Casserole Diplomacy and Other Stories

Casserole Diplomacy and Other Stories:

An On Spec Retrospective Anthology

As Selected by:

Diane L. Walton

Barry Hammond

Ann Marston

Barb Galler-Smith

Jena Snyder

Susan MacGregor

Robin S. Carson

Published by Tyche Books Ltd.

www.TycheBooks.com

Copyright © 2014
Copper Pig Writers’ Society

First Tyche Books Ltd Edition 2014

Print ISBN: 978-1-928025-05-4

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-928025-06-1

Cover Art by Herman Lau

Cover Layout by Lucia Starkey

Interior Layout by Bart R. Leib

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage & retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright holder, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third party websites or their content.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations and events portrayed in this story are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Any resemblance to persons living or dead would be really cool, but is purely coincidental.

The following people deserve our sincere thanks for years of service (listed in alphabetical order):

The On Spec Editorial Collective, past and present:

Robin S. Carson

Barb Galler-Smith

Catherine Girczyc

Barry Hammond

Susan MacGregor

Ann Marston

Steve Mohn

Derryl Murphy

Marianne O. Nielsen (past General Editor)

Holly Phillips

Robert Runté

Hazel Sangster (past Managing Editor)

Phyllis Schuell

Jena Snyder (past General Editor and Production Editor)

Diane L. Walton (current Managing Editor)

Peter Watts

Guest Editors:

Hazel Sangster — Theme: Youth Writing and Art -Vol. 2, No. 3 (#5) Winter 1990

Spider Robinson — Theme: Humour — Vol. 3, No. 3 (#8) Winter 1991

Lorna Toolis and Michael Skeet — Vol. 4, No. 2 (#10) Fall 1992

David Nickle and Karl Schroeder — Vol. 5, No. 3 (#14) Fall 1993

Leslie Gadallah — Theme: Hard Science Fiction — Vol. 6, No. 1 (#16) Spring 1994

Barry Hammond — Theme: Horror & Dark Fantasy — Vol. 7, No. 1 (#20) Spring 1995

Barry Hammond — Theme: Cross-Genre — Vol. 8 No. 1 (#24) Spring 1996

Robert J. Sawyer — On Writing column

Robert Runté and Peter Watts — Theme: Canadian Geographic — Vol. 9 No. 1 (#28) Spring 1997

Gerald L. Truscott — Theme: Music — Vol. 10 No. 1 (#32) Spring 1998

Lyle Weis — Theme: Earth, Air, Wind & Fire — Vol. 11 No. 1 (#36) Spring 1999

Marianne O. Nielsen — Theme: Future Crime — Vol. 12 No. 1 (#40) Spring 2000

Editorial Advisory Board:

Douglas Barbour

J. Brian Clarke

Candas Jane Dorsey

Leslie Gadallah

Pauline Gedge

Monica Hughes

Alice Major

Robert Runté

Karl Schroeder

Phyllis Schuell

Brad Thompson

Gerry Truscott

Lyle Weis

Art Directors:

James Beveridge

Lynne Taylor Fahnestalk

Tim Hammell

Derryl Murphy

Jane Starr

Diane L. Walton

Production Editors:

Lynette Bondarchuk

Cat McDonald

Jena Snyder

Support Staff, Summer Students, Web Gurus,

Proofreaders and Volunteers
(in alphabetical order):

Stacey-Lynn Antonation

Colin Bamsey

Matt Bamsey

Sara Bamsey

Alan Barclay

Lynette Bondarchuk

Gareth Boyce

Beverly Byron

Scott Cairns

Isaac Calon

Katerina Carastathis

Mark Chan

Elaine Chen

Karen Desgagné

Steve Fahnestalk

Karen Grant

PJ Groenveldt

Chris Hammond-Thrasher

Josie Hammond-Thrasher

Cath Jackel

Chris Jackel

Brent Jans

Janice Jessop

Jen Laface

Cara Koropchuk

Roberta Laurie

Danica LeBlanc

Rick LeBlanc

Colin Lynch

Kathy MacRae

Ashlin McCartney

Andrea Merriman

Shellon Miller

Tobey Morris

Dave Panchyk

Laurie Penner

Heather Price-Ferguson

Paul Rodgers

Brandon Schatz

Larry Scott

Kelly Shepherd

Jane Spalding

Claire Stirling

Melody Szabo

Donna Weis

Michelle Wilson

Cheerleaders (just because):

Jane Bisbee

Michael Penny

Table of Contents

Title Page

Foreword by Marianne O. Nielsen

Foreword by Diane L. Walton

Happy Eating on Ugrath 3 by Jason Kapalka

Star-seeing Night by Alice Major

The Reality War by Robert Boyczuk

Casserole Diplomacy by Fiona Heath

Jubilee by Steven Mills

No Such Thing as an Ex-Con by Holly Phillips

Closing Time by Matthew Johnson

Foster Child by Catherine MacLeod

More Than Salt by E.L. Chen

Where Magic Lives by S.A. Bolich

The Black Man by A.M. Arruin

Pizza Night by Laurie Channer

Boys’ Night Out by Rob Hunter

Mourning Sickness by Robert Weston

Sticky Wonder Tales by Hugh Spencer

Emily’s Shadow by Al Onia

The Resident Guest by Sandra Glaze

Come From Aways by Tony Pi

Still by Greg Wilson

The Asheville Road by Corey Brown

Buddhist Jet Lag by Christian McPherson

A Taste of Time by Scott Overton

Penultimate by F.J. Bergmann

Pilgrim at the Edge of the World by Sarah Frost

Afterword by Diane L. Walton

Marianne O. Nielsen

First General Editor of
On Spec
(1989-1992)

In 1988 and for many years before that, the members of the Edmonton-based Copper Pig Writers’ Society bemoaned the lack of English Canadian speculative fiction magazines—not only as venues for their wonderful stories but as places to find English Canadian writers and writing. The French Canadian magazines had created their own niche and were doing well. We, on the other hand, looking for English markets, were tired of rejection letters from American magazines that stated “too weird,” “too off the wall,” and most depressing, “too depressing.”

One day, we were sitting in my living room lamenting the usual rejection letters, when we looked around the circle and realized we had all the talent we needed to establish our own magazine—writing and editing skills, organizational skills, business smarts, contacts in writers’ organizations, networks of editors and writers, government agency contacts, typesetting and layout skills, and a bunch more. I left the room to go to the bathroom and came back to find myself elected “General Editor and Sharkbait.”

The first years were interesting—and not necessarily in a good way. Finding funding was tricky, our pockets got emptied regularly until eventually the Alberta and then Canadian governments gave us enough to cover materials. We were all volunteers though, but saw giving our time to be a worthy endeavour—not only were we working to introduce Canada and hopefully, some of the rest of the world to the amazing talent among Canadian spec fic writers, we were working with new writers, often giving them the chance to redraft a story if we saw potential in it. The first Cory Doctorow book I saw on the stands in the US made me glow with pride because I knew
On Spec
had published his first story.