Though it will take some time, the doctor will eventually persuade Phillip to marry him. They will have no offspring. Phillip will be sad about that even though she will have her career as a ballet dancer. Instead, she will love Pooch's puppies as though they were her own. And the baby will call her Aunt Phillip.
Chloe and Valdoviccini will have a litter of their own and will give up altogether the apartment in the East Village. Strange to say, Pooch will be sad to see it and all the things in it go, though she knows it's for the best.
Pooch will continue with her psychotherapy, taking up where she left off several months ago with the daisies and such. She will never again allow herself to sleep on a doormat, unless of course it might benefit some other creature for her to do so. The psychologist will understand that a good bit of her personality is hereditary, her ancestors having been bred for generations for just such qualities as she possesses. She is, and will remain, basically, as stated in the official publication of the American Kennel Club: “The mild, sweet disposition characteristic of this breed, along with the beauty, intelligence, and aristocratic appearance it makes in the field and in the home, has endeared it both to sportsmen as well as all lovers of a beautiful, active, and rugged outdoor (companion).” But since she is human by now she'll be harder to live with, though there will be more rewards for doing so.
As she grows older Pooch will sing better than ever, and delight the world with her voice and her grace. Also she will continue, as she promised the dying Rosemary, to fight for the rights of all creatures, yet being careful to “not win.” And she will write her opera, titled simply, Rosemary: In Memoriam. The two best arias in it will be “Oh, the Songs of Selves” and “Neither Conqueror nor Conquered; Neither Victory nor Defeat."
And what of the universe in general while “it is being woven out of light and at the speed of light"? One can, without a doubt, assume that its equilibrium is interconnected with all other manifestations, even as Marcus Aurelius said long ago. It is, in short, harmonious with itself. (Which is how Pooch is, as well as Bert, and how the baby grows up to be also.) And whatever it may be (which can be argued by the experts for a long time) or may come to be, it is recreating itself every fraction of a second, even as you and I. Of that we can be sure, despite appearances to the contrary.
"In the realm of light there is no time.” That is said nowadays by the most modern of the physicists. If that is true, then that is how it is with Pooch and with Carmen and with all the others.
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Carol Emshwiller grew up in Michigan and France. She is the author of the novels Ledoyt, Leaping Man Hill, The Mount (winner of the Philip K. Dick Award), and Mr. Boots, and four collections of short fiction, The Start of the End of it All (winner of the World Fantasy Award), Joy in Our Cause, Verging on the Pertinent and Report to the Men's Club. Carol splits her time between New York City, where she teaches fiction writing at the New School, and Bishop, CA.
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Small Beer Press
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Carol Emshwiller, The Mount (1931520038) $16
"Best of the Year"—Book Magazine, Locus, San Francisco Chronicle
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"Brilliantly conceived and painfully acute ... deserves to be read and cherished as a fundamental fable for our material-minded times."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
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Carol Emshwiller, Report to the Men's Club (193152002x) $16
"A daring, eccentric, and welcome observer of darkly human ways emerges from these nineteen motley tales."—Kirkus Reviews
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Angélica Gorodischer, Kalpa Imperial, a novel (1931520054) $16
translated by Ursula K. Le Guin
"The dreamy, ancient voice is not unlike Le Guin's, and this collection should appeal to her fans as well as to those of literary fantasy and Latin American fiction."—Library Journal
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Kelly Link, Stranger Things Happen (1931520003) $16
A Village Voice Favorite Book
A Salon Book of the Year—
"Dazzling, funny, scary, and sexy"—Karen Joy Fowler, The Jane Austen Book Club
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Kelly Link, editor, Trampoline: an anthology (1931520046) $17
Twenty astounding stories by Carol Emshwiller, Jeffrey Ford, Karen Joy Fowler, Maureen McHugh, & others.
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"No unblinkered, gloveless reader can resist the stream of associations unleashed by ... Trampoline: influences as disparate as science fiction, magic realism, pulp, and Twilight Zone morality plays."
—Village Voice
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Jennifer Stevenson, Trash Sex Magic (1931520127) $16
"At once sexy, beautifully written and passing strange."—Publishers Weekly
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"This just absolutely rocks. It's lyrical, it's weird and it's sexy in a very funky way."
—Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler's Wife
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Sean Stewart, Perfect Circle (1931520119) $15
"All-around terrific."—Booklist (starred review)
"Stephen King meets Ibsen. Trust me."—Neal Stephenson, The Confusion
Ray Vukcevich, Meet Me in the Moon Room (1931520011) $16
"A master of the last line.... Often it's a perfect line of dialogue that opens up the whole story.... Vukcevich is ingenious with the short-story form."—Review of Contemporary Fiction
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Also from Small Beer Press
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Peapod Classics Reprint Line
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Naomi Mitchison, Travel Light July 2005 (1931520143) $14
Halla is turned out of her father's castle by her new stepmother. Her nurse, who goes with Halla, transforms herself into a bear to look after her ward. This is just the first of the wondrous and natural changes in this magical novel.
Praise for Naomi Mitchison:
"Breathes life into such perennial themes as courage, forgiveness, the search for meaning, and self-sacrifice."—Publishers Weekly
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"One of the great subversive thinkers and peaceable transgressors of the twentieth century."—Ursula K. Le Guin, author of Gifts
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Sean Stewart, Mockingbird August 2005 (1931520097) $14
Sean Stewart, The Night Watch November 2005 (1931520100) $16
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Small Beer Press Chapbook Series
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Theodora Goss, The Rose in Twelve Petals
Richard Butner, Horses Blow Up Dog City
Christopher Rowe, Bittersweet Creek
Ben Rosenbaum, Other Cities
Mark Rich, Foreigners and Other Faces
Judith Berman, Lord Stink and Other Stories
Alex Irvine, Rosetti Song: Four Stories
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Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet
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"tiny, but celebrated"—The Washington Post
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A twice-yearly fiction &c zine edited by Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant publishing writers such as Carol Emshwiller, Karen Joy Fowler, Jeffrey Ford, Eliot Fintushel, James Sallis, Molly Gloss, and many others. Fiction and nonfiction from LCRW has been reprinted in The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror, The Best of the Rest, and The Zine Yearbook.
Many subscription options (including chocolate) available on our website.
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www.smallbeerpress.com
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Visit www.lcrw.net for information on additional titles by this and other authors.
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