
Who: Heaven Sent first before watching my embarrassing fan video.
When watching Tutor Who Heaven Cent, please use headphones and have your hand on the sound control. As it took me two years to make, each time I added a scene in Movie Maker I had trouble getting the previous sound levels to match, so apologies in advance.
In 2019, I reviewed the written Tutor Who Heaven Cent story and realized that an almost completely new story was needed. One based on the video. The new version is now available from Amazon, and closely follows my script, the final video being a cut down version.
And, if you’re a Doctor Who fan, then I challenge you to find over 37 Easter eggs that I wove into the video, and over 50 that I included in the new written version.
Several scientists are mysteriously called to a meeting to discuss the idea of mining the moon. But they soon discover that this is not a simple market research event.
With the CEO’s revelation too shocking to ignore, can the team of scientists put aside their differences and find a solution?
Find out more in Moon Mine. #28 in the Science Fiction Weekly Short Reads Series. A short story of about 6700 words.
Science Fiction Weekly is back. The first five or so stories you’ll have read in Alien Dimensions or Fantasy Short Stories, or even in Hoganthology. This will be the first time they’re released individually. I’ll be making each one free for 5 days starting with #27.
Drago and the rest of the scientific expedition are on a mission to investigate an underwater temple in the Bahamas. But a sudden storm appears throwing their little boat off course.
They soon figure out that the question they should be asking isn’t ‘where’ they are, but ‘when.’
Now available for Kindle, and in Kindle Unlimited – Download here: The Secret of Bimini
In this 800 page collection of Neil A. Hogan’s stories you’ll discover ancient space battles, alternate dimensions, sentient dark matter, dinosaurs, robots, galaxy movers, planet-sized aliens and more. Expect many twists and turns along the way.
These stories throw you into many of universes of an SF craftsman – mad, mind-bending, marvelous and always alien. Find out more here: Hoganthology
Section 1 – Short Stories
A Little Matter The Opposition Gravity Locked Still in Beta Ancient Alien Dinosaurs Japanese Martian Robot Souls Oh My God It’s Full of Stars Alien UFO Disclosure Pyramids of the Moon The Hydrofluorons of Krakon 7 Phases of the Moon Base Interrelations Surviving Mars First Interdimensional Contact Time Sheets Mate Robot Solitude ExtraForestrial Work After Death Neko Girl The Galaxy’s Driving Force The Old Boys’ Club Cosmic Joke The Manipulator Strange Lands Layers Life Choices Moon Mine The Secret of Bimini Tutor Who: Heaven Cent
Section 2 – Flash Fiction
Child Safe Evolution Inter-View Pocket Monsters The Language Tutor Controller Gene-Reality Rejuvenation The Exchange The Ugly Side of A.I.
We’ve Been Wordsworthed, We’ve Been Poeed, and We’ve Been Quite Possibly Frosted An Ode to Space Opera
Bonus Section – Excerpts
Alien Frequency – Chapter 3 The Andromeda Effect – Chapter 61 Temporal Incursion – Chapter 5 Tyrannosaurus Rex and the Cretaceous City – Dinory 1 Ida and the Planet Invasion – 2: Arrival Gabriel and the Resurrection of Maldek – 3: 10:00am Tiara and the Comet Apocalypse – Channel One
Bonus Section – The Future
The Robots of Atlantis (Preview) – Wednesday 22nd October 2053
Stellar Flash 2135 A.D. -Plot Synopsis -Notes on Location -Character Biographies -Extract 1 -Extract 2 -Some lines I’m working on
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settingsACCEPT
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
By 
