Pic: Elliott Franks
Mike
Donoghue
Michael Donoghue grew up in a small fishing village on the East coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. Now he resides in Vancouver, Canada but still mostly lives in his head. Michael’s stories have appeared in anthologies, literary journals, sci-fi magazines, and online. He has been a James White Award runner-up, a Sunburst Award finalist, won a Raven from Pulp Literature, and a reader at the Vancouver Word Festival. Michael works in public health, where he spends much of his time preoccupied with hand washing. He’s currently seeking representation for his debut novel, The Decline of the Human Race, Volume 01100.
The Decline of the Human Race: Volume 01100
Livingstone1813’s memory is gone, stolen. Literally removed from his AI brain. Now, his life’s work – academic research on the decline of the human race – is in someone else’s hands.
Human hands.
What secret did it reveal that others murder to protect? Trying to find the answer might do more than just kill Livingstone1813. It risks changing the world back to the time when humans ran society.
Not an idea that would bother Katie. She’s trying to survive best she can in a world where unemployment for humans runs at 50%. Some security consulting here, some memory theft there, and in-between, trying to subvert the AI-controlled society.
For either of them to survive, let alone retrieve Livingstone’s memory and learn the truth of who nuked Silicon Valley and why, they’ll have to work together.
This shared goal sends Livingstone1813 and Katie on an odyssey around the world and beyond, seeking the truth while trying to stay half-a-step ahead of the forces trying to kill them and the secrets they’ve learned.
PUBLICATIONS
| Science Fiction | ||
| The All-Day Slingers (reprint) | Stellar Evolutions Anthology | 10-Oct-2020 |
| ”It’s Not You, It’s Me” (reprint) | Essef Salmagundi Anthology | 15-Jan, 2018 |
| When your number’s up | Seven Deadly Sins, A YA Anthology: Gluttony | 04-Nov-2016 |
| The All-Day Slingers | Polar Borealis Magazine | Nov/Dec 2016 |
| “How did you get that scar” | Indestructiblespec | 11-Apr-2016 |
| Double-Double | Winds of Change: Stories about Our Climate | 10-Dec-2015 |
| Good Intentions | Seven Deadly Sins, A YA Anthology: Pride | 01-Apr-2015 |
| Demise of Great Expectations | Envision: Future Fiction | 01-Apr-2015 |
| Stuck in the Past | Abyss & Apex: Issue 54 | 24-Mar-2015 |
| Obit of ‘Pirate’ Samuel Tree, Aged 3 | LocoThology 2013: Tales of Fantasy & SF | 01-Sep-2013 |
| It’s not you, it’s me | Neo Opsis: Issue 22 | 01-Oct-2012 |
| Babe Ruth and the Demon | 140 and Counting | 13-Dec-2011 |
| Literary Fiction | ||
| The Wolfless Dog Pack | A Sentence for Saturday | Jan 2022 |
| Life4Sale | Pulp Literature | Spring 2020 |
| Good Intentions (reprint) | PRIDE: The Worst Sin of All | 14-Jan-2020 |
| A Weird Christmas Dinner | Weird Christmas | 19-Dec-2019 |
| Loss of a Dog | Jonny America | 24-Feb-2017 |
| The Real Story | Adverbially Challenged Volume 1 | 18-Nov-2016 |
| Suds | ImpressmentGang | 01-Sep-2014 |
| Making the Health Choice | 50WS | 27-Aug-2014 |
| The Problem with Being Really Good with Names | Everything is So Political Antho – Roseway | 05-Jul-2005 |
| The Problem with Being Really Good with Names | FreeFall: Winter 2013: Volume 23 No. 1 | 01-Nov-2013 |
| Pairings | Short Fast and Deadly | 10-Jan-2011 |
| Ashes to Ashes | PicFic | 05-Jan-2011 |
| Spending Time with the Kids | Short Fast and Deadly | 05-Dec-2010 |
| Running from your Situation | Short Fast and Deadly | 17-Oct-2010 |
| Microfiction | ||
| Mo was superior to other pets | trapezemag | 29-Sep-2011 |
| I used to make shoes like that | Cuento Magazine | 11-Aug-2011 |
| Forgotten Tort Law | Cuento Magazine | 06-Aug-2011 |
| A selfish foul crime | Nanoism | 27-Jun-2011 |
| No Moral Weapon | Seven By Twenty | 08-Apr-2011 |
| A Week in Miami | One Forty Fiction | 29-Mar-2011 |
| FTLs Drives ruin the sport | Seven By Twenty | 28-Mar-2011 |
| Steep Alarm Jangled | PicFic | 26-Mar-2011 |
| The Danger of Truth Games | One Forty Fiction | 10-Mar-2011 |
| Brittle ribs crack | Nanoism | 09-Feb-2011 |
| Past two years, divorce papers | Cuento Magazine | 27-Jan-2011 |
| Finally, … a restraining order | Cuento Magazine | 13-Jan-2011 |
| Tofu!?! | Seven By Twenty | 07-Jan-2011 |
| Inked-up Grandmother | Cuento Magazine | 02-Dec-2010 |
| Wasting time in the Real World | Nanoism | 29-Nov-2010 |
| 6th Defected Smart Round | Seven By Twenty | 29-Nov-2010 |
| The Bears, graveyard and ammo | trapezemag | 27-Nov-2010 |
| For my OCD… | trapezemag | 25-Nov-2010 |
| Meat Lottery | trapezemag | 20-Nov-2010 |
| Dorothy’s Road Trip | Cuento Magazine | 20-Nov-2010 |
| His eyes glisten | Stephen M. Wilson | 05-Nov-2010 |
| Bad Timing | One | 29-Oct-2010 |
| Ed Changed | trapezemag | 19-Oct-2010 |
| The odor of Haiti | Nanoism | 18-Oct-2010 |
| The Excitement of New Beginnings | One Forty Fiction | 18-Oct-2010 |
| “Black lambs 4 sale” | Stephen M. Wilson | 08-Oct-2010 |
| Yuri answers the door | Seedpood Publishing | 19-Sep-2010 |
| Adjusting for the windage | Seedpood Publishing | 19-Sep-2010 |
| Abandoned Love | PicFic | 13-Sep-2010 |
| High School is Like Real Life, Only More So | One Forty Fiction | 02-Sep-2010 |
| battle to the death until the end of time | thaumatrope | 26-Aug-2010 |
| Questions about tax returns | thaumatrope | 07-Aug-2010 |
| “Nice prom dress” | trapezemag | 22-Jul-2010 |
| “You want to sell me your soul?” | thaumatrope | 16-Jul-2010 |
| Time Travel Twins | thaumatrope | 18-Jun-2010 |
| The key is reproducible results | thaumatrope | 16-Jun-2010 |
| He always argued on our anniversary. | Tweet the Meat | 13-Jun-2010 |
| End of the World isn’t Hollywooody | thaumatrope | 03-Jun-2010 |
| Singing perkily | thaumatrope | 27-May-2010 |
| SETI” First!” | thaumatrope | 25-Apr-2010 |
| “We’re fucking Google. We can find anyone.” | thaumatrope | 30-Mar-2010 |
| “Where’s my Flying Car?” | Naoism | 24-Feb-2010 |
Readings
Reader at Word Vancouver 2016 on the Eco-fiction stage for the short story “Double Double” published in Winds of Change anthology, a collection of short stories about our climate.
Interviews
Kathy Steinemann interviews Michael Donoghue, author of “The Demise of Great Expectations,”
Author Showcase: Michael Donoghue “trapeze magazine”
Awards/Nominations
- Sunburst Shortlist 2016 for “Stuck in the Past”
Shortlisted for the Sunburst Award for the shortlisted story “Stuck in the Past” which originally appeared in Issue 54 of Abyss & Apex. The judges described Michael as “a prolific speculative fiction writer who’s writing has inventive plot twists, convincing scientific jargon, is outlandish, clever, and completely hilarious.”
- Pulp Literature Hummingbird Shortlist 2015 and 2019
Shortlisted for the Hummingbird Flash Fiction prize in 2015 for “’The Demise of Great Expectations’“ and 2019 for “The Decline of the Human Race”.
- James White Award 2019 Second place for 2019 for “Property Crime”
“In 2019, the judges awarded a special commendation to runner up Property Crime by Michael Donoghue – who missed out by the narrowest margin in the Award’s history.”
- Pulp Literature: The 2019 Raven Short Story Contest Winner for “Life4Sale”
Judge JJ Lee: “‘Life4Sale’ showed in its epistolary structure a great command of character voice. The world building and the weird factor are efficiently established without ever forgetting that character motive and conflict are what make a short story tick. It never bogs down in the spec fic mechanics. I appreciated how it is the kind of story you may find on Black Mirror or, if you’re old enough, classic Twilight Zone.”
Michael is currently working on this second novel:
The Broken Batch
The Broken Batch, that’s what they called us. Flawed. Unreliable. There were 26 of us birthed. Seventeen years later, we’re down to a dozen. Hannah died from Tay-Sachs at aged 5. Ben has Down Syndrome but he’s still kicking. And biting sometimes. But only when he wants something and we don’t understand. I don’t know what fatal flaw I have. I might not even live long enough to find out. After a catastrophic failure, our generation colony ship has had 20-years of cascade of system failures. Why else would we be born? Our DNA had been stored in the tanks clearly marked, “For Reference Use Only—Genetic Concerns.” We live with the old and dying lower-ranking crew members trapped in their damaged hab ring of the ship. We should have been arrived at our destination by now—a planet called Eve. I want to get us there. I want to save us. Even David, who’s from my cohort and is a sociopath with poor impulse control. I have a plan. If the ship doesn’t kill me. Or my own genetics. Or David. Or, I guess my plan, which is the riskiest thing of all.
Get In Touch
Michael.donoghue1@gmail.com
Mike Donoghue 