At BOOK RIOT, Margaret Kingsbury declares Ellen Klages’ WICKED WONDERS a must-read.

I love science fiction and fantasy short stories, and the description for this one looks right up my alley. It has stories about fairy tales, fae, spaceships, and one that takes place in a London boarding house (okay, maybe not SF related, but I do love the British boarding house ambiance). On top of that, some of my favorite short story authors have praised the collection, like Charlie Jane Anders, Nancy Kress, and Nalo Hopkinson. I managed to grab an ARC, so I’ll be reading it soon.

TOR.COM highlights the collection in All the New Genre-Bending Books Coming Out in May.

The award-winning author of THE GREEN GLASS returns with smart and subversive new tales. A rebellious child identifies with wicked Maleficent instead of Sleeping Beauty. Best friends Anna and Corry share one last morning on Earth. A solitary woman inherits a penny arcade haunted by a beautiful stranger. A prep-school student requires more than luck when playing dice with a faerie. Ladies who lunch—dividing one last bite of dessert—delve into new dimensions of quantum politeness. Whether on a habitat on Mars or in a boardinghouse in London, discover Ellen Klages’ wicked, wondrous adventures full of wit, empathy, and courage.

BOOKS BONES & BUFFY is looking forward to the book.

The first of two short story collections I have planned this month, I’ve heard good things about Klages, and I’m looking forward to checking her out.

Photo: Scott R. Kline

The May 2017 issues of LOCUS features an interview with Ellen Klages.

‘‘We looked up Tor.com, and I think their submission
requirements were something like, absolutely
nothing over 17,500 words unless you’ve won the
Nobel Prize. By that point the thing was 35,000
words. We sent it to Patrick Nielsen Hayden and said,
‘We really have looked at your submission requirements
and it’s more than twice as long as anything
you’re willing to accept, and we know this, but if
you want to take a look at it?’ Patrick wrote back
and said, ‘You and Andy Duncan? I’ll take a look
at it.’ People said Tor.com took anywhere between
six weeks and six months to respond. Andy sent off
an e-mail to Patrick saying, ‘Patrick, it’s been three
weeks, have you had a chance to look at it?’ He got
back to us the next day and said, ‘OK, we’ll buy it.’
He wanted two sentences changed slightly, and one
word changed, out of the 35,000-word story, and
then it came out in October 2013 online at Tor.com. 

‘‘It got nominated for the Nebula, the Hugo, the
World Fantasy, and the Locus Award. Neither Andy
nor I had ever done a hat trick before. We’d never
written a story that got that kind of attention. When
it got nominated for a Hugo, some fanboys came
out and said, ‘This has trashed the Hugo, and the
Hugo is a worthless award if something like this
can be nominated. It’s not science fiction or fantasy.’
Well, yeah, but you have to know about the history
of fantasy in the 20th century to understand Tarzan,
and you have to know about the history of science
fiction in the 20th-century in order to understand
monster movies. And there are monsters – they’re
just not the things with claws. 

‘‘I wrote PASSING STRANGE because Jonathan
Strahan came to me and said, ‘I’m acquiring for
Tor.com’s new novella line. Do you want to write
one?’ I said, ‘I literally have not written anything in
about two years.’ I had three stories that came out in
2014, but I had written them before my back went
out. Still, I said ‘Sure,’ because I kind of needed a
reason to live, and I didn’t want to disappear from
the SF world without a trace. In 2014, my name and
Andy’s name were on everybody’s list of everything
for the year – it wasn’t like anybody was going to
forget about us that year. But karma has no shelf life. 

‘‘Jonathan said, ‘I need a proposal.’ I said, ‘What
do you mean? It’s a short story. You want me to know
what the story’s about before I write it?’ I don’t do
that. I get ideas, but they’re just inklings that may
or may not pan out as the story emerges. But I made
up a proposal. I didn’t know if I could write. I didn’t
even know if I could sit, much less type and think
and have a brain. It was a risk. I didn’t know if I was
going to be able to finish it, and I didn’t know if I
did finish it, if I was gonna be writing to the best of
my ability. But I said yes anyway. 

‘‘I said yes, and then I thought, what did I want
to write a novella about? Hmmm. There’s the San
Francisco story, which I started writing in 1977, at
this point 40 years ago. I was 23, and had just gotten
out of college and moved to San Francisco. I was
from Columbus OH, a city that has history, but not
a very interesting one – sorry, Columbus. My aunt
and uncle lived in Mill Valley CA when I was a kid,
so we came out and visited a few times. I remember
being 12 and saying to my mother, ‘When I’m a
grown up, I’m going to move to San Francisco.’ She
said, ‘That’s nice dear.’ When I got out of college,
I had a degree in philosophy, which is not exactly a
commercial degree. My mother said, ‘What are you
going to do with your life?’ I said, ‘I’m going to move
to San Francisco.’ She said, ‘Well, that’s sudden.’ I
said, ‘No, I told you ten years ago.’ She said, ‘You
were 12. You didn’t know.’ San Francisco? Columbus
OH? Really, a no-brainer.

For more info on WICKED WONDERS, visit the Tachyon page.

Cover design by Elizabeth Story