In the September issue of Fantasy Magazine . . .
Flash fiction by Jen Brown (“The Probability of One”) and Samantha Murray (“This Blue World”); short stories by Jennifer Hudak (“The Weight of It All”) and K.S. Walker (“How to Join a Colony of Sea-Folk, or, Other Ways of Knowing”); poetry by Sharang Biswas (“I Kissed a Dragon”) and Angel Leal (“The Hole is the Beginning”); and Part 2 of our interview with the Locus Awards top ten finalists.
I’ve had a Mami Wata story lurking in my bones for a minute. When I started writing I didn’t know this would be the one. though. The first working title was ‘something, something, sea-witch’ actually, and at first I was thinking it would be an Ursula-type figure that the main character beseeched. But as the tone of the story solidified, I realized it needed to be a benevolent figure, and Mami Wata fell into place naturally.
Ostensibly a readers’ poll, the Locus Awards are decided by an open vote: anyone can participate, and there are no requirements, other than the ability to cast the vote. This means these awards potentially reflect the tastes of a broader range of individuals—but presumably still folks who love genre fiction. So, who better to talk about fantasy fiction than the top ten finalists of the Locus Awards in the Best Fantasy Novel category?
Step One: You Wait – You are patient and your love, true. There is nothing you cannot withstand.
You leave while it is still dark. Your lover sleeps on his stomach, the sheet draped only to his waist. You don’t want to go. You want to slide back into bed and listen to him breathing. And for him to make you coffee later, dark and sweet. But you’ve never let anyone haunt you. And you’re not about to start now.
I kissed a dragon once / in a desert hammered flat by stars. / His breath, hot with experience, / scraped / but / / made me feel / vibrant.
This is the second story I’ve written in an attempt to process and understand my eating disorder. The first one, “Getaway,” was written soon after my diagnosis, and it’s pretty grim. It was important to me that “The Weight of It All” end on more of a hopeful note. In that sense, writing this story was very cathartic. It enabled me to look back on the person I was not so long ago, and realize how far I’ve come. It also made me think about what gives me a sense of hope—what makes me see a brighter future for myself.
Elizabeth is the first person to notice I’m inside her. “Tell me how to do it,” she whispers. It’s a shock. No one has spoken to me directly in ages. I’m nothing more than a whisper when I slip beneath her skin. I’m less than a breath. I should be undetectable, but somehow, I’m not. It might have been a relief—to be acknowledged, to be known—except that Elizabeth clings to me with her bony fingers and won’t let me go. I struggle to escape her, but no matter how hard I push, she’s got me trapped inside her body.
Whenever a mother does not have a child / but needs a child, she goes to the hole / and there is always a baby / waiting for her.
In this issue’s short fiction, K.S. Walker takes us on a gorgeous, transformative journey in “How to Join a Colony of Sea-Folk; or, Other Ways of Knowing” and Jennifer Hudak’s “The Weight of it All” explores the substantial through the insubstantial; in flash fiction, Samantha Murray challenges traditional ideas of hauntings in “This Blue World” while Jen Brown’s “The Probability of One” teaches us to speak the language of particles; for poetry, we have “I Kissed a Dragon” by Sharang Biswas and “The Hole is the Beginning” by Angel Leal. Plus part two of our collective interview with Top Ten Finalists from the Locus Awards Best Fantasy Novel category, this round featuring (alphabetically): RykaAoki, FondaLee, NaomiNovik, and C.L.Polk. Enjoy!
Chained doulas pull a child from the womb in low-gravity orbit; a babe of the Many Mouthed Empire, unencumbered by
