SEA LION PRESS

By Ryan Fleming. Harry Bell had not slept in days. He was the sole survivor of the Brunswick, whose discovery of an unidentified continent in the South Pacific had meant quick (Harry hoped) death for all his shipmates, whether they had remained aboard or been in the first party ashore. Harry had survived, and he intended to keep it that way. It was that intent that kept him from sleeping. He had seen enough from what lurked on the island to never let his guard down. One membe

By Ryan Fleming. Romero directs Resident Evil.... 2's Japanese trailer. Screenshot from the 1997 Making Of video, uploaded to Youtube by the Residence of Evil channel. The zombie as it is understood in modern popular culture exists because of George A. Romero. Its ubiquity across popular culture owes a lot to video games of the 1990s, especially Resident Evil. The very first Resident Evil game was released in 1996 and quickly its potential for a film adaptation was recognised

By Tom Anderson. Thus far the Surly Bonds series consists of two books, The Surly Bonds of Earth and Well Met By Starlight. The third book in the series, a direct sequel to Well Met will shortly debut and is entitled On the Wings of the Morn. To explain what this series is about is – well, a long story in itself. In the world of science fiction, since the 1960s Star Trek has become so influential and inspirational that many science fiction writers have essentially started out

By Ryan Fleming. A gaggle of newly joined candy stripers, the more mobile patients, and even a few resident doctors all tried to sneak a look at the Renaissance Man when they heard he would be calling at their Bellevue Hospital that night. Charles Chance, the Renaissance Man himself, was all smiles and handshakes punctuated by the odd pithy one-liner or wink when he and his entourage arrived. A moving scrum developed around the Renaissance Man as he made his way from the entr

By WM. Garrett Cothran On the Sea Lion Press Forums, we run a monthly Vignette Challenge. Contributors are invited to write short stories on a specific theme (changed monthly). The theme for the 97th contest was Megaprojects. The alarm rang with a bright, metallic insistence. It was a faint bluish color, its bell still stamped in looping Imperial script beneath a strip of government-issued German labeling. Charles Ludwig Martínez swatted it once, then again, until it surren

By Charles E.P. Murphy Art by Keith Burns Thanks to the efforts of the multinational Harrier Squadron, the mid-90s Third World War between the Asian Bloc and Western Federation has ended. Europe is attempting to rebuild. However, there’s another multinational team of air aces out there: Ghost Flight, a gang of pirates in mismatched aircraft who are preying on cargo ships bringing in much-needed aid for both sides! With ASBLOC accusing WESTFED of using the Ghosts as a proxy, H

By Ryan Fleming. On the steps outside the Main Branch of the New York Public Library, a quiet man with his right arm in a sling drew with his left hand a revolver from the pocket of his raincoat. His unfamiliar aim drew at a pair walking down those steps having recently exited the library. The pair were Reginald Cullen and Annie Thomas, two members of the Renaissance. Seeing the drawn weapon, Cullen raised his arm in front of Annie and reached for his own concealed weapon. It

By Matthew Kresal. Image courtesy Big Finish website. Ask fans of Classic Doctor Who whom their favorite incarnation of the Time Lord is and there’s a very good chance that you’re going to get one name more often than not: Tom Baker. With seven seasons and 41 serials, his remains the longest continuous tenure, taking in three producers with very different ideas about the series and Baker’s role within it. It’s no surprise that it also left behind a number of unproduced storyl

By Gary Oswald. Saint Patrick preaches to the kings, depicted in the stained glass window of Carlow Cathedral of the Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary. Photo by Andreas F. Borchert, who has allowed use under Creative Commons. Ireland was never part of the Roman Empire but nor it was ever entirely cut off from interaction with that Empire. After all, from 43 AD to 410 AD, Rome ruled England, Wales and parts of Scotland, which puts them very close to Ireland. Trade between Irel

By Ryan Fleming. In the docklands of New York City, a gang of armed ruffians approached Eileen Wong and Benjamin Williams with felonious intent. An eight-foot chain fence topped with barbed wire blocked their escape to the busy streets of the metropolis. Each of the five ruffians carried a weapon, but whether brass knuckles, a chain, axe handle, or a longshoreman’s hook, the implement would mean bad news for the two members of the Renaissance. Their options limited, Williams

By Charles E.P. Murphy Second print & kindle In the early 1900s, a Zionist expedition came back from a fact-finding mission to British East Africa – and recommended taking up London on its offer to settle a Jewish homeland there instead of the Middle East. Generations later, there's a vast modern Jewish-majority nation between Lake Victoria and Mount Elgon, and there's also an unending conflict with the displaced Nandi people. Minor writer Lior Tirosh left for Berlin years ag

By Paul Hynes. The battleship Bretagne, burning but still under bombardment. Hundreds would be killed. Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons, from the personal collection of Jacques Mulard. The 3rd of July 1940 had been intended to be a pleasant day for the sailors of Force de Raid (Raiding Force). Based at Mers-el-Kébir harbour beside Oran on the coast of Algeria, the squadron faced an uncertain fate. Following the armistices signed with the Axis powers their fellow sailors who l

By Ryan Fleming. In the Pacific Ocean, hundreds of miles from where there should be any land, Harry Bell and his shipmates stepped tenderly from their launch onto the shore of the mysterious land Harry had spotted the night before. The ground was soft underfoot, in some spots the landing party’s boots sank into the mud all the way to the top and the men had to be pulled out their shipmates. They soon began moving in a file by pairs, led by Chief Officer Chapman. There had bee

By Matthew Kresal. Region 2 Special Edition DVD, image courtesy Amazon. Parallel worlds. What ifs? Elseworlds. Whatever you (or insert comic book company name here) might like to call them, there’s no doubt that the idea of seeing alternative versions of our favorite superheroes has a place among fans. Something that the long-running DC Universe Animated Original Movies series took advantage of with a number of their adaptations and productions. Among them was Justice League:

By Gary Oswald. Leicester City celebrate winning the 2016 Premier League - a tournament that, handily for an article covering the money side of things, was sponsored by a bank! Photo by Peter Woodentop, made available as creative commons via Wikimedia Commons. In March 2026 Nigel Farage, leader of the right-wing political party Reform UK, held a series of rallies in Eastern England, visiting Ipswich and Sunderland to lend support to his party’s effort in the upcoming local el

By Ryan Fleming. Outside a familiar brownstone in Manhattan, a quiet man stood on its stoop. He held a package in his hands, and a pistol in his pocket. Inside that same familiar brownstone, Charles Chance was brought up to speed by his partners on the appearance of a strange new world in the Pacific Ocean. “Speculation of dragons and gold and all sorts,” Annie Thomas was concluding, “but despite such embellishments, it does appear that the actual reports of a vast new contin

By Alexander Rooksmoor. I was eager to write an alternate history spy novel and naturally Constantinople has always been a good place for such stories. As Istanbul, it features as a locale in From Russia with Love; The Murder on the Orient Express starts there, while Graham Greene’s Stamboul Train goes the other way; Sweet Waters’ by Harold Nicolson is set nearby in 1913. The most recent prompt for me was Time and Time Again in which a portal allows travel back to a 1914 Cons

The Smashwords summer sale has come round again, and throughout the whole of July, dozens of Sea Lion Press books are 50% off! We've got thematic anthologies and we've got big chunky series, we've got war stories and slices of life, we've got British politics and we've got hippos in America -- all of it waiting for you! Discuss this Article

By Roshita Narasimhan. On the Sea Lion Press Forums, we run a monthly Vignette Challenge. Contributors are invited to write short stories on a specific theme (changed monthly). The theme for the 90th contest was The Nineties . Washington DC, the American Republic, 1994 The statue stood proudly as rope enveloped it. Tall, bronze, dignified. The figure still raised his hand much as a preacher would, making an imaginary speech to an imaginary crowd. His face frozen in a smile. T

By Ryan Fleming. Outside the Midtown brownstone, the assembled press of New York City was aflutter with excitement that the reports of a strange new world coming from the Pacific were being investigated by the legendary Renaissance Man. Inside the brownstone, on the other hand, Charles Chance, a name he had adopted long before the moniker of the Renaissance Man, was slumped against the heavy door that marked the demarcation point for that persona. Outside the brownstone, Char