Bear Witness

My first collection of short fiction comes out in October 2016 (from ChiZine) and will debut at World Fantasy in Columbus, Ohio.  Very excited because WF is next door this time.  (I think in 2017 it’s in DC.)

That cover!  Another amazing cover by Erik Mohr.

This collection of 13 stories and two poems is “beast” themed (many with actual beasts, but some with metaphorical beasts or monsters) with the idea that we have the power to influence others, and be influenced by them.

Below is the Table of Contents.  Many of these have been published in Canadian anthologies, a few in American magazines, and several have their first publishing here in this collection.  For example, the first, a poem, was never published but only read aloud at Arts in the Park, a daily summer performance by musicians and artists in a beautiful corner of a block with a stage, some microphones and dedicated people running it five days a week.  This poem was part of a “Heritage Day” themed performance where writers and musicians were asked to take a Yukon Historical Society walking tour around the city and develop a piece of music or writing from that tour.

Anyway, I’ll tell more stories as we go about the different pieces, if you’re interested in reading, in further posts.  But here’s the whole shebang–the first time they’ve all been in one place.

1. Sam McGee Argues with his Box of Authentic Ashes    (Poem, Arts in the Park, Yukon)
2. Lemmings in the Third Year     (Tesseracts 9, runner up to the Fountain Award)
3. Heartbreak, Gospel, Shotgun, Fiddler, Werewolf, Chorus: Bluegrass
4. Old Lions   (Redivider)
5. Moon Over Tokyo Through Fall Leaves   (Fantasy)
6. How Magnificent is the Universal Donor    (Evolve, the anthology)
7. Bondsmen   (Metazen)
8. Et Tu Brute    (Geist, Honorable Mention to the Postcard Story Contest)
9. Why the Poets Were Banned from the City  (On Spec)
10. You Will Draw this Life to Its End
11. For a Look at New Worlds   (2nd Place, Little Tokyo Historical Society Story contest)
12. Brazos    (Strange Horizons)
13. Awake, Gryphon!
14. Bear With Me    (Tesseracts 11)
15. Song of Sasquatch      (Poem, first appeared in Joyland, then Icarus)

The book will also be illustrated (by me!), and below are a few of the illustrations. There are fifteen illustrations, one for each story and poem.

I can’t wait to have the book on hand to show you.  Very happy that it’s finished.  Thank you to so many people who made this book possible—and I’ve taken up a couple of pages in the book to do that.

It should be available in November in Canada, January in the US.