Lynda E. Rucker's Blog, page 11

out with the old

I am one of those people who likes symbolic fresh starts. Yes, I know that the first day of a new year, a new month, a new week is “just another day,” but they don’t feel like that to me. I want lines of demarcation. (Curiously, my own birthday is a nearly meaningless occasion to me.)

So with that in mind, I’m wondering if I could declare today, the half-year mark, as some kind of fresh start, drawing a line under the madness of the first half not because the madness has eased at all but because...

a pandemic update

Spring cleaning (can we call it that if it’s already June?) Shocking, the layer of dust that’s grown around here after just a few months away. Let us briefly acknowledge that the world has been on fire lately and that this is one of several reasons for my lengthy absence from this space. On the plus side, expect to see me around here a lot more.

Stories are still being told! In April, PS Publishing released Apostles of the Weird, edited by S.T. Joshi, which includes my story “This Hollow Thing.”...

“So Much Wine” in SUPERNATURAL TALES #42

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I was remiss in announcing my last publication of 2019, the Christmas ghost story “So Much Wine” in the excellent and underrated publication Supernatural Tales, which has published several of my stories. Get a hard copy or a copy for your Kindle here.

There are three other Christmas ghost stories inside–by Steve Duffy, Helen Grant, and Mark Valentine–as well as some non-seasonal fiction. The full table of contents:

‘The God of Storage Options’ by Steve Duffy

‘Flame Mahogany’ by Jane Jakeman

...

“The Vestige” in NOWHEREVILLE

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The anthology Nowhereville: Weird is Other People is now available to order, containing my story “The Vestige,” a strange tale of a man searching for his cousin in an Eastern European city.  Here’s the full table of contents:

Walk Softly, Softly – Nuzo Onoh

Y – Maura McHugh

Night Doctors – P. Djèli Clark

The Chemical Bride – Evan J. Peterson

Patio Wing Monsters – S.P. Miskowski

Underglaze – Craig Laurance Gidney

The Vestige – Lynda E. Rucker

The Cure – Tariro Ndoro

Kleinsche Fläsche of Four-Dimensional Resonance – D.A. Xiaolin Spires

Nole...

“This Crumbling Pageant” in The Far Tower

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Swan River Press and Mark Valentine have done it again, put together an absolutely gorgeous book with a terrific line-up. The Far Tower: Stories for W.B. Yeats is available now for preorder, shipping in December. It includes my story “This Crumbling Pageant” as part of an excellent table of contents:

 “Introduction”
Mark Valentine

“Under the Frenzy of the Fourteenth Moon”
Ron Weighell

“Daemon Est Deus Inversus”
D. P. Watt

“The Shift...

“the city will live and the Wall will fall”*

Even though I’ve lived in Berlin for more than a year and spent around 2 1/2 months here on two separate occasions before that, I’m often still struck, as though it’s my first day, by how amazing this city’s 20th century history is and how amazing it is to be living here amidst it all, a place that I grew up reading about: the wars, the Berlin Wall. Berlin is a story in my head, and it’s also a real place, and I feel so fortunate to have the opportunity to get to know it even a little bit.

(“...

“Every Exquisite Thing” reprinted at The Dark and other news

My story “Every Exquisite Thing,” which originally appeared in The Scarlet Soul: Stories for Dorian Gray, is available to read for free online at The Dark. The Scarlet Soul was edited by Mark Valentine (a very talented writer in his own right) and published by Swan River Press, but it sold out pretty much immediately on publication, so until now, this has been a rather hard-to-find story of mine!

Also, in July, a new story by me, “The Sideways Lady,” appeared in an anthology for “kids of all...

The Moon Will Look Strange: Deluxe Limited Hardcover

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I’m delighted to announce that the very fine Undertow Publications is releasing a gorgeous limited edition reprint of my first short story collection, The Moon Will Look Strange. There will only be 100 copies. You can take a look at the specifications and preorder here. The amazing Vince Haig is responsible for the beautiful design.

I’m particularly pleased to be first in a line of “Contemporary Classics” released by  Undertow that will include Joel Lane’s The Lost District. I’ve written her...

autumn in Berlin

Thought it would never get here. It finally did, all at once, and everything is golden.

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“the only lasting truth is change”*

“When the generation that survived the war is no longer with us, then we will find out whether we have learned from history.”   -Angela Merkel, 20 July, 2018

I don’t really believe in the progressive theory of history–that is, the idea that human civilization is on an upward arc toward enlightenment. I think there are definitely certain eras and cultures that are better for certain types of people than others, and I am constantly grateful to have been born a woman in the West in the latter ha...