Periphery
Page 25
I gasp. I feel as if my body has turned to ice, and I start shaking. Jill turns to me. “What is it?”
“I know where that clip came from,” I wheeze, waving at the TV. “And I know who Sjorgren is.” I tell Burt and Jill the details of Rena’s gear getting stolen yesterday, of how she was filming Barns fellating a blond man at Barns’s house, of how she struggled in the grass with the unknown thief while her cameras were still filming.
“Barns couldn’t know if she had other footage or who she told, or if she’d ID’ed Sjorgren as his lover. And they were obviously onto her, anyway, being in NDY. Now they don’t have a problem anymore. Two birds with one stone.”
“It’s a hell of a stone,” Jill is still weeping silently.
“Yeah,” I say, thinking of how Rena left, telling me she loved me, and me ignoring her. Thinking of how I had been resenting her freedom, her health: her status as a non-compostable.
“Yeah,” I repeat, my throat constricted, “it’s a hell of a stone.”
*
SW: A few years ago, I got the idea to write my first science fiction story, a humorous piece that satirized the way events, public spaces, and media were being taken over by, and named for, corporations. Specifically, the concept was conceived when my brother told me that The Boston Garden had been renamed The Fleet Center. However, in the course of writing, three changes took place: (1) As often happens in sf the spoof became truth sooner than expected (and I also learned that David Foster Wallace had already used my idea in his book, Infinite Jest). (2) My characters led me down a decidedly unfunny path, i.e., what will happen if legislation and public sentiment continue on their present trajectory, which justifies the killing of people with disabilities? (3) The story kept getting longer, and I realized that Fran demanded a novel. Thus, the short story in this volume is an excerpt of a larger work that I hope one day will become a novel.
The Authors
Marianne de Pierres is the author of the Parrish Plessis series: Nylon Angel, Code Noir and Crash Deluxe. Nylon Angel was short listed for best sfnovel in the 2004 Aurealis Awards, and Crash Deluxe was short listed in 2005. Her short fiction has appeared in various book anthologies and magazines. She has been an active supporter of Australian genre writing and was the co-founder of the VISION writers group, and ROR—wRiters On the Rise—a critiquing workshop for Australian professional genre writers. Her next book is Dark Space, released in 2007. Visit her website at mariannedepierres.com.
Gwyneth Jones is a writer and critic of science fiction and fantasy, who also writes for teenagers using the name Ann Halam. Among other honors, she’s won two World Fantasy awards, the British Science Fiction short story award, the Dracula Society’s Children of the Night award, the P.K. Dick award, and shared the first Tiptree award, in 1992, with Eleanor Arnason. Bold As Love, the first novel of a near future fantasy sequence, won the Arthur C. Clarke award for 2001. She lives in Brighton, UK, with her husband and son, plus two cats called Ginger and Frank, practices yoga, has done some extreme tourism in her time, likes old movies and cooking, and enjoys playing with her websites. Email: gwyneth.jones@ntlworld.com Websites: boldaslove.co.uk and homepage.ntlworld.com/gwynethann.
Kristyn Dunnion is a macho femme with anarcho-punk tendencies. Her collection of linked stories, The Dirt Chronicles, published by Arsenal Pulp Press in 2011, is shortlisted for the Lambda Literary Awards. Her other noteworthy novels include Missing Matthew, a quirky mystery for young rebels, Mosh Pit, a queer-punk love story, and Big Big Sky, a futuristic queer fantasy (all on Red Deer Press). Kristyn lives in Toronto where she gardens ferociously on her balcony. She likes loud music, outlandish footwear, and living la vida vegan. For more details on Kristyn’s published work, please visit www.kristyndunnion.com.
Lyda Morehouse is an award-winning science fiction author who now writes bestselling romances as Tate Hallaway. Lyda tries not to be jealous of her pseudonym’s successes, but given that Tate recently hit the New York Times bestseller list (for, Lyda would point out, a short story included in an anthology with much bigger names editing and contributing), it’s difficult. Lyda would point out that she has won the Philip K. Dick Special Citation for Excellence for her novel Apocalypse Array, but Tate would say that’s just a fancy way of being second place. Lyda has written five novels in the AngeLINK series, including Resurrection Code new from Mad Norwegian Press in 2011. Tate, meanwhile has written five novels in the Garnet Lacey series, three young adult novels in the Vampire Princess of St. Paul series, and is on to a new series that begins with Precinct 13 (forthcoming in August 2012)…so there.
When not arguing with herself, Lyda enjoys the life of a stay-at-home parent to a precocious eight-year-old. Recently, she’s become a huge Anime fangrrl which you can read about in her livejournal: http://lyda222.livejournal.com/. Tate blogs at http://www.tatehallaway.blogspot.com and as a contributor to the Wyrdsmith’s group blog http://wyrdsmiths.blogspot.com. Lyda lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Tracey Shellito has been published in six genres: crime, erotica, speculative fiction, western, supernatural mystery and poetry.
Following the search for The Crème De La Crime competition, Personal Protection, an erotic crime novel featuring lesbian bodyguard Randall McGonagall was published by Crème De La Crime UK. (2005). Also in print are short stories Free in Locked & Loaded published by Torquere Press (2006). She has recently ventured into e-books. Personal Protection, (crime) Red Skin an erotic lesbian cowgirl story (2007) and supernatural mystery story The Scantlebury Demon (2009) are the result. Also from Torquere Press the anthology Working Girls features her story Steel Toed Boots & The Uptown Girl (2009) The Frog Princess: or Sweet Surrender in Khimairal Ink e-zine’s October 2009 edition and Strange Relationship in the Torquere Press anthology Vamps. (2009) And her first nonfiction article in Velvet Magazine’s 5th anniversary edition August 2009 edition about lesbian detective fiction. Lucifer Einstein & the Curious Case of the Carnal Contraption in Cleis Press anthology Carnal Machines: Steampunk Erotica.
She urges you to go out and buy them so she can give up her day job and concentrate on doing what she does best.
Melissa Scott is from Little Rock, Arkansas, and studied history at Harvard College and Brandeis University, where she earned her PhD in the Comparative History program with a dissertation titled “Victory of the Ancients: Tactics, Technology, and the Use of Classical Precedent.” She is the author of more than twenty science fiction and fantasy novels, most with queer themes and characters, and has won Lambda Literary Awards for Trouble and Her Friends, Shadow Man, and Point of Dreams, the last written with her late partner, Lisa A. Barnett. She has also won a Spectrum Award for Shadow Man and again in 2010 for the short story “The Rocky Side of the Sky” (Periphery, Lethe Press) as well as the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. She can be found on LiveJournal at mescott.livejournal.com.
Carolyn Ives Gilman’s latest novel is a two-book series, Isles of the Forsaken and Ison of the Isles, a fantasy about culture clash and revolution in an enchantment-shrouded island nation. Her first novel, Halfway Human, was called “one of the most compelling explorations of gender and power in recent SF” by Locus magazine. Some of her short fiction can be found in Aliens of the Heart and Candle in a Bottle, both from Aqueduct Press, and in Arkfall, from Arc Manor. Her short fiction has appeared in Fantasy and Science Fiction, The Year’s Best Science Fiction, Lightspeed, Phantom Drift, Bending the Landscape, Interzone, Universe, Full Spectrum, Realms of Fantasy, and others. Her work has been translated and reprinted in France, Poland, Russia, Romania, the Czech Republic, Sweden, and Italy. She has been nominated for the Nebula Award three times and for the Hugo once.
In her professional career, Gilman is a historian specializing in 18th-and early 19th-century North American history, particularly frontier and Native history. She is currently working on a history of the American Revolution on the frontier. She has been a guest lecturer at the Library of Congress, Harvard University, and Monticello, an
d has been interviewed on All Things Considered, Talk of the Nation, History Detectives, the History Channel, and countless local and regional television and radio shows. She lives in St. Louis and works for the Missouri History Museum as a historian and curator.
Jean Stewart grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She lives near Seattle with her partner Susie, three badly behaved dogs and a reclusive Maine Coon cat named Emily Dickinson. She has published five books in The Isis Series, and a stand-alone novel, Emerald City Blues. She has had stories published in numerous anthologies. She has been nominated for three Lambda Literary Awards, a Spectrum Gaylactic Award, and was awarded a Goldie by the Golden Crown Literary Society. Her last two books are Wizard of Isis and Winged Isis. Her work is available through Bella Books.
Catherine Lundoff is the award-winning author of the lesbian erotica collections Night’s Kiss (Lethe Press, 2009) and Crave (Lethe Press, 2007) as well as the fantasy collection A Day at the Inn, A Night at the Palace and Other Stories (Lethe Press, 2011). She is also the author of Silver Moon: A Women of Wolf’s Point Novel (Lethe Press, 2012). She is the editor of Haunted Hearths and Sapphic Shades: Lesbian Ghost Stories (Lethe Press, 2008) and the co-editor, with JoSelle Vanderhooft, of the anthology Hellebore and Rue: Tales of Queer Women and Magic (Lethe Press, 2011). In her other lives, she’s a professional computer geek, the spouse of her fabulous wife and an occasional teacher of writing classes at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. Website: www.catherinelundoff.com http://www.catherinelundoff.com.
Victoria Janssen has written novel-length erotica for Harlequin Spice beginning with The Duchess, Her Maid, The Groom and Their Lover, which has been translated into French, German, and Russian. Her second novel, The Moonlight Mistress, features the early days of World War One and werewolves; it has an electronic-only “Spice Briefs” sequel out May 2012 with a cross-dressing heroine, titled “Under Her Uniform.” The Moonlight Mistress was translated into Italian and nominated for an RT Book Reviews Reviewers’ Choice Award. Her most recent novel is The Duke & The Pirate Queen, a sequel to The Duchess, Her Maid, The Groom and Their Lover.
Under her pseudonym, Elspeth Potter, Victoria has sold more than thirty short stories to assorted print anthologies. She’s a regular blogger for both Heroes & Heartbreakers (romance) and The Criminal Element (mystery). Find her on twitter @victoriajanssen or at victoriajanssen.com.
Cecilia Tan is “simply one of the most important writers, editors, and innovators in contemporary American erotic literature,” according to Susie Bright. In 1992 Tan founded Circlet Press, a category-busting independent press that mixes science fiction/fantasy with erotica. She is the author of Black Feathers, White Flames, The Prince’s Boy, Mind Games, Edge Plays, Telepaths Don’t Need Safewords, the Magic University series, and many other books, and her short stories have appeared in Ms. Magazine, Nerve, Best American Erotica, Asimov’s Science Fiction, and tons of other places. She has also edited many erotica anthologies for other publishers including Ravenous Romance, Red Silk, Alyson Books, Masquerade Books, Blue Moon Books, and Thunders Mouth Press. She was inducted into the Saints & Sinners Hall of Fame for GLBT writers in 2010, was a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Leather Association in 2001, and won the inaugural Rose & Bay Awards for crowd-funded fiction in 2010 for Daron’s Guitar Chronicles. She lives in the Boston area with her lifelong partner Corwin and three cats.
Sharon Wachsler lives in rural New England, where she blogs, trains dogs, and flogs a disability rights agenda. She’s the founding editor of Breath & Shadow online literary journal and has received an Astraea award as an emerging fiction writer and two Pushcart nominations for poetry. Sharon’s erotica appears in several dozen publications, including Best American Erotica 2004 and 2005, and most recently in Dormitory Heat, Girl Fever, and Best Lesbian Erotica 2012. She blogs at http://aftergadget.wordpress.com, http://occupyathome.wordpress.com (@occupy_at_home), http://sharonwachsler.blogspot.com, and writes for AbilityMaine.org. Follow Sharon on Twitter at @aftergadget.
About the Editor
Lynne Jamneck is a transplanted South African who lives in Auckland, New Zealand. Shortlisted for the Sir Julius Vogel and Lambda Awards, she has published short fiction in various markets, including Jabberwocky Magazine, H.P. Lovecraft’s Magazine of Horror, Fantastique Unfettered and Spicy Slipstream Stories. She finished her MA in English Literature at the University of Auckland in 2012, and is working on her first speculative novel featuring a lost protagonist and a city of secrets. http://lynnejamneckdiaries.blogspot.co.nz/.