DARIO CIRIELLO: Science Fiction: Writing

NB: all my work is available for free download under a Creative Commons license.

Writing

10/09/2009: my interview with Aliette de Bodard (titled 'Ghosts and Demons') is up at IROSF

10/10/09: my novella anthology. PANVERSE ONE, is out - please click this link and check it out

(better still, order a copy!)

What I'm Working on Now

I write fiction. My stories range from magic realism through space opera and core SF, humour to horror. I enjoy complex, even baroque, worldbuilding. My SF/F heroes include Roger Zelazny, CJ Cherryh, Fritz Leiber, Cordwainer Smith, Norman Spinrad, Dan Simmons, and Charles Stross; wider literary influences are Jorge Luis Borges, John Le Carré, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Graves, and many others.

August, 2009

The third week of the month finds me some 7k words into my new novel, with some key events and the ending mapped out. It's Science Fictional/Paranormal, with the working title, 'Sister Midnight'. Ideas are coming thick and fast with this one, and I'm very excited about working on it.

July, 2009

I have a story that's made the finals of the Writers of the Future (2nd quarter) contest: fingers crossed! Ideas for the novel are solidifying and I expect to begin work on that sometime within the next month.

May, 2009

Ms. Anne Devlin of the Max Gartenberg Literary Agency has kindly offered to represent my nonfiction memoir, 'Aegean Dream'. 'Aegean Dream' is the true story of our year living on the tiny Greek island of Skopelos in the northern Aegean, where the recent hit movie 'Mamma Mia' was filmed.

Still on the nonfiction front, I'm also working with my good friend Dr. Richard Weinstein on what could best be described as 'a weight loss book with attitude'. We anticipate having the first draft completed sometime in July.

In the realm of fiction, I've started making notes toward a novel, which I hope to begin work on within two or three months.

Recent Publications (go to the Archive to read some of these)

'America is Coming!' (see review below)

In the anthology 'Triangulation: End of Time' (ed. Pete Butler; publ. Parsec, Inc., 2007); to be reprinted in the forthcoming anthology 'Best New Tales of the Apocalypse', (publ. Permuted Press).

buy the anthology

'Appalachian Fall'

Temple of Dagon / March 13, 2006 read online

'Dwell on Her Graciousness'

Issue #5 of the print magazine Shimmer / October 2006

'Valley of the Shadow' (see review below)

Issue #1 of the print magazine Shimmer / October 2005

'SETI, the Fermi Paradox, and the Retrenchment of Vision: an interview with Dr. Seth Shostak '

Published in The Internet Review of Science Fiction (IROSF) / June 2004

Reviews

America is Coming!

reviewed by GUD magazine

The next story, 'America is Coming!' by Dario Ciriello, is easily my favourite of this collection. Although the narrative tapers off a bit at the end, the opening throws the reader into a fantastic end-of-world scenario, where the American continent is literally chewing up Europe, and the only way to escape is, ironically, to risk an almost-suicidal voyage to the relative safety of the destroyer's shores. Imaginative and engaging, this story is worth the collection price on its own.

Dwell on Her Graciousness

reviewed by Tangent Online

"Dwell upon Her Graciousness" by Dario Ciriello is the sort of sci-fi a reader will either really like or really dislike. While I fall into the latter category, this piece kept me reading. Some parts were hard to get through because of my own genre preferences, but even techno-paranoids like me will be drawn in by the strength of the plot. The characters, while a little shallow, manage to hold together a complex story of commitment and betrayal on the highest scale. Lines become blurred, making it difficult to choose sides. The ending comes out of nowhere and goes the opposite way that I expected. Ciriello's abilities shine, and I highly recommend this to the sci-fi habitué.

Valley of the Shadow

reviewed by Paul Abbamondi for Tangent Online

The longest entry in the issue, "Valley of the Shadow" by Dario Ciriello is a gripping experience from start to finish. The dead now exist with the living, and for Tom Schroeder, that is not the worst of it. The world is falling apart thanks to the spooks, the economy is going down, everyone is on meds, and suicide is at an all-time high. Tom meets a fellow American while staying in Athens, and together, they plan on surviving what they hope to be a short phase in societal history.

The world of the dead and the world of the living coming together is not the most original story element, but Ciriello makes it work in such an original way that from here on, I’ll always think of him as its founder. The descriptions of the ghosts and house spooks being secondary in life make them so much more creepy than descriptions filled with gore and eyeless faces. Tom is a sympathetic hero, doing what he can to save those he loves, to keep the world sane along with himself. This is the shining gem of the premier issue. Check out Shimmer for it alone if your interest is the least bit piqued.