Sunday Shorts—Treasured Island by Ginn Hale

I've never been a pirate person, but after reading Catherine Lundoff's introduction to Scourge of the Seas of Time (and Space), I realized a good deal of why: so much of the pirates of fiction (and nonfiction) that I'd been shown were out of my wheelhouse. Handsome, white, straight guys doing their tales of derring-do …

Judging for Yourself

Both the Lammies and the RITAs have announced their finalist lists for the year. Now, before anything else, I want to make sure I begin with a simple declarative here: there are some really great things that are happening on both lists. And there's some buts. I don't know how coherent I'm going to be …

Friday Flash Fics — Merrily, Merrily

Today's Friday Flash Fics rides the coat-tails of another one I wrote a while back, Gently Down the 'Stream. We once again have a time-traveler arriving who's there to do a good deed, but this time it's the someone from the "now" of the last piece, heading into the a then. The photo reminded me …

Sunday Shorts—A Good Home, by Karin Lowachee

Oh wow, how I loved this story. The perfect way to open People of Colo(u)r Destroy Science Fiction, "A Good Home" weaves a few key elements into a single narrative, and does it freaking flawlessly. First? We've got a PTSD suffering soldier (an android, which is a key component of the story: that we created …

Sunday Shorts—Lava Falls by Lucy Jane Bledsoe

Lava Falls is the novella for which Lucy Jane Bledsoe's collection is named, and I while I mentioned the first story in the collection (Girl with Boat) way back in January as one of the best opening tales in a collection I've ever read, this novella? Masterful. I'm not sure I can do the narrative …

Friday Flash Fics—A Touch of Psychometry

This week's Friday Flash Fics hit me in a three ways. One: her dress (which made me think of a local comic book convention). Two: her gloves (which made me think of "The Psychometry of Snow"). Three: the bookshelves (which made me think of The Second Page, my fictional bookstore in the Village, which Ian …