Category: fiction!

“Pinktastic and the End of the World”

Pd moriarty by Signey Paget.gif

 

The table of contents for the forthcoming anthology WHEN THE VILLAIN COMES HOME has been announced.  This one contains my supervillain story “Pinktastic and the End of the World.”  I always look forward to appearing alongside Jay Lake, who wrote the introduction for my collection, PUSH OF THE SKY.  Up, up, and away!

From the site:

Come with us while we explore villains of all stripes — sons and daughters, lovers and fighters, minions and masterminds, in this giant volume of thirty great stories by award winners, rising stars, and bold new voices.

Camille Alexa – Pinktastic and the End of the World
Erik Scott de Bie – Hunger of the Blood Reaver
Chaz Brenchley – Villainelle
Eugie Foster – Oranges, Lemons, and Thou Beside Me
David Sakmyster – Prometheus Found
Marie Bilodeau – Happily Ever After
Richard Lee Byers – Little Things
K.D. McEntire – Heels
Peadar Ó Guilín – The Sunshine Baron
Jim C. Hines – Daddy’s Little Girl
Ari Marmell – Than to Serve in Heaven
Karin Lowachee – The Bleach
Jay Lake – The Woman Who Shattered the Moon
Julie Czerneda – Charity
J.M. Frey – Maddening Science
Clint Talbert – Birthright
Rachel Swirsky – Broken Clouds
Tony Pi – The Miscible Imp
Leah Petersen – Manmade
J.P. Moore – Lord of the Southern Sky
Ryan McFadden – Back in the Day
Todd McCaffrey – Robin Redbreast
Erik Buchanan – Cycle of Revenge
Gregory A. Wilson – The Presuil’s Call
Rosemary Jones – The Man With Looking-Glass Eyes
Gabrielle Harbowy – Starkeep
Ed Greenwood – A Lot of Sly Work Ahead
Mercedes Lackey / Larry Dixon – Heir Apparent
Chris A. Jackson – Home Again, Home Again
Steve Bornstein – The Best Laid Plans

“Young Miss Frankenstein Regrets”

In honor of the 2011 Rhysling Awards, I’m posting “Young Miss Frankenstein Regrets” below. It appeared in Volume 47 of ChiZine (April 2011).

Young Miss Frankenstein Regrets

by Camille Alexa
Reanimation gives rise to all sorts of
regrets, as one forgets the
repercussions sure to follow the
reappearance of the dead.

Recalling the fantasies of
reunion in which one indulged before
reactivating the machine one had
rebuilt in Great-Grandpa’s study,
reusing dusty parts and
reworking the old man’s blueprints after
rereading all his crumbling musty notes and
rewiring the entire neighborhood to
reroute all local power to the modest
reactor atop the roof (planning, of course, to
replace everything afterward), one
reheats the cryogenically frozen heirloom brain,
recombining purloined “found” parts to
revive dear Great-Grandpa and
reclaim days of past family glory.

Recovering from the scent of charred meat,
repulsed by Great-Grandpa’s mindless drooling and
reasserting control over one’s unfortunate
recoil from the outstretched avuncular arms
reaching for one’s throat in a most
repugnant and alarming manner, one
recollects one’s dream of
realizing ancestral legacy by
re-embarking on one’s great-grandfather’s work.

Reluctantly, one uses the cattle prod to halt the
repeated efforts of one’s ancestor to
release himself from the sturdy iron
restraints one had the merciful foresight to
reinforce before the experiment.
Reducing the power levels and
resetting the levers, one
retreats to a safer distance to seriously
reconsider (despite the family resemblance) having
reawakened a howling, incoherent monster so eerily
reminiscent of one’s dear late mother.

Really, one thinks as one unplugs the
reviving machines, waiting for the
resubsidence of all signs of pseudolife from one’s
redoubtable, famous, infamous forebear,
Reliving the past isn’t always so
regrettable, is it?

SUBVERSION book trailer

My story “And All Its Truths” is coming out today in the SUBVERSION anthology.   Reviewers already have nice things to say about this antho and this story, which is lovely and delicious.

Lineup includes stories by Jessica Reisman, Shanna Germain, Cat Rambo, Wendy Wagner, Kay T. Holt, Caleb Jordan Schulz, Melissa S. Green, Daniel José Older, Kelly Jennings, Barbara Krasnoff, Natania Barron, Jean Johnson, C.A. Young, Timothy T. Murphy, and RJ Astruc & Deirdre M. Murphy.

Ever wondered what I looked like in a mohawk?  Ever wondered if my twang emerges more when I talk about growing up in Austin, Texas?  Here’s a book trailer for SUBVERSION which may answer all your questions, or stir up a pot of new ones. . . .

“Flaming Marshmallow and Other Deaths” in translation

From the Machine of Death site:

“ These pictures are of the press kit for the upcoming Italian version of MOD1, La Macchina della Morte! … I hope the book does well in Italy when it comes out next year! Tell all your friends in Italy to buy a copy!

Oh and if you have friends in Germany, tell them to buy one too, when the German edition comes out in January.

Oh and if you have friends in Spain, tell them to buy one of the Spanish versions too.

If you have friends in France, you might as well tell them too.

Ditto for all your friends in Croatia, Korea, Japan, and Israel.

That’s right — there will be eight different foreign editions of MOD1 coming out next year across the world. . . ”

Machine of Death opens with my story “Flaming Marshmallow and Other Deaths.” This one has already appeared in audio at Escape Pod and in print in my collection, PUSH OF THE SKY. Fly, little story! Fly!