Short Stories/Novellas

In this, her first story collection, six years of multi-award winning Catherynne M. Valente’s acclaimed short fiction comes together in a single volume. From Mars to ancient India, from the interstellar deeps to post-war Leningrad, from selkies and gingerbread houses to zombies, noir detectives, and video games that never were, these stories leap from genre to genre, voice to voice, outer reaches to inner hearts. Here you will find strange secret histories, back-alley deals between steampunk and pirate stories, between fairy tales and moon colonies, Antarctic cartographers and interplanetary documentary filmmakers. Here an author throws her voice—and a family of strange dolls speaks, as if by magic.

The second release from the Electrum Novella Series, which takes Arthurian legend to the furthest limits of the imagination. Incantatory, labrynthine, and both playful and heartbreaking, Under in the Mere is a major new work from one of America's premier writers of fantasy.

Fantastist Catherynne M. Valente takes on the folklore of artificial intelligence in this brand new, original novella of technology, identity, and an uncertain mechanized future. Neva is dreaming. But she is not alone. A mysterious machine entity called Elefsis haunts her and the members of her family, back through the generations to her great-great grandmother—a gifted computer programmer who changed the world. Together Neva and Elefsis navigate their history and their future, an uneasy, unwilling symbiote. But what they discover in their dreamworld might change them forever . . . 2011 Nebula Award Nominee for Best Novella 2012 Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novella

The August 2012 issue of the Hugo Award-winning magazine, Clarkesworld. This issue features the following stories: "Mantis Wives" by Kij Johnson, "Honey Bear" by Sofia Samatar and "Fade to White" by Catherynne M. Valente. Non-fiction includes an interview with China Mieville, an article on magic systems and real world zeitgeists by Jeff Seymour, an Another Word column by Daniel Abraham and editorial by Neil Clarke.

Zelda Fair, who longs for something more, faces off against the boss and his besotted employee Frankie in a deadly game.

From the award-winning, bestselling author of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland comes Catherynne M. Valente's dark fantasy tale "L’Esprit de L’Escalier", a Tor.com Original. In this provocative and rich retelling of the Greek myth, Orpheus, the musician son of Apollo and Calliope, successfully rescues his wife Eurydice from Hades after her untimely death. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Comfort Me With Apples is a terrifying new thriller from bestseller Catherynne M. Valente, for fans of Gone Girl and Spinning Silver A Shirley Jackson Award finalist! A Locus Award finalist! Sophia was made for him. Her perfect husband. She can feel it in her bones. He is perfect. Their home together in Arcadia Gardens is perfect. Everything is perfect. It's just that he's away so much. So often. He works so hard. She misses him. And he misses her. He says he does, so it must be true. He is the perfect husband and everything is perfect. But sometimes Sophia wonders about things. Strange things. Dark things. The look on her husband's face when he comes back from a long business trip. The questions he will not answer. The locked basement she is never allowed to enter. And whenever she asks the neighbors, they can't quite meet her gaze.... But everything is perfect. Isn't it?

Anthology of inclusive tales of people through time looking for one another and for ways for the world to be better. Even time travel can’t unravel love Time-travel is a way for writers to play with history and imagine different futures – for better, or worse. When romance is thrown into the mix, time-travel becomes a passionate tool, or heart-breaking weapon. A time agent in the 22nd century puts their whole mission at risk when they fall in love with the wrong person. No matter which part of history a man visits, he cannot not escape his ex. A woman is desperately in love with the time-space continuum, but it doesn’t love her back. As time passes and falls apart, a time-traveller must say goodbye to their soulmate. With stories from best-selling and award-winning authors such as Seanan McGuire, Alix E. Harrow and Nina Allan, this anthology gives a taste for the rich treasure trove of stories we can imagine with love, loss and reunion across time and space. Including stories by: Alix E. Harrow, Zen Cho, Seanan McGuire, Sarah Gailey, Jeffrey Ford, Nina Allan, Elizabeth Hand, Lavanya Lakshminarayan, Catherynne M. Valente, Sam J. Miller, Rowan Coleman, Margo Lanagan, Sameem Siddiqui, Theodora Goss, Carrie Vaughn, Ellen Klages