Full MoonCity (32 page)

Noelle cried out at first as he stumbled toward her; but then she knew him, as she would always have known him, and knelt down before him, hugging his torn neck-Duplessis had come very near the throat-and getting blood all over the pajamas in which she had been kidnapped. She had no words either, except for
Dadda,
but she got plenty of mileage out of that one, even so.

The cabin was just reaching full blaze, and Patrice had worked up the courage to let the strange big dog lick his face, when the police car came barreling up the overgrown little path, very nearly losing an axle to the pothole Garrigue had been warning them about for the last couple of miles. Antoine was with them, too, and Garrigue’s son Claude, and a police paramedic as well. There was a good deal of embracing among one group, and an equal amount of head scratching, chin rubbing, and cell-phone calling by the other.

And Jean-Marc Arceneaux-“Ti-Jean” to a very few old friends-nuzzled his grandson one last time, and then turned and walked back into the blazing cabin and threw himself over the body of the wolf Alexandre Duplessis. Noelle’s cry of grief was still echoing when the roof came down.

When Garrigue could talk-when anyone could talk, after the fire engine came-he told Noelle, “The ashes. He done it because of the ashes.”

Noelle shook her head weakly. “I don’t understand.”

Garrigue said, “Duplessis come back once, maybe do it again, even from ashes. But not all mixed up together with old Ti-Jean, no, not with their jaws locked on each other in the other world and the
loa
watching. Not even a really good conjure man out of Sabine, Vernon Parish, pull off that trick. You follow me?”

“No,” she said. “No, Rene. I don’t, I’m trying.”

Garrigue was admirably patient, exhausted as he was. “He just making sure you, the grandbabies, the rest of us, we never going to be bothered by
Compe’
Alexandre no more.” His gray eyes were shining with prideful tears. “He thought on things like that, Ti-Jean did. Knew him all my life, that man. All my life.”

Patrice slept between her and Antoine that night: the police psychologist who had examined him said that just because he was showing no sign of trauma didn’t mean that he might not be affected in some fashion that wouldn’t manifest itself for years. For his part, Patrice had talked about the incident in the surprisingly matter-of-fact way of a four-year-old for the rest of the day; but after dinner he spent the evening playing one of Zelime’s mysterious games that seemed, as far as adults could tell, to have no rules whatsoever. It was only when he scrambled into bed beside his mother that he asked seriously, “That man? Not coming back?”

Noelle hugged him. “No, sweetheart. Not coming back. Not ever. You scared him away.”

“
Gam’pair
come back.” It was not a question.

You’re not supposed to lie to children about anything. Bad, bad, bad.
Noelle said, “He had to go away, Patrice. He had to make sure that man wouldn’t come here again.”

Patrice nodded solemnly. He wrapped his arms around himself and said, “I hold
Gam’pair
right here.
Gam’pair
not going anywhere,” and went to sleep.

P
ETER S. BEAGLE was born in New York City in 1939 and raised in the borough of that city known as the Bronx. He originally proclaimed he would be a writer when he was ten years old; subsequent events have proven him either prescient or even more stubborn than hitherto suspected. Today, thanks to classic works such as
A Fine and Private Place, The Last Unicorn, Tamsin,
and
The Inkeeper’s Song,
he is acknowledged as America’s greatest living fantasy author; and his dazzling abilities with language, characters, and magical storytelling have earned him many millions of fans around the world. In addition to stories and novels, Peter has written numerous teleplays and screenplays, including the animated versions of
The Lord of the Rings
and
The Last Unicorn
, plus the fan-favorite “Sarek” episode of
Star Trek: The Next Generation
. His nonfiction book
I See by My Outfit
, which recounts a 1963 journey across America on motor scooter, is considered a classic of American travel writing. He is also a gifted poet, lyricist, and singer/songwriter. For more information on Peter and his works, see [http://www.peterbeagle.com] www.peterbeagle.com or [http://www.conlanpress.com] www.conlanpress.com.

HOLLY BLACK writes contemporary fantasy for teens and younger readers, including the Modern Faerie Tale series,
The Spiderwick Chronicles,
and her graphic novel series,
The Good Neighbors
. She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts, with her husband, Theo.

The winner of both a Bram Stoker and World Fantasy Award, P. D. CACEK has written more than two hundred short stories, appearing in such anthologies as
999, Joe R
.
Lansdale’s Lords of the Razor, Night Visions 12, Inferno,
and the inaugural YA anthology of horror fiction from Scholastic
, 666: the Number of the Beast
. Although Cacek will probably always consider herself a short story writer, she has written four novels to date and is currently finishing up a fifth,
Visitation Rites,
a good old-fashioned ghost story. A native Westerner, Cacek now lives in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania… in a haunted house across from a haunted mill. When not writing, she can often be found either with a group of costumed storytellers called the Patient Creatures ([http://www.creatureseast.com] www.creatureseast.com) or haunting local cemeteries looking for inspiration. You can visit her website at [http://www.pdcacek.com] www.pdcacek.com

ESTHER M. FRIESNER is a Nebula Award winner and the author of thirty-four novels and more than one hundred fifty short stories, in addition to being the editor of seven popular anthologies. Her works have been published in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, Russia, France, Poland, and Italy. She is also a published poet and a produced playwright. Her articles on fiction writing have appeared in
Writer’s Market
and
Writer’s Digest Books
. Her latest publications include
Nobody’s Princess
and
Nobody’s Prize
, from Random House; and
Temping Fate
, from Dutton/Penguin. She is currently working on
Sphinx’s Princess
and
Sphinx’s Queen-
two books about young Nefertiti, for Random House-and
Burning Roses
, for Penguin. Educated at Vassar College, receiving a BA degree in both Spanish and Drama, she went on to receive her MA and PhD in Spanish from Yale University, where she taught for a number of years. She is married, the mother of two, and lives in Connecticut.

GREGORY FROST is a writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction who has been publishing steadily for more than two decades. His latest work is the fantasy duology
Shadowbridge
and
Lord Tophet
, published by Del Rey Books. His other works include
Fitcher’s Brides
,
Tain
and
Remscela
(another duology comprising a retelling of the Irish epic
Tain Bo Cuailnge)
, the fantasy novel
Lyrec
, and a Nebula-nominated science fiction work
The Pure Cold Light
. Much of his best short fiction is collected in
Attack of the Jazz Giants and Other Stories.
This collection includes his acclaimed novelette, “Madonna of the Maquiladora,” a finalist for the James Tiptree, Jr., Award, Nebula Award, Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and Hugo Award.

Frost’s short work has appeared in
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Weird Tales, Realms of Fantasy,
and numerous anthologies. For two years he served as principal researcher for Grinning Dog Pictures, a Philadelphia film and television production company, on two productions for the Discovery Global Network series
Science Frontiers,
one of which
,
“Wolf Man: The Myth and the Science,” examined the folklore of werewolves, the psychological illness known as lycanthropy, and the history of Inquisitional trials of accused werewolves, establishing that most were afflicted with ergot poisoning. It was the highest-rated show of the year on Discovery Europe Network. Frost has also acted in two very, very, very “B” horror films, including S. P. Somtow’s
The Laughing Dead.
His website is [http://www.gregoryfrost.com] www.gregoryfrost.com. Blog: “Frostbites,” is at [http://frostokovich.livejournal.com] http://frostokovich.livejournal.com.

RON GOULART, in addition to being a mystery writer (twice nominated for an MWA Edgar) and a science fiction writer (once nominated for an SFWA Nebula), is also the author of more than a dozen nonfiction books in the popular fiction field. These include
Comic Book Culture
(2000, trade paper 2007), which was nominated for an Eisner Award,
The Comic Book Encyclopedia
(2004), and
Good Girl Art
(2008), an illustrated history of women characters in comic books from the 1930s to the present. His next book will be
Good Girl Art Around the World
(2009). He’s sold more than six hundred stories and articles in his long and colorful career. He and his wife, also a writer, live in ramshackle splendor in a rustic patch of Connecticut.

TANITH LEE was born in 1947. She became a full-time professional writer in 1974 and made a tremendous splash with her first fantasy novel for adults,
The Birthgrave,
in 1975. She has so far written nearly 100 books and more than 265 short stories, plus radio plays and TV scripts. She lives on the Sussex weald with her husband and coconspirator artist/writer, John Kaiine, and two tuxedo cats. She reports that she has numerous short stories and novellas out or due in anthologies from Ellen Datlow, Marvin Kaye, Gardner Dozois, and Leah Wilson. Others are forthcoming in
Weird Tales
,
Realms of Fantasy
, and the UK ’s
Nature.
Her most recently published adult fantasies were the
LionWolf
trilogy:
Cast a Bright Shadow
,
Here in Cold Hell
, and
No Flame but Mine
(Tor MacMillan). Three
Piratica
novels for young adults have appeared from Hodder Headline. Norilana Books (USA) will be reissuing all the existing
Flat Earth
novels, plus two new
Flat Earth
books through 2009 and 2010. She has won numerous awards, including the World Fantasy Award and the British Fantasy Award.

HOLLY PHILLIPS is the author of the award-winning collection
In the Palace of Repose
as well as innumerable short stories published in markets as diverse as
The New Quarterly
and
Asimov’s Science Fiction
. She lives on a big island off Canada ’s western coast and is currently engaged in a heroic struggle
to keep her website ([http://www.hollyphillips.com] www.hollyphillips.com
) up to date even as she works on her newest novel. Holly’s newest dark fantasy
The Engine’s Child
was published by Del Rey in November 2008. Keep your eyes peeled for the gorgeous cover art by David Ho!

MIKE RESNICK is, according to
Locus
, the most awarded short fiction writer, living or dead, in science fiction history. He is the author of fifty-five novels, more than two hundred short stories, and two screenplays, and is the editor of fifty anthologies. He is currently the executive editor of
Jim Baen’s Universe
. His work has been translated into twenty-two languages.

LISA TUTTLE is a native Texan (born and raised in Houston) who has been an honorary Brit for more than twenty-five years. She presently lives in a remote, rural region of Scotland, so urban settings provide her an enjoyable escape into fantasy. Over the course of her career she’s sold around one hundred short stories and seven novels, most recently the contemporary fantasies
The Mysteries
and
The Silver Bough.
Some of her short stories may be found in
A Nest of Nightmares, A Spaceship Built of Stone and Other Stories, Memories of the Body: Tales of Desire and Transformation,
and
Ghosts and Other Lovers.
She has edited
Skin of the Soul: New Horror Stories by Women
and has also written several children’s books.

CARRIE VAUGHN survived her air force brat childhood and managed to put down roots in Colorado. She lives in Boulder with her dog, Lily, and too many hobbies. A graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop, she’s had short stories published in such magazines as
Realms of Fantasy
and
Weird Tales
. Most of her work over the last couple of years has gone into her series of novels about a werewolf named Kitty who hosts a talk radio show for the supernaturally disadvantaged. These include
Kitty and the Midnight Hour, Kitty and the Silver Bullet, Kitty Goes to Washington,
and
Kitty Takes a Holiday.

IAN WATSON taught literature in Tanzania and Japan, then futurology at an art school in Birmingham, UK, before becoming a full-time writer thirty-three years ago, after his first novel,
The Embedding,
won a couple of prizes. Thus he was encouraged onto the slippery slope resulting so far in about thirty novels and almost a dozen story collections, variously SF, fantasy, and horror. A year’s work with Stanley Kubrick produced the screen story for
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
, directed by Steven Spielberg.
Space Marine
, one of four ground-breaking future-Gothic novels that Ian wrote for the Warhammer forty thousand milieu, changes hands on eBay for such large sums that it’s banned by its own publisher from ever being reprinted. Recently, Ian completed a book of wild and witty stories in collaboration with the Italian surrealist Robert Quaglia, with whom he stayed in Romania to experience “Weredog of Bucharest.” Ian’s website is at [http://www.ianwatson.info] www.ianwatson.info, though he and his Spanish translator, Luisa, and his Hungarian publisher, Peter, also maintain a website of startling interest ([http://www.ajeno.wired.hu] www.ajeno.wired.hu) to honor the as yet almost unknown Colombian poet of erotic anguish Miguel Ajeno.

Upon his return from Korea, GENE WOLFE earned a BS in mechanical engineering from the University of Houston. He was a working engineer for seventeen years and an editor at an engineering magazine for eleven more. Many of his early stories appeared in Damon Knight’s original anthology series
Orbit
. Wolfe has been writing full-time since 1984. His titles include
The Fifth Head of Cerberus
,
Peace
,
The Shadow of the Torturer
,
Soldier of the Mist
,
Nightside
,
The Long Sun
,
The Knight
,
The Wizard
,
Pirate Freedom,
and
An Evil Guest
. He and Rosemary have been married for more than fifty years; they have four children and three grandchildren.

CHELSEA QUINN YARBRO has been a professional writer for forty years and has sold eighty-five books and more than ninety works of short fiction, essays, and reviews. She also composes serious music. She lives in her hometown- Berkeley, California -with three autocratic cats. In 2003, the World Horror Society presented her with a Grand Master Award; the International Horror Guild honored her with a Living Legend Award in 2006. She is probably best known for her series of novels about the vampire the Comte de Saint-Germain.