Thoughtful Sci-fi
I am David Whitmarsh and Sixwhits Press is the imprint under which I publish my own work. The genre is exclusively Science Fiction, and I aim to go beyond the common tropes and write stories to make you think.
My writing has won the Kepler Award and the Science Museum SF debuts prize.
My short stories have appeared in several other markets, including the Best of British Science Fiction published by Newcon Press.
The Measurement Problem
A near-future high-concept science fiction thriller, told in a noir style and set in the late 21st century, in which much of east London is being abandoned to the rising sea.
For Metropolitan Police detective Lewis Drake it begins when he is murdered. After that, it only gets worse: the case he is assigned involves one of the entangled, those who have learned to live in the many worlds of the quantum multiverse without losing their minds. Lewis despises the entangled and hates the drugs they take to join their alternate selves.
The case expands into a complex web of murder, corruption, conspiracy and espionage with the entangled gang leader Vidmar at its centre. Lewis’s sister Alice knows all the answers but she is lost in the chaos of a multitude of realities. Only if Lewis overcomes his prejudices and takes the black capsule that will open his mind to other lives will he be able to solve the murders, find the elusive Erica, and protect Alice.
Direct sales are £3.99 for epub, email delivery worldwide
£7.99 for paperback plus £2 delivery Royal Mail 2nd Class
Published Stories
In issue 24 of Mythaxis. Teenager Beth Simpson struggles to survive on an Earth that has suffered a major climate catastrophe.
December 2021 Metaphorosis. Ilyas Bardakci seeks the tyrant that betrayed his home, but finds something else.
Another quantum many-worlds flash piece, published October 2023 by Flash Point SF.
An unlucky man has a plan to turn his luck around. It's a certainty - nothing can possibly go wrong.
In issue 29 of Mythaxis. A young alien on a dying planet sees the world very differently than we do. The story also appears in the anthology Best of British Science Fiction 2022 from Newcon Press.
A flash fiction piece originally published in issue 8 of All Worlds Wayfarer.
I later adapted and expanded the concept in writing The Measurement Problem
Paradise Found
With all connection to friends and family lost, Jacob Talis has nothing more to lose in the pursuit of his dream. Spring 2024 issue of The Colored Lens.
Spinning the Dream
in the Spring 2023 issue of The Colored Lens.
A short story featuring the main characters of The Measurement Problem in a different set of realities.
Amarante Sauveterre wants asylum, Magistrat Yelena Moller must decide whether to grant it, but neither Amarante nor her mother are telling the whole truth. An impossible puzzle and a tainted legacy cut to Yelena’s heart. This story won the 2024 Kepler Award and appeared in Cosmic Roots & Eldritch Shores June 2025.
Published by Farthest Star
A misunderstanding, a tragedy, an act of violence.
Krall's penance of love is to raise the child of the aliens who killed his own
Shade
In the March/April 2026 edition of Analog Science Fiction & Fact
The devastation of global warming happened centuries before. Can the Earth be restored to it's previous balance?
Should it be?
Watch this space - more stories coming soon
Stories set in the same universe as the forthcoming novel 'The Long Fall'
What people say about David's writing
The Bookseller
Molly Powell - Hodderscape
Tangent Online
“exceptional, compelling and instantly engaging”
"Whitmarsh’s brilliantly realised ideas, hugely engaging writing and a tightly plotted mystery stole the show"
There is quite a lot packed into a relatively small space here, but in such a smooth and efficient way that it feels seamless. It cannot be overstated how respectfully some fairly delicate and potentially tense subjects are handled.