The Cascadia Subd uction A LITERARY Z QUARTERLY on 2019 X Vol. 9 No. 3 e IN MEMORIAM My Friend Vonda by Amy Wolf Joshua B. Lukin by L. Timmel Duchamp FLASH FICTION Like a Fish Needs a Bicycle by Nancy Jane Moore ESSAYS The Nightmare of Those Who Walk Away, the Dream of Those Who Stay and Fight by Steven Barnes On M Archive: After the End of the World by Alexis Pauline Gumbs IN THIS ISSUE by Christina M. Rau POEMS by Gwynne Garfinkle, Sofia Rhei, Eye Mark Rich, & Sonya Taaffe GRANDMOTHER MAgmA X The Exile Waiting by Vonda N. McIntyre Jean LeBlanc reviewed by Debbie Notkin DUST LANES Short Fiction Reviews by Karen Burnham BOOK REVIEWS The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall Alice Payne Arrives and Alice Payne Rides by Kate Heartfield Gender and Our Brains: How New “If your takeaway…is that The Cascadia Subduction Zone sounds really Neuroscience Explodes the Myths of the interesting, you’re not wrong—it’s a wonderful journal filled with Male and Female Minds thoughtful and insightful criticism.” by Gina Rippon h Niall Harrison, The Guardian, May 12, 2016 The Heads of Cerberus by Francis Stevens $5.00 FEATURED ARTIST Jean LeBlanc Managing Editor Arrate Hidalgo VOL. 9 NO. 3 — 2019 Reviews Editor IN MEMORIAM Nisi Shawl My Friend Vonda by Amy Wolf h 1 Features Editor Joshua B. Lukin L. Timmel Duchamp by L. Timmel Duchamp h 3 Arts Editor Kath Wilham FLASH FICTION Like a Fish Needs a Bicycle by Nancy Jane Moore h 2 $5.00 ESSAYS The Nightmare of Those Who Walk Away, the Dream of Those Who Stay and Fight by Steven Barnes h 4 On M Archive: After The End Of The World by Alexis Pauline Gumbs by Christina M. Rau h 7 POEMS by Sofia Rhei, translated from Spanish by Lawrence Schimel h 9 by Gwynne Garfinkle & Mark Rich h 22 by Sonya Taaffe h 23 GRANDMOTHER MAgmA The Exile Waiting by Vonda N. McIntyre H reviewed by Debbie Notkin h 10 2 DUST LANES Short Fiction Reviews by Karen Burnham h 12 BOOK REVIEWS The Affair of the Mysterious Letter by Alexis Hall reviewed by Cynthia Ward h 14 Alice Payne Arrives and Alice Payne Rides by Kate Heartfield reviewed by Arley Sorg h 16 Gender and Our Brains: How New Neuroscience Explodes the Myths of the Male and Female Minds by Gina Rippon reviewed by Nancy Jane Moore h 18 The Heads of Cerberus by Francis Stevens reviewed by Kathleen Alcalá h 20 FEATURED ARTIST Jean LeBlanc h 24 Subscriptions and single issues online at: To order by check, payable to: www.thecsz.com Aqueduct Press Print subscription: $16/yr; P.O. Box 95787 Print single issue: $5 Seattle, WA 98145-2787 Electronic Subscription (PDF format): $10 per yr [Washington State Residents Electronic single issue: $3 add 9.5% sales tax.] Cover banner collagraph of the Cascadia subduction zone by Marilyn Liden Bode n My Friend Vonda and witchcraft in schools, Vonda picked by Amy Wolf up the phone and dialed. y “Excuse me,” she said. “I have a daugh- ter, and I was wondering where she could Many in Seattle and beyond knew the go to study yoga and witchcraft.” Amy late Vonda N. McIntyre in many incar- says that Vonda stayed on that line, on nations: award-winning author, mentor, hold, for a long, long time…. even beader of small sea creatures. To This anecdote brings me to one of me, Vonda was all this, but for the last Vonda’s greatest triumphs: breaking the thirty years, I had the privilege of calling hold men had on science fiction. Start- her Friend. ing in the ’70s, concurrent with second- On April 1st, we lost her. This was a wave feminism, Vonda and peers like blow to the Clarion West Workshop, Ursula K. Le Guin showed the male Book View Café (both of which she bastion that women could write SF. In helped found), and science fiction as a fact, Vonda, who went to grad school at whole. But to those who knew Vonda the UW and studied genetics, had more well, the loss had the force of a rip in the hard science under her belt than many of fabric of the universe. her male peers. In her work, she manages I first met Vonda when I was a stu- to combine empathy with real science, dent at Clarion West ’92. I only knew always challenging gender boundaries her then as a nice lady who showed up and telling the rest of us: “See? Women at parties. It wasn’t until Vonda landed too can fly to the stars!” in my then-home L.A. to attend a Uni- The one thing I loved the most about versal script workshop that I truly got to Vonda: for all her fame, awards, and know her. First, let me state that Vonda movie deals, she was so down-to-earth was the best house guest ever — she made that unless you knew this going in, you Miss Manners look sloppy. After she would never hear it from her. Her utter voiced her opinion about the coffee down lack of ego, so rare in most people — es- i south (“They make it so you can read your pecially writers — has always astounded newspaper through it!”), and, knowing I me. Vonda positioned herself as a peer, a 1 liked mine strong, she bought me a cof- thoughtful aunt, and, for me, a true sec- fee grinder. Since the way to my heart lies ond mother. along a spurt of caffeine, from that mo- Vonda would do anything for those ment on, Vonda and I were besties. she liked. For me, she formatted my Now, I had worked in Hollywood as Kindle books, read all my work, and ex- a studio drone, so Vonda nicknamed plained, in her quiet way, the difference me “Arnie” and I called her “Vinnie” in between an em and en dash. the hope that male nom de plumes would In the thirty years I knew her, I never earn us more Industry cred. I told her heard her raise her voice in anger. She about the Business, and she returned was so infrequently negative that when the favor by filling me in on the “fun” someone pulled a boner (like that then- that is Publishing. When the film of her editor of a huge publishing house who Hugo-winning novel, The Moon and the came over to hers, used all of her food, Sun, was produced but not distributed, and forgot to invite her to dinner), Von- I used all my film smarts to try to find da would not curse and rail. Instead, she out why. I think I got it, but am not at would calmly relate the gaffe with some- liberty to say, lest I be locked up by Xi in thing like sorrow — for the offender. the cell next to Fan Bing Bing, the star Even on her deathbed, Vonda was un- of the movie. failingly polite. While I was watching Since Vonda wrote serious SF, you over her as a member of “Vonda’s Posse,” might not know that she was wickedly she awoke and said intently, “Do I owe funny. She once told me a story (repeat- you any money?” ed by Amy Thomson at Vonda’s recent “Vonda,” I said, “I owe you money!” Memorial) that when some Washington In fact, she was the most generous State honchos were thinking of passing person I have ever known: with her time, a bill that banned the teaching of yoga resources, even her choice of restaurants. Cont. on p. 2 n My Friend Vonda Over the course of our long friendship, tient, caring, engaged, right up until the (cont. from p. 1) when we were living in the same town, day she died. we regularly went to dinner together. Sleep well, Vonda, my friend. I have Now, Vonda knew that I couldn’t get the comfort of knowing that the stuffed good Chinese food since my local place Flamingo I bought you (we named him Amy Wolf is from LA in Issaquah had closed. Do you know Fred) was in your hand that last day and and worked for the that for almost every month over those that you managed to finish your book, Hollywood studios. She is thirty years, Vonda would come with The Curve of the Earth, before you were an Amazon Kindle Scout me to Judy Fu’s Snappy Dragon in the taken from us. winner. She first met U district? She never said, “You know, Although she is gone, Vonda has left us Vonda McIntyre while Amy, I am actually sick of Chinese. Can so much: groundbreaking books and sto- attending Clarion West we do Indian?” No. Vonda’s thoughts ries, a film yet to come out, Clarion West, ,92 in Seattle and became were always of others. And so, for my Book View Café, but most of all…mem- a good friend for the next posse shifts during the last weeks of her ories of the person she was. Even three thirty years. life, because I drove in from the eastside, months after her passing, when I think Vonda went so far as to offer to pay for of her, I’m in tears. Still, when I picture my gas! In fact, she would always buy Vonda, she is wearing her brown leather whomever was sitting with her a meal. “Universal” jacket, her cool L.A.