Triangulation Dark Skies is available to Purchase!
Parsec Ink is proud to announce its 2019 collection of short stories. Triangulation: Dark Skies contains 21 fantasy, science fiction and horror short stories from around the world exploring the ways that stars affect our lives.
Published: 2019
Editors: Diane Turnshek and Chloe Nightingale
Managing editor: Douglas Gwilym
Editorial staff: Ana Curtis, Seren Davis, Lara Elena Donnelly, Shannon Eichorn, Katherine Ervin, Emma Flickinger, Kathryn Harlan, Getty Hesse, Kaitlin Jencks, Wenmimareba Kiobah, Nicole Kosar, Emilia Sepúlveda, Malina Suity, Cassidy Teng
Cover Art: Mike Lincoln Photo of Pittsburgh from Mt. Washington superimposed with a view of the Milky Way from Spruce Knob
Interior Illustrations: Atlas Coelestis—London, 1729, John Flamsteed, Atlas of 25 Celestial Copper-Engraved Charts Uranographia—Berlin, 1801, Johann Elert Bode Atlas of 20 Celestial Copper-Engraved Charts
Layout & Cover Design: Douglas Gwilym
Paperback: $17.00 and Kindle edition: $2.99
Who is holding the stars hostage? Don’t we all have the right to star-filled nights? Do you miss our Milky Way Galaxy arcing overhead? Explore answers in these creative tales of human (and alien) reaction to the yin-yang of darkness and light. Travel the high ways with lovers in a hand-built rocket. Chase meteors across the sky to a windfall of wonder. Ride the star-train to Europa and dive into the salty oceans under ice. Pierce the dark sky with acolytes of the serpent god and gasp at the lengths people go to see stars one more time. Trance dance under the cold skies of Ceres. Journey with us into darkness, for only there can we see the light.
Don’t we all have the right?
Contents
Introduction by Diane Turnshek
Meirythro Brevis by Blake Jessop
The Second Star Is Missing by Kate Ruegger
How to Glimpse the Icarus Star by Mary Soon Lee
Why We Endured the Darkness by Maddy Dietz
A Weave of Europa by Manny Frishberg & Edd Vick
Eleven Tips for Hikers by Jamie Lackey
The Girl Who Stole the Sun by J.A. Prentice
Reaching Out by Estelle Rodgers
Maggie Matrix by James Edward O’Brien
Rattlesnake Song by Josh Rountree
Catch a Falling Star by Stephanie Gildart
Venus and the Milky Way by Rhea Rose
What Price the Sky? by Mike Brotherton
Seven Sisters by Jennifer Lee Rossman
Moon Cakes by Salinda Tyson
Blow the Stars Away by Andrew Leon Hudson
Equal in Darkness by Alexandra Balasa
Betting On Starlight by Isaac Payne
Stars by Liam Hogan
The Valley of the Stars by Laura Jane Swanson
Earth Epitaph by R. Jean Mathieu
Reviews:
I am so pleased that there is such a fascinating collection of science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories featuring the night. Diane Turnshek writes an introduction that draws us into feeling passionate about light pollution. What a great way this book is to highlight such an important topic. – Amazon Customer
Highly recommend! some amazing authors and stories pulled together under the theme of dark skies, spreading awareness of light pollution as well as that many wonderful storytellers in the sci-fi/fantasy community. – Amazon Customer
Introduction
When was the last time you looked up from a dark spot on the earth, free from artificial light, and could see out into the depths of our infinite universe?
Light pollution is a man-made change to our world that has dire consequences. You may know it keeps us from seeing the stars, but are you aware of its harmful effects on plants and animals, or that it also poses risk to human health? Over millions of years, evolution has produced an ecosystem that functions at its best when day is bright and night is dark. We have upset this balance, especially in urban environments.
City planners understand that sustainability and resiliency depend on humans living side-by-side with the rest of nature. They even have a name for it: biophilia. What they too often miss is that there’s nothing more natural than a dark sky full of stars. Seeing the space that surrounds our planet connects us to our world.
Human beings are the only species who feel the need to announce their presence with booming lightboxes. We regulate excess sound, smell, and physical trespass, but few cities have ordinances about light traveling beyond property lines, invading the windows of people trying to sleep. And the effect isn’t limited to the city. Nowhere east of the Mississippi is it truly dark anymore.
Dark sky enthusiasts advocate “lighting smart,” meaning lighting only where and when it’s needed. Consider the use of shields, timers, dimmers, motion sensors, and lower-wattage and lower-temperature bulbs. LEDs are more efficient and longer lasting than any other light. It’s bluer, hotter lights that most interfere with life. Switching to amber-colored, low-temperature LEDs makes a real difference.
Here’s something that may surprise you: lighting up the night may make you feel safer, but that is an illusion. Statistics show that dark houses are actually less likely to be targeted by robbers, and traffic accidents do not correlate with street lighting levels. If bright “safety” lights kept criminals away, nobody would ever rob a 7-Eleven, right? Does it make sense to spend 2.2 billion dollars a year (in the US alone) to light the undersides of planes and birds?
Light pollution changes the habits of predation, foraging, migration, nesting, and mating of scores of animal populations. Fireflies are endangered, and a billion bird deaths a year are directly related to light pollution. Visit darksky.org, home of the International Dark-Sky Association, to read about this, and much more.
Can you tell I am passionate about these issues? It feels natural to return to Triangulation to help create the edition you hold in your hand, a collection of speculative stories celebrating the night sky and raising awareness of light pollution. On the following pages, you will find thoughtful, mind-expanding, and imaginative interpretations of the theme. We’ve got to savor the stars before we can save them. Will imagining star-filled skies lead to seeing them again? We really hope so.
Enjoy!
Diane Turnshek
July 18, 2019 Founder (and co-editor) of Triangulation
Funding for the 2019 anthology provided by SFWA and Metro21: Smart Cities Institute, Carnegie Mellon University.