Coming Spring 2018: THE FREEZE FRAME REVOLUTION by Peter Watts
While we can’t quite reveal the hush-hush details yet behind Peter Watts’ new novel THE FREEZE FRAME REVOLUTION, we can share the amazing cover by Tachyon lead designer Elizabeth Story.
elizabeth story
Jane Yolen’s THE EMERALD CIRCUS leaves the audience spellbound
Jane Yolen’s perfectly crafted prose in THE EMERALD CIRCUS bedazzles and fascinates.
Photo: Jason Stemple
Meagan Logsdon, in FOREWORD REVIEWS, garnishes the outing with a starred review.
THE EMERALD CIRCUS is a moving collection of stories that conveys timeless truths as it affectionately plays with traditional tales.
Jane Yolen’s latest collection is a wonderful menagerie of twists on classic fairy tales, legends, and the lives of literary figures. These stories parade beneath a circus tent knit by the underlying theme of the power of art.
<snip>
The prose never fails to entrance, and the creativity on display impresses. There is an obvious depth of research and care, particularly evident in “The Jewel in the Toad Queen’s Crown,” a tale centering on Disraeli, the intriguing Jewish-turned-Anglican prime minister of Victoria’s England on two separate occasions. Notes in the back on each individual story offer a peek into the mind of the writer and give context for Yolen’s inspiration. These are interspersed with a few of her own poems, which are warm and inviting.
The Emerald Circus dances at the border between bucking tradition and paying homage to the great stories and figures of ages past. The result is a brilliant assemblage of narratives with the potential to leave an audience spellbound.
FANTASY LITERATURE offers two reviews of the collection.
Tadiana Jones says:
Under the big top of THE EMERALD CIRCUS (2017) is a fantastical assemblage of sixteen short stories and novelettes by Jane Yolen. Historical figures like Emily Dickinson, Benjamin Disraeli, Hans Christian Andersen and Edgar Allen Poe enter the three rings and shed their normal identities, dancing across the high wires and peering into tigers’ mouths. In this circus’ House of Mirrors we also see unexpectedly twisted reflections of fictional characters like Alice in Wonderland (who makes an appearance here in two very different Yolen tales), Merlin, and Dorothy Gale. A few fairy tale characters ― the Snow Queen, Beauty and the Beast, Red Riding Hood and the wolf ― round out the performers in this entrancing circus.
<snip>
THE EMERALD CIRCUS is a circus worth visiting and revisiting from time to time.
Jana Nyman:
Your mileage may vary on the author’s notes for each story; I generally find insight into an author’s creative process to be fascinating, and that was certainly the case in The Emerald Circus. Yolen writes honestly about her difficulties in finishing projects or meeting deadlines, as well as her own insecurities and triumphs. The blank- and free verse poems provided an additional level of insight into how Yolen considers her characters from multiple angles.
All in all, THE EMERALD CIRCUS was fascinating and enjoyable, and there are certainly a few stories that I’ll be coming back to again and again.
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL includes the collection among Best Adult Books 4 Teens 2017.
Tackling everything from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to the real magic behind Hans Christian Andersen and Emily Dickinson, Yolen reimagines folktales, legends, literature, and history with these 16 dazzling fantastic stories. The immensely talented author refreshingly blends feminist politics, perfectly crafted prose, and a childlike sense of the magic of reality.
On POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR, A podcast from NPR, praises THE EMERALD CIRCUS (at about 18:52).
People who love
fairy tales and mythic stories but love it even more when a certain
amount of analytical intellect is apply to them are really going to
enjoy this book.
For more info on THE EMERALD CIRCUS, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover design by Elizabeth Story
Meet the pioneering Cory Doctorow
Photo by Jonathan Worth, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0
Spend the afternoon of Monday, December 4 with the extraordinary Cory Doctorow at Kitchener Public Library Central Library.
December 4
3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Kitchener Public Library
Central Library
85 Queen St. N
Kitchener
Canada
Free event but registration is required.
For more info on CONTENT: SELECTED ESSAYS ON TECHNOLOGY, CREATIVITY, COPYRIGHT, AND THE FUTURE OF THE FUTURE, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover design by Ann Monn
For more info on CONTEXT: FURTHER SELECTED ESSAYS ON PRODUCTIVITY, CREATIVITY, PARENTING, AND POLITICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover design by Elizabeth Story
Tachyon tidbits featuring Lisa Goldstein, Nalo Hopkinson, Ellen Klages, and Peter S. Beagle
The latest reviews and mentions of Tachyon titles and authors from around the web.
Lisa Goldstein (photo: Doug Asherman), Nalo Hopkinson (David Findley), Ellen Klages (Scott R. Kline) and Peter S. Beagle (Rina Weisman)
As part of WORLD WEAVER PRESS’ Small Press Week, K. Bird Lincoln recommends Lisa Goldstein’s THE UNCERTAIN PLACES.
I also dug THE UNCERTAIN PLACES by Lisa Goldstein from Tachyon Publications. No surprise I enjoyed this take on the “kidnapped by faeries” trope, it won the Mythopoeic Award in 2012. Fantasy always pleases me when it uses the fantastic to explore human feelings and relationships and this book does that with a young man getting involved with two sisters.
The class “Black and Brown Future,” a part of The University of Texas at San Antonio Honors College for Spring, 2018, will use Nalo Hopkinson’s FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS.
HON 3233.004 Black and Brown Futures, MW 2:30-3:45p (K. Brooks)
This course will center on reading and analyzing materials that highlight the themes of race and genre fiction (i.e. science fiction/fantasy/horror). This course will feature the following texts:
Salsa Nocturna, Daniel Jose Older
Certain Dark Things, Silvia Morena Garcia
The Fifth Season, NK Jemisin
The Ballad of Black Tom, Victor LaValle
FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS, Nalo Hopkinson
Mama Day, Gloria Naylor
Get Out (2017), dir. Jordan Peele
Attack the Block (2011), dir. Joe Cornish
Wake (2010), dir. Bree Newsome
Dumplings (2004), dir. Fruit Chan
Fran Wilde for TOR.COM includes Ellen Klages’ PASSING STRANGE and WICKED WONDERS in “Fantasy Books Where Magic Turns Out to Be Math.”
More recent fiction uses math magic for other purposes, including Ellen Klages’ PASSING STRANGE (Tor.com, 2017) and “Caligo Lane,” a short story found in WICKED WONDERS (Tachyon, 2017). In both, math is an active ingredient in Franny Travers’ cartographic witchery. The 1940s-era San Franciscan uses this to save and transport people, both across town and away from desperate times in 1940s Europe.
At CATHOLIC SENTINEL, Brett Robinson mentions Peter S. Beagle in “Searches beyond Google’s capabilities.”
I can remember my own mother coming into my room in our suburban Pittsburgh home in the mid-1980s with a copy of “The Hobbit” in her hand. She read a line from the foreword where a reviewer recounted coming across the book in the stacks of the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh – our hometown library.
My mother was very good at teaching me to read the subtle signs of providence, and she got me very excited that this book that had been so magical for the reviewer was rediscovered in our library. I felt a little like Bilbo receiving the ancient map from the dwarves.
The reviewer, Peter Beagle, a fantasy writer himself, wondered why the book was enjoying such a resurgence in the 1960s. He wrote:
“They were the years when millions of people grew aware that the industrial society had become paradoxically unlivable, incalculably immoral and ultimately deadly. In terms of passwords, the ‘60s were the time when the word ‘progress’ lost its ancient holiness, and ‘escape’ stopped being comically obscene. The impulse is being called reactionary now, but lovers of Middle-earth want to go there. ”
For more info on THE UNCERTAIN PLACES, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover by Ann Monn
For more information on FALLING IN LOVE WITH HOMINIDS, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover art by Chuma Hill
Design by Elizabeth Story
For more info on WICKED WONDERS, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover design by Elizabeth Story
For a limited time, get a selection of SIGNED books from Tachyon
From Jacob’s many travels and authors stopping by the offices, we have a large selection of signed books.
As with our entire catalog, these books are part of our holiday sale.
From now until Wednesday, December 13
- 10% off on all orders of $25 or more (use the coupon code HAPPY10)
- Free Media Mail shipping on all orders for U.S. customers
SIX MONTHS, THREE DAYS (limited edition) by Charlie Jane Anders
THE GREAT BAZAAR & BRAYAN’S GOLD by Peter V. Brett
LOVECRAFT’S MONSTERS edited by Ellen Datlow
THE VERY BEST OF CHARLES DE LINT
CONTEXT by Cory Doctorow
WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY FINE by Daryl Gregory
WICKED WONDERS by Ellen Klages
THE APES OF WRATH edited by Richard Klaw (includes signatures by Klaw and contributors Joe R. Lansdale, Scott Cupp, Jess Nevins, and Mark Finn)
HAP AND LEONARD: BLOOD AND LEMONADE by Joe R. Lansdale
WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD by Patricia A. McKillip
THE STRESS OF HER REGARD by Tim Powers
NOT SO MUCH SAID THE CAT by Michael Swanwick
Plus the previously announced Peter S. Beagle signed books
10% off only applies to orders of $25.00 or more
Sale ends Wednesday, December 13, at 11:59PM PST.
Free shipping via USPS Media Mail within the United States (except Alaska and Hawaii). No minimum purchase required.
Please email for other shipping options
For more info on WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover by Thomas Canty
For more info on THE VERY BEST OF TAD WILLIAMS, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover by Kerem Beyit.
Design by Elizabeth Story
For more info about HAP AND LEONARD: BLOOD AND LEMONADE, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover by Elizabeth Story
For more info on THE APES OF WRATH, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover by Alex Solis
Design by Elizabeth Story
For more info on WICKED WONDERS, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover design by Elizabeth Story
For more info about LOVECRAFT’S MONSTERS, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover by John Coulthart
For more info about THE GREAT BAZAAR & BRAYAN’S GOLD, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover design by Elizabeth Story
For more info on SIX MONTHS, THREE DAYS, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover design by Elizabeth Story
For more info on NOT SO MUCH, SAID THE CAT, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover design by Elizabeth Story
For more info on THE STRESS OF HER REGARD, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover by Ann Monn
For info on WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY FINE, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover design by Elizabeth Story
For more info on CONTEXT: FURTHER SELECTED ESSAYS ON PRODUCTIVITY, CREATIVITY, PARENTING, AND POLITICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover design by Elizabeth Story
For more information about THE VERY BEST OF CHARLES DE LINT, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover by Charles Vess
Fantastical THE OVERNEATH is a beautiful introduction to Peter S. Beagle
Even more praise for Peter S. Beagle’s THE OVERNEATH.
Photo: Rina Weisman
For WASHINGTON INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF BOOKS, Katy Bowman praises the collection.
A woman unintentionally introduces an evil spirit into her fish tank. A boy rescues a karkadann — a vicious, unicorn-like creature that is “ugly as fried sin”— and cares for it, not minding its reputation as a cold-blooded killer. A man experiments with electromagnetism and awakens voices he can’t silence.
These are the protagonists of THE OVERNEATH, Peter S. Beagle’s latest collection of short stories. Beagle, a much-lauded veteran of the fantasy and science fiction worlds, has created here an assortment of tales centered on ordinary, if flawed, people who don’t always think through to the consequences of their actions. They stumble through these pages with all the grace of a rhinoceros, creating messes as they go and doing their best to clean up after themselves.
<snip>
Most of the stories are unconnected. Two, however, revisit Schmendrick the Magician, a character from The Last Unicorn. We learn about his origins and training in “The Green-Eyed Boy,” and then about one of his early encounters as a magician in “Schmendrick Alone.”
Schmendrick is perhaps Beagle’s quintessential protagonist. He is talented almost beyond measure, always well-meaning, but not particularly bright. He doesn’t have good judgment and thereby creates unintended problems that he must then solve. It’s hard not to like him, though, and I found myself cringing for him as the problems became larger and the consequences increasingly dire.
I loved these stories because they are, above all else, human. Their magic does not lie in the fantastical settings and situations, but in the essential human truths they reveal. They deal with our obsessions, our well-meaning mistakes, and the choices we must make when our hearts and our minds are conflicted. Beagle’s characters must face the consequences of their decisions, and just like the rest of us, they either do their best to clean up the mess or learn to embrace it.
Patrick Rothfuss on OMNIVORACIOUS, The Amazon Book Review, includes the book among his favorite reads of 2017.
I was lucky enough to get an advance reading copy of this book a month ago, and reading it reminded me why Peter S Beagle is one of my favorite authors. His prose is so lovely and easy to read. He’s one of the first books I recommend to anyone.
BLUE BOOK BALLOON enjoys their first Peter S. Beagle experience.
I’m ashamed to say that I hadn’t previously read Beagle but, on the evidence of this book, there is a great range and variety of his work to explore.
There are thirteen stories here, including The Way It Works Out And All. Each is briefly introduced by Beagle. Thus, for example, he informs the reader who hasn’t yet encountered Schmendrick the Magician, one of Beagle’s most popular characters, of his place in the wider canon before, in The Green-Eyed Boy, we read his “origin story”. Schmendrick is apprenticed at an early age to a magician who takes him on almost, it seems, to prove his father wrong to dismiss him. It seems to be a rocky start to an illustrious career, with many mistakes. Part comedic, part fond, the story looks at a boy on the cusp of growing up, and at what that might mean when he has powerful, if ill-controlled, magical abilities.
<snip>
The final story, Olmert Dapper’s Day, stands out slightly as it is, while still fantastical, a historical tale, set mainly in New England and based on an actual recorded sighting of a unicorn by Dr Olfert Dapper in 1673. How cool is that? We want to know, however, who Dapper was, how he came to be in Maine, what became of him – and how he met a unicorn. Beagle sets out to answer these questions in what is a beautiful little tale.
Altogether an exceptional collection, a beautiful introduction, as I’ve said, to Beagle’s writing.
For more info on THE OVERNEATH, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover design by Elizabeth Story
Meet Hugo Award winner Brandon Sanderson
Brandon Sanderson signing at Utopiales 2010 (Credit: Ceridwen via Wikimedia Commons)
Brandon Sanderson, author of THE EMPEROR’S SOUL, will be celebrating his new novel OATHBRINGER, the third in the Stormlight Archive series throughout the UK.
Wednesday, November 29 12:30pm Waterstones Birmingham.
Wednesday, November 29 6:30pm – Waterstones Liverpool EVENT IS SOLD OUT
Friday December 1 12:30pm – Waterstones Leeds
Friday December 1 6:30pm – Blackwell’s Newcastle and the Newcastle Centre for the Literary Arts
Saturday December 2 12:30pm – Waterstones Edinburgh
Saturday December 2 6:30pm – Boyd Orr Lecture Theatre 1, University of Glasgow
For more on THE EMPEROR’S SOUL, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover art by Alexander Nanitchkov
Design by Elizabeth Story
Get a quartet of acclaimed, award-winning Tachyon titles for $1.99 each
As part of their Cyber Monday Gold Box promotion (11/27), Amazon is offering Peter S. Beagle’s bewitching IN CALABRIA, Daryl Gregory’s sublime WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY FINE, Patricia A. McKillip’s enchanting DREAMS OF DISTANT SHORES, and Lavie Tidhar’s fascinating CENTRAL STATION for $1.99 each.
For today only, the each ebook is available for just $1.99!
IN CALABRIA
by Peter S. Beagle
- A Top 10 Publishers Weekly Spring 2017 Featured Title
- A Kirkus February’s Must-Read Science Fiction and Fantasy Title
- A Barnes and Noble Bookseller’s Pick: Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Books
From the acclaimed author of THE LAST UNICORN comes a new, exquisitely-told fable for the modern age.
Beagle’s kindly fable shows how a man who seems to have nothing can really have everything—with just a touch of magic.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Claudio Bianchi has lived alone for many years on a hillside in Southern Italy’s scenic Calabria. Set in his ways and suspicious of outsiders, Claudio has always resisted change, preferring farming and writing poetry to the company of others. But one chilly morning, an impossible visitor appears at the farm. When Claudio comes to her aid, an act of kindness throws his world into chaos. Suddenly he must stave off inquisitive onlookers, invasive media, and even more sinister influences.
“A novella about love in a world of hardship, loss, magic, and recovery. Beagle’s unicorns have never been more bewitching, impossible, and genuine. I cherished every page.”
—Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked and After Alice
Lyrical, gripping, and wise, In Calabria confirms Peter S. Beagle’s continuing legacy as one of fantasy’s most legendary authors.
WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY FINE
by Daryl Gregory
- World Fantasy Award Winner
- Shirley Jackson Award Winner
- Nebula Award Nominee
- Locus Award Nominee
- Theodore Sturgeon Award Nominee
- BookRiot 100 MUST-READ INDIE PRESS BOOKS
- Selected as the Horror After Dark Top Horror Read for 2014
“Daryl Gregory’s We Are All Completely Fine is bitchin’ fun and as wicked and strange as a motorcycle leap through a ring of fire without your pants on. Loved it.”
—Joe R. Lansdale, author of Cold in July and the Hap and Leonard series
Harrison was the Monster Detective, a storybook hero. Now he’s in his mid-thirties and spends most of his time popping pills and not sleeping. Stan became a minor celebrity after being partially eaten by cannibals. Barbara is haunted by unreadable messages carved upon her bones. Greta may or may not be a mass-murdering arsonist. Martin never takes off his sunglasses. Never. No one believes the extent of their horrific tales, not until they are sought out by psychotherapist Dr. Jan Sayer. What happens when these seemingly-insane outcasts form a support group? Together they must discover which monsters they face are within—and which are lurking in plain sight.
“[STARRED REVIEW] This complex novel—scathingly funny, horrific yet oddly inspiring—constructs a seductive puzzle from torn identities, focusing on both the value and peril of fear. When enigmatic Dr. Jan Sayer gathers survivors of supernatural violence for therapy, she unwittingly unlocks evil from the prison of consciousness. Harrison, a cynical monster-hunter, wallows in lethargy. Suicidal Barbara burns to read the secret messages inscribed on her bones. Cantankerous Stan is the lone survivor of a cannibal feast. After paranoid Martin sees slithery spirits lingering around volatile Greta, a powerful young woman decorated with mystically charged scars, ancient evils usher the rag-tag survivors to a battle with the Hidden Ones, exiled deities trapped in prisons of flesh. Gregory’s beautiful imagery and metaphors bring bittersweet intimacy and tenderness to the primal wonder of star-lit legends. Isolated people, both victims and victimizers, are ghosts in a waking world, blind to their encounters with living nightmares. Blending the stark realism of pain and isolation with the liberating force of the fantastic, Gregory (Afterparty) makes it easy to believe that the world is an illusion, behind which lurks an alternative truth—dark, degenerate, and sublime.”
—Publishers Weekly
DREAMS OF DISTANT SHORES
by Patricia A. McKillip
- 2017 Endeavor Award winner
- An Overdrive Recommended Book
- 2016 Locus Recommended Reading List
- A Barnes & Noble Blog Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Collections and Anthologies of 2016
Featuring three brand-new stories and an original introduction by Peter S. Beagle, author of THE LAST UNICORN.
Fans of exquisite prose and ethereal fantasy will need to own this.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Bestselling author Patricia A. McKillip (THE FORGOTTEN BEASTS OF ELD) is one of the most lyrical writers gracing the fantasy genre. With the debut of her newest work, DREAMS OF DISTANT SHORES is a true ode to her many talents. Within these pages you will find a youthful artist possessed by both his painting and his muse and seductive travelers from the sea enrapturing distant lovers. The statue of a mermaid comes suddenly to life, and two friends are transfixed by a haunted estate.
McKillip (WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD) once more enchants with this volume, which fantasy readers will devour as they are transported into multiple realities.”
—Library Journal
Fans of McKillip’s ethereal fiction will find much to delight them; those lucky enough to be discovering her work will find much to enchant them.
CENTRAL STATION
by Lavie Tidhar
- 2017 John W. Campbell Award Winner
- 2017 Arthur C. Clarke Award, Shortlist
- 2016 British Science Fiction Award, Longlist
- NPR Best Books of 2016
- Amazon Featured Monthly Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books
- Barnes and Noble Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2016
- 2016 Locus Recommended Reading List
A worldwide diaspora has left a quarter of a million people at the foot of a space station. Cultures collide in real life and virtual reality. Life is cheap, and data is cheaper.
[STAR] “World Fantasy Award–winner Tidhar (A Man Lies Dreaming) magnificently blends literary and speculative elements in this streetwise mosaic novel set under the towering titular spaceport.“
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
When Boris Chong returns to Tel Aviv from Mars, much has changed. Boris’s ex-lover is raising a strangely familiar child who can tap into the datastream of a mind with the touch of a finger. His cousin is infatuated with a robotnik—a damaged cyborg soldier who might as well be begging for parts. His father is terminally-ill with a multigenerational mind-plague. And a hunted data-vampire has followed Boris to where she is forbidden to return.
[STAR] “… a fascinating future glimpsed through the lens of a tight-knit community. Verdict: Tidhar (A Man Lies Dreaming; The Violent Century) changes genres with every outing, but his astounding talents guarantee something new and compelling no matter the story he tells.”
—Library Journal, starred review
Rising above them is Central Station, the interplanetary hub between all things: the constantly shifting Tel Aviv; a powerful virtual arena, and the space colonies where humanity has gone to escape the ravages of poverty and war. Everything is connected by the Others, powerful alien entities who, through the Conversation—a shifting, flowing stream of consciousness—are just the beginning of irrevocable change.
At Central Station, humans and machines continue to adapt, thrive … and even evolve.
For more info about IN CALABRIA, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover design by Elizabeth Story
For info on WE ARE ALL COMPLETELY FINE, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover design by Elizabeth Story
For more info on DREAMS OF DISTANT SHORES, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover by Thomas Canty
For more info about CENTRAL STATION, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover and image by Sarah Anne Langton
A week’s worth of THE EMERALD CIRCUS by Jane Yolen previews
In celebration of the release of Jane Yolen’s THE EMERALD CIRCUS, Tachyon presents glimpses from some of the volume’s magnificent tales.
This week’s previews included
Last week’s previews can be seen here.
For more info on THE EMERALD CIRCUS, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover design by Elizabeth Story
THE EMERALD CIRCUS by Jane Yolen preview: “Sister Emily’s Lightship”
In celebration of the release of Jane Yolen’s THE EMERALD CIRCUS, Tachyon presents glimpses from some of the volume’s magnificent tales.
Sister
Emily’s Lightship
by Jane Yolen
I
dwell in Possibility. The pen scratched over the page, making
graceful ellipses. She liked the look of the black on white as much
as the words themselves. The words sang in her head far sweeter than
they sang on the page. Once down, captured like a bird in a cage, the
tunes seemed pedestrian, mere common rote. Still, it was as close as
she would come to that Eternity, that Paradise that her mind and
heart promised. I
dwell in Possibility.
She
stood and stretched, then touched her temples where the poem still
throbbed. She could feel it sitting there, beating its wings against
her head like that captive bird. Oh, to let the bird out to sing for
a moment in the room before she caged it again in the black bars of
the page.
Smoothing
down the skirt of her white dress, she sat at the writing table once
more, took up the pen, dipped it into the ink jar, and added a second
line. A
fairer House than … than what? Had she lost the
word between standing and sitting? Words were not birds after all,
but slippery as fish.
Then
suddenly, she felt it beating in her head. Prose!
A fairer House than Prose— She let the
black ink stretch across the page with the long dash that lent the
last word that wonderful fall of tone. She preferred punctuating with
the dash to the hard point, as brutal as a bullet. I
dwell in Possibility.
Cocking
her head to one side, she considered the lines. They
will do, she thought, as much praise as she ever
allowed her own work, though she was generous to others. Then,
straightening the paper and cleaning the nib of her pen, she tore up
the false starts and deposited them in the basket.
She
could, of course, write anytime during the day if the lines came to
mind. There was little enough that she had to do in the house. But
she preferred night for her truest composition and perhaps that was
why she was struggling so. Then
those homey tasks will take me on, she told
herself: supervising the gardening, baking Father’s daily bread.
Her poetry must never be put in the same category.
Standing,
she smoothed down the white skirt again and tidied her hair—“like
a chestnut burr,” she’d once written imprudently to a
friend. It was ever so much more faded now.
But
pushing that thought aside, Emily went quickly out of the room as if
leaving considerations of vanity behind. Besides the hothouse
flowers, besides the bread, there was a cake to be made for tea.
After Professor Seelye’s lecture there would be guests and her tea
cakes were expected.
For more info on THE EMERALD CIRCUS, visit the Tachyon page.
Cover design by Elizabeth Story