This story was originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction magazine in March 2007. It is available in The Best of Elizabeth Bear.

    (He died on July 31st, 2012 at the age of 86.) The triumphant arc of Vidal’s literary career wasn’t solely a mastery of language, though that never hurts. Handsome, poised, slim, charismatic, able to hold his own in verbal fisticuffs without losing his imperious cool, Vidal was the premiere star author of his generation, the one who elevated the role of talk-show guest to a command performance--a theatrical event. He brought the electronic crackle of the TV screen to his prose and the tactical precision of his prose to combat debate on TV. His near-violent altercations on camera with William F. Buckley, Jr. and Norman Mailer are the stuff of YouTube legend and the secret to The Gore Supremacy. A contributing writer to Vanity Fair, a partisan observer of pop culture, and the author of the New York-in-the-70s memoir Lucking Out (which comes out in paperback this fall), James Wolcott has been a closeup observer of Vidal on-camera and off for more years than seems respectable. This, his first Kindle Single, is his way of paying homage--and saying goodbye.

    This is a deeply felt memoir about motherhood, survival and learning to live for whatever life throws at you." CLOVER STROUD, author of The Wild OtherAn extraordinary story of facing life s multiple (!) trials with love, resilience and courage, told in Emma s warm, funny and unflinchingly honest style. AMY McCULLOCH, author of Jinxed and The Potion DiariesWith four children (three of them triplets!) and a relationship break-up to contend with, some things get a little lost in the mix. Like symptoms. Emma Campbell bravely and honestly offers heartfelt thoughts on what happens when cancer becomes an unwelcome guest at an already crowded party. She shares her own terror and pain, mixed with the heartwarming and unexpected. The extraordinary kindness of people and the gritty detail of battling a life-threatening illness, all while being a single mum to four children. She opens up about her angels and demons, losing and then finding love again, a constant fear of death mixed with the joy and relief of living, the anxiety of cancer returning - then facing it when it does. This book has grown from Emma's blog Me And My Four. Eager to share with her followers in more detail, the secrets, the fears, the triumphs and the terrors that she faces each day, in a life as unpredictable as your own...www.meandmyfour.com

    No idea they’ll encounter an undiscovered tribe, rescue a drowning actress, learn jungle survival from a commando, and attend cultural ceremonies few Westerners have seen. As they find out who hooks up, who breaks up, who cracks up, and who throws up, will they fulfil Simon’s ambition to see the queen, or will they be distracted by insomniac chickens, grunting wild piglets, and the easy-going Tongan lifestyle?

    In a few days time the attacks become a massacre and all life on Earth moves toward a single purpose: the culling of the human race. "When Mother Nature's angry, she's a bitch! Fauna will have you gripping the edge of your seat from the first page to the last. This is a non-stop eco-thriller and cautionary tale that will leave you looking at your pets with a different eye. This is also the best book I've read all year! Read it now! But maybe lock the doors and windows first." --John Everson, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Covenant and Redemption "We should have known that decades of messing with Nature would come back to bite us -- with a vengeance... In David Benton's exciting, realistic thriller FAUNA our world has finally decided we're the problem, and it's had enough of us. How would we cope if our apocalypse had fangs and four legs and didn't shamble at all? Reminiscent of Hitchcock's adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's "The Birds" in approach, FAUNA will raise your neck hairs and chill you to the bone." --W.D. Gagliani, author of Savage Nights and the Nick Lupo Series "The animal kingdom runs amok in David Benton's wildly entertaining Fauna. Exciting, action-packed and disturbing in all the right ways, this man-versus-beast saga gallops at a fierce pace with bloodthirsty menace. Benton's scenes unfold with a cinematic crispness and intensity that keeps the pages turning. This book will leave bite marks!" --Brian Pinkerton, author of Anatomy of Evil "In Fauna, David Benton takes you on a globe-circling thrill ride through a gone-crazy world where the animals have taken charge and want revenge. It's equal parts fantastic escapism and white-knuckle horror--a riveting read from the first page that touches on many of the ways humankind uses things and takes them for granted." --Christian Larsen, author of The Blackening of Flesh and Losing Touch

    Based on an actual 19th century legal case, join Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson as they journey to America to solve the Adventure of the Greenbriar Ghost!

     The Telford family’s independent trading vessel, the Belinda is captured by Pruessen slavers and the crew forced into a life of brutal servitude. Their desperate bid for freedom succeeds but a tragic price is paid. Years pass and Nathan Telford, fighting the nightmares of his past and yearning for revenge, joins the Athenian Navy. His first posting is aboard the warship Truculent, patrolling the northern quarantine zone beyond which lurks the Empire. Answering a distress call from a beleaguered freighter, the routine mission becomes a desperate fight for survival. The Pruessans are once again testing the defenses of the Republic and this time they have technology far in advance of the last war. It is left to Nathan, three untried middies and a disgruntled petty officer to try and avert a looming disaster. With their high tech weapons rendered useless and facing overwhelming odds, Nathan risks everything on a brave, hastily conceived gamble. ........................................................................................................................

    In fact, each setback they experience just seems to immerse them deeper into a life they have totally fallen in love with. 'Seriously Mum, Who's that Chicken?' is the latest installment of their adventures as they continue to seize the day, living off-grid and loving every minute.

    Bey had spent his entire life running through the woods and never once saw anything to convince him there were creatures worth fearing. When his littler sister, Chensei, whines about the trip home at night, Bey only mocks her. Until she disappears beyond the treeline. I, PONTIANAK Everyone hates and fears monsters, except for when you’re the monster. I never asked for it, and honestly I can’t say I’ve really enjoyed it. But I am what I am, and I can’t change it. Hell, I can’t even control it. My name used to be Anastasia, and I am a Pontianak.

    The story is impressive in the way it shifts readers’ sympathies … a gem of a legal thriller, full of plot twists and juicy secrets.” —Kirkus Reviews “Powell’s third novel, a legal thriller, reveals the complexities and tragedies of our criminal justice system. It shows how a series of unexpected events can force a law abiding individual to choose a criminal path. The story in this fast-paced novel will stay with the reader forever.” —Focus On Women Magazine From the courtroom to the kidnappers’ lair, Powell keeps the excitement in tune with a pitch-perfect delivery of realistically motivated characters and a nonstop series of powerfully tense situations. There is no lag in the book, from the opening pages depicting the kidnapping to the thrilling conclusion. ROSE GARRETT —Clarion Reviews As Judge Walter McNeil heads home from Washington, DC’s Superior Court, he is preoccupied with the triple-murder case assigned to him. But everything changes when a car pulls up next to him and a man asks for directions. Seconds later, McNeil is pushed into the backseat of the car, knocked unconscious, and whisked away into uncertainty. McNeil’s kidnappers are three ex-convicts whose lives have been ruined by the judge’s harsh sentences. Out for revenge, they feed the judge drugs, repeatedly threaten his life, and then imply they have his teenage daughter, Daphne, who disappeared four years earlier. After they tell him at gunpoint that he must rule favorably on a defense attorney’s motions in the triplemurder case, McNeil has no idea his ordeal is just beginning. Before it is over, the judge’s life will be turned upside down. Now it is up to criminal defense attorney Amanda Perkins and detective Aristo Manfredi to partner together in a race against time to unravel the clues and hopefully save the judge from a fate he never could have imagined. In this legal thriller, a judge is kidnapped and thrust into the midst of a twisted web that intertwines him with the lives of three ex-convicts and the mystery surrounding his missing daughter.

    Choosing significantly different paths, they struggle to deal with the psychological effects of abuse. The three are eventually driven apart and they transition into womanhood carrying a secret that would influence their lives and threaten to destroy their family. Through a series of unlikely circumstances, the three are reunited. The meeting would ultimately set the stage for atonement.

    . .TyWhy didn’t I just stick to the plan?This is a question that haunts me every day. I had a great job and a solid circle of friends.Then, everything fell apart . . . because I didn’t stick to the plan—never get involved, just enjoy life. I was an idiot, but never again. From now on, I stay far away from relationships and feelings. That’s not who I am. It’s time to get back to the real me.MorganHe doesn’t see me. I was pathetic, a ridiculous girl following her older brother’s best friend around like a lost puppy. Watching him with every other woman on the planet. Fantasizing about what it would be like to be them.I was a fool to believe if I just put myself out there and told him I loved him maybe, just maybe, he would truly notice me. Never again. I’m moving on. I’m not the pitiful girl I once was. I’m stronger and wiser, ready to take on the world. And nothing, especially my stupid heart, will stop me.Now there’s nothing left to do except withdraw from each other.

    The decrepit trading ship he served on was also going nowhere: the Rustam's Slipper was grounded on Schuyler's World, a backwater planet lacking even a good bar. For diversion, Schuyler's offered bad bars, cute yet conniving aliens called Rodents, and Catarina -- a mysterious, beautiful, unsettlingly smart woman. Catarina wanted a berth on the Slipper; the Slipper needed a crew member. She Was hired.But Ken soon discovered that Catarina was more than a vamp with a razor-sharp wit. First was her case of McLendon's Syndrome, an obscure little contagious disease treatable only with chocolate-chip cookies. Then there were all the secrets she was hiding. So she wasn't the most trustworthy ally a guy could want as the Slipper hurried straight into murder, mayhem, intrigue, and an interspecies war -- but she was all Ken had. And unless she helped Ken whip the crew into shape and muster the misfits and malcontents of Schuyler's World, it would be the shortest war on record...Del Rey Discovery

    His novels and short stories have been favorably compared to those of Ursula K. Le Guin, Jack Vance, and Samuel R. Delany. Now Grimsley returns to the richly complex milieu of The Ordinary with a gripping tale of magic, science, and an epic clash between godlike forces.Three hundred years have passed since the Conquest, and the Great Mage rules over all of humanity, even as cybernetic links connect the varied worlds of the empire. Vast Gates allow travel from one planet to another, across unimaginable distances. Choirs of chanting priests maintain order, their songs subtly shaping reality, while the armies of the empire have known nothing but total victory for centuries.But on the planet Aramen, where sentient trees keep human symbionts as slaves, a power has arisen that may rival that of the Great Mage himself. Hordes of unnatural creatures rampage across the planet, leaving death and destruction in their wake. An inhuman intelligence, cruel and implacable, meets the priests' sung magic with a strange new music of its own. The Anilyn Gate is shut down, cutting off Aramen from the rest of humanity. The long era of peace is over.Now a handful of traumatized survivors must venture deep into a hostile wilderness on a desperate mission to uncover the source of the enemy's powers. And the future of the universe may depend on the untested abilities of one damaged child. . . .The Last Green Tree is a worthy successor to The Ordinary and a compelling saga in its own right.

    In this fifth sparkling episode of the Fat Dogs series, they take on an accident-prone puppy, an impossible forest project and murderous pheasants. Renewed tangles with French authorities and an unexpected animal adoption add to their challenges.Join the pair as they hunt down rampant mushroomers, raise countless critters and build witches with knobbly knees in their eccentric corner of rural France.