Fantasy For Good: A Charitable Anthology Read online

  Fantasy For Good:

  A Charitable Anthology

  Edited by

  Jordan Ellinger and Richard Salter

  Fantasy For Good: A Charitable Anthology

  Copyright © 2014 by Nightscape Press

  This edition of Fantasy For Good: A Charitable Anthology

  Copyright © 2014 by Nightscape Press, LLP

  Cover illustration by Paul Pederson

  Interior layout and design by Jennifer Wilson

  Edited by Jordan Ellinger and Richard Salter

  Introduction by Trent Zelazny

  All rights reserved.

  “Only the End of the World Again” copyright © Neil Gaiman 1994 First published in Shadows Over Innsmouth, ed. Stephen Jones, Fedogan & Bremer, 1994

  “Loincloth” copyright © 2007 by WordFire, Inc. First published in Pandora's Closet, ed. Jean Rabe & Martin H. Greenberg, Daw Books Inc, 2007

  “Little Pig, Berry Brown and the Hard Moon” copyright © 2006 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr First published in The Magic Toybox, ed. Denise Little, 2006

  “The George Business” copyright © Amber Limited, LLC 1980 First published in Dragons of Light, ed. Orson Scott Card, Ace, 1980

  “In the Lost Lands” copyright © George R.R. Martin 1982 First published in Portraits of His Children, Dark Harvest, 1987

  “Grenade Garden” copyright © Michael and Linda Moorcock 2014

  “Knight's Errand” copyright © 2014 by Obsidian Tiger, Inc

  “The Kitsune’s Nine Tales” copyright © Kelley Armstrong 2014

  “The Edge of Magic” copyright © Henry Szabranski 2014

  “Elroy Wooden” Sword copyright © S.C. Hayden 2014

  “Worms Rising From the Dirt” copyright © David Farland 2014

  “Snow Wolf and Evening Wolf” copyright © James Enge 2014

  “Annual Dues” copyright © Ken Scholes 2014

  “Languid in Rose” copyright © Frances Silversmith 2014

  “Green They Were, and Golden-Eyed” copyright © Alan Dean Foster 2014

  “Golden” copyright © Todd McCaffrey 2014

  “Mountain Spirit” copyright © Piers Anthony 2014

  “Moon Glass” copyright © Megan Moore 2014

  “Lenora of the Low” copyright © Marina J. Lostetter 2014

  “Trufan Fever” copyright © Katharine Kerr 2014

  “Undying Love” copyright © Jackie Kessler 2014

  “Dancing With the Mouse King” copyright © Carrie Vaughn 2014

  “Showlogo” copyright © Nnedi Okorafor 2014

  “The Bluest Hour” copyright © Jaye Wells 2014

  “Pandal Food” copyright © Samit Basu 2014

  “Man of Water” copyright © Kyle Aisteach 2014

  “Bones of a Righteous Man” copyright © Michael Ezell 2014

  “Time’s Mistress” copyright © Steven Savile 2014

  “Sand and Teeth” copyright © Carmen Tudor 2014

  “The Seas of Heaven” copyright © David Parish-Whittaker 2014

  First Electronic Edition

  Nightscape Press, LLP

  http://www.nightscapepress.com

  Table of Contents:

  Foreword

  Horseman, Pass By - An Introduction

  Trent Zelazny

  Part I: Sword & Sorcery

  The Edge of Magic

  Henry Szabranski

  Annual Dues

  Ken Scholes

  The Kitsune’s Nine Tales

  Kelley Armstrong

  Elroy Wooden Sword

  S.C. Hayden

  In the Lost Lands

  George R.R. Martin

  Worms Rising From the Dirt

  David Farland

  Snow Wolf and Evening Wolf

  James Enge

  Knight’s Errand

  Jane Lindskold

  Part II: Fairy Tales

  Languid in Rose

  Frances Silversmith

  Green They Were, and Golden-Eyed

  Alan Dean Foster

  Golden

  Todd McCaffrey

  Mountain Spirit

  Piers Anthony

  Moon Glass

  Megan Moore

  The George Business

  Roger Zelazny

  Part III: The Paranormal

  Only the End of the World Again

  Neil Gaiman

  Lenora of the Low

  Marina J. Lostetter

  Trufan Fever

  Katharine Kerr

  Undying Love

  Jackie Kessler

  Part IV: Urban Fantasy

  Dancing With the Mouse King

  Carrie Vaughn

  Showlogo

  Nnedi Okorafor

  The Bluest Hour

  Jaye Wells

  Pandal Food

  Samit Basu

  Loincloth

  Kevin J. Anderson

  and Rebecca Moesta

  Man of Water

  Kyle Aisteach

  Part V: Weird Fantasy

  Bones of a Righteous Man

  Michael Ezell

  Time’s Mistress

  Steven Savile

  Little Pig, Berry Brown and the Hard Moon

  Jay Lake

  The Grenade Garden

  Michael Moorcock

  Sand and Teeth

  Carmen Tudor

  The Seas of Heaven

  David Parish-Whittaker

  Colon Cancer - Signs and Warnings

  About the Editors

  Dedicated to all those who fight colon cancer, whatever the outcome. For Roger Zelazny who was taken from us far too soon. For Jay Lake whose very public battle taught us so much about the important things in life. And for Richard's wife, Jennifer, diagnosed during the creation of this anthology, who made the toughest decision and is now, thankfully, cancer free.

  Foreword

  We never expected this anthology to become quite so personal…

  When we started out on Fantasy For Good, we took a long time to choose our charity. We followed author Jay Lake's struggles with colon cancer, which is a disease that seems to disproportionately affect writers and yet gets very little attention, and we were inspired to do something to help out the cause. Sadly, Jay passed away recently, a loss we feel keenly. He was very supportive of this project and we will miss him terribly.

  We were offered a beautiful cover, created by illustrator Paul Pederson, whose brother-in-law is currently fighting colon cancer. When writer Trent Zelazny reminded us that his father, the late, great novelist Roger, was also initially diagnosed with colon cancer, our decision was cemented.

  Trent agreed to write us an introduction and we got the rights to reprint one of Roger’s classic stories. We then partnered with the Colon Cancer Alliance with the intention not only to raise as much money as we could, but also to increase awareness about the disease. Colon cancer is the second biggest killer in the US and yet very few people know much about it. We wanted to help change that.

  So by late 2013, the fight against this terrible disease already felt like a personal one. And then events struck even closer to home.

  In October 2013, Richard’s wife, Jennifer, was diagnosed with colorectal cancer. Suddenly this worthy cause became a gut-wrenching reality. We thought this was an old people’s disease—Jennifer was 41 when her cancer was discovered. She got lucky and it was caught at stage one. Removal of the cancerous polyp left no detectable trace of cancer in her body, yet the doctors could giv
e her no guarantee that it was truly gone and would not come back.

  Jen wants to see her two young boys grow up, get married to the girls or boys of their dreams and have kids of their own who will look after grandma in her old age. She took the courageous step to opt for major surgery, a painful recovery, and a bag for life in exchange for a lower than 1% chance of re-occurrence. She made that heavy sacrifice for her kids. She is amazing.

  So now we’re really on a mission. Educate yourself, know what to look for, don’t assume you’re too young, and get yourself screened. Detecting colorectal cancer early is the key to survival. At the back of this anthology we’ve included a list of signs and symptoms to be aware of. We urge you to read it and talk to your doctor.

  We want to thank all our contributors, from the veterans to the newcomers. We are extremely grateful for your time and creative energy, and we hope these great stories will inspire and entertain everyone who reads them. Thank you to the agents and assistants who chased after authors and poured over contracts. Thank you to Nightscape Press, particularly Jen and Bob for your support and for donating so much time and effort to this project. Double thanks to Bob in his role as editor of our predecessor, along with Mark Scioneaux and RJ Cavender. Horror For Good is still available and is still raising money for amfAR. Thank you to Trent for your moving tribute to your legendary father and for all your help. Thanks to Paul for his gorgeous cover artwork. Thanks to the go-betweens, too many to list, who put us in contact with some of the biggest names in the genre. Thanks to those authors who weren’t able to write something new for us, but instead were happy to offer a reprint or words of encouragement and a willingness to help spread the word. Thank you to everyone who clicks a “like”, shares a link, writes a review or blogs to their followers about us. Thanks to everyone at the Colon Cancer Alliance for your enthusiasm, your active involvement from Day One, and for the fantastic work you do to raise awareness, support patients and their families, and fund vital research. Lastly, Richard wants to thank the remarkable doctors, nurses and support staff at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Hospital who took such good care of Jennifer when she had her surgery earlier this year.

  It is a truly hopeful and wonderful indication of the state of the genre that, even though no one involved in this book will be paid a dime for their work, we had very few authors turn us down and those who did often offered encouragement and promotional help. We hope this anthology is worthy of the faith you put in us.

  And thanks to you, the reader. Enjoy the stories, get yourself screened, live a long and happy life.

  Richard Salter & Jordan Ellinger

  June 3rd 2014

  TRENT ZELAZNY is an award winning novelist, a playwright, an anthology editor and a short story writer. The son of famous SF and fantasy novelist Roger Zelazny, Trent has forged his own path in the publishing world. His work tends towards the darker side of fiction but is always hard to pin down in any one category. His novels include Fractal Despondency, Shadowboxer, Butterfly Potion, Too Late to Call Texas, and Voiceless.

  Trent has written a very moving introduction to Fantasy For Good and he has also been a key supporter of this project from the start. The editors are very grateful for all his help.

  Follow his blog at:

  trentzelaznybloggetyblog.blogspot.com

  Horseman, Pass By

  An Introduction by Trent Zelazny

  I lost my father when I was 18. Kidney failure associated with cancer. Colorectal cancer. Colon cancer. He was only 58 when he died. I’d known he was sick for quite some time, but he’d asked his kids to keep it quiet, not wanting the SF&F community to know about it. Also, he was foolishly certain that he would beat it.

  He didn’t. I wish to God that he had, but no dice. I honestly believe that a part him truly thought he was immortal. He often wrote about immortals, but he was not immortal himself. He was a human being, just like the rest of us.

  For years after, I thought about something a lot, and I still think about it from time to time. What if he hadn’t insisted on keeping his illness a secret? This, of course, was in the early and mid-nineties, before the Internet was in virtually every home on the planet. But news could still get around in those days. I remember, at the hospital, a few hours before he died, a close family friend and member of the community, heartbroken and pissed off that they didn’t know a thing about it. “You should have told us,” she said.

  And so I’d ask myself, why didn’t they know about it? Because they should have known about it. A lot of people should have known about it, because if people had indeed known about it, more could have been done. That, however, is the only result I can promise would have been different.

  More could have, and would have, been done. This is not to say he didn’t have good care. He had probably the best available. But I’m not talking about medical care here, or the few who did know, who busted their asses, going through their own utter hell to help him.

  It had to be a secret, and so three Zelazny children wandered around, harboring this painful secret, instructed not to talk about it, which we didn’t, or we did very little, and only in the strictest confidence. I don’t recall a single conversation with my brother or my sister about it. It could have been a time for much needed family bonding, but instead it caused us all to sort of drift apart, each trapped in a personal daze with a hefty dose of denial.

  It was inadvertent ignorance on my father’s part, and—while unintentional—it was cruel. Cruel in that we had to walk around and pretend everything was hunky-dory, while inside, just like my father, we were being eaten alive.

  I’ve never been angry at my father for this, however, and there’s certainly no point in being angry with him now; but that question still comes along and revolves round in my head. What if his friends and colleagues knew about it? Speculative fiction is all about the question, “What if?” and so I speculate, and most every scenario I come up with is more positive than the actual outcome, whether he had lived or died. He wouldn’t have hurt his family and friends so much; he would have known more fully just how deeply loved he was—by a whole lot of people. He was a well-loved man, but I’m not sure he ever really knew just how loved he was.

  I loved him deeply. I still do. While I don’t think he ever would have been a candidate for Father of the Year, his intentions were always good. He was a good man, a very good man, and those he touched he touched deeply.

  But he kept his cancer a secret, and in my opinion, he shouldn’t have. He had his reasons, though I don’t personally find them to be good reasons. Well intended, maybe, but not good; and so I admire, respect, and support anyone brave enough—and compassionate enough—to let their friends and peers know that they are sick. This in no way means I didn’t or don’t respect my father. I did, and do, very much. But in this situation I learned what not to do. Don’t keep something so important a secret.

  Just as the wonderful editors and contributors did with Horror for Good, I’m thrilled beyond comprehension by these editors and contributors. And talk about the talent in this collection… well, I can’t, really, as I am speechless, but I will say I’m grateful to both Richard Salter and Jordan Ellinger, as well as to every author who took the time to contribute to this collection.

  In your hands you hold a book that does more than entertain, more than give the reader a little something to ponder. Like Horror for Good, this book has an additional magic power. It has the power (and the want, maybe even the need) to help, and who it wants to help most are those sick with the same thing that ended my father’s life too early, because colorectal cancer is treatable. Having it does not automatically put one in the grave. Diagnosis is quite different from burial.

  I could go off about healthcare in this country but I’m not going to. This introduction would be as long as the entire book, if I did. Instead I’ll offer a couple of simple items that can do wonders for those diagnosed and for their loved ones: communication, openness, love, support, strength, and books like this one. Eve
ry author in this book (myself included) cares. Yes, they care about you, deeply, whether you are the diagnosed, or a family member or friend of the diagnosed. Everyone in this book cares about you.

  I promised the editors that I would keep this short, so in closing, I simply want to ask three small favors of you.

  First, please don’t do what my father did. Don’t keep something of such importance a secret. Reach out. Don’t be afraid, don’t be ashamed, and don’t be embarrassed. I promise that you and your loved ones will be thankful, if not immediately, most certainly in the long run.

  Second, enjoy the wonderful stories collected in this book, and know that the stories here were contributed out of love, compassion, and the desire to make a difference.

  And finally third, thank yourself, both for buying a wonderful collection of stories, and for simultaneously contributing to a wonderful cause.

  My father may no longer be with us, but wherever he is, I know he is very pleased that this book has been compiled, as am I.