Short Fiction read in January 2019

Short Fiction read in January 2019

Image from https://torange.biz/ used under a CC license

New year, new re-start of the Great Short Fiction Reading Project!

Here's what's different this time around: In addition to picking stories of various lengths from different sources, I plan to read every story published this year by Daily Science Fiction (five days a week), Every Day Fiction (seven days a week), and Nature's "Futures" section (once a week). Those are all flash (except for the occasional DSF story that tiptoes past the 1,000 word mark), so it should be manageable. I'm also going to post monthly stats, which I'll put way down at the bottom of the post so nobody has to see them if they don't want to.

Here's what's staying the same: each month I'll blog about my favorites from that month's reading, and list all the remaining stories I've read and the collective sources they came from.

These are my four favorites of the 85 stories I read during January (alphabetical by author):


"Terra Forms" by Jennifer Campbell-Hicks and Justin Adams

Length: 5,230 words
Category: Science fiction - hard (short story)
Where Published: Perihelion
When Published: 2018-04
Link (free to readers)

This is hard SF with emotions, some neat technologies I haven't seen elsewhere in fiction, and themes of terraforming and colony ships. And it's well-written. In other words, there was no way I was not going to love this story. There's one plot "conflict" element at the end that I wasn't initially sure I liked, but the more I think about it, the more I realize it adds a layer to a story that otherwise might have been too "tidy."


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Short Fiction - August 2016

Short Fiction - August 2016
My short story "diet" in August was a little different than usual, as I focused a lot of my reading on a single-author collection that I'll be reviewing separately in a few days. Of the stories I read in August that were not part of that collection, one in particular jumped out at me, and I felt I should give it its own post rather than tack it on to my upcoming review.

"Walls of Nigeria"
by Jeremy Szal

Length: 973 words
Category: Short story (science fiction)
Where Published: Nature
When Published: 2016-08-10
Link (free)

Nature is one of the three venues that I read fairly regularly for flash fiction, the other two being Daily Science Fiction and Every Day Fiction. In this short piece, a soldier fitted with bio-armor to defend the Earth against an alien threat is left behind in his homeland of Nigeria when his superiors deem him dangerous to what's left of the human race.

Like the author of the story (according to his story commentary here), I've long been drawn to stories about power armor, starting with Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, John Steakley's Armor, and of course Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers. I'm impressed that Szal has managed to deliver such a complex mood, one that feels fresh to me, in so few words. At the same time, this story shares with its predecessors the message that war, with or without power armor, cuts off a whole generation of soldiers from the rest of humanity.

I also want to mention that Nature gives illustrations to most of its "Futures" stories; all of the ones I've seen have been by an artist going by the single name "Jacey." The illustrations are often simple but effective. Click through to the story to see this one.


Additional stories read in August 2016:

(alphabetical by author)

- "Primordia" by Sarah Crysl Akhtar (2016)
- "In Sickness and in Health" by Gustavo Bondoni (2016)
- "Like a Ghost I'm Gonna Haunt You" by Curtis C. Chen (2016)
- "A Man of Action" by Liz Colter (2016)
- "On the Eyeball Floor" by Tina Connolly (2008)
- "The Chocolate Song" by Helen de Búrca (2016)
- "Liza and the Crazy Water Man" by Andy Duncan (1996)
- "You Can’t Take It with You" by Lisa Finch (2016)
- "The Day Poppo Came Down to Breakfast, Twice" by James Alan Gotaas (2016)
- "Fingerprints" by Jason M. Harley (2016)
- "Childish Things" by Steven Hicks (2016)
- "God State" by Michelle Ann King (2016)
- "Floating in My Tin Can" by Gerri Leen (2016)
- "Circular Landscapes" by Alexandria Mansfield (2016)
- "Ex Angel" by Viara R. Mileva-Seitz (2016)
- "Sustaining Memory" by Coral Moore (2016)
- "Oh Susanna" by Mandy Nicol (2016)
- "How I Found My Way Here" by Stephen V. Ramey (2016)
- "Waking Beauty" by Martha Soukup (1996)
- "Killer Grandma" by Jeremy Szal (2016)
- "Buying the Farm" by Arlaina Tibensky (2016)
- "Hole in the Wall" by Lauren Triola (2016)
- "Cup of Love" by Kathryn Trudeau (2016)
- "MPDB" by Tyler Young (2016)




List of the sources from which these stories came:

(alphabetical by anthology title, magazine title, website name, etc.)

- Daily Science Fiction, Aug 2016
- Diabolical Plots, Aug 2016
- Digital Science Fiction: QuickFic, Aug 2016
- Every Day Fiction, Aug 2016
- Nature, Aug 2016
- One Teen Story, July 2016
- Starlight 1 (anthology, edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden), 1996
- Strange Horizons, June 2008


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Short Fiction - July 2016

[public domain image of Library of Congress building from freestockphotos.biz]

Short Fiction - July 2016
I'm a little bit late in my post for my July short fiction reading, but I've been reading all along. Unusually for me, this month I read three novellas, one of them approximately 40K words long, balanced on the other ends by lots and lots of flash pieces and even microfiction, which I count as under 500 words. The two standouts for me this month fall on either end of that spectrum, with one flash piece and one novella.

I have to admit, my long fiction reading is suffering as a result of this story-a-day project. But I think I have become addicted to the short form, so that may be the way it has to be.

"Morning Sun"
by Edward Ashton

Length: 971 words
Category: Short story (mainstream)
Where Published: Every Day Fiction
When Published: 2016-07-13
Link

This short mainstream piece is about a man who has both cancer and regrets. In that sense, it's not what I'd call an innovative story, but I felt as though every word in the story was the right choice. The author conveys so much in a few words.

"Combat Shopping"
by Elizabeth Moon

Length: 20,450 words (est. based on sample page count)
Category: Novella (science fiction)
Where Published: Escape from Earth (anthology), SFBC
When Published: 2006
Link: N/A

This novelette appears in the anthology Escape from Earth, in which editors Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois were charged with finding stories with a traditional juvenile sensibility of longing to "see what's happening out there." I haven't read all the stories in the anthology yet, but Elizabeth Moon's "Combat Shopping" certainly filled the bill. Twelve-year-old Andi Murchison longs to get her pilot's license as a possible means to escape her stifling life in a habitat on Jupiter's moon Ganymede. When she defies her adoptive mother's orders to take the test, it sets off a chain of events that reveal some unexpected secrets about her situation. I loved the way Andi takes charge of her own destiny, yet doesn't forget her responsibilities to others, particularly her adoptive siblings.



Other stories read in July 2016:

(alphabetical by author)

- "Vent Act" by Graham Brand (2016)
- "Companion Trilogy: Bareheaded" by Mike Buckley (2016)
- "Companion Trilogy: Companion" by Mike Buckley (2016)
- "Companion Trilogy: Companionless" by Mike Buckley (2016)
- "A Patch of Dirt in Paradise" by Lee Budar-Danoff (2016)
- "Interrogation Cupcakes" by Alexander Burns (2016)
- "Goosed" by Jennifer Campbell-Hicks (2016)
- "Heroes Be Damned" by Jareb Collins (2016)
- "2 AM at a Motel in the City" by Cory Cone (2016)
- "Sunrise" by Madeline Curtis (2015)
- "The Big Blow-Up" by Dave D'Alessio (2016)
- "Momentum" by Kris Dinnison (2016)
- "A Study in Grey" by Sarah Doebereiner (2016)
- "The Redaction of Flight 5766" by Eric Gregory (2006)
- "Retirement Plan" by Jack Hillman (2016)
- "Choose Your Kid's Adventure" by Meghan Renee Jenkins (2016)
- "Stan" by Rosalie Kempthorne (2016)
- "Great Expectations" by M.E. Kerr (2001)
- "Frog Soup" by Floris M. Kleijne (2016)
- "Never Will I Ever" by Kaleigh Longe (2016)
- "Repeat One" by Andrew Neil McDonald (2016)
- "The Cost to Be Wise" by Maureen F. McHugh (1996)
- "GI Jesus" by Susan Palwick (1996)
- "On Impulse" by Rita A. Popp (2016)
- "Candle, Card and Mirror" by Stephen S. Power (2016)
- "Killing the Morrow" by Robert Reed (1996)
- "Slow Bullets" by Alistair Reynolds (2015)
- "I Blame the Kardashians" by Tess Riesmeyer (2016)
- "In the Depths of the Museum" by R. Rozakis (2016)
- "Lonesome" by Tarah Scalzo (2015)
- "Future Fragments, Six Seconds Long" by Alex Shvartsman (2016)
- "Strawberry Kisses" by Carl Steiger (2016)
- "Expendable" by Katherine Toran (2016)
- "The Happiest Place" by Carrie Vaughn (2009)
- "Drink Me" by H. Victory (2016)
- "A Piece of Her Self" by Liz Walker (2016)
- "The Passing of the Book" by Gerald Warfield (2016)
- "A Wrinkle Ironed Out" by Alison Wilgus (2016)
- "Insurrection" by Oscar Windsor-Smith (2016)
- "Blind Side" by Peter Wood (2016)



List of the sources from which these stories came:

(alphabetical by anthology title, magazine title, website name, etc.)

- Abyss & Apex, 3rd quarter 2016
- Daily Science Fiction, July 2016
- Diabolical Plots, July 2016
- Escape from Earth (anthology), edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois, 2006
- Every Day Fiction, July 2016
- Mash Stories, August 2016
- On the Fringe (anthology), edited by Donald R. Gallo, 2001
- One Teen Story, Oct 2015; Dec 2015; June 2016
- Realms of Fantasy, Feb 2009
- Starlight 1 (anthology), edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden, 1996
- Sybil's Garage, no. 3, 2006
- Trigger Warning: Short Fiction with Pictures, July 2016
- Zetetic: A Record of Unusual Inquiry, June 2016


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Short Fiction - June 2016

[An 1886 illustration of the kineograph, from Wikipedia]

Short Fiction - June 2016
Before I start talking about specific stories, here are some half-year stats. As of today, I've read 201 short works this year, ranging from microfiction to novelettes. I've also been keeping track of word counts this year (using sample page counts for print books when necessary), and have read more than 667,500 words of short fiction in the last six months.

Because I like to skip around so much in terms of story length and genre, I rarely read an entire anthology straight through, but I made an exception recently and was rewarded with two of my four favorite stories of the month. The anthology is Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories, and is full of original young adult stories edited (and in one case written) by Stephanie Perkins. I chose this anthology on the strength of her earlier editorial effort, My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories, which I started last year and plan to finish during the upcoming holiday season.

Naturally, not every story in either anthology appeals to me. But overall, I really like what she's doing in these books.

"The Map of Tiny Perfect Things"
by Lev Grossman

Length: 13,200 words (est.)
Category: Novelette (YA / fantasy / science fiction)
Where Published: Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories (anthology), edited by Stephanie Perkins
When Published: 2016
Link (book purchase)

In this story, which I'm not sure whether to call fantasy or science fiction, high school student Mark realizes he's living August 4 over and over, ala Groundhog Day. He's coping fairly well for the most part, and then meets Margeret, a fellow repeater. They get to know each other slowly, and together make it their mission to find and map all of the perfect moments that they can find.

I really enjoyed this story. I give it extra points for openly referencing the movies Groundhog Day and The Edge of Tomorrow while not being too similar to either one. I also liked the way the Abbott's Flatland is referenced. But then again, Lev Grossman, who wrote the Magicians trilogy, is particularly good at incorporating formative popular culture into his fiction.

I got this book at the library, but I'm tempted to buy my own copy just so I'll own this particular story.



"A Thousand Ways This Could Go Wrong"
by Jennifer E. Smith

Length: 12,200 words (est.)
Category: Novelette (YA)
Where Published: Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories (anthology), edited by Stephanie Perkins
When Published: 2016
Link (book purchase)

In this story, Annie runs into Griffin, a shy boy she's had her eye on for a while, and asks him on a maybe-a-date/maybe-not-a-date outing to an arcade. {MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD} When Annie gets stuck late at the camp where she works while waiting for an autistic boy's mother to pick him up, Griffin comes by and gets along with the little boy remarkably well. It takes Annie longer than it does the reader to put two and two together, but Griffin finally tells her that he has Asperger's (which he notes they're now calling autism).

This is one of the better fictional treatments of the subject that I've seen. It's not played for laughs (ala Big Bang Theory), nor is it from the point of view of someone with more severe autism, like The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. It's just a thoughtful look at what it might be like to navigate the beginnings of a romantic relationship when one of the two people has a harder time with cues. I also thought the characters were very well developed for such a short story.

"One More Bite"
by Michelle Muenzler

Length: 800 words
Category: Short story (horror)
Where Published: Daily Science Fiction
When Published: 2016-06-09
Link (free)

There aren't many authors who can make me actually look forward, with pleasure, to reading a dark, creepy story. Michelle is one of those authors. This short story, at 800 words, is really all atmosphere, since we don't find out terribly much about how this ... let's call it a "process" ... works. But that atmosphere is so beautifully constructed that it's delightful (and delightfully creepy) to read.


"Deathbed"
by Caroline M. Yoachim

Length: 581 words
Category: Short story (science fiction)
Where Published: Daily Science Fiction
When Published: 2011-07-18
Link (free)

In this super short story, a woman keeps her husband company as he remembers his impending death, even though he doesn't seem to remember anything else about their life together. I'm not entirely sure what is happening in this story, but it's not simple Alzheimer's. Whatever is happening, the tone of the story is lovely and sad, and that's what mattered to me.



Other stories read in June 2016:

(alphabetical by author)

- "The Arrangements" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (2016)
- "On Discovering a Ghost in the Five Star" by Peter M. Ball (2016)
- "Head, Scales, Tongue, Tail" by Leigh Bardugo (2016)
- "Sick Pleasure" by Francesca Lia Block (2016)
- "Last Stand at the Cinegore" by Libba Bray (2016)
- "Don't Read This Story" by K.T. Bryski (2016)
- "The Exterminator's Daughter" by Meg Cabot (2007)
- "Brand New Attraction" by Cassandra Clare (2016)
- "Good Luck and Farewell" by Brandy Colbert (2016)
- "Time and Space Died Yesterday" by Brandon Echter (2016)
- "Souvenirs" by Tim Federle (2016)
- "The Weight of Kanzashi" by Joshua Gage (2016)
- "Pencils, Rules, Bones, Heart" by JT Gill (2016)
- "Department of Truth" by Jennifer Rose Jorgensen
- "Going Deep" by James Patrick Kelly (original 2009; reprint 2011)
- "The First Confirmed Case of Non-Corporeal Recursion: Patient Anita R." by Benjamin C. Kinney (2016)
- "The End of Love" by Nina LaCour (2016)
- "Turkey Shoot" by Tom Lavagnino (2015)
- "The Greyhound" by Dafydd Mckimm (2016)
- "Irma Splinkbottom’s Recipe For Cold Fusion" by Janene Murphy (2009)
- "The Job" by Bob Page (2016)
- "In Ninety Minutes, Turn North" by Stephanie Perkins (2016)
- "The Day the Future Invaded" by Beth Powers (2016)
- "Failed Interview with the International Convocation of the Damned" by Luc Reid (2016)
- "Inertia" by Veronica Roth (2016)
- "Useful Objects" by Erica L. Satifka (2014)
- "Little Dead Girl" by C.M. Saunders (2016)
- "Love is the Last Resort" by Jon Skovron (2016)
- "America, America" by Okafor Emmanuel Tochukwu (2016)
- "After the End" by Damien Angelica Walters (2016)
- "Created By..." by David Wardrop (2016)


List of the sources from which these stories came:

(alphabetical by anthology title, magazine title, website name, etc.)

- Daily Science Fiction, June 2016
- Diabolical Plots, June 2016
- Flash Fiction Online, Nov 2009; Jan 2016
- The Mammoth Book of Nebula Awards: SF (anthology), edited by Kevin J. Anderson, 2011
- Nature, Oct 2014
- The New York Times Book Review, June 2014
- Prom Nights from Hell (anthology), 2007
- Strange Horizons, June 2016
- Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories (anthology), edited by Stephanie Perkins, 2016
- Trigger Warning: Short Fiction with Pictures, 2015; 2016



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Short Fiction - May 2016

Short Fiction - May 2016
I'm a few days later than usual posting about my monthly reading, but here are my favorite stories read in May.

"Sparrows"
by Gary Emmette Chandler

Length: 1,000 words
Category: Short story (science fiction)
Where Published: Flash Fiction Online
When Published: 2016-05
Link (free)

This is a lovely short piece about brothers and flying -- not inside aircraft, but wearing a suit fitted with wings. I don't want to say too much about it, but my favorite line was "What sort of Sparrow hesitates before the fall?" I also liked the pacing and use of flashbacks, which felt perfect even at this short length.



"The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas"
by Ursula K. Le Guin
Length: 2,817 words
Category: Short story (science fiction)
Original Publication: New Dimensions 3 (anthology), edited by Robert Silverberg, 1973
Link: (see notes below)

A recent conversation with one of the professors at the community college library where I'm temping convinced me that I needed to finally read this famous story. And although I spent the first half of it thinking "this isn't really a story" (not that that's a crime), by the end of it I was completely sold. I would have liked to have the text broken up into a few more paragraphs for ease of reading, and sometimes the story tries a little too hard, but where it succeeds it does so at a level that's kind of off the charts.

I'm not posting a link to this story because I feel that doing so in this case would be supporting a case of copyright violation. The fact that the professor and I were able to pull this story up on the internet so easily -- the very first Google hit was a PDF obviously put online by a professor somewhere -- sparked an interesting copyright discussion. In my opinion, posting this story freely online for one's students is a violation of fair use, unless you're the author. The posted version uses 100% of the work (as opposed to an excerpt), it's posted it in a way that's not limited to the students in that class, and it's very likely the professor is using it over and over again from semester to semester. In addition, it could possibly be shown to be causing financial loss to the creator. Even if the professor were photocopying it on paper for his/her whole class every semester (as opposed to posting it publicly on the Internet), that would still be a violation unless the educational institution cleared/paid for the use. That's why professors put things on reserve in the library instead. People tend to think because the purpose is educational means that anything goes, under the guise of "fair use," but that's not so.

On the other hand, as my professor points out, if he uses a college textbook anthology of short stories and teaches 10 of the 50 stories, with the students paying $50 for that textbook, well, it's creating a real hardship for them. And while he himself wouldn't post the story online, since he knows it already is online, he can just tell his students to find it. (Does it make a difference if he tells them exactly where to find it, or if he tells them to just Google it? In a way I think it does.)

In any case, I'm not posting the link. For anyone who would like to read it, you can find it in anthologies and collections and, well, on the Internet.

"The Long Fall Up"
by William Ledbetter

Length: 7,794 words
Category: Novelette (science fiction)
Where Published: F&SF
When Published: 2016-05
Link: N/A

I read two amazing stories this month that have to do with child-bearing, and this novelette is one of them. A pilot is sent after a woman who is harboring an illegal zero-g pregnancy in order to prove that healthy children can be born in space. The company that employs the pilot, however, is less than forthcoming about its true motivations. This story works hard to get the science right even though it really isn't about the science, and it pushed all the right emotional buttons for me.

"The Right Sort of Monsters" by Kelly Sandoval

Length: 3,682 words
Category: Short story (fantasy)
Where Published: Strange Horizons
When Published: 2016-04-04
Link (free)

And this is the other story about child-bearing. A village woman desperately longs for a child, and has to decide whether to take the same drastic measures her own sister took to have a child that some might call a monster. The plot went in a direction I did not expect, which I enjoyed, but most of all, I loved the way the author revealed the specific details of this world so gradually and naturally.

I don't have children and have never wanted them, so it takes a lot for a story to make me understand that someone would feel the way this woman did in the beginning of the story. I do feel very protective of small creatures (including human children!), however, so by the time I got to the end of the story, the author had completely "spoken" to me. In that regard, for me reading this was akin to reading Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow as an atheist, and getting a glimmer of emotional understanding of the concept of sainthood.



Other stories read in May 2016:

(alphabetical by author)

- "Stacy and Her Idiot" by Peter Atkins (year unknown)
- "The Gambler" by Paolo Bacigalupi (original 2008; reprint 2012)
- "Getting Dark" by Neil Barrett Jr. (original 2009; reprint 2012)
- "17 Amazing Plot Elements... When You See #11, You'll Be Astounded!" by James Beamon (2016)
- "Ice and White Roses" by Rebecca Birch (2014)
- "Bodyshop" by Graham Brand (2016)
- "Fence to Fence" by Jennifer Cox (year unknown)
- "Last Round" by Paul Crenshaw (2016)
- "The Reality Machine" by Karl El-Koura (2016)
- "One Last Smoke" by Alex Granados (2016)
- "A !Tangled Web" by Joe Haldeman (original 1981; reprint 2012)
- "The Promise of Space" by James Patrick Kelly (original 2013; reprint 2015)
- "Best Friends Forever" by Michelle Ann King (2016)
- "The Poet with Fishhook Eyes" by Michelle Knowlden (2016)
- "The Summer of Rotting Lasagna" by Zack Kotzer (2015)
- "The Man Who Didn’t Believe in Luck" by Preston Lerner (year unknown)
- "The Finite Canvas" by Brit Mandelo (original 2012; audio reprint 2014)
- "The Fountain and the Shoe Store" by Paul Steven Marino (2011)
- "Swift, Brutal Retaliation" by Meghan McCarron (original 2012; audio reprint 2014)
- "Bridesicle" by Will McIntosh (original 2009; reprint 2012)
- "A Brutal Murder in a Public Place" by Joyce Carol Oates (original 2011; reprint 2012)
- "The Black Kids" by Christina Hammonds Reed (2016)
- "Bird Watching" by Anton Rose (2016)
- "Will It Fly?" by Cheryl Wood Ruggiero (2016)
- "After the Coup" by John Scalzi (original 2008; audio reprint 2014)
- "The Box" by J.T. Sharp (2016)
- "Fortune for Your Freshman Year" by Lucy Silbaugh (2016)
- "To Give Birth to a Dancing Star" by K.B. Sluss (2016)
- "Night Watch" by Nancy Sweetland (2016)
- "Portrait of Lisane da Patagnia" by Rachel Swirsky (original 2012; audio reprint 2014)
- "Across the Terminator" by David Tallerman (original 2013; reprint 2015)
- "Chit Win" by Deborah Walker (2011)
- "Heating Up" by Daniel Wilmoth (2016)
- "Fried Chicken You Can’t Refuse" by Peter Wood (2016)
- "The First Snow of Winter" by Caroline M. Yoachim (2016)


List of the sources from which these stories came:

(alphabetical by anthology title, magazine title, website name, etc.)

- Black Dahlia & White Rose (collection by Joyce Carol Oates), 2012
- Clarkesworld Year Seven (anthology), edited by Neil Clarke & Sean Wallace, Wyrm, 2015
- Daily Science Fiction, Dec 2011; Apr 2016; May 2016; June 2016
- Every Day Fiction, Jan 2016; Apr 2016; May 2016
- Flash Bang Mysteries, Spring 2016
- Flash Fiction Online, May 2016
- Freeze Frame Fiction, year unknown
- The Mammoth Book of Nebula Awards: SF (anthology), edited by Kevin J. Anderson, Robinson, 2012
- Luna Station Quarterly, June 2016
- Nature, Nov 2014
- One Teen Story, Apr 2016; May 2016
- Perihelion, Apr 2016
- Pinball, Spring 2016
- Punchnel's, May 2016
- Strange Horizons, Sep 2011; Apr 2016
- Tor.com: Selected Original Fiction, 2008-2012 (audio collection, Brilliance Audio, 2014)
- Trigger Warning: Short Fiction with Pictures (year unknown; Mar 2016)
- Vandercave Quarterly, 2015


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Short Fiction - April 2016

[April ... March Madness = the Frozen Four!]

Short Fiction - April 2016
Well, April certainly went by in a blur! There was a film festival, some opera, the symphony, a national college hockey championship (did I mention that my beloved University of North Dakota won the men's Division I championship game at the Frozen Four, and I was on hand to see it?!), and, of course, short story reading. Here are my favorites for the month:

"Mika Model" by Paolo Bacigalupi

Length: 4,375 words
Category: Short story (science fiction)
Where Published: Slate
When Published: 2016-04-26
Link (free)

I loved the writing in this story about a sex/pleasure robot who asks a police detective for a lawyer after confessing to killing her owner, or lessee, actually. The page on which the story appears states that:

This short story was commissioned and edited jointly by Future Tense—a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America, and Slate—and ASU’s Center for Science and the Imagination. It is the first in Future Tense Fiction, a series of short stories from Future Tense and CSI about how technology and science will change our lives.

There's also a response by an attorney regarding the legal implications in the story, which I found interesting. As to the story itself, upon first read I felt as though the story didn't end, that it left me hanging. But then I realized that just because it didn't have the ending I instinctively wanted didn't mean that it didn't end. In any case, this is definitely worth checking out.

"Memories of My Mother" by Ken Liu

Length: 997 words
Category: Short story (science fiction)
Where Published: Daily Science Fiction
When Published: 2012-03-19
Link (free)

So that film festival I mentioned? I was pleasantly surprised to see that one of my favorite SF short films at this year's Worldfest-Houston was based on a Ken Liu story, which I immediately went and found online. This is a terrific example of someone taking a short story, one that is less than a thousand words long, and turning it into an emotionally gripping short film by both staying true to the original source material and filling in where necessary. To compare the beautifully spare prose version with the visually compelling film version is like comparing apples and oranges; I highly recommend that you experience both formats, in either order.

I suppose I should mention what it's actually about, though, shouldn't I? A terminally ill woman with a young daughter decides to spend the last two years of her life traveling away from Earth and back via relativistic speeds. This gives her the ability to spend a single day/night with her daughter once every seven years, thus allowing her to see her daughter grow into adulthood. The trade-off, of course, is that her daughter has to grieve the loss of her mother after each visit, which denies her closure but gives her something else in return.

My review of the short film is here. (I have to say, the addition of the nightclub scene to the film was quite brilliant, in my opinion.)

"Puff Piece" by Becky Robison

Length: 813 words
Category: Short story (mainstream)
Where Published: Pinball
When Published: 2016
Link (free)

I'm not entirely sure why this little piece of mainstream flash delighted me so much, but it really, truly did. It's about unrequited same-sex love against the backdrop of a middle school class election. It was funny, biting, and poignant, all at the same time. I look forward to checking out more stories from Pinball, which is new to me.



Other stories read in April 2016:

(alphabetical by author)

- "Party Smart Card" by Barrington J. Bayley (original 2006; reprint 2007)
- "RAM SHIFT PHASE 2" by Greg Bear (original 2005; reprint 2007)
- "Bear-bear Speaks" by Beth Cato (2016)
- "How I Lost Eleven Stone and Found Love" by Ian Creasey (2016)
- "The Parasite and the Widow" by Jeremy M. Gottwig (2016)
- "Speak, Geek" by Eileen Gunn (original 2006; reprint 2007)
- "Heartwired" by Joe Haldeman (original 2005; reprint 2007)
- "We Have a Cultural Difference, Can I Taste You?" by Rebecca Ann Jordan (2016)
- "This Is a Letter to My Son" by KJ Kabza (2016)
- "The Effigies of Tamber Square" by Jon Michael Kelley (2016)
- "Scatter" by Rosalie Kempthorne (2016)
- "I Remember Angels" by Mark Kreighbaum (1996)
- "Undead Again" by Ken MacLeod (original 2005; reprint 2007)
- "Cut the Blue Wire" by Patrick Mahon (2016)
- "Don't Mention the 'F' Word" by Neil Mathur (original 2005; reprint 2007)
- "The Treasures of Fred" by Sandra McDonald and Stephen D. Covey (2016)
- "The Sudden and Mysterious Disappearance of The Pretty Good Gatsbys" by Timothy Mudie (2016)
- "Still Life" by Jonathan H. Randall (2016)
- "I miss the Before" by Robert Reed (2016)
- "Firstborn" by Brandon Sanderson (original 2008; audio reprint 2014)
- "Let Me Hear From You Urgently" by Eliot Schrefer (2016)
- "Light of Other Days" by Bob Shaw (original 1966; reprint 2006)
- "Down on the Farm" by Charles Stross (original 2008; audio reprint 2014)
- "The Dead" by Michael Swanwick (1996)
- "A Serenade of Strings" by K.L. Townsend (2016)
- "A Bead of Jasper, Four Small Stones" by Genevieve Valentine (original 2012; reprint 2015)
- "Space Travel Loses its Allure When You’ve Lost Your Moon Cup" by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley (2014)
- "Carla at the Off-Planet Tax Return Helpline" by Caroline M. Yoachim (2016)
- "Sister Emily's Lightship" by Jane Yolen (1996)



List of the sources from which these stories came:

(alphabetical by anthology title, magazine title, website name, etc.)

- Abyss & Apex, 2016 (1st quarter)
- Clarkesworld Year Seven (anthology), edited by Neil Clarke & Sean Wallace, Wyrm, 2015
- Crossed Genres, July 2014
- Daily Science Fiction, March 2012; Apr 2016
- Every Day Fiction, Apr 2016
- Fantasy Scroll Mag, Feb 2016
- Futures from Nature (anthology), edited by Henry Gee, 2007
- Jim Baen's Universe v.1, no.1, 2006
- Liquid Imagination, Feb 2016
- Nature, Apr 2016
- One Teen Story, March 2016
- Pinball, 2016
- Slate, Apr 2016
- Space Squid, 2016
- Starlight 1 (anthology), edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden, 1996
- Strange Horizons, Apr 2016
- Tor.com: Selected Original Fiction, 2008-2012 (audio collection, Brilliance Audio, 2014)
- Trigger Warning: Short Fiction with Pictures, March 2016

Read more!

Short Fiction - March 2016

Short Fiction - March 2016

[public domain clip art obtained from Wikimedia Commons]
Please excuse the slight delay in this post, and the fact that I've managed to include some April 2016 stories in my March 2016 short story reading, which I'm afraid does not actually make me a time traveler. As I've mentioned in previous posts, my "rule" for my short fiction reading project is that I have to read at least one short story for each day in the year, which means if I miss a day (or three), I then have to make those stories up. I record the date I actually read them, but credit the reading to the assigned day. I also don't allow myself to read ahead, meaning that if I read two stories on any given day, it doesn't count towards the reading of any future date.

And wow, I'm just now realizing how anal-retentive this all sounds. But I was a library cataloger. And anal-retentive is what we do.

Anyway, March got away from me due to the fact that all three of my part-time temp jobs are happening right now, and I took a two-week trip right in the middle of the month that left surprisingly little time for reading. But now I've finally caught up for March, and here are my favorites:


"The Blood Tree War" by Daniel Ausema

Length: 1,251 words
Category: Short story (dark fantasy)
Where Published: Diabolical Plots
When Published: 2016-04-01
Link (free)

There's some bloodthirsty (pun intended) yet lovely imagery in this short piece about trees fighting for dominance on a battlefield where many have fallen. I'd call this a very effective and atmospheric mood piece.


"The World as Seen by Angels" by Olivia Berrier

Length: 999 words
Category: Short story (fantasy)
Where Published: Every Day Fiction
When Published: 2015-03-01
Link (free)

Well, this was a complete surprise. I'm an atheist and therefore don't believe in gods or angels, yet I found this to be a lovely, life-affirming story. The metaphors for depression and suicide were particularly fitting. For me, this short piece of flash fiction is the epitome of a fictional religious story -- powerful but not defensive, if that makes sense. Highly recommended.



"P.G. Holyfield’s Magnificent Travelling Spectacular" by K.T. Bryski

Length: unknown
Category: Short story (fantasy)
Where Published: Tales of a Tesla Ranger: A Tribute to PG Holyfield (anthology)
When Published: 2014
Link (available for purchase)

Part of my March trip was for a writing retreat, where I met, among others, the author of this story, K.T. Bryski; one of the anthology's editors, Tee Morris (*); and the writer who lent me this book, Tim Dodge. This book is a tribute to a writer and colleague of theirs, PG Holyfield, who passed away very quickly after an initial cancer diagnosis.

In this particular story, a young woman suffering from anxiety and depression is enchanted when a mysterious circus arrives outside her apartment window, for an engagement lasting only three nights. The ringmaster, PG Holyfield, shows the young woman that possibilities exist that she previously could not have dreamed of.

I'm a sucker for magical circus stories, such as Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus and Kij Johnson's "26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss", the latter of which I read only recently. This story contained that same sense of magic, and was a lovely tribute to a man I never got to meet, but whom I'm told liked to draw out the potential he saw in others.

(* to whom I'm very grateful for introducing me to Mad Max: Fury Road, which I've since watched again with subtitles so I wouldn't miss a single line!)



"Millepora" by Shannon Peavey

Length: 977 words
Category: Short story (science fiction)
Where Published: Flash Fiction Online
When Published: 2016-03
Link (free)

This short piece is about a slow transformation from being human to becoming something else, and how the affected people -- and the unaffected who must yet witness the transformation -- react to the situation. It reminded me in some ways of one of my all-time favorite short stories, "Waiting for the Rain" by Dirk Strasser.


One last note: although none of the four Ian Fleming stories I listened to was a favorite in terms of story, I can say that Tom Hiddleston is an amazing narrator!

Other stories read in March 2016:

(alphabetical by author)

- "One's Company" by Davian Aw (2016)
- "Sorry Fugu" by T.C. Boyle (original publication 1987; audio CD reprint 2007)
- "The Memory Who Became a Girl" by Jennifer Campbell-Hicks (2016)
- ""The Human is Late to Feed the Cat" by Beth Cato (2016)
- "Happiness is in Your Genes" by Kevin Cheeseman (2016)
- "Let There Be Light" by Qiufan Chen (2016)
- "Eve of Sin City" by Sylvia Day (original 2010; audio reprint 2014)
- "Bolt" by David Elzey (2015)
- "007 in New York" by Ian Fleming (original 1963; audio reprint 2014)
- "The Living Daylights" by Ian Fleming (original 1962; audio reprint 2014)
- "Octopussy" by Ian Fleming (original 1965; audio reprint 2014)
- "The Property of a Lady" by Ian Fleming (original 1963; audio reprint 2014)
- "The Unthreading" by Matt Handle (year unknown)
- "Making the Cut" by Jeffrey Howe (2016)
- "My Blurry Girlfriend" by Michael Jaoui (2016)
- "Meltwater" by Benjamin C. Kinney (2016)
- "When Last We Left" by Andrew Kozma (2016)
- "Earth Hour" by Ken MacLeod (original 2011; audio reprint 2014)
- "Rocket Man" by Lynette Mejia (2016)
- "Degrees of Separation" by Ruth Nestvold (2015)
- "What's in the Blend" by K.C. Norton (2016)
- "The Stories She Tells Herself" by Kelly Sandoval (2016)
- "The President's Brain is Missing" by John Scalzi (original 2010; audio reprint 2014)
- "The Dauphin’s Metaphysics" by Eric Schwitzgebel (2015)
- "Overtime" by Charles Stross (original 2009; audio reprint 2014)
- "Shovelware" by Bogi Takács (2016)
- "Ajdenia" by Natalia Theodoridou (2016)
- "Semper Fi, Mac" by Tammi J. Truax (2016)
- "Foreign Tongues" by John Wiswell (2016)
- "Welcome to the Medical Clinic at the Interplanetary Relay Station | Hours Since the Last Patient Death: 0" by Caroline M. Yoachim (2016)
- "You Are Not the Hero of This Story" by Caroline M. Yoachim (2016)



List of the sources from which these stories came:

(alphabetical by anthology title, magazine title, website name, etc.)

- Abyss & Apex, 2015 (third quarter)
- Daily Science Fiction, March 2016; Apr 2016
- Diabolical Plots, March 2016
- Fireside Fiction, Apr 2016
- Flash Fiction Online, Apr 2016
- Lightspeed, March 2016
- Mash Stories, March 2016
- Nature, March 2016
- Octopussy and The Living Daylights, and Other Stories (audio collection, Ian Fleming Publications, Ltd. and Blackstone Audio, 2014)
- One Teen Story, Nov 2015; Feb 2016
- Selected Shorts: Food Fictions (audio CD anthology, 2007)
- Strange Horizons, March 2016
- Tales of a Tesla Ranger: A Tribute to PG Holyfield (anthology, PG Holyfield's Childrens Trust, 2014)
- Tor.com: Selected Original Fiction, 2008-2012 (audio collection, Brilliance Audio, 2014)
- Unlikely Story: The Journal of Unlikely Academia, Oct 2015

Read more!

Short Fiction - February 2016

[Creative commons artwork from Pexels.com]

Short Fiction - February 2016
I have to admit, it's a little discouraging to realize that for all the short fiction I've been reading, I still felt woefully unprepared to nominate for the Nebulas. But I did the best I could, and I continue to read a lot of 2015 fiction with the goal of being better prepared for the Hugo and World Fantasy nomination processes. Trouble is, now I also want to read the Nebula finalists in the novel category, and those votes are due March 31.

I guess it's better to have too much good fiction to read than not enough!

In any case, here are my four favorite short stories that I read in February.

"43 Responses to 'In Memory of Dr. Alexandra Nako'" by Barbara A. Barnett

Length: 1,372 words
Category: Short story (science fiction/fantasy)
Where Published: Daily Science Fiction
When Published: 2016-02-05
Link (free)

Lest you think this is another list story, which are quite the rage in spec fic these days, this isn't so much a list as simply the comments section of (almost) every blog post you've ever seen. There's the troll, the self-appointed grammar police, and the polite-but-increasingly-annoyed O.P. trying to keep the conversation civilized. And from all this, the author coaxes a real story, with characterization and an interesting plot. This is extremely well done and lots of fun.

"26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss" by Kij Johnson

Length: 4,000 words
Category: Short story (science fiction)
Where Published: Asimov's
When Published: July 2008
Reprinted: The Secret History of Fantasy (anthology, Tachyon Publications, 2010)
Link (free)

I'm embarrassed that I'm so late to the party on this 2008 story, but so glad I finally read it. Like the Barnett story listed above, the title and structure of "26 Monkeys, Also the Abyss" may call to mind a list story, but that isn't what this is. Instead, it's a wistful story about a young woman who runs a traveling show in which a group of performing monkeys literally disappears for the finale every night. It's one of those stories that seems like it may have originated in a dream. But instead of having the annoying arbitrariness that usually make dreams interesting only to the person who has them, this story kept the dreamlike quality while brewing something rich and meaningful. This story is not to be missed!

"The Opening of the Bayou Saint John" by Shawn Scarber

[Image: "Bayou" © 2016 Rhiannon Rasmussen-Silverstein. Used with permission.]

Length: 3,885 words
Category: Short story (fantasy)
Where Published: Strange Horizons
When Published: 2016-02-08
Link (free)

This is a lovely atmospheric piece about a bayou woman who transports stillborn children to another place, when requested to do so by grieving mothers willing to defy convention. There's just the right mix of magic and sense of place in this haunting story. Highly recommended.

"Trickier with Each Translation" by Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam

Length: 5,600 words (approx.)
Category: Short story (science fiction)
Where Published: Queers Destroy Science Fiction/Lightspeed
When Published: 2015-06
Link: N/A

This story is about time travel and superheroes and what it might be like to have loved both men and women. It's full of lovely, evocative details. I'll admit, I'm a sucker for time travel stories, and it amazes me how a well-written one can still bring something new to the table.



Other stories read in February 2016:

(alphabetical by author)

- "They Tell Me There Will Be No Pain" by Rachael Acks (original 2014; reprint 2015)
- "The Missing Finger of Jerry Garcia" by Jon Allison (year unknown)
- "Android One" by Richard Ankers (2016)
- "Fruit and Words" by Aimee Bender (original 2001; reprint 2010)
- "A Room for Lost Things" by Chloe N. Clark (2015)
- "Chatter Monkey" by Caroline Couderc (2016)
- "The Magician’s Assistant" by Paul Crenshaw (2016)
- "The Weight of a Blessing" by Aliette de Bodard (original 2013; reprint 2015)
- "Ants on a Trestle" by Elliotte Rusty Harold (2015)
- "Boy Seeds" by Nina Kiriki Hoffman (2011)
- "Mythago Wood" [novelette] by Robert Holdstock (original 1981; reprint 2010)
- "The Shapes Of Us, Translucent To Your Eye" by Rose Lemberg (2015)
- "In the Loop" by Ken Liu (original 2014; reprint 2015)
- "Dying with Her Cheer Pants On" by Seanan McGuire (original 2010; reprint 2015)
- "Calved" by Sam J. Miller (2015)
- "Mold" by Richard Mirabella (2016)
- "Town of Cats" by Haruki Murakami
- "May Dreams Shelter Us" by Kate O’Connor (2016)
- "Tomorrow's World" by Aimee Ogden (2016)
- "A Cure Over Coffee" by Pontius Paiva (2016)
- "Boy Twelve" by Jessica Reisman (original 2005; reprint 2015)
- "Seven Wonders of a Once and Future World" by Caroline M. Yoachim (2015)
- "The Urashima Effect" by E. Lily Yu (original 2013; reprint 2015)
- "Music" by Anna Zumbro (year unknown)



List of the sources from which these stories came:

(alphabetical by anthology title, magazine title, website name, etc.)

- Asimov's, Sept 2015
- Clarkesworld Year Seven (anthology), edited by Neil Clarke & Sean Wallace, Wyrm, 2015
- Crossed Genres, Sept 2015
- Daily Science Fiction, Feb 2011; Feb 2016; Mar 2016
- Diabolical Plots, Sept 2015; Feb 2016
- Flash Fiction Online, Feb 2016
- Freeze Frame Fiction, date unknown
- Lightspeed, Sept 2015
- New Yorker, Sept 2011
- One Teen Story, Jan 2016
- Queers Destroy Science Fiction!/Lightspeed, June 2015
- The Secret History of Fantasy (anthology), edited by Peter S. Beagle, Tachyon, 2010
- Strange Horizons, Feb 2016
- Unlikely Story: The Journal of Unlikely Academia, Oct 2015
- Warrior Women (anthology), edited by Paula Guran, Prime Books, 2015


Read more!

Short Fiction - January 2016

Short Fiction - January 2016
How is it possible that January is over already? Here are my favorite stories read this month.

"Mycelium" by Fábio Fernandes

Length: 3,277 words
Category: Short story (science fiction)
Where Published: Perihelion
When Published: 2015-12-12
Link (free; link good for approximately four months)

Ariana travels in a "nulltime bubble," a dangerous mode of transport but the only way to navigate the distances between the mining asteroids without attracting unwanted attention. Ariana is a kinocchio, or living recorder, and has been sent to this particular colony in response to a mysterious accident. She quickly realizes that whatever lies behind the accident may be the key to saving what little is left of humanity.

There's a lot going on in this story. It seems to be part of a much larger picture, which is fine -- authors have been publishing excerpts of their novels as short works since the beginning of science fiction. I'm okay with not (yet) knowing more about the enemy that wiped out most humans, and I liked the bit of Arian's backstory that we got. That said, I would enjoy seeing this fleshed out as a longer work.

"By Degrees and Dilatory Time" by S.L. Huang

[Illustration "By Degrees" © 2015 Milan Jaram. Used with permission.]

Length: 4,088 words
Category: Short story (science fiction)
Where Published: Strange Horizons
When Published: 2015-05-18
Link (free)

This is a quiet and thoughtful story about a young man who has to get artificial eyes due to cancer, at a time when some people choose to get them for occupational or even just aesthetic reasons. In my mind, the story gently makes two main points: we are surprising in our capacity to adapt, and people need to decide for themselves whether they're willing to be the "face" of a political ideology, especially when their participation in that movement is assumed based on something they can't control. Highly recommended.

"Engelbert" by Gareth D. Jones

Length: 1,464 words
Category: Short story (science fiction)
Where Published: Daily Science Fiction
When Published: 2015-08-07
Link (free)

Although I found the premise of this story a little bit of a stretch, the narrative takes some chances that pay off. At a research compound, a nanotech-enhanced sentient camel has only one friend, an analyst at the facility. Something bad has happened, and the story moves through a bit of back-and-forth chronology to bring the reader to a point of understanding. A very minor quibble is that I experienced one point of confusion that I think could have been cleared up without spoiling anything else in the story. But overall, I found this to be moving and very well-written.

"Telling the Bees" by T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon)

Length: 723 words
Category: Short story (flash fiction)
Where Published: Strange Horizons
When Published: 2015-12-21
Link (free)

This story was stunning in its loveliness. And a funny thing: a month or so ago I'd seen someone post that they'd read a lovely story and then found out it was written by Ursula Vernon under a pseudonym. I immediately made a mental note to go find this story -- and, naturally, I immediately forgot.

But then a few weeks later, I found it by chance, by looking to see what had been published recently in Strange Horizons. I read it, thought it was perfect (length, tone, subject), and then saw in the author bio notes that T. Kingfisher is Ursula Vernon. It was the very story I'd meant to look up. This author has become one of those whose work I'll go looking for.

"The Pixie Game" by Anna Zumbro

Length: 992 words
Category: Short story (flash fiction)
Where Published: Daily Science Fiction
When Published: 2015-06-15
Link (free)

And one more from Daily Science Fiction. I felt this short piece was most effective, and I liked that pixies were simply a given in this world. In an effort to fit in at his new school, Gage takes part in a cruel game, with unexpected consequences. Slightly chilling, in the best possible way.



Other stories read in January 2016:

(alphabetical by author)

- "Lords A-Leaping" by Sarah Crysl Akhtar (2016)
- "Reading Beauty" by Abigail Ashing (2016)
- "Bones" by Francesca Lia Block (original 2001; reprint 2010)
- "The Book of Martha" by Octavia Butler (original 2003; reprint 2010)
- "Unearthly Landscape by a Lady" by Rebecca Campbell (2015)
- "Bonsaiships of Venus" by Kate Heartfield (2014)
- "In the Cold" by Kelly Jennings (2012)
- "Vacui Magia" by L.S. Johnson (2015)
- "Mrs. Todd's Shortcut" by Stephen King (original 1984; reprint 2010)
- "Two to Leave" by Yoon Ha Lee (2015)
- "Super Goat Man" by Jonathan Lethem (original 2004; reprint 2010)
- "Bilingual" by Henry Lien (2015)
- "Ancestor Money" by Maureen McHugh (original 2003; reprint 2010)
- "Insert Line: Goodbye Mom, Goodbye Dad" by Joshua P'ng (2016)
- "Stripped to Zero" by Stephen S. Power (2015)
- "Let Us Now Praise Awesome Dinosaurs" by Leonard Richardson (2009)
- "Tin and Mercury, Gilt and Glass" by Lane Robins (2016)
- "Live Forever" by Anton Rose (2016)
- "The Retelling of Jeremiah" by Kelly Sandoval (2016)
- "The Sharing Series" by Janet Savage (2016)
- "A Note to Parents Regarding the Beginning and End of Time Diorama Presentations for Ms. Miller’s Third Grade Class" by Rebecca Schwarz (original 2014; reprint 2015)
- "Snow Crab Knife" by Christopher Shultz (year unknown)
- "The Shutdown" by Marge Simon (2016)
- "Expensive" by Jessica Snell (2016)
- "The Osteomancer’s Husband" by Henry Szabranski (2016)
- "Ghosts of the Ashwydds" by Filip Wiltgren (2016)


List of the sources from which these stories came:

(alphabetical by anthology title, magazine title, website name, etc.)

- Beneath Ceaseless Skies, May 2015; Oct 2015
- Daily Science Fiction, June 2015; Aug 2015; Jan 2016
- Diabolical Plots, Jan 2016
- Every Day Fiction, Jan 2016
- F&SF, Mar/Apr 2015
- Flash Fiction Online, Aug 2015; Jan 2016
- Freeze Frame Fiction, year unknown
- Lackington's, Fall 2014
- Nature, Aug 2015
- Perihelion, Dec 2015
- The Secret History of Fantasy (anthology), edited by Peter S. Beagle, Tachyon, 2010
- Strange Horizons, July 2009; Jan 2012; Jan 2015; May 2015; Dec 2015


Read more!

2015 Short Fiction Reading: A Summary

First things first: this is not a post about fiction published in 2015. Rather, these are my thoughts on the 445 short works that I read in 2015, from just over 100 different venues including magazines, collections, anthologies, and author websites.

I started on January 1, 2015, with the goal of reading at least one short story every day for a year. The "rules" I set for myself meant that I could catch up when necessary, but I couldn't read ahead. So if I missed two days while away for a weekend, I had to make up those dates. But if I was caught up and still felt like reading a few short stories on any given day, those did not count towards future dates. Hence the 445 stories in a 365-day year. While the number sounds impressive, I feel compelled to mention that a lot of the stories I read were flash fiction, which I define as under 1,000 words.

Another "rule" was that stories had to be published, so the dozens of unpublished stories I've critiqued for both online and in-person groups were not counted.

I had two main reasons for doing this. First, I hoped that reading so many short stories would allow me to absorb some wisdom that I could incorporate into my own writing. Second, I wanted to become a more informed voter for the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Awards. I feel as though I definitely accomplished the latter, although I'm also hopelessly aware that these stories are barely a drop in the bucket compared to what's out there. Whether my own writing has gained any benefit from this experiment, I can't say. I'm submitting and selling more than ever before, but I think that has more to do with how much I'm writing rather than how much I'm reading. That said, reading can never be bad for a writer, and I do not understand writers who say they don't read other authors' work.

In any case, because I love data, I kept very detailed records. Here are some observations:


What I Read Most

The publication I read the most was Daily Science Fiction, with 76 stories. The second most was QuarterReads (47 stories), but in a way that doesn't count, because QuarterReads wasn't doing any kind of editorial oversight and most of the works had been previously published elsewhere. (In fact, there was a distinct difference in quality in that I didn't like most of the stories original to QuarterReads nearly as much as the others). The third most was Every Day Fiction, another daily flash market, with 37 stories. Other magazines for which I read at least seven stories included Perihelion SF (12), Clarkesworld (10), Strange Horizons (9), Crossed Genres (9), Lightspeed (8), One Teen Story (8), Diabolical Plots (7), and Nature's "Futures" (7).


Favorite Publications

Before running the numbers, my memory and instincts told me that my tastes seemed to align best with those of Crossed Genres and Diabolical Plots. In looking at those magazines for which I read at least five stories, my average ratings on a scale of 1 to 5 were: Flash Fiction Online (4.08), Clarkesworld (3.80), Diabolical Plots (3.79), Lightspeed (3.69), Strange Horizons (3.67), Nature Futures (3.50), One Teen Story (3.38), Daily Science Fiction (3.31), Tor.com (3.30), F&SF (3.20), Crossed Genres (3.17), Every Day Fiction (3.05), and Perihelion (2.71).

It's worth mentioning that these are all actually good ratings. If I rate a story 2.5 stars, that means that I think it was average, and the things I like and dislike about it are about equal. So anything above that means better than average. I also had at least one 4 or 4.5 star rating for most of those publications. Most, but not all, were science fiction or fantasy.

It's also important to note that this is by no means random. I'm always listening to other people's recommendations, so if someone has described this great story that they read on Lightspeed or Clarkesworld and I like the sound of it, it has a much better chance of pleasing me than a story I've picked at random from a small publication. And that's OK -- this reading is for me. Finally, I should mention that lots of magazines ended up with even higher average ratings, but they were based on only a couple of stories.


New Favorite Authors

I'm developing a list of my favorite short fiction writers. Ted Chiang was already on that list (duh!), but I now deliberately seek out short stories by Caroline Yoachim and Ursula Vernon too. That's not to say I love every piece by every one of these authors -- there are even a few Chiang stories that don't do it for me -- but I'm excited to read their new work and I enjoy it more often than not. (And the best part is that Caroline and Ursula both have tons of work I haven't read yet!) Finally, I want to get back to Hannu Rajaniemi's collection -- I loved some of his stories and would have included them as favorites in my monthly round-up posts, but decided I wanted to do a post on the entire collection. That's on the to do list.


Story Length

I've learned that I definitely prefer shorter stories. Not necessarily flash, but a story has to be brilliant for me to want to keep reading past, say, 6,000 words. I'd say my sweet spot is probably about 3,000-4,000 words. But speaking of flash, if you're ignoring it because you think it's all gimmicks, you're missing out. I have nominated a few pieces of flash for either the Hugo or the Nebula (or both), and will continue to do so when warranted.


A Few Dead Markets

I was extremely disappointed to learn that both Crossed Genres and QuarterReads are no more. I adored the way Crossed Genres did themed issues, one per month, and then published three stories, one of which was always by a debut author. And QuarterReads was such a fun concept: pay a quarter to read a story, with the option to tip the author if you really liked it. Unfortunately, this venture only lasted about a year, and although the proprietor said he plans to pay authors what they're owed, even if they haven't yet reached the $10 threshold, I am not holding my breath. As a reader, I also feel short-changed, because I can still use my remaining quarters (I just tested it), but no new work is being added. Oh well.

What I'll Do Differently in 2016

For this first part of the year, my intention is to read as much 2015 work as possible for award nomination and voting purposes. That's my intention, but I have to admit that when a Daily Science Fiction story shows up every day in my inbox, it often catches my eye and I read it. And if I then get busy, well, I've already read a story that day and have less incentive to go looking elsewhere. I'd also like to spread my reading around a bit more, but at the same time, I want to read a lot of stories from the same markets. Maybe I should be going for two a day....

Data-wise, I'm now keeping more careful track of story word counts so that I don't have to scramble later, trying to remember if it's a short story, novella, or novelette. And I'm keeping the spreadsheet as I go, so I don't have to spend all of January next year compiling a year's worth of information! I also want to be able to easily run the numbers for how many stories I read that were published in a given year.

One thing I won't change: in my monthly posts, I talk about my favorite stories of the month. I list everything I read, but I have no plans to discuss stories I didn't like. I think the closest I might come is if I love most of a story but one thing breaks it for me -- but even that I'm not sure about. That said, if I list a story as read but don't discuss it, that doesn't necessarily mean I didn't like it. In fact, I might like it a lot. I may just not have anything to say about it.

So yeah, it's been fun. You know that recent meme on Facebook? Here's my version:

This is Amy. Amy reads lots of short fiction. Amy is smart. Be like Amy.

Read more!

Short Fiction - December 2015

[Stained glass; a Christmas present from my parents]

Short Fiction - December 2015
As with November, my December short fiction reading was a bit scattered. While I've finished my challenge of reading at least a short story for every day of the year (i.e. at least 365 stories), I didn't manage to read anything the last few days in December, although that was less about Christmas and more about New Year's, which is the big holiday for me.

In any case, I did read a total of 445 stories in 2015, a number of which I felt justified in putting on SFWA's recommended reading list. I plan to continue this for 2016, and want to spend January reading primarily for award nomination purposes. I also plan to do a summary post for 2015 in the near future, once I get the house back in order after the New Year's Eve festivities and get back from an artists' retreat I'm attending to start off the new year.


"Legion" and "The Emperor's Soul" by Brandon Sanderson

This month, I read three novellas by Brandon Sanderson: Legion, which I'd read once before; Legion: Skin Deep; and The Emperor's Soul. I absolutely adore Legion's main concept, in which a schizophrenic man's mind creates "aspects" for him, or hallucinations of distinct personalities that have different skill sets. In fact, his mind specifically creates each aspect right when he has particular need of new skills. He knows they're hallucinations -- and most of them know they're hallucinations -- but he really has no choice but to treat them as though they're real, up to and including living in a mansion so they all have their own rooms, and sitting at a large table in a restaurant so whichever aspects are with him can "eat" too. The different personalities are wonderfully individual characters, which is a nice feat.

In the first book, Legion, someone has photographic proof of time travel, but the inventor has disappeared. It's a nice little mystery at what seemed to me to be the perfect length. Unfortunately, I didn't find the second book, Legion: Skin Deep, nearly as satisfying, mainly because I found the mystery, especially the motive, less than compelling. There was some nice character development among the aspects in this book, but it felt as though the author was deliberately holding back information to save it for another book in the series. I know that authors do this all the time, but I found that the specific amount of character development that was in this book actually had the reverse effect of making me want what wasn't there.

Unrelated to the Legion series, I also finally got around to reading Sanderson's The Emperor's Soul, which won the Hugo award for best novella a few years ago. In this story, Shai is a forger, who can rewrite objects' history to make them into something else. She's also a criminal scheduled for execution, but has been offered a way to save her own life: she must forge a new soul for the Emperor, who unbeknownst to his subjects is brain dead from an assassination attempt.

The forgery process as described by the author is quite fascinating, although I found it more believable for objects than for a personality. For instance, I loved that Shai could turn her window into stained glass because the frame "remembered" having once held stained glass, and it would prefer to be all that it can be, an object of beauty. Shai can also forge her own soul into other people she might have been, such as trained warrior when those skills are needed. That's actually quite similar to what happens in the Legion novellas but with a different process behind it. Clearly the author is intrigued by people who can provide themselves with all sorts of skills, and no wonder, because it's a compelling idea. I definitely recommend The Emperor's Soul, which is available from the publisher, Tachyon, or the usual retailers.


"Fibonacci" by Eleanor R. Wood

I loved this flash story about a researcher attempting to re-introduce extinct ammonites into an eco-system. It's not precisely a "list" story, but it's specifically constructed around numbers in a sort-of list format. I didn't realize until after the fact that the Fibonacci of the title relates to a very specific set of numbers, so it was fun looking up more about that once I'd learned of it.

And it's also a romance. So much is packed into these beautifully chosen 996 words! There are things about the story's construction that I didn't notice until after I had finished it, making it well worth re-reading. There's so much to there to "unpack." Read here at Flash Fiction Online.



Other stories read in December 2015:

(alphabetical by author)

- "O Tannendoom" by Folly Blaine (2015)
- "Beyond 550 Astronomical Units" by Mike Brotherton (2015)
- "The Shortest SF Story Ever" by Seth Chambers (2015)
- "Indelible" by Gwendolyn Clare (2015)
- "Little Galaxies" by Jennifer Dornan-Fish (2015)
- "Lovot" by Santiago Eximeno, translated by Alicia L. Alonso (2015)
- ""Hairbrush, Socks, Pencils, Orange" by Kate Heartfield (2014)
- "I'm Only Going Over" by Cat Hellisen (2015)
- "And a Cup of Good Cheer" by C.L. Holland (2011)
- "The Workshop at the End of the World" by Kristin Janz (2015)
- "A Christmas Story: Flash Fiction Style" by Darynda Jones (2011)
- "St. Roomba’s Gospel" by Rachael K. Jones (2015)
- "Christmas Debt" by Jenny Schwartz (2015)
- "Lupine" by Nisi Shawl (2013)
- "Seven Items in Jason Reynolds’ Jacket Pocket, Two Days After His Suicide, As Found by his Eight-Year-Old Brother, Grady" by Robert Swartwood (2010)
- "Mall-Crossed Love" by David Steffen (2015)
- "Keeping it Real" by Kim Stratford (2015)
- "Carpenter of the Universe" by Nicola Wells (2015)
- "A Long Way from Home" by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley (2014)
- "The Spinning Wheel's Tale" by Jane Yolen (2013)


List of the sources from which these stories came:

(alphabetical by anthology title, magazine title, website name, etc.)

- 10 Flash Quarterly, January 2011
- Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine 62, December 2015
- Clarkesworld, February 2015
- Daily Science Fiction, various dates
- Diabolical Plots, December 2015
- Every Day Fiction, various dates
- Flash Fiction Online, December 2014; December 2015
- Gollancz, 2015
- Mash Stories, October 2015
- Nature, July 2014; December 2015
- Once Upon a Time: New Fairy Tales (anthology), edited by Paula Guran, 2013
- PANK Magazine, April 2010
- Robotica (anthology), edited by Elizabeth Hirst, October 2015
- Subterranean Press, 2012, 2014
- Tachyon Publications, 2012

Read more!