Lynda E. Rucker's Blog, page 12

We are all in Omelas

Today I’ve been thinking about the classic Ursula K. Le Guin parable, “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas.” If you haven’t read it, it essentially posits a moral dilemma: there are people who live in a utopia–a real one. Imagine, the  narrator tells you, your own idea of utopia, whatever that may be: this is your Omelas, a place where all people genuinely live in a state of bliss.

Except. When they become teenagers, they learn the truth about Omelas. Somewhere hidden away in the city, a child...

Lake Tegel at sunset

Yesterday I set out on a walk through some woods in the northern part of Berlin. Because I get lost very easily, I got turned around (not in the woods, but on the road) and ended up at my intended destination later than I planned, but it turned out for the best, because I was there in time to catch the sunset.

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Then I met this fox! I love foxes. We met eyes for several seconds, but by the time I came to my sense to try and get a photo, he was on the move again. This is the best of a batch of...

Berlin, in the gloaming

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“Different Angels” reprinted at Nightmare Magazine

The first story I ever published, “Different Angels,” has been reprinted over at Nightmare Magazine. I wrote this way back in the halcyon days of the late 1990s–a different world, that was–and it was published by The Third Alternative, the precursor to Black Static, in 1999. I’ve written elsewhere about what TTA Press meant and means to me and how important that first sale was–the first story I sent to Andy Cox!–so I won’t belabor that point here, but I did want to talk a little bit about the...

streets of Neukölln, Berlin

 

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I have not worked out whether I am a day late or 1,000 years too early for this party.

new beginnings

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Hello again, Berlin.

Dorian Gray, Best New Horror, & Black Static

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Now available for pre-order from Swan River Press and due out next month is the anthology The Scarlet Soul: Stories for Dorian Gray, which includes my story “Every Exquisite Thing” and nine other stories by terrific writers. Edited by Mark Valentine, this is another gorgeous production from Swan River Press that you won’t want to miss.

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Also available for pre-order: Best New Horror #28, edited by Stephen Jones, from PS Publishing. This includes my story “Who Is This Who Is Coming?” from my s...

Darker Companions, a Ramsey Campbell tribute anthology

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Darker Companions, a Ramsey Campbell tribute anthology, is out now, from PS Publishing, with cover art by the great JK Potter.

Here’s the glorious lineup:

Introduction: Hymns from the Church in High Street by Scott David Aniolowski  Holoow by Michael Wehunt  The Long Fade into Evening by Steve Rasnic Tem  Asking Price by S.P. Miskowski  Author! Author?  by John Llewellyn Probert  Meriwether by Michael Griffin  The Entertainment Arrives by Alison Littlewood  Premeditation by Marc Laidlaw  A...

after Charlottesville

I’ve read all the reports about how white nationalists came from all over America to the “Unite the Right” rally. I’ve heard the claims that not all these people are Southerners. And it is absolutely true that racism is confined neither to the South nor to the whole of America. The sickness of racism infects people worldwide.

But we cannot ignore the fact that these people — wherever they are from — chose our region and the symbols of the Confederacy as the place to take their stand. Therefor...

more things by me to buy and read

I’ve been traveling around a bit this year and having some adventures and I am trying to force myself to start putting things here on the blog rather than on Facebook, although so far that has (clearly) not been successful, but I’m going to put some travel stuff up soon. In the meantime, here are some things by me that have come out that you can buy!

First up, OUTSIDE is a comic anthology edited by Amir Naaman and Doron Hamburger, produced/designed by Ash Pure, and containing stories and art...