First appeared in Raven Electrick. It was up for the 2007 WSFA Small Press Award. Toasted Cake "reprinted" it for audio.
This poignant tale's so short, you might as well read it before I spoil it for you.
Mrs. Wallace makes gingerbread cookies that come to life in her oven. She blushes when they procreate, but watches fascinated as they build homes. When they start to burn, they try fruitlessly to escape. Mrs. Wallace simply seals the stove and opens the windows, apparently afraid of their intrusion on her life, what that might mean. This makes for a nice parallel to our own lives: What do we do when we can make someone's life better?
Great title.
APB-SAL is a blog about education, science, science education, fiction, science fiction, literature, literary stories, poetry, and anything else that strikes the blogger's fancy.
Monday, March 10, 2014
"Echoes of Aurora" by Ellen Klages
First appeared in What Remains from Aqueduct Press. Reprinted in Strahan's Year's Best.This tale builds on nostalgia for old things and mysterious stranger who nonetheless looks familiar. Two middle-aged women fall in love. As suspected, the stranger is magical and cannot stay. Although the plot takes a while to kick in, it's a bittersweet ending.
Sunday, March 9, 2014
Story Bundle
Truly Epic Fantasy BundleFor $3 or more:
- The Sacrifice by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
- Spirit Walker by David Farland
- MythWorld by James A. Owen
- The Camelot Papers by Peter David
- The Monarch of the Glen by Neil Gaiman
- Bloodletting by Peter J. Wacks & Mark Ryan
Bonus for $12 or more:
- Clockwork Angels by Kevin J. Anderson
- The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson
- The Immortals by Tracy Hickman
"In the House of the Seven Librarians" by Ellen Klages
First appeared in Firebirds Rising, an anthology of children's fiction. It was up for the Locus award. Reprinted in two year's best anthologies by Jonathan Strahan, Ellen Datlow, Gavin J. Grant, Kelly Link, and Rachel Swirsky did the audio.
This story positively oozes charm, a Klages specialty: protagonists you care about. Bonus: a cool speculative library.
The beautifully built Carnegie library is abandoned for new technology. Seven librarians are left behind with this forgotten library and one day a child is left with them. She grows up among the spinsters in a library that fulfills wishes (a teddy bear, if well used), hides readers in alcoves that disappear later, and bends time (or maybe the librarians aren't especially good at monitoring the days--they celebrate the fourth of July during a snowstorm).
The story doesn't gather steam until the librarians want to hand the keys over to the new girl as another retires because she cannot reach the shelves any longer. But she wants to witness the world before taking over, first.
This story positively oozes charm, a Klages specialty: protagonists you care about. Bonus: a cool speculative library.The beautifully built Carnegie library is abandoned for new technology. Seven librarians are left behind with this forgotten library and one day a child is left with them. She grows up among the spinsters in a library that fulfills wishes (a teddy bear, if well used), hides readers in alcoves that disappear later, and bends time (or maybe the librarians aren't especially good at monitoring the days--they celebrate the fourth of July during a snowstorm).
The story doesn't gather steam until the librarians want to hand the keys over to the new girl as another retires because she cannot reach the shelves any longer. But she wants to witness the world before taking over, first.
"Basement Magic" by Ellen Klages -- Addendum added
This first appeared in Fantasy and Science Fiction, won a Nebula award, and was reprinted by Kathryn Cramer, David G. Hartwell, Gardner Dozois, and Paula Guran.
Klages does a fine job building our sympathy for an adorable girl, Mary Louise:
Spoiler: A protection Mary Louise made electrocutes Kitty.
Did Kitty deserve death? Who caused the death? The child, the teacher, or the magic? These are the questions the narrative leaves me. Are these what I'm supposed to ponder? Kitty was not loving or especially generous, but not killing others and not even intending damage to others in so far as I can tell. This is far more than an eye-for-an-eye justice. Maybe this is intended as an accidental "The Veldt".
Addendum: In the comments below, John Williams astutely points out that Kitty may not have died. This is a critical possibility I overlooked, which may be true as she is able to howl. If true, this would eliminate a serious ethical problem although new questions arise.
The good news is that Mary Louise is able to use her basement magic on her own, it appears. The bad is that she uses it to run and hide. At this age she may be able to do no more. Therefore, she needs a spokesperson to speak on her behalf. Negotiations.should be opened. Granted, the stepmother has powers over the child (as do all parents), but so does the child over the parent. While children make good points adults ought to consider, often their perspective is skewed, limited to themselves. Having power without perspective may cause her to torture her stepmother--as we've seen.
The best scenario, seeing that cruel punishments have been meted out to the stepmother, is to keep Ruby and work things out. They'd need to concoct an explanation for why she was in the liquor cabinet that needn't involve magic: i.e. "Sorry, it was me. I was playing in there, but I saw you in there, but I didn't drink anything. Please don't fire Ruby." Come up with some agreed upon compromise. After all, the child shouldn't be in the liquor cabinet. Besides Ruby could use a good recommend if she is leaving.
Anyway, negotiations should be exhausted, and if Kitty is cruel and deserves punishment, she shouldn't have married in the first place. Maybe she didn't know she didn't work well with other people's children (or children, period). As someone who works with and cares for other people's children, it's easier to see this character needs more voice. By the way, I am glad this wasn't a plain and simple bad stepmother.
Klages does a fine job building our sympathy for an adorable girl, Mary Louise:
Mary Louise's father is absent and her new stepmother, Kitty, is cold. She hires Ruby as a maid. Ruby takes an immediate shine to Mary Louise, making grilled cheese sandwiches. When Mary Louise has problems with Kitty, Ruby solves them with simple household items that protect Mary Louise and makes Kitty's hair fall out. This only serves to make Kitty angry, so that Mary Louise needs more protection. Ruby teaches what she knows, but one day Kitty finds the alcohol cabinet unlocked and blames Ruby, firing her."[Mary Louise] closes her book and tucks Bankie securely under one arm. She follow Ruby down the wide front stairs, her small green-socked feet making no sound at all on the thick beige carpet."
Spoiler: A protection Mary Louise made electrocutes Kitty.
Did Kitty deserve death? Who caused the death? The child, the teacher, or the magic? These are the questions the narrative leaves me. Are these what I'm supposed to ponder? Kitty was not loving or especially generous, but not killing others and not even intending damage to others in so far as I can tell. This is far more than an eye-for-an-eye justice. Maybe this is intended as an accidental "The Veldt".
Addendum: In the comments below, John Williams astutely points out that Kitty may not have died. This is a critical possibility I overlooked, which may be true as she is able to howl. If true, this would eliminate a serious ethical problem although new questions arise.
The good news is that Mary Louise is able to use her basement magic on her own, it appears. The bad is that she uses it to run and hide. At this age she may be able to do no more. Therefore, she needs a spokesperson to speak on her behalf. Negotiations.should be opened. Granted, the stepmother has powers over the child (as do all parents), but so does the child over the parent. While children make good points adults ought to consider, often their perspective is skewed, limited to themselves. Having power without perspective may cause her to torture her stepmother--as we've seen.
The best scenario, seeing that cruel punishments have been meted out to the stepmother, is to keep Ruby and work things out. They'd need to concoct an explanation for why she was in the liquor cabinet that needn't involve magic: i.e. "Sorry, it was me. I was playing in there, but I saw you in there, but I didn't drink anything. Please don't fire Ruby." Come up with some agreed upon compromise. After all, the child shouldn't be in the liquor cabinet. Besides Ruby could use a good recommend if she is leaving.
Anyway, negotiations should be exhausted, and if Kitty is cruel and deserves punishment, she shouldn't have married in the first place. Maybe she didn't know she didn't work well with other people's children (or children, period). As someone who works with and cares for other people's children, it's easier to see this character needs more voice. By the way, I am glad this wasn't a plain and simple bad stepmother.
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Free and reduced ebook lunches
The Evolution of Reptilian Handbags and Other Stories
by Melanie Lamaga
Free
The Red Church
by Scott Nicholson
$0.99
Bradbury Stories:
100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
by Ray Bradbury
$1.99
Cryptonomicon
by Neal Stephenson
$1.99
Miss Marple:
The Complete Short Stories:
A Miss Marple Collection
by Agatha Christie
$1.99
Stolen
by Lucy Christopher
$1.99
The Sherlock Holmes Handbook
by Ransom Riggs
$2.79
The Complete Stories
by Flannery O'Connor
$2.99
Manhattan In Reverse: And Other Stories
by Peter F. Hamilton
$4.27
by Melanie Lamaga
Free
The Red Church
by Scott Nicholson
$0.99
Bradbury Stories:
100 of His Most Celebrated Tales
by Ray Bradbury
$1.99
Cryptonomicon
by Neal Stephenson
$1.99
Miss Marple:
The Complete Short Stories:
A Miss Marple Collection
by Agatha Christie
$1.99
Stolen
by Lucy Christopher
$1.99
The Sherlock Holmes Handbook
by Ransom Riggs
$2.79
The Complete Stories
by Flannery O'Connor
$2.99
Manhattan In Reverse: And Other Stories
by Peter F. Hamilton
$4.27
"Copping Squid" by Michael Shea -- Analysis
This originally appeared as the title story in his 2009 collection (pictured) and was reprinted three other times in major retrospectives by S.T. Joshi, Paula Guran, and Joe R. Lansdale.
This must be one of Shea's most fun to ponder stories. The events are pretty simple. Ricky Deuce, a young late-night clerk of Irish heritage working at a small market, has gone three years trying to clean up his act: going sober and avoiding fights. A young black man with a knife, Andre, demands Ricky's money. Ricky laughs at first, but when he dodges the blade, he gets out his own knife and slices Andre's arm.
That appears to be exactly what Andre wants. He threatens to call the cops if Ricky doesn't give up ten dollars and a ride to where Andre wants to go. Ricky's incredulous: Ten dollars? But Ricky relents.
On the ride into Andre's territory, Andre explains his motives--he wants immortality--and he needs blood money (the ten dollars) and a witness to his actions (Ricky).
The ending reveals, as many readers have also probably questioned, that Ricky could have left at any time but, staying, he sold out for a lot less than many others would have.
The events are pretty typical of Cthulhu stories. Andre's description of the god, capitalizes it as "Him" equating (or remaking or conflating) gods. This and the description of immortality make not only this but also all Cthulhu stories feel like stories about religion--an odd statement considering that Lovecraft was atheist. But maybe this is a way for an atheist to wrestle with the "religion demon," so to speak: often as the outsider looking in, and often horrified by the amoral acts that these cosmic gods commit.
Why a black man? Possibly a doorway to another world, foreign to the narrator (racial doorway, not racist because there appears to be no condescension), to stand at the threshold of a far stranger one. Also, Ricky's last name is Deuce, which in tennis means a tie score (add this to Ricky's low economic position--doubled by a last name the indicates the lowest standing in the deck and two dollars--and his ownership of a Mustang. In other words, Ricky's an average Schmo. Other definitions of "deuce" that may be in play here: bad luck, the devil, extreme example, reprimand), so we may deduce the characters are equivalent. This equality can also be seen in the next paragraph.
Why is the narrator so willing to follow Andre? After all, Andre's motives are initially strange and incomprehensible. Even Ricky's suspicious. Like the reader who's followed Ricky through these worlds, Ricky realizes he is a willing participant (even abandoning his job to see where this adventure leads). We readers actually paid to follow them, albeit at a safe remove. Ricky is a "witness," which not only has religious overtones but also suggests an accomplice in a crime.
The name Ricky suggests a hard ruler. Andre misunderstands Ricky's name as Richie (connotations of riches, which he does not have except in the end as a semi-literal but mostly metaphorical sense). But in a sense this isn't misunderstanding but a renaming. Ricky and Richie can both derive from Richard, meaning brave, hardy ruler. Andre also calls him Rocky, which will lead most readers to think of the fictitious boxer, a fighter like Ricky. Rocky denotes hardness, connoting stubbornness and insensitivity (no doubt due to the term "rock"), but also shakiness, proneness to failure, and dizziness due to inebriation. However, we don't witness much of this hard and failure behavior except for the knife incident (and a scarcely mentioned past). Perhaps this is meant to foretell what happens in an otherwise ambiguous narrative that refuses to show what the narrator chooses to do next.
Lastly, the title itself is a fascinating onion of meaning. "Squid" can probably only refer to one thing--Cthulhu (although slang may also be at play: slowness or ineptitude from CA, which is where the author was from; and Urban Dictionary's overestimating one's abilities, which may refer to Cthulhu, Andre or Ricky).
"Copping" is far more complex. It could an adjective describing the squid or a verbial describing the act upon on the squid. Perhaps the squid is becoming a cop of sorts. The verb form fits the narrative a little better as the verb "cop" may mean catching, stealing, adopting, taking unwanted sexual advances, admitting, but also contrarily getting something wanted or unwanted. Andre, in his CTHULHU RULES T-shirt, certainly believes he's gaining something greater:
This must be one of Shea's most fun to ponder stories. The events are pretty simple. Ricky Deuce, a young late-night clerk of Irish heritage working at a small market, has gone three years trying to clean up his act: going sober and avoiding fights. A young black man with a knife, Andre, demands Ricky's money. Ricky laughs at first, but when he dodges the blade, he gets out his own knife and slices Andre's arm.That appears to be exactly what Andre wants. He threatens to call the cops if Ricky doesn't give up ten dollars and a ride to where Andre wants to go. Ricky's incredulous: Ten dollars? But Ricky relents.
On the ride into Andre's territory, Andre explains his motives--he wants immortality--and he needs blood money (the ten dollars) and a witness to his actions (Ricky).
The ending reveals, as many readers have also probably questioned, that Ricky could have left at any time but, staying, he sold out for a lot less than many others would have.
The events are pretty typical of Cthulhu stories. Andre's description of the god, capitalizes it as "Him" equating (or remaking or conflating) gods. This and the description of immortality make not only this but also all Cthulhu stories feel like stories about religion--an odd statement considering that Lovecraft was atheist. But maybe this is a way for an atheist to wrestle with the "religion demon," so to speak: often as the outsider looking in, and often horrified by the amoral acts that these cosmic gods commit.
Why a black man? Possibly a doorway to another world, foreign to the narrator (racial doorway, not racist because there appears to be no condescension), to stand at the threshold of a far stranger one. Also, Ricky's last name is Deuce, which in tennis means a tie score (add this to Ricky's low economic position--doubled by a last name the indicates the lowest standing in the deck and two dollars--and his ownership of a Mustang. In other words, Ricky's an average Schmo. Other definitions of "deuce" that may be in play here: bad luck, the devil, extreme example, reprimand), so we may deduce the characters are equivalent. This equality can also be seen in the next paragraph.
Why is the narrator so willing to follow Andre? After all, Andre's motives are initially strange and incomprehensible. Even Ricky's suspicious. Like the reader who's followed Ricky through these worlds, Ricky realizes he is a willing participant (even abandoning his job to see where this adventure leads). We readers actually paid to follow them, albeit at a safe remove. Ricky is a "witness," which not only has religious overtones but also suggests an accomplice in a crime.
The name Ricky suggests a hard ruler. Andre misunderstands Ricky's name as Richie (connotations of riches, which he does not have except in the end as a semi-literal but mostly metaphorical sense). But in a sense this isn't misunderstanding but a renaming. Ricky and Richie can both derive from Richard, meaning brave, hardy ruler. Andre also calls him Rocky, which will lead most readers to think of the fictitious boxer, a fighter like Ricky. Rocky denotes hardness, connoting stubbornness and insensitivity (no doubt due to the term "rock"), but also shakiness, proneness to failure, and dizziness due to inebriation. However, we don't witness much of this hard and failure behavior except for the knife incident (and a scarcely mentioned past). Perhaps this is meant to foretell what happens in an otherwise ambiguous narrative that refuses to show what the narrator chooses to do next.
Lastly, the title itself is a fascinating onion of meaning. "Squid" can probably only refer to one thing--Cthulhu (although slang may also be at play: slowness or ineptitude from CA, which is where the author was from; and Urban Dictionary's overestimating one's abilities, which may refer to Cthulhu, Andre or Ricky)."Copping" is far more complex. It could an adjective describing the squid or a verbial describing the act upon on the squid. Perhaps the squid is becoming a cop of sorts. The verb form fits the narrative a little better as the verb "cop" may mean catching, stealing, adopting, taking unwanted sexual advances, admitting, but also contrarily getting something wanted or unwanted. Andre, in his CTHULHU RULES T-shirt, certainly believes he's gaining something greater:
"I have gone up to see Him, and have looked through His eyes, and I have been where He is, time without end! An I'm here to tell you, all you dearly beloved mongrel dogs of mine, I'm here to tell you that it's consumed me! My flesh and my time, have been blown off my bones, by the searing wings of His breath! I'm not far off now from eternity!"and
"I'm more alive than you will ever be, and when I'm all consumed, I'll be far more alive, and I will live forever!"Most people may want a longer--even immortal--life. How you feel about being consumed may be another story. Again, the story or Ricky's next decision is left ambiguous, but his past impulsive actions and the meaning of names might suggest where the story's headed next.
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