Prudence and the Dragon, by Zen Cho

by audreyrockstar

#47: Prudence and the Dragon, by Zen Cho

Synopsis: A dragon comes to London and falls in love with a med student and feeds her fairies. This does not impress her.

“Prudence—” Angela dropped her hands in her lap. “OK. All that never mind. But tell me honestly, OK. Do you like him? Like, like him like him?”

“No,” said Prudence. “I don’t even like him with one like.”

“I heard that,” said Zheng Yi from the kitchen.

“Then are you just going to let him hang around?”

“How to make him go away? When I try to call police I only get the Worshipful Company of Glaziers receptionist,” said Prudence. “But never mind. I sleep with baseball bat one side, kitchen knife on the other side. And you know I do taekwondo.”

“I also heard that,” said Zheng Yi.

“Good!” said Prudence.

Angela still looked worried.

“At least you’ll tell me if you are going to another dimension, right?” she said. “You know we booked the bed-and-breakfast in Lake District already.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” said Prudence.

“I live in hope,” said Zheng Yi, coming to the table. He laid a crockpot of stew on the table.

With a supernatural effort at politeness, Angela said, “Oh, that smells delicious. What is it?”

“Potatoes, carrots, swede, some grated apple for sweetness, fairies for protein. But only non-sentient ones,” said Zheng Yi reassuringly. “Fairies are terribly good for you.”

They were also quite crunchy, and froze well.

A lot like Joan Aiken’s Armitage stories, but with more Prudence. And a mayor concerned about bicycle lanes.

“Prudence and the Dragon” is available online for free. Also, I very much like Zen Cho’s stories.

Waiting with Mortals, by Crystal Koo

by audreyrockstar

#46: Waiting with Mortals, by Crystal Koo

Synopsis: Ghosts and the people they let haunt them in modern-day Hong Kong.

She says, It isn’t true that girl ghosts are more curious. They leave you alone and do what they came to do. But the guys come into you and they run through everything in you like a bulldozer. Frantic. Almost desperate.

J.G. makes an outward, splaying movement with her hands. It takes a few minutes with girls but with guys, I black out immediately, she says. Like they just can’t wait to look at you from the inside. I like that about them.

She carefully picks a spot on the couch where a little wine has spilled, not looking at me. Her movements are perfect, almost like a performance put on for my benefit.

I’m not doing it for the money, she says.

Beautiful ghost noir, set in a pale and intimate Hong Kong, where, while waiting to cross over, ghosts possess mortals. The police call it “forced entry” even when the mortals consent. The police have their own ghost force. Ben’s relationship with the destructive and doomed J.G. is almost as compelling as his relationship with his distant, demanding father. An amazing Father’s Day read.

“Waiting with Mortals” is available online for free.

Overtime, by Charles Stross

by audreyrockstar

#45: Overtime, by Charles Stross

Synopsis: Have a very Cthulhu Christmas.

“I am going to go home to the wife and kids for Christmas and try to forget about threats to our very existence for a bit. You” — he takes a deep gulp of smoke — “get to play at Night Duty Officer, patrolling the twilit corridors to protect our workplace from the hideous threat of the Filler of Stockings, who oozes through chimneys and ventilation ducts every Dead God’s Birthday- eve to perform unspeakable acts against items of hosiery.”

Set in Stross’ Laundry series, where an MI-5-like organization protects Britain and the world from paranormal terrorism, the narrator draws the short straw for over-nighting over Christmas in the office, conveniently saves world. Yawn.

I know other people like this story, because it’s been nominated for all kinds of awards, but I just wasn’t into it. I read The Atrocity Archives by the same author and while the idea of the Laundry’s an interesting one, the execution doesn’t do it justice. Same problem here. It’s an impressive reconcepting of Christmas, but one that didn’t ultimately hold my interest.

Also hey, is the world going to be both threatened and saved by white dudes? While women are either off visiting their relatives or setting out tea biscuits? Fantastic.

Overtime’s available free online.

A Ghost, Guy De Maupassant

by Patti Abbott

A man is sent on an errand that changes the course of his life.
This story taught me something–that if the writing is good enough, if the atmosphere is rich enough, you needn’t provide much of an explanation of other worldly events. They rise or fall on the quality of the writing. PA

“Singing Songs and Telling Stories About the Land of My Fathers” by Rob Hopcott

by kattomic

“Singing Songs and Telling Stories About the Land of my Fathers” by Rob Hopcott

06.17.12

Story 167/366

My father was a storyteller. His motto was, “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story” and he freely embellished and embroidered and fiddled and fabricated until stories took on lives of their own. That was a good thing because he would often tell his stories more than once.  My friends adored him. When my sister was little, he invented a new way of reading the story of “Little Red Riding Hood” that involved naming more and more elaborate goodies to go into the basket Red was taking to Grandma’s House. “And a peach pie!” my father would say. “And macaroni and cheese!” my sister would answer. They could go on like that for a very long time, sometimes to the dismay of my mother, because my sister was an insomniac even as a child and getting her to bed every night was a chore.  I wanted to find a story about fathers for Father’s Day and found it to be harder than I would have thought. This flash fiction from UK author Rob Hopcott sounded promising. It is a story of a bo who grows up without a father but learns about him in a most unexpected way. You can find it here. You can find Hopcott’s other fiction on his site.  I did grow up with a father and now I tell his stories. Happy Father’s Day all.

See you tomorrow!