Fiction River: Unnatural Worlds

Series Editors

Editors

Copyright Information

Fiction River: Unnatural Worlds

Copyright © 2013 by WMG Publishing

Published by WMG Publishing

Cover and Layout copyright © 2013 by WMG
Publishing

Cover design by Allyson Longueira/WMG
Publishing

Cover art copyright © 2013 by
Rashevskaya/Dreamstime

“
Foreword: The Return To
Publishing” Copyright © 2013 by Dean Wesley Smith

“
Introduction: So I Lied”
Copyright © 2013 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

“
Life Between Dreams”
Copyright © 2013 by Devon Monk

“
Finally Family” Copyright
© 2013 by Ray Vukcevich

“
The Grasshopper and My
Aunts” Copyright © 2013 by Esther M. Friesner

“
True Calling” Copyright ©
2013 by Irette Y. Patterson

“
A Taste of
Joie De Vivre
” Copyright
© 2013 by Kellen Knolan

“
Here, Kitty Kitty”
Copyright © 2013 by Annie Reed

“
That Lost Riddle”
Copyright © 2013 by Dean Wesley Smith

“
Shadow Side” Copyright ©
2013 by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

“
Sisters” Copyright © 2013
by Leah Cutter

“
The Witch’s House”
Copyright © 2013 by Richard Bowes

“
Dog Boy Remembers”
Copyright © 2013 by Jane Yolen

“
Barbarians” Copyright ©
2013 by David Farland

Smashwords Edition

This book is licensed for your personal
enjoyment only. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. All
characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any
resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form
without permission.

Foreword: The Return to
Publishing

Dean Wesley Smith

Introduction: So I
Lied

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Life Between
Dreams

Devon Monk

Finally
Family

Ray Vukcevich

The Grasshopper and My
Aunts

Esther M. Friesner

True Calling

Irette Y. Patterson

A Taste of
Joie De
Vivre

Kellen Knolan

Here, Kitty
Kitty

Annie Reed

That Lost
Riddle

Dean Wesley Smith

Shadow Side

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Sisters

Leah Cutter

The Witch’s
House

Richard Bowes

Dog Boy Remembers

Jane Yolen

Barbarians

David Farland

Acknowledgements

Copyright
Information

Foreword

The
Return to Publishing

Dean Wesley Smith

Twenty-six years ago, Kristine Kathryn Rusch
and I started Pulphouse Publishing over my kitchen table in a small
apartment in Eugene, Oregon. We had no idea what we were getting
into. We decided we would be happy if we sold a few copies of the
first issue of
Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine
. We sold
out.

After that, we embarked on a massive learning
curve. We figured out how to publish an anthology series and start
a publishing company all at the same time. We did it on the wages
of a part-time bartender and part-time secretary, supplemented by
our writing. We never really caught up.

When we finally shut Pulphouse down nine
years later, we had a lot of debt and the knowledge that our little
company had changed the science fiction and fantasy field. We had
gone from that kitchen table to the ninth largest sf publisher in
the nation.

We paid back the debt with our writing
income, and vowed never to start a publishing company again.
Actually, Kris vowed that. I continued to talk annually about
starting a magazine, or editing an anthology, or starting another
company.

Kris didn’t agree until publishing changed.
With the rise of e-books and print-on-demand, publishing became
easy. Make that easier. It’s still hard. We’re established writers
now, not beginners, and we have careers to maintain. We realized we
couldn’t let the publishing overwhelm the writing.

So we started Fiction River. We crowd-funded
this project on Kickstarter in August of 2012. We figured if we
couldn’t meet our Kickstarter goal, then there wasn’t enough
interest in Fiction River to proceed.

We met our goal within the first week. We
more than doubled our fundraising goal. The response exceeded our
expectations. We’re doing this project because of 314 people who
chose to take a risk with us, and even more who couldn’t afford to
pledge but spread the word. Thank you, everyone!

We’re hands-on editing some of the volumes,
but others we’re giving to our most trusted editorial friends. We
act as the series editors, reading everything that comes in, but
the other voices add a perspective that we would never get on our
own.

This makes Fiction River diverse. The only
thing we can promise is high-quality fiction. The genres will
change. The focus of the anthologies will change. But the stories
will always be the best we can find.

Because
Unnatural Worlds
is the debut
volume, Kris and I had to edit it. We couldn’t wait for a later
volume. We edited it together, which led to some interesting
moments, as Kris will explain in her editorial.

We hope you enjoy the debut volume of Fiction
River. We had a lot of fun putting it together. And we plan to give
you a lot of great reading in the future.

—Dean Wesley Smith

Lincoln City, Oregon

March 10, 2013

Introduction

So I
Lied

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Writers lie for a living. Lawrence Block
acknowledged that when he called one of his how-to-write books
Telling Lies For Fun and Profit
. Only when I lied, I wasn’t
lying to you folks.

I was lying to me.

Here’s the lie. For fifteen years now, I have
said I would never edit again. I said this for two very good
reasons: 1) I never ever ever ever wanted to work for anyone else
again, especially as an editor; and 2) I wasn’t going to start
another publishing company. I was done with all that
owning-a-business nonsense.

I could not foresee the rise of electronic
books, print-on-demand publishing, and crowdfunding. I had no idea
that the publishing world would change so drastically that I could
jump back into editing as my own boss without a huge capital
outlay.

I am still surprised by this. Stunned,
actually.

I did know one thing: I was never going to
read slush again, and I will keep that promise to myself. I spent
ten years in the slush-reading trenches. My time there is done.

So when Dean Wesley Smith and I set up
Fiction River, we decided that we would ask our favorite writers to
write stories for us. We have a lot of favorite writers, many of
whom you haven’t heard of. That’s because we have taught business
courses for writers since the late 1990s. We’ve seen a lot of
fantastic writers come into our workshops, and write a lot of
fantastic stories.

Some of those fantastic writers got picked up
by traditional publishers. Other fantastic writers didn’t get their
work picked up because it slipped between the cracks or because it
was a bit too daring.

What most people don’t remember is that the
first magazine/anthology series we ever did,
Pulphouse: The
Hardback Magazine
, had a subtitle. It was
A Dangerous
Magazine
. We published fiction that slipped through the cracks,
fiction that many other publishers wouldn’t touch.

In 1991, I left the magazine side of
Pulphouse to edit
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science
Fiction
.
F&SF
had (and has) a different mission: it
needed to reach a broader base of subscribers. Sometimes I could
slip in a dangerous story, but mostly I published stories by
spectacular writers who wrote down the center of the sf/f
field.

I hadn’t realized how much I missed dangerous
until we started editing Fiction River. This volume covers a broad
range of the fantasy genre. Future volumes include hard science
fiction, time travel, urban fantasy, mystery, and romance. We’re
not sticking to one genre nor are we sticking to one voice.

With that in mind, Dean and I decided to
co-edit
Unnatural Worlds
. We wanted a diverse volume and
what better way to do that than to have two editors. We agree on
most things, but we disagree sometimes on what makes a story
work.

Some of my favorites in the volume aren’t
Dean’s favorites, and some of his aren’t mine. Yet the volume all
works together as a cohesive whole.

We also edited each other. I argued with him
for weeks about my story, “Shadow Side.” I kept asking if he wanted
something else. He threatened to go into my computer files and drag
out “Shadow Side” himself.

I asked him for a Poker Boy story. Dean
couldn’t understand my interest. Poker Boy is one of my favorite
all-time characters. If I could publish a Poker Boy story in every
anthology I edit, I would. I know Dean would dig in his heels at
that. So I am pleased that I managed to get one Poker Boy story out
of him for the first volume of Fiction River.

The other stories in the volume run a range
of emotions and subgenres.

We start with Devon Monk’s “Life Between
Dreams.” Devon, best known for her Allie Beckstrom urban fantasy
series, knows how to straddle worlds. Since we’re straddling worlds
with
Unnatural Worlds
, we figured Devon’s marvelous short
story was the perfect place to start.

Devon’s story blurs the boundaries between
fiction and reality. Ray Vukcevich explodes those boundaries. He
always has. The great thing about Ray’s writing is that he creates
a world that no one else could ever invent. Dean calls Ray’s world
“Planet Ray” and I can’t think of a better description. Ray is, in
my opinion, one of the best and most underrated writers in the
United States. “Finally Family” should show you why Dean and I both
love his work so much.

I have yet to read an Esther M. Friesner
story that I didn’t like. She has written everything from
heartbreaking science fiction to historical young adult fiction,
and she makes it all look easy. When we asked Esther for a story,
we had no idea what we’d get. She provides us with yet another new
world, one that is uniquely Esther (but does continue, for a short
time anyway, our bug-oriented theme).

“True Calling” marks Irette Y. Patterson’s
first fantasy publication, but I can guarantee it won’t be her
last. Set in our world only with magic (and cake!), Irette reminds
us that the romance genre has taken on the word “paranormal” for a
reason—and that reason isn’t just vampires. It’s also the gentle,
heartwarming side of the genre that most of the traditional
magazines dismiss, and which readers love so well.

Kellen Knolan’s “A Taste of
Joie de
Vivre
” is also a first short story sale, although Kellen has
published two novels under a different name. Like Ray, Kellen is an
original, and his perspective is truly his own. Someday we hope to
say that Fiction River provided the first glimmer of Planet
Kellen.

Annie Reed has been one of my favorite
writers since I first encountered her work at one of our workshops.
She has sold a lot of short fiction to anthologies and magazines,
but I have a special place in my heart for her Diz and Dee
detective stories. When she submitted “Here, Kitty Kitty,” I didn’t
tell Dean how much I love the Diz and Dee stories. I knew he hadn’t
read one before, so I let him be the final arbiter. He loved this
as much as I do. Diz and Dee give us a much-needed dose of urban
fantasy and also one really hot elf.

We follow the hot elf with Poker Boy. (You’ll
see why when you read those two stories.) Then we give you my much
more serious “Shadow Side.” All three stories—from “Here, Kitty
Kitty” to “Shadow Side”—follow three very different investigators,
investigating three very different things.