'Nathan Burgoine's Blog, page 49

Short Stories 366:108 — “Finding Parker,” by Doranna Durgin

[image error]Puppies! Puppies in space! Er, ahem. Okay, so this next visit to the interplanetary space-mall where the slogan is “If You Want It, It’s Here!” involves a doggo. And not just any doggo, a doggo who is a darn great sniffer and finder-of-things, Cody, and his handler, Parker Eun Su, who is linked to him with a kind of bio-tech so she can both receive and transmit information to Cody. Now, Cody is an excitable dog, really good at his job, but excitable. So sometimes the feedback is a bit much and Parker has to work hard to make sure Cody’s feelings aren’t overwhelming, but together, they make a great time at returning lost objects to their owners.

What isn’t great is Parker’s boss, nor the organization that makes the tech possible for the Cody-and-Parker team, and the end result is Parker doing her best to protect Cody by maintaining this job as best she can, which is kind of a last-chance posting from her organization. You get the impression Parker has been flying solo a long time before Cody came along, and she and Cody are a team against all odds. So when they end up tracking a scent to a bad part of Plexis, and end up in trouble way over their heads, it might be more than a finder and her doggo can handle, really.

This story from The Clan Chronicles: Tales from Plexis touches a little bit on some isolation and sadness before turning around and delivering the kind of ending I adore most in science fiction, especially when dealing with the cast-offs and the different: with survival and chosen family vibes. It feels like this is the sort of story SF can do so well, what with the admixture of aliens and tech and the like, and Durgin left me with a wee snivel in my heart (and pats for the doggo).

The @BoldStrokeBooks Bookathon!

The Bookathon

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Hello! So, it turns out that the wonderful Bold Strokes Books has gathered a bunch of amazing authors and editors (and also me) together for an online literary festival. You can join us for panels, chats, and readings April 17th to the 19th (that’s tomorrow through the weekend for those of you who, like me, are losing track of days-of-the-week). You do have to register to gain access to the individual panels, and you need to register for each and every one you want to go to. The link is: boldstrokesbooks.com/bookathon.

So what’s going to be happening?

In short? A lot!

The Schedule

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The full descriptions and registration for each panel are at the link above, but you’ll notice little ol’ me at 7:00pm EST on a panel called “The Kids Are Alright.” Ashley Bartlett is going to moderate us through a discussion on YA and new adult fiction; the trends, tropes and trajectories in this ever expanding genre are going to be talked about, along with J. Marshall Freeman, Nan Higgins, and Stevie Mikayne. I can’t wait to hear them be smart and to bumble my way through basic questions. It’s a winning combination, for sure.

More, though, Bold Strokes is also doing a series of flash sales during the event itself, and it’s a bit time-sensitive, so here’s the heads up for those of you interested in queer YA:

The flash sales on ebooks are for each panel during the bookathon. The sales will start ten minutes before a panel ends and run for the next hour. So, the full details about the flash sale for my YA panel are:

Coupon code: KIDS

20% off off YA (no preorders)

Coupon will run on Friday, April 17th from 7:40PM to 9:00PM (EST)

Link to sale books: https://bit.ly/bsbkids

The code is case-sensitive, and there will be other codes for other panels, so register now, and keep an eye out for the details while you’re listening, so you can nab a deal on the titles the authors talk about if you want to check them out.

Short Stories 366:107 — “Cetaceous Secrets of the Jewelled Nadir,” by A.J. Fitzwater

[image error]One of the things I cannot underscore enough about how wonderful The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper is as a whole is how the collection is basically all anthropomorphic queer joy. Now, that isn’t to say there are never stakes, nor that there isn’t growth—and with growth, time passes, and we all know what tends to happen as time passes—but that as a whole the tone is so very warm and snuggly.

When I got to “Cetaceous Secrets” and found the wonderful capybara pirate Cinrak a little less than blazing bright, I had a moment of sadness. Of course things would change, and of course the recent events in Cinrak’s life had been often harder, but I wanted my snuggly warm fuzzy joy back… And I needn’t have worried, because A.J. Fitzwater was totally on the case.

When some of my favourite characters appear and invite Cinrak to visit something truly magnificent in the deep depths of the ocean, the magic that happens isn’t just of the “keep a capybara pirate breathing many, many fathoms down” variety. Instead, we get a look at what it means to have lived enough to know losses and have expectations weighing—even in a world of rodentia seafarers—balanced with the power of restorative compassion from chosen family. And man I loved that.

Also! As always through our trip through this awesome collection, I was lucky enough to get some insight on the origins of this tale from A.J. Fitzwater!

From the author:

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I wanted to mix the real world concept of whale fall with the magic we know Rodentdom’s cetaceans carry. In Search for the Heart of the Ocean, Xolotli presented Cinrak with the compressed heart from a dead whale. This was a chance to show how and where those precious jewels were created. 

I wanted to give Cinrak the opportunity to see her ocean world from a different perspective. It’s a little Pinocchio, but a lot more fun and wise than scary. Xolotli also deserved another outing, because what a scintillating and mysterious character. Plus it was a chance to show more of that beautiful kraken-whale love. 

That feeling of pressure that was growing in Cinrak’s heart in Hirsute came to the fore here. This was a chance to show the interconnectedness of Rodentdom life; what affects one, affects all. The whales wanted to honour Cinrak for her care of the oceans, so they gifted her what is basically a therapist’s room. Things getting a bit too much, pirate frand? Come chill with the whales and let the dead hearts and spleens and stomachs take care of your hurts .

Find The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper at Queen of Swords Press, or Books2Read.

Find A.J. Fitzwater on Twitter, or at pickledthink.blogspot.com.

Short Stories 366:106 — “Discodemius,” by Jerry L. Wheeler

[image error]I’m rounding out my revisit of Strawberries and Other Erotic Fruits from Jerry L. Wheeler this week, with a short story that manages to be funny, bittersweet, a little dark, and ultimately triumphant and romantic all at the same damn time, which should make me jealous and bitter of Jerry’s talent, but instead left me grinning so I forgive him.

It’s a note I keep returning to when I talk about Strawberries, but it’s worth repeating: it’s rare to find a single author with such a variety of voices to share. If you’re a lover of short fiction, or of dark tales such as those of Poe, but also like a good laugh, some touching romance, or just want to read a wide variety of tone in a single collection, then pick up Strawberries. You’ll not regret it.

Make sure you get the revised edition (which has the gorgeous Inkspiral Design and Lammy Finalist for Gay Erotica logo) of this book, which boasts the four new tales, the last of which is “Discodemius.”

NB: Let’s talk “Discodemius.” Definitely a favourite of mine, and it was for a specific call, right?

JLW: I had written an erotic story about an angel for one of Todd Gregory’s anthologies [NB: Wings] and he wanted to do a second volume about demons featuring the same authors [NB: Raising Hell]. When I read the email, I happened to be listening to a reissue of the Rolling Stones’ “Some Girls,” and “Miss You,” their lone disco effort, was playing. The rest, as they say, is history.

NB: Poor Kevin.

JLW: Kevin tries to conjure up Azmodeus but gets a substitute demon instead, finding himself sent back to the Seventies with no money, no friends, and no clothes.

NB: It’s a striking story: it’s funny, but dark, and sexy, then bittersweet, but also it ends on such a romantic and triumphant note. Which is a lot for one story to do so well. I think that’s all on how you wrote Kevin.

JLW: Kevin’s a survivor. He finds an apartment, a boyfriend, and a purpose. But when the demon reappears and restores him to the correct time, Kevin loses everything. Or does he?

NB: You’re doing the movie trailer voice again. Also, this would be great as a movie. Someone get Hollywood on the line.

“Discodemius” also has at its core music and musicality (and sensuality about music) that I really, really loved. I don’t know many writers who can invest musicality into their prose, but Jerry is one of the best at it.

And there you have it. We’ve only talked about the four new stories in the collection, but I hope I’ve teased you enough into checking out the collection. Strawberries and Other Erotic Fruits is a fantastic sum of some really brilliant parts.

You can find Jerry online via Twitter, at his ongoing brilliant review blog Out in Print: Queer Book Reviews, and if you’re in need of a fantastic editor, definitely hit him up over at Write & Shine.

 

Short Stories 366:105 — “The Email Always Pings Twice,” by Greg Herren

[image error]This story plays on your expectations, I think, and that’s the cleverness of it. From Survivor’s Guilt and Other Stories, “The Email Always Pings Twice,” beyond having that smile-inducing title, begins with a woman on the phone to her mother, and her mother talking down to her and being passive aggressive and emotionally manipulative and immediately, there’s such character to the daughter, Emily, in that she wants to stand up for herself, but doesn’t, want’s to diffuse the conflict, but can’t, and eventually manages only to weakly deflect and then hang up. Her mother’s tirade is about Emily moving in too quickly with a man, and Emily is trying to convince her mother that this man is different. But she doesn’t, and she hangs up, and tries to clear her head.

And then her phone and computer ping. It’s an e-mail, and Emily (who we’re starting to see fights the compulsion to handle everything and keep things tidy and caught up) can’t help but check it. Her new boyfriend, Joey, has warned her that he has a bad ex who might reach out, so when she sees an email with the subject line that she doesn’t know who her boyfriend really is, she assumes it’s from her. And then another email arrives, and this time the subject line accuses her boyfriend of murder.

What follows is Emily sleuthing a bit, discovering more than she wanted to know, and then, before she has time to truly think or plan, coming face to face with the boyfriend in question. This isn’t an unusual plot for a thriller—woman discovers her boyfriend isn’t what he seems—but the tension rises bit by bit in Herren’s hands, and while Emily isn’t painted as a strong or secure person, the reader catches glimpses of a woman trying so hard to get her life under her own control, evoking empathy and worry for her survival. And when it all comes to a head? Well. Let’s just say “The Email Always Pings Twice” ends in a very satisfying place.

Short Stories 366:104 — “Listen,” by Karin Tidbeck

[image error]The second of the two reprints in Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction, “Listen” is both haunting and one of the few stories in the collection that left me angry (albeit in a good way, and with the full intent of the narrative, I believe). We meet Mika, a young translator who has—by virtue of his disability—the ability to communicate with a people who speak language in a way that resonates on a spiritual and emotional level before fleeing from the minds of most people, leaving only the vague memory of having been fulfilled, but without any context or information.

The narrative itself, these people who communicate on a fundamentally complete level, the humans they interact with, and Mika in between, able to access both but not quite fitting with either, sets the tone for the story as Mika journeys to a world with unique sonic dynamics, alongside another woman who finds freedom from her own disability within the Low-G environment in the station where Mika lives.

Mika’s position is so tenuous and fragile—if he were to medicate, he’d lose access to his ability to perceive the language he translates—and throughout, he balances himself as best he can, finding his own place and often referring in small ways to the various times his life wasn’t “normal” enough for those around him. It’s a painful read made all the more by the end of the tale, which, as I say, left me angry and frustrated and seeing all too easily the contemporary allegory I’d just read. It’s a harsh way to end the fictions of the collection, but ultimately it holds true to the whole: making our way within and with, rather than despite or outside of.

Short Stories 366:103 — “A Wedding in Hungry Days,” by Nicolette Barischoff

[image error]Years ago, I listened to a novel, Peony in Love, by Lisa See, and it was my introduction to a story that took place (in part) in the Chinese afterlife. I really enjoyed the novel, so when I realized this story from Barischoff was set in the same afterlife, I was quite pleased. It tells a different story, of course, but the foundation of the particular belief system for the afterlife was wonderful to revisit, and tale told here—of a poor dead girl who passed at age four, and her parents trying to marry her (posthumously) to ensure she has a new family (and a new family to pay respects for her and keep her well tended in the afterlife).

What unfolds is a story about a young woman who has grown up mostly while dead, and a young boy who can see into the spirit realm but isn’t often understood otherwise, and the intersection of these two souls, and a melding of their two worlds. It’s beautifully done, and once again, as is often the case with Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History, there’s a sense of triumph and accomplishment born even out of tragic beginnings or downturns of history.

Barischoff’s turn of phrase, and the imagery are both evocative, and it felt very much like walking alongside the spirits to read this story. The speculative side of this tale—that the boy can see into this afterlife, and what that provides him as an opportunity to help—is done with a gentle heart, and quite a bit of empathy. It hasn’t made his life a good one, but there’s an opportunity for this caring little fellow to pass a kindness forward. I loved that.

 

Short Stories 366:102 — “Wild,” by Lesley Nneka Arimah

[image error]This story, from What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky, mothers and daughters (and, wider, culture), and the expectations that come between them. Two cousins, one having moved to America and one who remained in Niger, who haven’t seen each other since they were thirteen, are reunited when the American-living daughter is sent to live with her aunt via a one-way ticket her mother buys in exasperation. Outspoken, willful, and having pushed her mother just a bit too far, she arrives to find not only did her mother pack an entire suitcase of more feminine clothes, but also that her cousin and aunt have a much less loving (and definitely more cruel and bitter) relationship than she was aware.

It doesn’t take long for this story to shift. The two girls are at first fractious, and we learn that despite the mother consistently wishing her daughter were more like this cousin, this cousin is living tightly under the yoke of her own mother, and it’s clear both these daughters are bright, bold women—which is judged as “wild” by their mothers and their societies at large—and the price, and consequences, are high. It’s a rough story, with familial abuse and perhaps hints of darker things as well, but in Arimah’s hands, the tone adjusts just-so to a place of potential strength between the two women, and that moment is just enough.

I’ve been listening to this collection as an audio, and I should note the performer, Adoja Andoh, is blowing away the cadence and emotionality. The shift from willful pride and outrage in the daughter to the growing awareness that she’s not equipped to handle what is being thrown at her (and making some major mistakes) is handled deftly, and the layers her performance brings just adds to the impact.

 

Short Stories 366:101 — “The Stars Do Not Dream,” by Amanda Sun

[image error]I feel like I need to preface my first delve into The Clan Chronicles: Tales from Plexis with a bit of explanation. It’s a shared world anthology all set in Julie E. Czerneda’s Clan Chronicles universe, all taking place in one of the most memorable settings in the series: Plexis (basically a giant shopping mall that used to be a mobile refinery of asteroids). There’s also Czerneda’s story, a new Sira and Morgan tale, woven throughout the other stories, popping in and out between the tales in order. So you get a kind of pass-the-baton relay of tales as Sira and Morgan try to do some simple business on Plexis (which doesn’t go, well, simply), and as they brush by (or run into) other characters or businesses, the other authors spin you a story happening alongside. This is basically my short fiction catnip, is what I’m saying.

Okay! Onward. Amanda Sun opens the first non-Sira and Morgan story with something that is also short fiction catnip for me: a tale of someone who doesn’t fit and stands out despite their best efforts finding their own place by ending up somewhere where so many different people go they no longer stand out. The Turrned’s are an alien species who are devoted to caregiving. It’s part of their nature, built in to the point where their empathy literally projects outwards to other species and makes them feel “warm,” and L’inarx Hoch isn’t at all like the rest of the Turrned. He tries, but a curiosity of his birth has left him physically different and his thoughts are often borderline heretical in the eyes of his people.

What he is good at is food, and crafting meals brings him real joy. When he struggles to fit in with the rest of his missionary group at Plexis, managing to upset the most basic of processes, he’s sent off to hand out tracts and then bumps into an ingredient merchant and… well. It’s the Plexis. “If You Want It, It’s Here!” is literally written on the outside of the place. And maybe there is something L’inarx Hoch wants, despite his whole life having told him the only thing he’s supposed to want is to take care of others in the way they’ve decided is best. The story is cute, and bright, and you just want L’inarx to succeed, even when he bumbles at pretty much anything he’s supposed to be doing. It’s the perfect opener to the anthology, and had me ready for the next interlude and story right off.

 

Short Stories 366:100 — “The Hirsute Pursuit,” by A.J. Fitzwater

[image error]When I first bumped into the character of Cinrak, the capybara pirate in Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space), I was totally delighted. It gave me a sense of “when we last met our heroes” that I love in short fictions, where you feel like there’s a whole world already underway all around the characters, and you’re just along for a short visit.

So, as I’ve mentioned a few times already, I was absolutely freaking joyous to learn about this collection being in the pipeline. Now, since I’ve already reviewed “Search for the Heart of the Ocean” already from before, I’m not going to repeat myself (you can read about it in this post) but since A.J. was kind enough to drop by and speak to me about all the tales in the anthology, here’s the authourly scoop on “Search for the Heart of the Ocean”:

From the Author:

There wasn’t a connected collection yet when I wrote “Heart,” but there were definitely still more Cinrak tales to tell. Let’s show Cinrak’s awkwardness at learning how to be a mentor, getting all Picard around a kid.  Let’s flip up the old tropes of nasty pirates, kraken, and whirlpools. Here’s a crew who love each other dearly, a kraken who thinks she’s human size, and a whirlpool that leads to delight rather than doom.

When I first wrote Benj, I chose a chinchilla because I thought it was cute. I didn’t know chinchillas died from getting wet until one of my beta readers pointed it out! This created some fix up world building in later stories, which turned out brilliantly.  

And Columbia, my glorious, hairy, primping drag queen of a mer. He needs all that hair to keep warm in the depths, and it doesn’t hurt that it makes him look absolutely fabulous. I never played with the idea, but does his glorious voice bring all the sailors to the yard? He’s probably too much of a sensitive soul to hurt anyone, so he’s an expert lip syncher FOR THEIR LIFE.

Now, back to our ongoing Voyages!

The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper goes on a brilliant adventure in “The Hirsute Pursuit,” when the crew head off for a major event that’s as mystical as it is useful—especially in the case of the young cabin-boy we met earlier. There’s a substance coming into play on a particular island, and that substance can—among other things—give him his beard.

Basically, this is a trans cabin-boy chinchilla story (something I never knew I wanted) and I was whole-heartedly on board from the moment the anchor is pulled. More, Fitzwater’s ongoing world-building gets upped to 11 here. Past characters intersect (I have to admit to loving seeing some mild come-uppance here, too). Also, some of the secondary characters get a lot more room here, and I was the happier for it (hello, Agnes!)

The sheer joy of the story—the voyage, the discoveries!—alongside the progression of Cinrak’s role as caretaker and captain is a really clever balance, as Cinrak is feeling the weight of so many things right now. This story feels very much like a turning point in the collection, in all the best ways.

And, again, here’s A.J. to let us in on the origins!

From the author:

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I had the beard first and the title a very close second. Oh, did I have fun with the titles of these stories, adding to that joyous silliness. Can you imagine a fluff boi chinchilla wanting Moar Fluff? His sheer delight, his trans joy, carried the idea of the story until I could figure out the broader connections and world building. 

I wanted to show Cinrak on a parallel growth track. By now she’s got at least a decade of pirating under her bow tie, and those expectations are beginning to weigh heavily. She loves being a ship (house) mother, but without Mereg by her side she needs a bit of help. 

I also really enjoyed showing Agnes being frivolous. She sometimes forgets how big she is when she gets enthusiastic. She’s like a sea-puppy, except with way more legs and a serious unconcern for her eating habits. Go large, Agnes! 

Find The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper at Queen of Swords Press, or Books2Read.

Find A.J. Fitzwater on Twitter, or at pickledthink.blogspot.com.