December 2004

"At the Roots of the World Tree," by Catherine Lundoff
A bookstore clerk runs afoul of the Norns. 2005 Spectrum Award for Short Fiction Finalist.
Publication: Kenoma: Speculative Fiction and Myth, Edited by HF Gifford, December, 2004
Genre: fantasy / Category: Short Story

"Spiraling," by Racheline Maltese
publication www.cthulhusex.com/issues.asp?issue=14.1
Tentacles. Sex. Horror. About what you'd expect from something in a magazine called Cthulhu Sex. This is the one I don't show my mother.
Publication: Cthulhu Sex Magazine, December, 2004
Genre: Horror / Category: Short Story

"The Bear's Baby," by Judith Moffett
Author's site: http://www.judithmoffett.com
A field biologist working in a Hefn-dominated Earth makes a discovery of staggering import for the future of humanity.
Publication: The Year's Best Science Fiction 21st Annual Collection, Edited by Gardner Dozois, 2004
Genre: science fiction / Category: Novella

"Delta Void and the Stray God," by Tansy Rayner Roberts
Publication site www.andromedaspaceways.com
It's not always fun having a chainmail lingerie-wearing adventuress as a best friend, particularly when she decides to claim the bounty on a rogue god, and plans to use you as bait...
Publication: Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Edited by Tehani Croft, December, 2004
Genre: Fantasy / Category: Short story

November 2004

"The Woman's Place," by Susan Urbanek Linville
Author's site: www.sff.net/people/susan-linville/default.htm
With a long winter still clinging to the land and no successful hunts to sustain themselves, the cave people of southern France must use women's magic to save themselves
Publication: MZB's Sword and Sorceress XXI, Edited by Diane L. Paxton, November, 2004
Genre: Fantasy / Category: Short Story

October 2004

"Ruby, in the Storm," by A. M. Dellamonica
Read this story at: www.scifi.com/scifiction/originals/originals_archive/dellamonica3/dellamonica31.html
When an anti-offworlder demonstration turns ugly at the University of Calgary campus, a history professor named Helena Milos must protect her students, human and alien, from rioters.
Publication: Sci Fiction, Edited by Ellen Datlow, October, 2004
Genre: Science Fiction / Category: Novelette

"Jasmine, Sage, Lavender, and . . .," by Alexa Grave
Publication site: www.samsdotpublishing.com/purchasecenter/anthologies.htm
Blublu scented candles can be found in this story, not to mention other alien surprises. If I said anymore, the description would be longer than the story.
Publication: Sam's Dot Publishing, , October, 2004
Genre: Science Fiction / Category: Drabble

"Suits," by Pamela A Lord
publication soulengravings.com/index.html
Top designer Arianhod Chulain specializes in women's suits, and more. What more, Devon doesn't know, neither do the people who hired him to kill her.
Publication: ATSOISE, Edited by Gill Marshal, October, 2004
Genre: horror / Category: Short Story

"Blind Boys of Bogen's Run," by Pamela A Lord
A handful of preachin' brothers selling snake-oil salvation take over Roulon. Chaointe, a plain-speaking, raw-boned meadicine woman refuses their brand of religion. "You have no idea who my God is."
Publication: Nocturnal oze, Edited by Katherine A. Patterson, October, 2004
Genre: horror / Category: Short Story

"The Phone Company," by Racheline Maltese
Publication www.cthulhusex.com/issues.asp?issue=13.1
A comedic cyberpunk romp through the New York City subway system and phone company bureaucracy
Publication: Cthulhu Sex Magazine, October, 2004
Genre: Horror / Category: Short Story

September 2004

"Trophies and Treasures," by Amy Axt Hanson
with Jerry Oltion
Publication site: www.analogsf.com/0409/issue_09.shtml
A cross-country camel race among an offshoot British aristocracy on Mars goes badly awry, and sabotage is only the beginning of a young man's education in reality.
Publication: Analog Science Fiction & Fact Magazine, Edited by Stanley Schmidt, September, 2004
Genre: Science Fiction / Category: Novelette

"Two More for Tolstoi," by Fruma Klass
An ordinary couple encounters some truly civilized aliens who turn Tolstoi's statement into the question, "If humanity is really one big happy family, why aren't people all alike--or are they?"
Publication: Synergy SF (Tekno Books), Edited by George Zebrowski, September, 2004
Genre: Science Fiction / Category: Short Story

"A Butterfly in Peking," by Nina Munteau
Publication site: www.chizine.com
A dark story of unwarranted and unreconciled guilt. Actually appeared in the Fall, 2003 issue (Issue 17) of Chiaroscuro.
Publication: Chiaroscuro, Edited by Brett Savory, September, 2004
Genre: Science Fiction / Category: Short Story

"The Visitor," by Phoebe Wray
Read this story at: www.fables.org/autumn04/visitor.html
A strange lady with an ambiguous agenda upsets a tiny hamlet.
Publication: Fables, September, 2004
Genre: Fantasy / Category: Short Story

August 2004

"The Dream Eaters," by A.M. Dellamonica
Learn more at: www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0670059145//103-2291195-9952658
All around the modern city of Vancouver is an older and unseen city, Kasqueam... and now a young girl has disappeared into that other realm.
Publication: The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm, Edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, August, 2004
Genre: Fantasy / Category: Short Story

"The Executioner's Apprentice," by Kay Kenyon
Author's site: www.kaykenyon.com
In an alternate future, the Maya have high technology, and record each citizen's genome. On the pyramid summits, some pay a high price for what their genes harbor. And one apprentice learns what the Mayan priests are really selecting for.
Publication: ReVisions, Edited by Julie Czerneda and Isaac Szpindel, August, 2004
Genre: Science Fiction / Category: Short Story

"Mark of a Genius," by Nina Munteau
Read this story at: www.scifidimensions.com/Aug04/genius.htm
A young woman discovers that true genius can't be hidden forever.
Publication: Scifidimensions, Edited by John C. Snider, August, 2004
Genre: Science Fiction / Category: Short Story

"Catnyp," by Delia Sherman
Learn more at: www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0670059145//103-2291195-9952658
"CATNYP" is set in the wilds of New York Between, where a young changeling girl learns about love and true heroism in the stacks of the New York Public Library.
Publication: The Faery Reel: Tales from the Twilight Realm, Edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling, August, 2004
Genre: Fantasy / Category: Short Story

July 2004

"Legends Reborn," by Carol Hightshoe
Publication site: www.pangaia.com/
In a post-apocalyptic world a scientist, struggling to rebuild a shattered environment, finds that magic may be only way for mankind to survive and that magic may be nothing more complex than hope.
Publication: Pangaia Magazine, July, 2004
Genre: Fantasy / Category: Short Story

June 2004

"Blu 97-032D," by Alexis Glynn Latner
This is a mystery story about orbital debris!
Publication: Analog Science Fiction & Fact Magazine, Edited by Stanley Schmidt, June, 2004
Genre: Science Fiction / Category: Short Story

"Infrared Aware," by Susan Urbanek Linville
Author's site: www.sff.net/people/susan-linville/default.htm
Aliens who have taken over the world are shocked to find that humans are indeed infrared aware (sentient).
Publication: Triangulation 2004, Edited by Barbara Carlson, June, 2004
Genre: Science Fiction / Category: Short Story

"Message from Mars," by Susan Urbanek Linville
Author's site: www.sff.net/people/susan-linville/default.htm
A Martian who is the first of his kind to grasp the concept of future time discovers that his own species is eating itself into extinction
Publication: Parageography (http://www.parageography.com), Edited by David Stokes, June, 2004
Genre: Science Fiction / Category: Short Story

"Virtually Yours," by Nina Munteau
Author's site: mypage.uniserve.com/~munteanu
This story first appeared in Hadrosaur Tales in 2002. It is nominated for the 2004 Speculative Literature Foundation Fountain Award.
Publication: Neo-Opsis Science Fiction Magazine, Edited by Karl Johanson, June, 2004
Genre: Science Fiction / Category: Short Story

"Oracle of Cilens," by Kathryn Ann Sullivan
Publication site: mundania.com/books-flightsofmind.html
The Etruscan goddess Cilens gave Ramtha the ability to see other's futures, which she uses to help her trader husband and his ships. But can she decipher a warning vision fast enough when threatened by his rivals, or must the goddess step in to help?
Publication: Beyond the Mundane: Flights of Mind, Edited by Daniel J. Reitz, June, 2004
Genre: Fantasy / Category: Novelette

May 2004

"Guardian Spirit," by Margaret L. Carter
Read this story at: www.mundania.com
A young girl invokes the protection of a guardian spirit she has never really believed in and releases a force she can't control.
Publication: Beyond the Mundane: Unravelings (anthology), Edited by Daniel Reitz, May, 2004
Genre: Horror / Category: Short Story

"Til the Wildness Cried Aloud," by Kelly Green
Jude-Marie Green
A fashionable couch cloned from an undomesticated lion stuggles to redefine himself and seeks freedom and love.
Publication: Say Why Aren't We Crying?, Edited by Christopher Rowe, May, 2004
Genre: Science Fiction / Category: Short Story

"Victual-Seeking Varmints from Outer Space," by Katherine Mankiller
Author's site: www.katherinemankiller.com
A flying saucer full of hungry aliens just landed on the Winnebago.
Publication: Alien Skin, Edited by Katherine A. Patterson, May, 2004
Genre: Science Fiction / Category: Short Story

"Amanda Means Love," by Mary Anne Mohanraj
Read this story at: www.lethepress.com
Near-future sf; note: child sexuality
Publication: Silence and the Word (collection), May, 2004
Genre: Fantasy / Category: Short Story

"At the Gates of the City," by Mary Anne Mohanraj
Learn more at: www.lethepress.com
A Mormon ghost story.
Publication: Silence and the Word (collection), May, 2004
Genre: Fantasy / Category: Short Story

"Esthely Blue," by Mary Anne Mohanraj
Read this story at: www.mamohanraj.com/Stories/esthely.html
An overcommitted woman finds her body parts disappearing...
Publication: Silence and the Word (collection), May, 2004
Genre: Fantasy / Category: Short Story

"The Poet's Journey," by Mary Anne Mohanraj
Read this story at: www.mamohanraj.com/Stories/poetj.html
Children's story about a unicorn, a dragon, and a wandering poet. Oh, and some ravens.
Publication: Silence and the Word (collection), May, 2004
Genre: Fantasy / Category: Short Story

"Would You Live For Me?," by Mary Anne Mohanraj
Read this story at: www.mamohanraj.com/Stories/would.html
A vampire love story.
Publication: Silence and the Word (collection), May, 2004
Genre: Fantasy / Category: Short Story

"Garments of the Dead," by Tansy Rayner Roberts
Author's site www.tansyrr.com
A hero's wife finds herself in the grey garden of the Dead, and struggles to remember who she was in life.
Publication: Aurealis, Edited by Keith Stevenson, May, 2004
Genre: Fantasy / Category: Short story

April 2004

"Faces of Gemini," by A. M. Dellamonica
Author's site: www.sff.net/people/alyx
The well-known heroine Gemini has lost her powers, her lover, and her superhero comrades, and her only hope of saving Vancouver lies with the unemployed single mother who just happens to be her sister.
Publication: Girls who Bite Back: Witches, Mutants, Slayers and Freaks, Edited by Emily Pohl-Weary, April, 2004
Genre: Science Fiction / Category: Short Story

"Origin of Species," by A. M. Dellamonica
Author's site: www.sff.net/people/alyx
Helsing Seventeen is the faithful defender of the spaceship PILGRIMAGE. But when vampires hack his offensive software and leave him mortally damaged, Seventeen finds himself defying his confessor's orders and turning to an illegal poltervirus for assistance.
Publication: The Many Faces of Van Helsing, Edited by Jeanne Cavelos, April, 2004
Genre: Horror / Category: Short Story

"Glamagandhi," by Stephanie Hammer
story http://www.squarelake.com/Five/Stephanie-Hammer.htm
Gandhi decides to buy a mink coat. He flies to Manhattan and serves up transcendent style and surprisingly karmic consolation.
Publication: Square Lake, Edited by LA Heberlein, April, 2004
Genre: fantasy / Category: short story

March 2004

"We Defy Old Stars," by M. C. A. Hogarth
Publication site: www.trantorpublications.com/Issue%20XI%20Colonies.html
What inspires a nomad to stay in one place? Twin dreamers meet, one a wanderer, one a settler and recognize one another despite differing agendas.
Publication: Oceans of the Mind, Edited by Richard Freeborn, March, 2004
Genre: Science Fiction / Category: Short Story

"Potiphar's Daughter," by Paige Kimble
publication www.fourthhorseman.com/Revelation
The end of the United States, in Biblical proportions, as seen by a teenager...and White House insider.
Publication: Revelation, Edited by Brian A. Dixon, March, 2004
Genre: Science Fiction / Category: short story

February 2004

"The Isle of Women," by Jacqueline Carey
Author's site: www.jacquelinecarey.com
A story based on an incident in "The Voyage of Máel Dúin," a 10th century Irish narrative (which also inspired much of C.S. Lewis' "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader").
Publication: Emerald Magic: Great Tales of Irish Fantasy, Edited by Andrew Greeley, February, 2004
Genre: Fantasy / Category: Short Story

"Surfing USA," by Gloria Isabel Oliver
Author's site: www.gloriaoliver.com
What if something fundamental changed in your world? How would you deal with that change? That is what this anthology is all about.
Publication: Fundamentally Challenged Anthology, Edited by Jeff Turner, February, 2004
Genre: Science Fiction / Category: Short Story

January 2004

"White Shadow," by Marie Brennan
Author's site: www.swantower.com/marie/stories/ninelands/ws.html
The fire of your heart. The rhythm of your breath. She sat in the center of a ring of flames. There was water at her side; the scorching air burned it out of her as quickly as she drank it down.
Publication: Summoned to Destiny, Edited by Julie Czerneda, January, 2004
Genre: Fantasy / Category: Short Story

"Learned Behavior," by Susan Urbanek Linville
Author's site: www.sff.net/people/susan-linville/default.htm
A planetary ecologist tries to solve an infestation problem for a human colony on an alien world.
Publication: Parageography (http://www.parageography.com), Edited by David Stokes, January, 2004
Genre: Science Fiction / Category: Short Story

"Birthright," by Brenna Lyons
Publication site: www.drgnslfthnd.org/
Have you ever wondered how VanHelsing came by his knowledge and expertise? What is the connection between the hunter and the vampires? How will it end?
Publication: Weyr Live, Edited by Beth Havens, January, 2004
Genre: Fantasy / Category: Short Story

"Wire," by Elspeth Potter
Learn more at: www.cleispress.com/Pages/ble2004.html
Space opera meets erotica. There are giant people-eating turtles, too.
Publication: Best Lesbian Erotica 2004, Edited by Tristan Taormino and Michelle Tea, January, 2004
Genre: Science Fiction / Category: Short Story

"Inside Outside," by Michaela Roessner
Read this story at: www.scifi.com/scifiction/originals/originals_archive/roessner/roessner1.html
"Inside Outside" is a shoes-and-ships-and-sealing-wax sort of story, but in this case concerns stuff like bobblehead dolls, klezmer music, sugar easter eggs, miniature golf courses and quantum physics. The first of what I hope will be several tales about members of the Worshipful Order of Serendipitous Pursuits, Executed with Fiendish Ingenuity.
Publication: Scifiction (SciFi.com), Edited by Ellen Datlow, January, 2004
Genre: Science Fiction / Category: Novelette