Fiction River: Unnatural Worlds Read online

  Fiction River: Unnatural Worlds

  Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith

  Series Editors

  Kristine Kathryn Rusch and Dean Wesley Smith

  Editors

  Copyright Information

  Fiction River: Unnatural Worlds

  Copyright © 2013 by WMG Publishing

  Published by WMG Publishing

  Cover and Layout copyright © 2013 by WMG Publishing

  Cover design by Allyson Longueira/WMG Publishing

  Cover art copyright © 2013 by Rashevskaya/Dreamstime

  “Foreword: The Return To Publishing” Copyright © 2013 by Dean Wesley Smith

  “Introduction: So I Lied” Copyright © 2013 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

  “Life Between Dreams” Copyright © 2013 by Devon Monk

  “Finally Family” Copyright © 2013 by Ray Vukcevich

  “The Grasshopper and My Aunts” Copyright © 2013 by Esther M. Friesner

  “True Calling” Copyright © 2013 by Irette Y. Patterson

  “A Taste of Joie De Vivre” Copyright © 2013 by Kellen Knolan

  “Here, Kitty Kitty” Copyright © 2013 by Annie Reed

  “That Lost Riddle” Copyright © 2013 by Dean Wesley Smith

  “Shadow Side” Copyright © 2013 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

  “Sisters” Copyright © 2013 by Leah Cutter

  “The Witch’s House” Copyright © 2013 by Richard Bowes

  “Dog Boy Remembers” Copyright © 2013 by Jane Yolen

  “Barbarians” Copyright © 2013 by David Farland

  Smashwords Edition

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

  Table of Contents

  Foreword: The Return to Publishing

  Dean Wesley Smith

  Introduction: So I Lied

  Kristine Kathryn Rusch

  Life Between Dreams

  Devon Monk

  Finally Family

  Ray Vukcevich

  The Grasshopper and My Aunts

  Esther M. Friesner

  True Calling

  Irette Y. Patterson

  A Taste of Joie De Vivre

  Kellen Knolan

  Here, Kitty Kitty

  Annie Reed

  That Lost Riddle

  Dean Wesley Smith

  Shadow Side

  Kristine Kathryn Rusch

  Sisters

  Leah Cutter

  The Witch’s House

  Richard Bowes

  Dog Boy Remembers

  Jane Yolen

  Barbarians

  David Farland

  Acknowledgements

  Copyright Information

  Foreword

  The Return to Publishing

  Dean Wesley Smith

  Twenty-six years ago, Kristine Kathryn Rusch and I started Pulphouse Publishing over my kitchen table in a small apartment in Eugene, Oregon. We had no idea what we were getting into. We decided we would be happy if we sold a few copies of the first issue of Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine. We sold out.

  After that, we embarked on a massive learning curve. We figured out how to publish an anthology series and start a publishing company all at the same time. We did it on the wages of a part-time bartender and part-time secretary, supplemented by our writing. We never really caught up.

  When we finally shut Pulphouse down nine years later, we had a lot of debt and the knowledge that our little company had changed the science fiction and fantasy field. We had gone from that kitchen table to the ninth largest sf publisher in the nation.

  We paid back the debt with our writing income, and vowed never to start a publishing company again. Actually, Kris vowed that. I continued to talk annually about starting a magazine, or editing an anthology, or starting another company.

  Kris didn’t agree until publishing changed. With the rise of e-books and print-on-demand, publishing became easy. Make that easier. It’s still hard. We’re established writers now, not beginners, and we have careers to maintain. We realized we couldn’t let the publishing overwhelm the writing.

  So we started Fiction River. We crowd-funded this project on Kickstarter in August of 2012. We figured if we couldn’t meet our Kickstarter goal, then there wasn’t enough interest in Fiction River to proceed.

  We met our goal within the first week. We more than doubled our fundraising goal. The response exceeded our expectations. We’re doing this project because of 314 people who chose to take a risk with us, and even more who couldn’t afford to pledge but spread the word. Thank you, everyone!

  We’re hands-on editing some of the volumes, but others we’re giving to our most trusted editorial friends. We act as the series editors, reading everything that comes in, but the other voices add a perspective that we would never get on our own.

  This makes Fiction River diverse. The only thing we can promise is high-quality fiction. The genres will change. The focus of the anthologies will change. But the stories will always be the best we can find.

  Because Unnatural Worlds is the debut volume, Kris and I had to edit it. We couldn’t wait for a later volume. We edited it together, which led to some interesting moments, as Kris will explain in her editorial.

  We hope you enjoy the debut volume of Fiction River. We had a lot of fun putting it together. And we plan to give you a lot of great reading in the future.

  —Dean Wesley Smith

  Lincoln City, Oregon

  March 10, 2013

  Introduction

  So I Lied

  Kristine Kathryn Rusch

  Writers lie for a living. Lawrence Block acknowledged that when he called one of his how-to-write books Telling Lies For Fun and Profit. Only when I lied, I wasn’t lying to you folks.

  I was lying to me.

  Here’s the lie. For fifteen years now, I have said I would never edit again. I said this for two very good reasons: 1) I never ever ever ever wanted to work for anyone else again, especially as an editor; and 2) I wasn’t going to start another publishing company. I was done with all that owning-a-business nonsense.

  I could not foresee the rise of electronic books, print-on-demand publishing, and crowdfunding. I had no idea that the publishing world would change so drastically that I could jump back into editing as my own boss without a huge capital outlay.

  I am still surprised by this. Stunned, actually.

  I did know one thing: I was never going to read slush again, and I will keep that promise to myself. I spent ten years in the slush-reading trenches. My time there is done.

  So when Dean Wesley Smith and I set up Fiction River, we decided that we would ask our favorite writers to write stories for us. We have a lot of favorite writers, many of whom you haven’t heard of. That’s because we have taught business courses for writers since the late 1990s. We’ve seen a lot of fantastic writers come into our workshops, and write a lot of fantastic stories.

  Some of those fantastic writers got picked up by traditional publishers. Other fantastic writers didn’t get their work picked up because it slipped between the cracks or because it was a bit too daring.

  What most people don’t remember is that the first magazine/anthology series we ever did, Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine, had a subtitle. It was A Dangerous Magazine. We published fiction that slipped through the cracks, fiction that many other publishers wouldn’t touch.

  In 1991, I left the magazine side of Pulphouse to edit The Magazine of Fantasy
& Science Fiction. F&SF had (and has) a different mission: it needed to reach a broader base of subscribers. Sometimes I could slip in a dangerous story, but mostly I published stories by spectacular writers who wrote down the center of the sf/f field.

  I hadn’t realized how much I missed dangerous until we started editing Fiction River. This volume covers a broad range of the fantasy genre. Future volumes include hard science fiction, time travel, urban fantasy, mystery, and romance. We’re not sticking to one genre nor are we sticking to one voice.

  With that in mind, Dean and I decided to co-edit Unnatural Worlds. We wanted a diverse volume and what better way to do that than to have two editors. We agree on most things, but we disagree sometimes on what makes a story work.

  Some of my favorites in the volume aren’t Dean’s favorites, and some of his aren’t mine. Yet the volume all works together as a cohesive whole.

  We also edited each other. I argued with him for weeks about my story, “Shadow Side.” I kept asking if he wanted something else. He threatened to go into my computer files and drag out “Shadow Side” himself.

  I asked him for a Poker Boy story. Dean couldn’t understand my interest. Poker Boy is one of my favorite all-time characters. If I could publish a Poker Boy story in every anthology I edit, I would. I know Dean would dig in his heels at that. So I am pleased that I managed to get one Poker Boy story out of him for the first volume of Fiction River.

  The other stories in the volume run a range of emotions and subgenres.

  We start with Devon Monk’s “Life Between Dreams.” Devon, best known for her Allie Beckstrom urban fantasy series, knows how to straddle worlds. Since we’re straddling worlds with Unnatural Worlds, we figured Devon’s marvelous short story was the perfect place to start.

  Devon’s story blurs the boundaries between fiction and reality. Ray Vukcevich explodes those boundaries. He always has. The great thing about Ray’s writing is that he creates a world that no one else could ever invent. Dean calls Ray’s world “Planet Ray” and I can’t think of a better description. Ray is, in my opinion, one of the best and most underrated writers in the United States. “Finally Family” should show you why Dean and I both love his work so much.

  I have yet to read an Esther M. Friesner story that I didn’t like. She has written everything from heartbreaking science fiction to historical young adult fiction, and she makes it all look easy. When we asked Esther for a story, we had no idea what we’d get. She provides us with yet another new world, one that is uniquely Esther (but does continue, for a short time anyway, our bug-oriented theme).

  “True Calling” marks Irette Y. Patterson’s first fantasy publication, but I can guarantee it won’t be her last. Set in our world only with magic (and cake!), Irette reminds us that the romance genre has taken on the word “paranormal” for a reason—and that reason isn’t just vampires. It’s also the gentle, heartwarming side of the genre that most of the traditional magazines dismiss, and which readers love so well.

  Kellen Knolan’s “A Taste of Joie de Vivre” is also a first short story sale, although Kellen has published two novels under a different name. Like Ray, Kellen is an original, and his perspective is truly his own. Someday we hope to say that Fiction River provided the first glimmer of Planet Kellen.

  Annie Reed has been one of my favorite writers since I first encountered her work at one of our workshops. She has sold a lot of short fiction to anthologies and magazines, but I have a special place in my heart for her Diz and Dee detective stories. When she submitted “Here, Kitty Kitty,” I didn’t tell Dean how much I love the Diz and Dee stories. I knew he hadn’t read one before, so I let him be the final arbiter. He loved this as much as I do. Diz and Dee give us a much-needed dose of urban fantasy and also one really hot elf.

  We follow the hot elf with Poker Boy. (You’ll see why when you read those two stories.) Then we give you my much more serious “Shadow Side.” All three stories—from “Here, Kitty Kitty” to “Shadow Side”—follow three very different investigators, investigating three very different things.

  Leah Cutter’s story has no investigator, just one marvelously courageous young girl, who takes an important personal stand. I first read this story in June, and like all great fiction, it has become a cherished memory. After you read “Sisters,” you’ll never look at ceremonies the same again.

  When we asked Richard Bowes for a story, I expected something like the New York tales he used to write for me at F&SF. Instead, he sent what seems like a traditional fantasy tale, with a witch and enchanted characters. But in typical Rick Bowes’ fashion, he takes an expected world and makes it unexpected, keeping all of that emotion that makes Rick Bowes’s fiction so very powerful.

  Jane Yolen’s “Dog Boy Remembers” took my breath away when I read it. The story seems so simple and yet it’s not simple at all. Jane has long carved out a unique place in the fantasy genre, and no fantasy volume would be complete without her work. You’ll remember Dog Boy long after you close this book.

  David Farland wrote a Runelords story just for us. Runelords is parallel worlds fiction masquerading as epic fantasy. Epic fantasy is hard to write in the short form, but Dave, whose original incarnation was award-winning short fiction writer Dave Wolverton, is more than up to the task. “Barbarians” is a powerful tale that will inspire some of you to read the Runelords saga and remind the rest of you why you read it in the first place.

  The breadth of the stories here astonish me. What astonishes me even more is that all of these authors were willing to work with us on our return to editing, despite other deadlines and commitments. We’re lucky to have such a fantastic group of writers and the fruits of their incredible imaginations.

  The worlds here might be unnatural, but they’re also quite impressive. And I think Devon’s title says it best. I feel as if this volume shows us the life between dreams.

  —Kristine Kathryn Rusch

  Lincoln City, Oregon

  March 11, 2013

  Introduction to “Life Between Dreams”

  Readers love Devon Monk’s Allie Beckstrom urban fantasy series and her Age of Steam steampunk series, but our favorite remains her short stories. You can find some of her best in the 2010 collection from Fairwood Press, A Cup of Normal. She has a new fantasy series premiering soon called Broken Magic. “A Life Between Dreams” isn’t part of any of those series, however.

  Devon says this was “one of those rare stories that sort of fell off my fingertips. I had recently ended a nine-book series and found myself thinking about life’s many endings and beginnings and all the small and large sacrifices and choices we make between them.”

  Endings and beginnings. How appropriate for the first volume of the Fiction River series.

  Life Between Dreams

  Devon Monk

  Mary Still dropped the screwdriver back into the empty coffee can next to the jar of Moebius clock oil, and held her breath. From just beyond the open door of the garage she heard the distinct glassy tink of this reality colliding with another. Someone, or something, was crossing the boundary.

  The sound could be nothing, just the random scrape and rattle of the joined universes steering a little too wide around the corners.

  It could be the bosses, who said they’d be here in exactly one hour to see that the outpost was secure and to reassign her a new partner if Tom didn’t return.

  Or it could be Tom.

  She hoped it was Tom. But she hadn’t seen her partner for six months now, not since the job they’d almost failed in East London with the dreamer kid. She’d walked away from that with a much finer appreciation for the rules of dispelling terrors and imaginings.

  Tom had just walked away.

  She picked up a tire iron and a wooden cross, and moved back from the nineteenth century Regina music box she’d been restoring, even though she had yet to find a comb to make it sing. No need to lose paying customers just because she had to fight nightmare creatures from another dimension, or w
orse, her bosses.

  She strolled up to the door and opened it. Being quiet and sneaky around terrors and imaginings never worked. Walls didn’t stop them, doors didn’t hold them back, and stealth was a waste of time.

  Still, she hesitated there in the cool shadow of the garage and stared out at the Nevada sunlight pouring over the rocks and orange dirt in front of her shop. Highway 90 lay like a black snake warming itself over the arid land, curving down out of Goldfield up north and missing her place by an eighth of a mile or so.

  Wind hissed through the sage brush and set the insects buzzing.

  A man stepped up to the front porch of her shop.

  He was medium build, brushing six feet tall and wore a black wool coat that reached almost to his knees, his jeans tucked into the top of hunting boots. His dark hair was brushed up and away from his face, even though it was several inches too long to hold the style, and he was in need of a shave.

  Hands shoved in his coat pockets, he paused to read the sign above her entryway: Still Curious Antique Restoration.

  “You put my name on the sign?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said, not lowering cross or bar yet. “Good to see you, Tom. You owe me half a year’s overhead on the place.”

  He turned his head, tipped down his sunglasses. “Good to see you too, Mary.”

  She swallowed against a mix of anger and relief that rushed through her. He still had a soul behind those eyes. He was still human. That was good. Very good.

  “Are you going to put your sticks down yet?” He gave a slight nod toward the cross and crowbar.

  “No. But you might as well go inside. The coffee should be done brewing.”

  He hesitated. Maybe he didn’t want her at his back. She was angry, and he was pretty good at reading her emotions even though no one else ever was.