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Tor/Forge Author Voices Volume Three This is a collection of fiction and nonfiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in these stories and novel excerpts are either products of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously. Collection copyright © 2011 by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC. Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC 175 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10010 www.tor-forge.com Tor® and Forge® are registered trademarks of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC. Table of Contents Author Articles How to Find Your Passion by Beth Bernobich ...................................................................5 On Writing The Sword-Edged Blonde: The Bar Where Everybody Knows Your Name by Alex Bledsoe ......................................................................................................................26 Why Escape? By Col Buchanan ...................................................... .................................38 How Dyslexia, Linguistics, & Medical Science Inspired Spellwright by Blake Charlton 59 “Magic Calls to Magic” by Alex Dellamonica ..................................................................69 On Collaboration by Ian C. Esslemont ..............................................................................84 Behind the Boiler by By Alexander Jablokov .................................................................121 Everyday Magic: Lady Lazarus and the Book of Raziel by Michele Lang .....................128 Fantasy: Keeping it Real by Edward Lazellari ................................................................143 Worlds Colliding? That’s Nothing by Edward M. Lerner ...............................................157 Got a Job in Magicland? by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. ................................................................170 Imposter Syndrome by J.A. Pitts .....................................................................................179 My AI and Miss Brodie by Pamela Sargent ....................................................................259 Fan Fiction and Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi .................................................................268 Russian Myth and Folklore by Catherynne M. Valente ...................................................292 What Happens After You Save the World? By Jo Walton ..............................................335 Excerpts Passion Play by Beth Bernobich .........................................................................................7 The Sword Edged Blonde by Alex Bledsoe .......................................................................28 Farlander by Col Buchanan ..............................................................................................41 Spellwright by Blake Charlton ...........................................................................................62 Indigo Springs by A.M. Dellamonica ................................................................................71 Stonewielder by Ian C. Esslemont .....................................................................................86 Brain Thief by Alexander Jablokov .................................................................................124 Lady Lazarus by Michele Lang .......................................................................................130 Awakenings by Edward Lazellari .....................................................................................145 The Magic of Recluce by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. .....................................................................172 Betrayer of Worlds by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner ............................................160 Black Blade Blues by J.A. Pitts ........................................................................................181 Ganymede by Cherie Priest...............................................................................................188 The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson .........................................................................227 Seed Seeker by Pamela Sargent .......................................................................................261 Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi ............................................................................................270 Bioshock™: Rapture by John Shirley .............................................................................280 Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente ..............................................................................295 Kitty’s Big Trouble by Carrie Vaughn..............................................................................305 Children of the Sky by Vernor Vinge ..............................................................................324 Among Others by Jo Walton ............................................................................................337 Down the Mysterly River by Bill Willingham, illustrated by Mark Buckingham ...........361 The Dark at the End by F. Paul Wilson ...........................................................................393 5 How to Find Your Passion By Beth Bernobich Which do you believe in, fate or free will? My answer is both. No, that’s not cheating. You don’t make choices in a bubble, separate from self or consequence. You make them from preference, beliefs, from the exigency of the moment, weighted by lingering shadows of your past. Wait, that sounds as though we have no freedom to choose, that an outside (or inside) force predestines our future. So fate wins? No, and no. We humans are more than set of binary answers, pre-programmed by culture and the past. We are creatures who can learn, who can change. Our own real- world history proves that. The operative word being can. No guarantee there, alas. But there is a particle of hope. So what if–my favorite question–what if we were gifted with multiple lives? How would choice, and consequence, and our past, affect us? It’s not a new question. In Hinduism and many other religions, life doesn’t end with death. You die, you are reborn, and the choices you make in one life determine the next. You are free to spend eternity struggling with the same questions over and over, or you can rise toward enlightenment. Fate and free will rolled into one package. Which is a hell of a lot more interesting to me than a single shot at Paradise. 6 So when I sat down to write the first book in the Passion Play universe, I gave my characters many lives. Each of them remembers what came before through dreams, some of them more vivid than others, and because the soul carries the imprint of that person, each is drawn to the same kinds of situations over and over. Ilse Zhalina has spent all her lives avoiding confrontation, choosing instead to run. Lord Raul Kosenmark has always taken the oblique path, the hidden role throughout history. Time and again, other characters also gave the decision to others in power. At first these choices are small ones, but the weight of each affects the rest. At the point where Passion Play begins, they are mountains. These books are about how the mountains can fall down. And what comes next. Copyright © 2010 by Beth Bernobich 7 Passion Play By Beth Bernobich Copyright © 2010 by Beth Bernobich Beth Bernobich comes from a family of story tellers, artists, and engineers. She juggles her time between working with computer software, writing, family, and karate. Her short stories have appeared publications such as Asimov’s, Interzone, Postscripts, Strange Horizons, and Sex in the System. She lives with her husband and son in Bethany, Connecticut. Passion Play is her first novel. 8 Chapter One In the game of word links, a large vocabulary was not always an advantage. Words indeed were necessary—the game consisted entirely of words given back and forth, and each response had to connect to the previous one. The good players possessed a quick mind and the ability to recognize patterns. Those who could see the unexpected connections, however, inevitably won. A simple game with endless strategies and unexpected side-effects. Therez Zhalina watched Klara’s face intently, waiting for her friend to turn the miniature sand glass and start the next round of their game. It was a late summer’s afternoon. The two girls sat in a seldom-used parlor, on the third floor of Maester Zhalina’s house. The maids had opened the windows, letting in the warm salt breeze from the harbor, less than a mile away, and a hint of pine tang from the hills and mountains that circled the city to the north. Klara held the sand glass lightly between her fingers, tilting it one way, then another. She appeared bored, but the look did not deceive Therez. She knew Klara’s style. Her friend would start with something innocuous, like chair or book. Then, at the crucial moment, she would throw out a word guaranteed to fluster her opponent. I shall have to use her own strategy upon her first. “Lir,” Klara said, and flipped the glass over. “Toc,” Therez answered at once. “Stars.” 9 “Eye socket.” Klara choked. “Therez! That is not fair. You deliberately chose a horrible image.” Though she wanted to laugh at Klara’s expression, Therez did not let her attention lapse. “No more horrible than yours, the last round,” she said. “Besides, the link is perfect: And Toc plucked out his eyes to make the sun and moon for his sister-goddess, Lir. Come, the round is not over. A word. Give me a word, Klara.” “I’m thinking. I’m thinking. What about— Ah, love-of-the-ocean, the sands have run out. Are you certain this wretched device runs true?” “The glass came with