Alice Unbound

by Colleen Anderson

  “Lookie, lookie,” says Deuce. “Somebody left the latch off the pigeon coop, let all the birdies out.”

  Eagle drops Lory’s drum case and flies at him, screeching, “I look like a motherplucking pigeon to you, deckshit?”

  I pull him off, calm him down, tell those Hearts to go stack themselves. Eagle’s on edge because he’s afraid the Gryphon won’t show tonight. They’re all afraid. But I keep telling them not to worry. Telling them he’ll be here. I’ve got to believe that. Got to believe it in the deep place where you believe something so hard, you make it come true. After this week, after getting the band back, getting my friends back, I’ve got to believe this more than anything else I ever believed.

  We stash our equipment and join the others inside. For laughs, we stick around for the Hearts set. We laugh. We also keep craning our necks to watch the door, hoping to see the Gryphon’s big rounded shoulders gliding through.

  Dodo sucks back his beer like it’s water in the desert and says, “We’re up next.”

  Eagle looks like he might lose his lunch. “He’s not coming.”

  Lory pats Eagle’s shoulder, worry in her eyes.

  I try to beam belief at them, infect them with my universal yesness. “He’ll be here,” I tell them. “He’ll be here. You’ll see.”

  No chance for a real sound check in Battle of the Wonderbands. A few seconds and a check check check and a couple plugs plugged and that’s all you get. Eagle’s growing restless and Lory’s shoulders are drooping and Dodo’s fiddling with his gear, stalling the moment when we all fail because I couldn’t convince the Gryphon to give us a second chance. Give me a second chance. Give the band one last chance to strike it big like we always deserved.

  Time’s up. The Underland MC comes over the system, face washed blue by the little screen he reads from: “Up next: Gryphon and the Birds! Put your beers down and your hands together. Let’s hear it for Gryphon and the Birds.”

  Smatter of clapping, but mostly a murmur-mumble of locals wondering what the fuck, because nobody’s seen or heard Gryphon and the Birds in over a year. I feel it though, the anticipation. Up on stage you figure out quick how to read a crowd, how to feed it. Every performer worth salt and cuttle knows it’s not about you up on that stage; it’s about them. Every single one of them. Because without you, they’re still waiting, but without them, you’re just a flock of colourful plumage, birds of a feather strumming together on strings tied to sticks in a suburban garage.

  The sound and tech guys decide our warm-up is over. Light blossoms bright, brighter, brightest, a row of white-hot suns rupturing my retinas from above the stage. Hush settles across the crowd the way it does, a Schrödinger’s blanket of anticipation ripe with possibility, ready to cut this way or that, ready to reveal one reality or another. Is the Gryphon out on the floor, waiting in darkness to see whether I’ll make good on my promise this time? Waiting to judge whether we’re worthy? Whether we’re ready? To decide whether this moment is everything, or whether it’s nothing at all?

  I refuse to acknowledge the sense of defeat blistering my back, the eyeballs of my band burning into the flesh of their lead guitarist, who’s led them nowhere but down. I step up to the mike and suck a deep breath, like I always do. I close my eyes, like I never do. Squeeze them tight shut. Grip the neck of my guitar and lift the other arm high, arc it up over my head ready to plunge into that first chord, the chord that sets the set, man. The chord that makes the whole gig cut one way or the other. The chord that, if everything goes right, heralds the entrance of the Gryphon.

  My arm drops. The chord vibrates up past my shoulder, down my ribs, echoes through my hollow bones and shoots out the scruffy ends of my wingtips. The room’s hush swells, swallows me in what-ifs and what-could-bes, everything crowding close the same instant. Everything possible, even – especially – the impossible. I let the note draw on, not wanting to play the next. Not opening my eyes. Not knowing whether the Gryphon has taken his place on stage. Not really wanting to know which way the razor’s slicing, because until it falls one way or the other, everything’s possible, everything exists.

  Under the fading twang I hear Lory’s breath catch. But then she counts it, clicking her sticks against each other for the beat: one, two, three. Dodo jumps in the way he does, and he is on, man. We’ve been practicing so hard this week, we’re all blistered and bloody in every place it counts. Eagle kicks in with a little plucking sequence, something he only does when he’s really happy, when all his stars are aligned and his ships have come in. But still I don’t open my eyes. Not until—

  Music swells in the air. Our music, my music. Fills up all my bones, spills out my chest and into my guitar. And it’s time, man. I feel it. It’s really time. This time is the time, is it. Is now.

  I open my eyes, and we’re golden.

  About the authors

  Colleen Anderson of Vancouver is a writer of fiction and poetry who has been twice nominated for the Aurora Award in poetry, and longlisted for the Stoker Award. As a freelance editor she co-edited Tesseracts Seventeen, and Playground of Lost Toys (Exile Editions) which was nominated for a 2016 Aurora Award, while Alice Unbound: Beyond Wonderland is her first solo anthology. Some of her recent works have appeared in Grievous Angel, Futuristica, Starship Sofa, Transition and Magazine. She is currently working on an alternate history dark fiction novel and a poetry collection. Black Shuck Books, U.K., will publish a collection of her dark fiction in 2018, and she has a poetry chapbook, Ancient Tales, Grand Deaths and Past Lives.

  www.colleenanderson.wordpress.com

  Patrick Bollivar is an air traffic controller living in Vancouver. He has previously published in Pulp Literature Magazine and Tesseracts Nineteen, and will soon be published in the WCSFA fundraising anthology Power: In the Hands of One, In the Hands of Many.

  Mark Charke of Surrey, British Columbia, is an aspiring novelist with over forty-five roleplaying game publications, among them Chronomancer: Time Travel for Everyone, The Complete Guide to Vampires and DragonMech: Steam Warriors. In 2018, he will release his first novel, Blue Water Hero, on Amazon. @markcharke

  Christine Daigle has had short fiction appear in Apex Magazine, Grievous Angel, the Playground of Lost Toys anthology (Exile Editions), and the Street Magick anthology. Her first novel, The Emerald Key, co-authored with Stewart Sternberg, was released in 2015.

  Robert Dawson teaches mathematics at a Nova Scotia university. He has read just about everything that Lewis Carroll (or Charles Dodgson) ever wrote, and once published a paper in the Journal of Recreational Mathematics about one of Dodgson’s probability problems. Robert’s fiction has appeared in Nature Futures, AE, Compostela, Tesseracts Twenty, and many other periodicals and anthologies. Apart from mathematics and SF writing, he enjoys fencing, cycling, and hiking, and volunteers with a Scout troop.

  David Day of Toronto is the author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Decoded: The Full Text of Lewis Carroll’s Novel With It’s Many Hidden Meanings Revealed.* He has written and published fifty books of poetry, history, fantasy, ecology, natural history, mythology and fiction. Day’s books – for both adults and children – have sold over three million copies worldwide and have been translated into twenty languages. * YouTube: David Day Books – Decoding Alice

  www.daviddaybooks.com

  Linda DeMeulemeester of Burnaby, British Columbia, has had her short fiction appear in anthologies with Exile Editions and Tesseracts, and in the magazines and zines Neo-opsis, Twilight Tales and Chizine. Her first children’s book, The Secret of Grim Hill, won the Silver Birch Award and was named one of Canadian Toy Testing Council’s best books. Her spooky middle grade series has been translated into French, Spanish and Korean. Her forthcoming autumn 2018 novel is a tween adventure, The Mystery of Croaker’s Island. www.grimhill.com

  Pat Flewwelling of Oshawa, Ontario, is a part-time writer, part-time editor, part-time publisher, part-time travelling bookseller, and full-time data problem solver at a major tele
communications company. Aside from her seven full-length works, her short works have been included in the anthologies Sirens and Equus and Purgatorium, and in the magazine Pulp Literature. Find out where her Myth Hawker Travelling Bookstore, will appear next at www.mythhawker.ca

  Geoff Gander of South Mountain, Ontario, was heavily involved in the role-playing community prior to writing fiction, and penned many game products. He has been published by ChiZine Publications, Metahuman Press, AE SciFi, Exile Editions, McGraw-Hill and Expeditious Retreat Press. He primarily writes horror, but is willing to give anything a whirl. geoffgander.wordpress.com @GeoffGander

  Cait Gordon is originally from Verdun, Quebec, and has been living in the suburbs of Ottawa since 1998. She is the author of Life in the ’Cosm, a story about a little green guy who’s crushing on the female half of his two-headed colleague. She is currently working on its prequel called The Stealth Lovers, a rom-com military space opera. She worked for over two decades as a technical writer, publishing user guides about everything from software applications to airplane simulators. When she’s not writing, Cait edits manuscripts for indie authors and runs The Spoonie Authors Network, a blog whose contributors are writers with disabilities and/or chronic conditions.

  caitgordon.com @CaitGAuthor

  Costi Gurgu of Toronto has had fiction published in Canada, the United States and Europe. Collectively, his three book and more than fifty stories have won twenty-four awards. His works include the anthologies Ages of Wonder, Tesseracts Seventeen, The Mammoth Book of Dieselpunk, Dark Horizons, Street Magick and Water. His novel RecipeArium was recently released. www.costigurgu.com

  Kate Heartfield of North Gower (Ottawa), Ontario, is a former newspaper editor and columnist. Her first novel, a historical fantasy called Armed in Her Fashion, will be published in 2018, as well as an interactive novel for Choice of Game, inspired by The Canterbury Tales. Her short fiction has appeared in several magazines and anthologies, including Strange Horizons, Escape Pod and Lackington’s. Kate’s story “The Seven O’Clock Man,” published in the Exile anthology Clockwork Canada, was longlisted for the Sunburst Award. Her novella “The Course of True Love” was published in 2016, as part of the collection Monstrous Little Voices: New Tales from Shakespeare’s Fantasy World.

  www.heartfieldfiction.com @kateheartfield

  Elizabeth Hosang of Kanata, Ontario, is a computer engineer who has branched into writing fiction. She has been published in a number of mystery and science fiction anthologies, and was short-listed for the 2017 Arthur Ellis Award for Crime Writing in the Short Story category. A fan of a well-told story in any genre, she especially enjoys mystery, urban fantasy and science fiction.

  facebook.com/eahosang

  Nicole Iversen of Sechelt, British Columbia, sees her first publication in these pages – something Exile Editions is recognized for in their decades-long support of emerging writers. She is currently writing a young adult High Fantasy series, and a short story will appear in the 2018 WCSFA fundraising anthology Power: In the Hands of One, In the Hands of Many.

  www.nicoleiversen.wixsite.com/nicolewriter

  J.Y.T. Kennedy lives in Ardossan, Alberta, and writes eclectically, with an emphasis on speculative fiction and poetry. She has been fond of Lewis Carroll, and has been easily reciting several of his poems since childhood.

  sites.google.com/site/jytkennedy

  Danica Lorer of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, finds adventure and inspiration in fields, forests, riverbanks, cities, and small towns (her name comes from the Slavic word “morning star” for explorers). She is a professional storyteller, freelance writer, face and body painter, poet, and the host of Shaw TV Saskatoon’s literary arts program Lit Happens.

  @DanicaLorer

  Catherine MacLeod of Tatamagouche, Nova Scotia, has published short fiction in Nightmare, Black Static, On Spec, Tor.com, and anthologies including Fearful Symmetries, Playground of Lost Toys (Exile Editions), and Licence Expired: The Unauthorized James Bond. Her short story “Hide and Seek” (from Playground of Lost Toys) won the 2016 inaugural Sunburst Award for Short Story.

  Bruce Meyer of Barrie, Ontario, is the author of some 50-plus books in all genres. He was winner of the Gwendolyn MacEwen Prize for Poetry Award in 2015 and 2016, and received the IP Medal for The Seasons for Best Book of Poems in North America in 2014. He is the editor of Exile Editions’ Cli-Fi: Canadian Tales of Climate Change and That Dammed Beaver: Canadian Humor, Laffs, and Gaffes (both 2017). He was the inaugural Poet Laureate of the City of Barrie, and teaches at Georgian College in Barrie and at Victoria College in the University of Toronto.

  facebook.com/BruceMeyer

  Dominik Parisien of Toronto is the co-editor, with Navah Wolfe, of Robots vs Fairies, and The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales, which won the Shirley Jackson Award and was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the Locus Award. He is also the editor of Clockwork Canada: Steampunk Fiction and the co-editor, with Elsa Sjunneson-Henry, of Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction. His fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared or are forthcoming in The Fiddlehead, Uncanny Magazine, EXILE/ELQ magazine, Augur Magazine, Those Who Make Us: Canadian Creature, Myth, and Monster Stories (anthology, Exile Editions) as well as other publications. www.dominikparisien.wordpress.com @domparisien

  Fiona Plunkett of South Mountain, Ontario (and partner of the co-authored story with Geoff Gander) is an editor, photographer, researcher, and high financier. Born in England and transplanted to Canada’s capital region by her Canadian parents, she has a university degree in History, and a college diploma in Interactive Media Management. In her spare time she drives a hearse, plays the bagpipes, tenor drum, and bass drum, and terrorizes local children on Halloween as The Witch of South Mountain. @FionaTheCarver

  www.beyondtherealm.ca facebook.com/fiona.beyond.the.realm

  Alexandra Renwick grew up Canadian in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Austin, Yorkshire, Copenhagen, and Toronto, but currently spends most of her time in a crumbling historic manor in downtown Ottawa. Her genre-elastic fiction has been translated into nine languages and adapted to the stage. Find her most recent stories in Asimov’s, Interzone, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and in audio at Cabinet of Curiosities.

  www.alexandrarenwick.com

  Andrew Robertson is an award-winning queer writer and journalist from Toronto. He has published articles in Xtra!, fab magazine, ICON, Gasoline, Samaritan Magazine, neksis, and Shameless. His fiction has appeared in literary magazines and quarterlies that include Stitched Smile Publications Magazine Vol 1, Deadman’s Tome, Sirens Call, Undertow, katalogue, Feeling Better Yet?, and in anthologies Gone with the Dead, Group Hex Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, A Tribute Anthology to Deadworld, Cuarenta y Nueve, First Hand Accounts, and Abandon. A lifelong fan of horror, he is the founder and co-host of The Great Lakes Horror Company podcast, official podcast to Library of the Damned, and a member of the Horror Writers’ Association.

  Lisa Smedman of Richmond, British Columbia, is the author of more than twenty books, ranging from science fiction and fantasy novels to non-fiction histories of Vancouver. In 2004, one of her novels made the New York Times best sellers list. She is also the author of dozens of adventures for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing games, and other tabletop RPGs. She worked as a journalist for twenty-five years, and now makes her living teaching video game design and interactive fiction writing at a local college. She has also written three one-act plays, all produced by an amateur Vancouver theater group, and is the author of numerous short stories.

  www.lisasmedman.wix.com/author

  Sara C. Walker of Kawartha Lakes, Ontario, is a writer, editor, and library clerk. She received her first copy of Alice in Wonderland when she was eight years old, a gift from her father, a Yorkshireman. Urban fantasy is her favourite playground, and her novels and shorter works can be found online.

  www.sarawalker.ca

  James Wood of Oakville, Ontario, is a high school English teacher with a passion for gett
ing young men to turn off their video games and pick up a book. He has been published in Burning Water magazine and the anthology Circuits and Slippers.

  @James_N_Wood

  Cover and interior art is by Maeba Scutti (aka Ellerslie) from Rimini, Italy, She is an illustrator, painter, dreamer and poet who has published three books of poetry and had her art appear on the covers of a variety of publications and books. www.shutterstock.com/g/ellerslie

  THOSE WHO MAKE US: CANADIAN CREATURE, MYTH, AND MONSTER STORIES

  EDITED BY KELSI MORRIS AND KAITLIN TREMBLAY

  What resides beneath the blankets of snow, under the ripples of water, within the whispers of the wind, and between the husks of trees all across Canada? Creatures, myths and monsters are everywhere…even if we don’t always see them.

  Canadians from all backgrounds and cultures look to identify with their surroundings through stories. Herein, speculative and literary fiction provides unique takes on what being Canadian is about.

  “Kelsi Morris and Kaitlin Tremblay did not set out to create a traditional anthology of monster stories… This unconventional anthology lives up to the challenge, the stories show tremendous openness and compassion in the face of the world’s darkness, unfairness, and indifference.” —Quill & Quire

  Featuring stories by Helen Marshall, Renée Sarojini Saklikar, Nathan Adler, Kate Story, Braydon Beaulieu, Chadwick Ginther, Dominik Parisien, Stephen Michell, Andrew Wilmot, Rati Mehrotra, Rebecca Schaeffer, Delani Valin, Corey Redekop, Angeline Woon, Michal Wojcik, Andrea Bradley, Andrew F. Sullivan and Alexandra Camille Renwick.

  CLI FI:

  CANADIAN TALES OF CLIMATE CHANGE

  EDITED BY BRUCE MEYER

  In his introduction to this all-original set of (at times barely) futuristic tales, Meyer warns readers, “[The] imaginings of today could well become the cold, hard facts of tomorrow.” Meyer (Testing the Elements) has gathered an eclectic variety of eco-fictions from some of Canada’s top genre writers, each of which, he writes, reminds readers that “the world is speaking to us and that it is our duty, if not a covenant, to listen to what it has to say.” In these pages, scientists work desperately against human ignorance, pockets of civilization fight to balance morality and survival, and corporations cruelly control access to basic needs such as water.…The anthology may be inescapably dark, but it is a necessary read, a clarion call to take action rather than, as a character in Seán Virgo’s “My Atlantis” describes it, “waiting unknowingly for the plague, the hive collapse, the entropic thunderbolt.” Luckily, it’s also vastly entertaining. It appears there’s nothing like catastrophe to bring the best out in authors in describing the worst of humankind. —Publishers Weekly