Cat Henge
Long ago, the ancient builders of my abode angled its walls and windows so that each year, on January 4th, the sun would shine through the TV room window directly on the cat.
Archive for Uncategorized
HALF-WITCH ARC exists!
My first look at an ARC of HALF-WITCH, from Gavin at Small Beer! Love it. Notice the July, 2018 publication date. This only an ARC: the cover copy will change a little when the novel is actually published.
Interview about “The First Day of Someone Else’s Life”
Here’s an interview with me about the story behind the story: how “The First Day of Someone Else’s Life” came to be written, and some of the themes and ideas behind it. “The First Day of Someone Else’s Life” is in the current, May-June issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. See this post for how to buy it.
Names of the Lion
The 10th century poet of Aleppo, Ibn Khalawayh, wrote a book with 400 names of the lion in it. Here are some:
Whose coat is yellow, stained with red
Whose head and neck are big for his body
Whose face expresses great displeasure
Whose eyes are bloodshot
Whose speech is uncouth
Whose gut sloshes when he walks
Whose food has bones in it
Who eats until he’s sick of food
Who looks for trouble in the night
Whose foe is outraged in the dust
Whose prey is turned inside out
Who disregards the rights of others
Who hates frustration
Who doesn’t care what happens
Reminds you of that famous passage in Borges, doesn’t it? Was Ibn Khalawayh, like Borges, writing fiction? Did medieval Arabic really have 400 names for lions?
Here is a recent (and perhaps the only?) translation, by David Larsen:
Files of the lost
When I find something interesting in a magazine, I tear it out, put it in a folder, and file it away for future reference, stuck in one of many bookcases. I then forget where I put it, and even forget that I ever saw it. I find it, years or decades later. Sometimes it is still interesting, and I put it back where it was and forget it again. Sometimes it no longer has relevance, and I throw it out.
This is not age-related. I have been doing it my entire life. It is not senility. It is a cultural trait. Somewhere on earth, I feel, there must be others who behave this way. I hope I can find them someday, and enjoy being one with my own people at last.
New short story, “The First Day of Someone Else’s Life,” now in F&SF
My short story, “The First Day of Someone Else’s Life,” is in the current, May-June 2017, issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, available now.
If it’s not at your bookstore or newsstand yet, you can buy a physical or ebook copy here:
Paper copies and subscriptions: https://www.
Weightless Books: https://
Amazon US (Kindle edition): http://www.amazon.
Amazon UK (Kindle edition): http://www.amazon.
“There’s a certain voice telling me, move on, the next one will be better.”
“Every painting I’ve produced falls short of my expectations. They are my children, but they’re all juvenile delinquents. I’m not proud of them. There’s an expectation in my head when I look at the empty space, and when I start to do the drawing. That’s fine. In the drawing stage, I still have the perfect image in my mind. At around 75% completion, I start to notice the perfect painting I had in my mind turns to disappointment. I just have to quit, and move on to the next one. There’s a certain voice telling me, move on, the next one will be better.”
— Kinuko Craft, in an interview in the April 2017 issue of Locus.