5/21/17. After seeing that this story won the 2017 Nebula for Short Story today, I read it on the Uncanny Magazine website. 

What happens when a woman who is magically tasked with walking until she wears out seven pairs of iron shoes meets a woman who is magically isolated on top of a glass hill until a suitor rides up the hill to claim her?

 Tabitha walks across all sorts of terrain, hoping to wear out the soles of her iron shoes. She started with seven pairs and at the onset of the story, is around halfway through her long journey. One day, she comes upon a giant glass hill, atop which sits a girl.

Amira sits on a glass throne on a glass hill. Every day that is not too cold, lots of suitors attempt to ride horses up the hill to claim her as theirs, for her father is a king and she his only daughter. Instead of marrying her off to one of his rivals, and seeming to show favor on that one territory, Amira agreed to stay on top of this hill until someone can claim her. She is magically provided golden apples that sustain her while she waits.

When Tabitha sees the hill, she sees it as an opportunity to wear down her shoes, as it seems like unconventional materials wear the iron down faster than dirt. She reaches the top and both women are happy for the company.

Over time, as Tabitha stays for quite some time, they learn more about each other and their unique feelings of isolation come out.

Once upon a time, Tabitha fell in love with a bear. The bear turned into a man at times but he was abusive to her. Though she still loved him (or, as is the likely case, just thinks she loves him), he tells her that she may visit her mother but not speak of him, for he fears that her mother will speak ill of him. Tabitha speaks to her mother, who also sees the marks of abuse on Tabitha, and her mother suggests Tabitha burn his pelt so he will have to forever live as a man. When Tabitha does his, her husband is angry, and he gives her the pelt and seven pairs of iron shoes. It is only when she has worn out all the pairs that he will remain a man forever, he tells her. So she walks...

The two women talk through their feelings -- both in a cage of sorts that is partially of their own making. Together, they decide to help each other and to walk off the glass hill together. Amira gives Tabitha several golden apples to sustain her and hopefully help heal her mangled feet, as well as silken shoes. Tabitha agrees to "claim" Amira and help her end her life of magical aloneness.

This story is one which really conveys how people get stuck in situations and, sometimes because they are alone, cannot see a way out or don't think there is one/they deserve one. Also, how many people strive to achieve goals only because they are what society seems to think is normal. Just because you chose something does not mean you have to live with it forever. You can choose again.

Winner of the 2016 Nebula Award for Short Story.

This whole story is very memorable and somehow achieves that fairy tale-esque vibe of being timeless.

fairy tale, literature, fantasy, iron shoes, glass hill, women, friendship, relationships, nebula winner, choice, love

5/19/17. Read in Paycheck and Other Classic Stories by Philip K. Dick. (first printing 1990)

In a version of the future, many families trust nanny robots to care for their children. The Fields family's nanny has been repaired a few times and keeps showing up with dings and dents from an unknown source.

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"When I look back," Mary Fields said, "I marvel that we ever could have grown up without a Nanny to take care of us."

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futuristic, consumerism, social commentary, robots, nanny

Most recently 5/19/17. Read in Nightmares & Dreamscapes. (1993) I've also listened to this one and absolutely recommend it in that format. Kathy Bates is perfect as the reader and it is collected in Chattery Teeth: And Other Stories.

At a roadside stop, Bill Hogan, a salesman, picks up a set of metal chattery teeth before heading out on the road. He agrees to take a hitchhiker along for the ride, but both the chattery teeth and the hitchhiker make this one ride Hogan will never forget.

Label and UPC system salesman Bill Hogan makes a stop while driving home from a sales trip in Nevada. While at Scooter's Grocery and Roadside Zoo, Hogan notices a few things, namely the ratty-looking young man who is a few cents short for his cigarettes and the collection of novelties Scooter and his wife have in glass cases around the store. Hogan spots the kid a quarter and is unsurprised to get no offer of change back. When it's Hogan's turn to pay for his gas, he inquires about the largest set of chattery teeth he's ever seen. They are metal, huge and wearing spats. (this is a great image and brought up several times. Spats!) Hogan thinks his son, Jack might get a kick out of them, but it turns out they are broken. Scooter ends up giving Hogan the teeth for free while his wife is out of the room.

Outside, a wind and dust storm is brewing and the ratty teenager/young man asks Hogan for a ride. Normally, Bill is not up for picking up hitchhikers. Not since a few years earlier when he was held up by a young woman, whom he did not realize was into drugs until she was already in the car. Against his better judgment, but primarily because of the impending storm, Hogan agrees to take the kid to a roadside stop a few hours away. He quickly realizes that this kid is a shit. This starts with the kid lying and saying his name is Bryan Adams and ends with the kid threatening Hogan with a switchblade. The wind outside causes near accidents a few times before the knife comes out, but Hogan is unsurprised and rather angry that this is happening again to him. He doesn't fly because he was in a commuter plane crash and several people aboard passed in the accident. Instead of doing what the kid asks, Hogan ends up running the van off the road and into a gully. Because the young man was not wearing a seatbelt, he is tossed around the van, whereas Hogan is hurting but still restrained by his belt. "Bryan Adams" tries to go after Hogan and Bill grabs whatever he can find nearby -- the chattery teeth in their brown paper bag -- and slams them against the kid. 

For some reason, Hogan feels like the teeth are not completely broken, and actually might have some understanding. He orders them to bite the kid, which cracks "Bryan Adams" up. He taunts the teeth and puts his finger in between the jaw a few times. The teeth do not bite down, but as soon as they are close to the kid's face, the teeth latch on and basically gnaw his nose off of his face. They also bite down on his testicles which is a very Stephen King-ish detail that is added to the story. Hogan passes out. When he wakes up, he hears a weird noise and realizes it is the teeth making their way up the back of his seat. He passes out again. This time when he wakes up, he realizes the teeth have chewed through his seatbelt so he can get up and out of the car. There is blood in the van but no sign of "Bryan Adams." Hogan walks for a bit outside the car until he sees the mangled and chewed body of the teeth dragging the kid away by the hair.

A year or so after the accident, Hogan returns to Scooter's. Scooter has passed away from the cancer that made him appear very sickly during their first interaction. Mrs. Scooter (no name ever given) remembers Hogan from the storm and accident and tells him that she has something for him. She brings out the chattery teeth and tells him that they were on the front porch the day after the storm so they just figured Hogan forgot them. While he is still slightly weirded out by them, Hogan agrees to take them. After sliding them into his pocket, he feels the set of teeth move a bit and gives it a companionable pat before leaving.

I have read/listened to this story a few times and it is one that I can retell as a story to other people. It is a great story to tell to people who might be interested in reading King's short stories. It also always amazes me that King can write pretty terrifying stories about something as benign as chattery teeth wearing shoes.

"Looking into the display case was like looking through a dirty pane of glass into the middle third of his boyhood."

"The snakes in pissant little roadsdie menageries like this one couldn't kill you; their venom was milked twice a week and sold to clinics that made drugs with it. [...]But the snakes could still give you one hell of a painful bite if you got too close and then made them mad. That, Hogan thought, was what the current breed of road-kids had in common with them." (p. 182)

traveling salesman, novelties, nevada, horror, thriller, audiobook, kathy bates, teeth, spats, retelling, roadside, car accident

5/13/16. Read on the author's website. The story was originally published in Omni in 1990.

Two beings have a conversation about a planet they've been exploring and they can't believe that the inhabitants of the planet are made entirely of meat.

Two beings of an alien race are assessing the status of a nearby planet. Though they never outright say it, it is implied that it is Earth. Neither can believe that humans (the word is not actually used) are completely made out of meat, including our brains. The idea that we've been trying to make contact with anyone in space or that we talk and sing through our meat mouths astonishes the beings. They've done probes and studied individual humans but found nothing of interest. All in all, they proclaim the planet and its "sentient meat" inhabitants rather pathetic and have no interest in making contact. Instead, they mark the planet as "uninhabited" and move on with their lives, but not without a quick thought of how lonely it might be to feel so alone in the universe.

This story is depressing the more you think about it.

"They're made out of meat." 

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aliens, space, first contact, philosophy, science fiction, existentialism

5/12/16. Book. "Welcome to the Monkey House" 

In an effort to keep every person equal in all ways, no one can excel at anything in this version of the world. If they're beautiful, they must wear grotesque masks. If they're too intelligent, they must wear something in their ears that emits all sorts of noises to distract them. So what happens when a tall, attractive genius decides to question this system?

Harrison Bergeron was taken from his parents at 14. He was too attractive, too intelligent, and seven feet tall. Since that time, he's been in prison as a danger to society. The actual story concentrates on Harrison's parents, George and Hazel. Hazel is of "normal intelligence" (read: pretty simple-minded) so she doesn't have any mental handicaps put upon her. Her husband is another question. Because of his intelligence, he has to wear ear buds in his ears that produce random sounds every 20 seconds, like a 21-gun salute or the sound of a baseball bat hitting a milk carton to distract him and prevent him from exploring any train of thought too extensively. He also has to wear a canvas bag containing 47 pounds of birdshot around his neck. He and his wife are watching a ballet on the television, but it is a sad yet comical affair with Handicapper General Diana Moon Glampers' rules in place. The better the dancer, the more handicaps they are wearing. The dancers are fumbling around on stage, wearing varying amounts of weighted bags and hideous masks. 

A news bulletin interrupts the performance and a man tries to read it but cannot due to his speech impediment. One of the dancers reads it, but she quickly realizes that her voice sounds too good for society and she alters it to sound worse. The bulletin is about Harrison's escape from prison. At first, they show pictures of him. Later, he shows up on the screen--the most handicapped man ever but still considered "under-handicapped." He looks like "a walking junkyard," with 300 pounds of weights on him, and he has black covers on his teeth, has to wear a red rubber nose and has shaved-off eyebrows. 

In the studio, he rips off all of his handicaps and declares himself Emperor. He rips the handicaps off one of the dancers and declares her his Empress. He encourages some of the other dancers to take theirs off and he will give them titles. The group dances around with an unknown freedom until Handicapper General Diana Moon Glampers comes in with a double-barreled shotgun and kills Harrison and his empress. 

In the house, George has gone to the kitchen and he misses all this. When he returns, Hazel is crying but she doesn't remember why--probably something sad on television. She agrees and they talk about how they must always try to forget sad things.

This was made into a movie in 1995 with Sean Astin as Harrison Bergeron.

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equality, handicap, handicaps, weighted bags, dystopia, satire, social commentary, futuristic, classic, ballet

5/9/16. Read on Clarkesworld.

In an alternate history, World War II never ended. Two characters, a boy and a girl, approach their 15th birthday, when they will find out what their "purpose" will be in life.

World War II never ended in the US and now it's the 1950s. McCarthy is President and society is extremely regimented due to ongoing war, nuclear radiation issues and population decline because  of those things. At 15, young women and men are given their lot in life. Martin wants nothing more than to be a husband. In this alternate history, because there are so many men on the front lines and radiation and nutrition issues really affect the fertility of both women and men, the number of men who will become fathers and husbands is miniscule. At 15, each boy is tested for their sperm count in a ceremony. Each husband has four or more wives and spends a week or so with each family. 

Sylvie, also 15, lives with her mother. She has a crush on (or possibly real feelings for) Clark, a black boy around her age who is leaving for the front lines soon. She realizes the reality of his impeding deployment and the non-possibility of them being together. Her mother is actually Japanese, though she has worked exceedingly hard to hide that aspect of herself--both in terms of looks and accent. Because husbands are rarely around, women have a very free life, at least in some cases. Some find actual true love with other women in their neighborhoods. Some can explore hobbies, interests and intellectual ventures.

On the ceremony day, Sylvie gets ready with all the clothes and accessories the government sent her, as does Martin. She gets matched with Thomas, a handsome boy with a high sperm count, but it turns out that they have the same father, so she gets rematched with another boy who is satisfactory but not exciting. Thomas is also the brother of Martin, who sadly has a very small sperm count and is immediately given his first dose of a hormonal suppressant. In this world, these types of libido killers are branded names like  "Kool" or "Arcadia." Throughout the entire story, there are sections of humorous ad campaigns and the commentary inserted from a marketer. The creative director might recommend a commercial with a group of kids and the commentator inserts comments about how the group has to be diverse, with this many girls, wearing these kinds of outfits, holding these kinds of vegetables, etc. It definitely adds comic relief to an otherwise kind of distressing tale.

2012 Nebula Award nominee for best novelette; 2013 Hugo Award nominee for best novelette; 2013 Sidewise Award nominee for best short-form alternate history.

"Fight the Communist Threat in Your Own Backyard!"

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alternate history, WWII, mccarthy, radiation, fertility, marketing, advertisements, nebula, hugo, alternative history, lgbtq

5/9/16. Read on Tor.com.

A man and a woman from different sides of a just-ended war get together to play chess.

Technician/Nurse Calla comes from Enith, whose people are not telepathic. Major Valk Larn comes from Gaant, where the people are. A war between the two nations has just ended, and Calla is in Gaant to visit the Major, who is recovering from surgery. She wears her uniform, which makes her stand out, but because they are telepathic, those she passes are curious but knowing and she has no major problems getting in to see him. During the war, she was one of his nurses while he was a prisoner of war. Due to their telepathy, the POWs were kept sedated, but while he was in her ward he saw her playing chess with another nurse and was curious about it. Later in the war, the tables were turned: her entire unit was captured and Valk Larn was now much higher up. He ends up asking her to teach him how to play chess and she makes "the ugliest chess set ever" with cardboard. To combat his telepathy, since chess is a game of strategy and he knows everything she is thinking, she decides to try pure randomness. She just moves anything right away and sees where it goes from there, which gives her at least a slight chance of winning but at worst, at least an enjoyable game. When they play together after the war, many of the nurses and staff come to watch the game and hear the thoughts between the two. When the game ends and they tell Calla her companion must rest, she starts crying, realizing that the war is over and they can play anytime. However, neither of them will ever forget any of the dark times they experienced together. Perhaps that's what cements the bond.

When you have a terrible shared experience, the people who were there with you will never leave you. It is comforting to know that we all kind of just understand that. No one knows what something is truly like unless they were there.

"From the moment she left the train station, absolutely everybody stopped to look at Calla." 

telepathic, telepathy, war, prisoner of war, chess, strategy, nurse, soldier, hospital, game

5/8/16. Book. Green Hills of Earth (1951, ninth printing, Signet)

A space station construction crew is surprised to see that their new radio technician is a woman.

Tiny, supervisor of a space station construction crew has fired people for things like figuring out how to make a still in space or how to make magnetized dice for gambling, however, he has a new reason to want to fire someone: his new radio tech, sent to replace a fired one, is a woman. She used her initials on her paperwork and doesn't see why her sex should make any difference. She is competent and everyone grows to like her, except for Tiny, who still wants to send her back home. When he finally has the plans set, the workers put in their notice and threaten to strike, which forces Tiny to come to the realization that productivity and morale are up since her arrival and the station would be better off with not just her but also more women. He sends word to the ship that was intended to send Gloria/Brooksie/McIntyre/the female home that they should bring women of all types, and...wait for it...a chaplain, because they'll probably be needing one.

A chaplain? This story has a pretty great feminist message throughout. That is, until that final line about getting a chaplain up to the space station. But who am I kidding, it's Heinlein--I'm just happy there weren't any random quasi-incestual references.

"Sure, we had trouble building Space Station One--but the trouble was people."

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feminist, prejudice, space, Gloria, Brooksie, Tiny, Hammond, space station, radio tech, strike, chaplain

5/8/16. Ebook of "A Guide to Being Born" by Ramona Ausubel. (Riverhead Books, 2013) Also published in One Story and Best American Fantasy 2009.

In a ship at sea, lots of grandmothers exist in a state of uneasiness. They aren't sure what they are doing there or whether they have any control over where they are going.

A group of grandmothers find themselves on a ship at sea, unaware of how they got there or what they are doing. Alice, one of the grandmothers, is the protagonist of this story. She wanders the decks of the ship, talking about what the other women are doing--mostly just passing the time recalling memories, making small talk, playing parts of games. There are large containers they contemplate and then finally break open. Inside, they find one is filled with baseball bats, one with padded toilet seats and the last with yellow roses. They end up unraveling rope and trying to connect the strands to the baseball bats to go fishing. They catch an angler fish and all have opinions about how to name it. Alice ends up naming it (as she was the catcher) and they release it back into the sea. As the story goes on, the reader realizes that this is an imagined in-between between life and death. In a hospital room, Alice's family worries and surrounds her. On the ship, she thinks about her life and loves. She decides to go swimming, since it's ridiculous to be in the ocean indefinitely without swimming. She makes knots in a rope, each one representing a person in her life, and then jumps off the rope into the ocean after climbing down most of the way. She enjoys the feel of the water, swimming around until she throws her arms up in a celebratory gesture, flicking water droplets out into the sky like fireworks.

I love this story. The idea of dying is so scary to me and the idea of loved ones dying is even scarier. I also often think about where the minds of those in a coma or experiencing late-stage illness may be. This is a soothing story--one I can easily see revisiting during certain times in my life.

"The grandmothers--dozens of them--find themselves at sea." - Ramona Ausubel

"Alice is a lover of views, of great expanses, and she is happy now as she has always been, to look out." (Loc 45-54 of 2424 in Kindle ebook)

"There is always the chance of a giant squid and the great likelihood of regular squid." (Loc. 198 of 2424 in Kindle ebook)

grandmas, grandmothers, ship, limbo, evocative, existential, life and death, dying, memory, memories, yellow roses, fishing, angler fish, boat, toilet seats, Alice, women

5/8/16. Read online at www.classicshorts.com. Originally published in 1926.

A family living beyond their means finds luck and money in an unlikely place: their young son.

A mother and father have three children, two girls and one boy, Paul. Both parents make an income, but it is modest, especially when it is revealed that their other family members and peers seem to have more than enough. The mother always seems dissatisfied and though the parents rarely mention the family's money troubles, the children can feel it in the air and the house. In fact, often the children believe they can hear the house saying things like, "There's never enough money," which obviously makes them feel uneasy. Mother and Paul have a conversation about why they don't have any money and Mother says it's because they are unlucky. Paul's father is unlucky and Paul's mother is unlucky for having married Paul's father. She says that some people are just born lucky and it's better to be lucky than rich because you can lose money if you're rich, but you can make more money if you're lucky.

Paul has an old rocking-horse for a toy, and though he is getting too old for it, he still rides it. One day, Uncle Oscar is visiting and talks with Paul about his rocking-horse. He asks Paul what the horse's name is and Paul says it changes every week--last week it was Sansovino. Oscar says that horse just won at Ascot and, through a back and forth conversation, they and the reader realize that Paul has been riding his rocking-horse and somehow seeing the upcoming race and predicting the winners. He doesn't always know with certainty, but if he fully immerses himself, he will know if it is the sure winner or not. Paul has been working with Bassett, a gardner, who places the bets for Paul and for himself. They've already made some money but Oscar also gets involved and the trio make even more. At one point, Paul cashes out 5,000 pounds and they set up a trust in his mother's name to give her 1,000 pounds every year on her birthday for five years. When she gets the letter, she is disappointed she can't get it all at once and talks to the trustee. Paul and Oscar agree that she can have the full amount to pay outstanding debts. The family goes back to living in a little bit of luxury, but Paul can still feel the house whispering for more, more, more. 

The Derby is coming up and Paul just knows that if he can predict the winner, the family's money problems will be solved and everyone will be happy. Mother and Father go out for an evening and Mother feels constantly uneasy. She calls to check up on the kids and hears from their nanny that they are. When they return, she hears a weird noise and goes to investigate. Up in Paul's room, in the dark, he is furiously riding his rocking-horse. He screams "Malabar! It's Malabar" to his parents before passing out. The parents are confused but Oscar is there and understands. He and Bassett place bets on Malabar to win the Derby and they had planned to bet a huge sum of money for Paul. At 14-to-1 odds, Paul's bet ends up netting the family 70,000 pounds (plus about 10,000 he already had from betting.) They tell Paul this and he is so happy. He tells his mother all about how he can predict the winner after he rides his rocking-horse, but he is so overworked that he passes away that evening.

Poor Paul, always trying to help out his family. This is a story I've read a few times but I've never read anything else like it. It's so memorable.

"​There was a woman who was beautiful, who started with all the advantages, yet she had no luck."

rocking horse, winner, rocking-horse, lucky, unlucky, gambling, betting, horse race, derby, predictions, horserace, sad, family