anyone know of a good port of call? I’m seeking some writing style guidance.

Sorry can’t help. But absolutely love The Ruum by Arthur Porges.

Have you read Borges? One of the fathers of the form – across any genre, but particularly influential on SF writers. Some of his stuff is very old now so may be available on line?

Depends what elements of style you’re looking for, though – Borges was Argentinian so reading a translation is probably not that inspirational in terms of raw prose style. OTOH, it shows you how the structure of a great short story transcends language – my copy of his collected works had a bit of a mixed reception as far as the translation went, but the stories speak for themselves.

What about the slab city blues books by Anthony Ryan… 4 short stories, all quite enjoyable and short

I wouldn’t usually post a link to a bootleg but, the Iain Banks short story A Gift From The Culture was released for free distribution, it’s just that the official site is no longer active. So, here is a hooky PDF in which you can find it. If you read any of the others, you’ll go blind.

http://depot.baseoneonline.com/files/Iain%20Banks%20Folder/Culture%203.%20State%20of%20the%20Art.pdf

There are plenty of SF stories by amateur writers to be found on Wattpad, though many of them aren’t that good. But look hard enough and you will find some diamonds in the dirt.

Not sure if this will give you style guidance, but I enjoy visiting

Home

There’s bucket loads of free Sci-fi on Amazon and Kobo. A lot of it is quite ropey, but maybe worth reading to see where folk have gone wrong. Just watch out for the odd eye-opener! ‘Invasion Earth’, Oh my goodness. Naughty Sci-fi, who would have thought it?

Beagy 😉

Thank you everyone, just catching up on this.

Ports of Call by Jack Vance