Young Jon Dahlquist visits an elderly distant relative who is dying at the Darktree Sanitarium.  Earlier he had been forced to share his room with her, and he now still fears the strange hypnotic powers that she had over him then.

1. Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (Edward L. Ferman)
   [Cornwall CT: Mercury Press], Apr 1971; pp. 94 - 100
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

2. [as Un grand flot noir] [French translation by Denise Hersant]
   Fiction #221 (Alain Dorémieux)
   [Paris: Opta], May 1972; pp. 94 - 102
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

3. Terrors (Charles L. Grant)
   • Chicago IL: Playboy Press 21138 [pb], Jul 1982; pp. 179 - 186
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

4. [as Darktree] [Dutch translation]
   Gruwelijk gezelschap
   • Amsterdam: Loeb Alfred Hitchcockreeks; 1985
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

5. [as Darktree] [Dutch translation]
   Gruwelijk en grotesk
   • Amsterdam: Loeb Alfred Hitchcockreeks; 1988

1. All the Devils are Here (David D. Deyo, Jr.)
   • Atlanta GA: Unnameable Press; Aug 1986; pp. 26 - 28
     • [signed trade paperback, limited to 200 copies]
     • [trade paperback, 1000 unsigned copies]
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

2. Emphatically Not SF, Almost (MB), Dec 1990; pp. 37 - 40

1. Worlds of If (Ejler Jakobsson)
   [New York: UPD Publishing Corp.], Jan/Feb 1973; pp. 4 - 68
   [illustration uncredited, possibly Jack Gaughan]
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

2. The 1974 Annual World's Best SF (Donald A. Wollheim)
   • New York: DAW Books UY1109 [#101] [pb], May 1974; pp. 187 - 266
   • New York: DAW Books [book club edition published by Doubleday] [hc], Sep 1974; pp. 161 - 232
   • [as The World's Best SF Short Stories #1]
     London: Elmfield [hc], 1975
   • [as Wollheim's World's Best SF: Series Three]
     New York: DAW Books UE1507 [pb], Dec 1979; pp. 187 - 266
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

3. [as Mort et succession des Asadis] [French translation by Laurence Azaďs]
   Galaxie #122
   [Paris: Opta], Jul 1974
   
   
4. The Best from If, Volume II (anonymous)
   • New York: Award AQ1360 [pb], Sep 1974; pp. 93 - 178
   
   
5. [as Tod und Bestimmung unter den Asadi] [German translation by Horst Pukallus]
   Science Fiction Story Reader 11 (Wolfgang Jeschke)
   • Munich: Heyne SF 3627 [pb], 1979; pp. 63 - 164
   
   
   
   
   

6. [Slightly revised]
   Included in Transfigurations (MB), Oct 1979; pp. 21 - 108
   
   
   [Note: all future reprintings are of this revised version]
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

7. [as Morte e designazione tra gli Asadi] [Italian translation by Iole Luisa Rambelli]
   Il meglio di If 2
   • Milan: Mursia [Tascabili Mursia 35], Aug 1980; pp. 103 - 199
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

8. [as Tod und Bestimmung unter den Asadi] [German translation by Waltern Brumm]
   Included in Transfigurationen (MB), 1986; pp. 21 - 126
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

9. [as Morte e Designazione Fra gli Asadi] [Italian translation by Annarita Guarnieri]
   Included in Il segreto degli Asadi (MB), Sep 1986; pp. 13 - 100
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

10. [as Tod und Bestimmung unter den Asadi] [German translation by Horst Pukallus]
    Heyne SF-Jahresband 2000 (Wolfgang Jeschke)
    • Munich: Heyne SF 6342 [pb], 2000
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

11. Blue Kansas Sky (MB), Oct 2000; pp 192 - 263

1. Chapter Seven of Catacomb Years (MB), Jan 1979; pp. 301 - 384
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

2. [as Proben für den Tod] [German translation by Walter Brumm]
   Die Jahre in den Katakomben (MB), 1982; pp. 281 - 363

1. Afterlives (Pamela Sargent & Ian Watson)
   • New York: Vintage 72986 [pb], Aug 1986; pp. 297 - 312
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

2. Close Encounters with the Deity (MB), Aug 1986; pp. 155 - 168
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

3. [as Diario di un uomo morto] [Italian translation by Massimo Patti]
   Altre vite (Pamela Sargent & Ian Watson)
   • Milan: Arnoldo Mondador Editore [Urania 1130], Jul 1990; pp. 92 - 103

Prentice "Prentz" Metcalf, a high-school student with a decidedly talented literary skill, sets out to woo pop icon Madonna in a series of letters.  He is aided in his quest by Mrs. Hewitt, his sympathetic and understanding school counselor.

[I] came up with this story while my wife was working with young people as a counseling intern.  She found that many of them, excluded in one way or another from their parents' busy lives, were finding unusual and inventive ways of investing their lives with meaning and/or stability.  [The protagonist of this story] finds an especially bizarre approach to this problem, yes, but well-meaning survivors do both what they have to and what they can.

1. Century #2 (Robert K. J. Killheffer)
   [Madison WI: Century Publishing Inc.] May/Jun 1995; pp. 80 - 91

[Originally sold to Harlan Ellison for The Last Dangerous Visions]

1. The Missouri Review (Speer Morgan)
   [Columbia MO: University of Missouri] Vol. VII No. 2, Spring 1984
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

2. Light Years and Dark (Michael Bishop)
   • New York: Berkley 07214 [trade pb], Nov 1984; pp. 475 - 490
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

3. The Best American Short Stories 1985 (Gail Godwin with Shannon Ravenel)
   • Boston MA: Houghton Mifflin; 1985; pp. 24 - 43
     • [hardcover]
     • [trade paperback]
   
   
   
4. Nebula Awards 20 (George Zebrowski)
   • New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich [hc], Nov 1985; pp. 292 - 312
   • New York: HBJ/Harvest [trade pb], Nov 1985; pp. 292 - 312
   
   
   
   
   

5. Close Encounters with the Deity (MB), Aug 1986; pp. 91 - 113
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

6. Dogtales! (Jack Dann & Gardner Dozois)
   • New York: Ace 15760 [pb], Sep 1988; pp. 125 - 144
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

7. The Literary Dog (Jeanne Schinto)
   • Boston: The Atlantic Monthly Press [hc], 1991; pp. 351 - 370
   • New York: Grove Weidenfeld [trade pb], Oct 1991
   • [as Of Dogs and Men: Great Contemporary Dog Stories]
     London: Deutsch [hc], 1991
   
   
   
8. [Japanese translation]
   The Literary Dog (Jeanne Schinto)
   • Tokyo: Shincho Bunko [pb], Jan 1994
   
   
   
   

9. The New Roger Caras Treasury of Great Dog Stories (Roger Caras)
   • New York: Bristol Park Books [hc], Oct 1999; pp.
   
   
   
   
10. [Japanese translation by Masami Fukushima]
    Dogtales! (Jack Dann & Gardner Dozois)
    • Tokyo: Fusosha Mystery [pb], Nov 1999

1. The Anthology of Speculative Poetry #3 (Robert Frazier)
   [Sand Ridge WV: TASP Press], 1978; pp. 16 - 17
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

2. Prelude to Catacomb Years (MB), Jan 1979; pp. 19 - 23
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

3. [as Die Kuppeln] [German translation by Walter Brumm]
   Die Jahre in den Katakomben (MB), 1982; pp. 7 - 11

1. The Silver Gryphon (Gary Turner & Marty Halpern)
   • Urbana IL: Golden Gryphon Press, May 2003
   • [trade hardcover]
   • [limited edition hardcover; slipcased, signed and limited to 100 copies]
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

2. Realms of Fantasy (Shawna McCarthy)
   [Herndon VA: Sovereign Media Co.], Oct 2003; pp. 58 - 75 [illustrated by Dave Leri]

On the planet Hond the few surviving tribes of an advanced human civilization struggle along in a primitive manner.  Only Verlis enters into the caves where the remnants of science have lain dormant.  His efforts there lead to an attempt to re-establish humankind, by combining his cells with seeds to grow human clones.  The more difficult problem is to convince his fellow tribespeople to help him.

Damon Knight declined to use the original version of "Effigies" in his Orbit anthology series, but expressed a qualified fondness for the notion of growing people from seeds, calling it "spooky".  Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, is reputed to have grown an army of mindless warriors from dragon's teeth (it might not be inappropriate to call these warriors dragoons), but I do not think I can site a classical impetus for "Effigies".  About the time I wrote the story I had been doing a lot of gardening, and the vaguely erotic contours of my squash and okra mounds may have led me to devise a metaphor linking human and vegetable generative forces.  (Or maybe not.)  Some people have complained about this story's "bleakness", but my gardens never turned out very well, either. — from Preface to Blooded on Arachne

1. Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (Edward L. Ferman)
   [Cornwall CT: Mercury Press], Oct 1978; pp. 106 - 130
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

2. [as Abbilder] [German translation by Marcel Bieger]
   Lektrik Jack (Manfred Kluge)
   • Munich: Heyne 3681 (Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction #54) [pb] , 1979
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

3. [French translation by Robert Berghe]
   Fiction #314
   [Paris: Editions Opta], Dec 1980
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

4. Blooded on Arachne (MB), Jan 1982; pp. 55 - 85
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

5. [as Abbilder] [German Translation by Johannes R. Blasius]
   Arachne (MB), Jun 1983, pp. 59 - 88

1. Playboy (Alice K. Turner)
   [Chicago IL: Playboy Publishing], Jun 1987; pp. 70 - 72 [illustrated by Kinuko Craft]
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

2. When the Black Lotus Blooms (Elizabeth A. Saunders)
   • Atlanta GA: Unnameable Press; Jul 1990; pp. 286 - 292
     [illustrated by Rodger Gerberding]
     • [hardcover, signed and limited to 350 copies]
     • [trade paperback]
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

3. Emphatically Not SF, Almost (MB), Dec 1990; pp. 55 - 60

1. New Pathways into Science Fiction and Fantasy #8 (Michael G. Adkisson)
   [Plano TX: MGA Services], Aug 1987; pp. 13 - 15
   
   

2. Prelude to The Secret Ascension (MB), Nov 1987; pp. 1 - 4

1. Tombs (Peter Crowther and Edward E. Kramer)
   • Stone Mountain GA: White Wolf Fiction [hc], Jun 1995; pp. 68 - 73
   • Clarkston GA: White Wolf / Borealis WW13006 [pb], 1996; pp. 116 - 125
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

2. At the City Limits of Fate (MB), Aug 1996; pp. 119 - 126

1. Interlude in Catacomb Years (MB), Jan 1979; pp. 296 - 300
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

2. [as Der Fall von Saganella Lesser] [German translation by Walter Brumm]
   Die Jahre in den Katakomben (MB), 1982; pp. 276 - 280

1. Pulpsmith (Harry Smith)
   [New York: Generalist Association / The Smith], Autumn 1984; pp. 88 - 91
   
   

2. Pulphouse: A Hardback Magazine #1, Fall 1988 (Kristine Kathryn Rusch)
   • Eugene OR: Pulphouse Publishing; Aug 1988; pp. 111 - 118
     • [leatherbound hardcover; signed and limited to 250 copies]
     • [trade hardcover]
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

3. Emphatically Not SF, Almost (MB), Dec 1990; pp. 41 - 47

1. Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact (Stanley Schmidt)
   [New York: Condé Nast Publications], Jul 1979; pp. 74 - 83 [illustrated by Broeck Steadman]

1. Interlude in Catacomb Years (MB), Jan 1979; pp. 208 - 212
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

2. [as Die Erste Ratsvorsitzende Lesser] [German translation by Walter Brumm]
   Die Jahre in den Katakomben (MB), 1982; pp. 190 - 194

1. The Universe (Byron Preiss) [illustrated by John Collier]
   • New York: Bantam Spectra [hc], Nov 1987; pp. 209 - 224
   • Camp Hill PA: Quality Paperback Book Club [trade pb], Nov 1987; pp. 209 - 224
   • New York: Bantam Spectra 34782 [trade pb], Dec 1989
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

2. The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fifth Annual (Gardner Dozois)
   • New York: St. Martin's Press; May 1988; pp. 605 - 621
     • [hardcover]
     • [trade paperback]
   • [as Best New SF 2]
     London: Robinson; Sep 1988
     • [hardcover]
     • [trade paperback]
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

3. [as Je me souviens de Carthage] [French translation by Pierre K. Rey]
   Univers 1989 (Pierre K. Rey)
   • Paris: J'ai Lu #2572 [pb], Mar 1989; pp. 177 - 202
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

4. [as Así recuerdo yo Cartago] [Spanish translation by Damián Alou]
   El Universo (Byron Preiss) [illustrated by John Collier]
   • Barcelona: Círculo de Lectores [hc], Oct 1989
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

5. At the City Limits of Fate (MB), Aug 1996; pp. 127 - 149

1. Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (Shawna McCarthy)
   [New York: Davis Publications], Sep 1985; pp. 38 - 59 [illustrated by Janet Aulisio]
2. Close Encounters with the Deity (MB), Aug 1986; pp. 115 - 137
3. Terry Carr's Best Science Fiction of the Year #15 (Terry Carr)
   • New York: Tor [Tom Doherty Associates] 53267 [pb], Aug 1986; pp. 261 - 280
   • [as Best Science Fiction of the Year #15]
     London: Gollancz; Oct 1986
     • [hardcover]
     • 03913 [paperback]
4. [as Ein Geschenk aus dem GrauenLand] [German translation by Birgit Ress-Bohusch]
   Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazin 28 (Friedel Wahren)
   • Munich: Heyne SF 4366 [pb], 1986
5. [as Un regalo de los Hombres Grises] [Spanish translation]
   El Péndulo #12 (Martial Souto)
   [Buenos Aires: ], Oct 1986
6. [Japanese translation by Takao Miyawaki]
   S-F Magazine #347
   [Tokyo: Hayakawa Publishing Inc.], Jan 1987; pp. 32 - 47
7. [as Ena Doro Apo tous Katikous tis Grizas Choras] [Greek translation by George Goutas]
   Apagorevmenos Planitis #9 (Dimitris Arvanitis)
   [(Greece): George Bazinas], Nov/Dec 1989
8. Future on Fire (Orson Scott Card)
   • New York: Tor [Tom Doherty Associates] 51183 [pb], Feb 1991; pp. 69 - 89
9. [as Ena Doro Apo tous Katikous tis Grizas Choras] [Greek translation by George Goutas]
   Alternative Factor
   Online publication

1. Whispers #19-20 (Stuart David Schiff)
   [Binghamton NY: Stuart David Schiff], Oct 1983; p. 125 -
2. Whispers #19-20 (Stuart David Schiff)
   • Binghamton NY: Whispers Press [hc], 1983 [350 copies]
3. [slightly revised]
   Emphatically Not SF, Almost (MB), Dec 1990; pp 49 - 54

1. Omni (Ellen Datlow)
   [New York: Omni Publications], Jun 1987; pp. 58 - 60
2. At the City Limits of Fate (MB), Aug 1996; pp. 191 - 195

1. Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (Shawna McCarthy)
   [New York: Davis Publications], Nov 1983; pp. 120 - 166
   [cover illustration by Wayne D. Barlowe; interior illustrations not credited]
2. [as Das Evangelium nach Gamaliel Crucis (oder das Vermaechtnis des Astrogators)] [German translation by Ingrid Herrmann]
   Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazin 26 (Friedel Wahren)
   • Munich: Heyne SF 4249 [pb], 1985
3. Close Encounters with the Deity (MB), Aug 1986; pp. 247 - 306

Mary Smithson's position as chief psychiatric resident at the Helen Hidalgo Hutton Hospital for Advanced Lycanthropic Hebephrenia of Carrion City, Colorado, affords Russell, her husband — an aspiring writer currently taking a correspondence course from the Wealthy Ghostwriters School, Inc. — the opportunity to interview the hospital's star patient.  How could anyone have known what would happen when Russell brings their eighteen-month-old daughter, Tiffany, along for the interview?

One of the most difficult feats in writing horror/terror stories is producing the desired results while, at the same time, producing a smile on the reader's face; there is, in less skilled hands than Bishop's, a tendency for the reader to walk off without realizing he's bleeding to death.  A moment or two of reflection, however, is usually enough to correct that, when you realize that what you thought was funny, or amusing, is something else again. — Charles L. Grant, from the introduction in The Dodd, Mead Gallery of Horror

1. The Dodd, Mead Gallery of Horror (Charles L. Grant)
   • New York: Dodd, Mead, Aug 1983; pp. 183 - 194
     • [hardcover]
     • [trade paperback]
   • [as Gallery of Horror]
     London: Robson [hc], 1983
   • [as Gallery of Horror]
     New York: Penguin / Roc [hc], Feb 1996
   • [as Gallery of Horror]
     New York: Penguin / Roc [book club edition published by Doubleday] [hc], Jun 1996; pp. 165 - 175
2. [as Bebés grávidos] [Spanish translation by Cesar Terrón]
   Horror 1 (Charles L. Grant)
   • Madrid: Martínez Roca (Gran Super Terror) [pb], Apr 1986

Over a decade ago, in a letter or at an ArmadilloCon in Austin, Texas, Howard Waldrop told me that if I ever wrote a story about Rondo Hatton, the disease-deformed horror actor of the 1930s and ’40s, I could use his title “Help Me, Rondo.”  "I might never get around to writing my own Hatton story," Howard said.  Researching Hatton demanded ingenuity, but The Internet Movie Database (www.imdb.com) provided photographs, brief biographies, and film lists, and I ordered and pored over a video of Hatton in a potboiler called The Creeper.  Bob Ross, a movie reviewer for the Tampa Tribune, my friend Andy Duncan, and others offered usable tidbits about Hatton, but when I ordered a back issue of the horror-film fanzine Midnight Marquee with a detailed article by director Fred Olen Ray, I struck the mother lode.
Ray’s essay, along with a photo-crammed history of Universal Studios, provided the grist for my take on Hatton.  An invitation from William Schafer and Bill Sheehan to contribute to an original Subterranean Press anthology proffering the photomontage illustrations of J.K. Potter as inspiration gave me the impetus to start writing.  With the topic of my story already in mind, I cheated and looked through a sheaf of Potter’s photo illustrations until I hit upon one that suited my preconceived agenda.  The form of this novelette, let me stress, is a deliberate hybrid — part short story and part screenplay, a movie for the mind. — from the Afterword to Brighten to Incandescence

1. J. K. Potter's Embrace the Mutation (William Schafer & Bill Sheehan)
   • Burton MI: Subterranean Press, Apr 2002
   • [lettered hardcover] (26 signed, traycased copies)
   • [limited hardcover] (250 signed copies)
   • [trade hardcover]
2. Brighten to Incandescence (MB), Jun 2003; pp. 268 - 283

1. Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (Gordon Van Gelder)
   [Hoboken NJ: Spilogale Inc.], Mar 2001; pp. 123 - 124
2. The Devil's Wine (Tom Piccirilli)
   • Baltimore MD: Cemetery Dance Publications [hc], Jun 2004; pp. 129-130

1. Universe 13 (Terry Carr)
   • Garden City NY: Doubleday & Co. [hc], Jun 1983; pp. 1 - 70
   • New York: Tor [Tom Doherty Associates] 53269 [pb], Mar 1985; pp. 9 - 104
   • London: Robert Hale [hc], Mar 1986
2. The Best Science Fiction of the Year #13 (Terry Carr)
   • New York: Baen 55901 [pb], Aug 1984; pp. 293 - 375
   • London: Gollancz; Dec 1984
     • [hardcover]
     • 03557 [trade paperback]
3. Part One of Ancient of Days (MB), Aug 1985; pp. 1 - 73
4. [as Marito Habilis] [Italian translation by Stefano Carducci]
   Ombre e altri atomi
   • Bologna: Perseo Libri [Nova SF a. III (XXI) n. 12 (54)], Dec 1987; pp. 185 - 260 [illustrated by Virgil Finlay]
5. [as Su esposo «habilino»] [Spanish translation by José Manuel Pomares]
   Part One of El Eslabón Perdido (MB), Feb 1995; pp. 11 - 101
6. [as Ihr Habilismann] [German translation by Christian Mahr]
   Part One of Das Herz eines Helden (MB), Jun 1998; pp. 5 - 106

(see Cutouts)

A pioneering 22nd-century family escapes a decimated Earth by crossing one of the time-slip barriers opened by the impact of an asteroid.  When the parents become T. Rex fodder on their first day in the steaming jungles of the late Cretaceous, the 16-year-old son and his 5-year-old brother learn to survive by joining a migrating herd of vegetarian dinosaurs — and avoiding the other humans who have crossed over.

With Robert Silverberg as co-editor, Byron Preiss challenged me to write a story using the latest paleoecological discoveries about “dinosaur migrations.”  I applied myself to the literature and then adopted the venerable, if hokey, sf convention of the time-slip to dispatch a family of “pioneers” into the Late Cretaceous to do battle, sort of, with big extinct beasties.  Frankly, I rank this story third among my efforts for Preiss.  Again, a reasonable person might ask, why include it here?  Because many readers extol it, finding it a fast-paced hoot.  Both “For Thus Do I Remember Carthage” and “The Ommatidium Miniatures” tend to the cerebral, but “Herding” unrolls as an exotic, danger-beset, first-person journey.  — from the Afterword to Brighten to Incandescence

1. The Ultimate Dinosaur (Byron Preiss & Robert Silverberg)
   [illustrated by Wayne D. Barlowe]
   • New York: Bantam Spectra [hc], Oct 1992; pp. 196 - 207
   • New York: Bantam Spectra 37304 [trade pb], Jul 1993; pp. 196 - 207
   • New York: ibooks [trade pb], Jun 2000
2. [as In branco con gli androsauri] [Italian translation by Piero Anselmi]
   Dinosauri (Byron Preiss & Robert Silverberg)
   • Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore [Edizioni del Giallo], Oct 1992; pp. 212 - 224 [illustrated by Wayne D. Barlowe]
3. [Japanese translation by Yoshimichi Furusawa]
   S-F Magazine #444
   [Tokyo: Hayakawa Publishing Inc.], Aug 1993; pp. 158 - 174 [illustrated by Hitoshi Yoneda]
4. Dinosaurs II (Jack Dann & Gardner Dozois)
   • New York: Ace 00285 [pb], Dec 1995; 163 - 184
5. Brighten to Incandescence (MB), Jun 2003; pp. 156 - 171

After an accident in which most of his body is destroyed, Dorian Lorca has become more machine than human.  In order to come to terms with his situation, he is brought to the House of Compassionate Sharers, where his therapy involves interaction with an alien creature.

This is another story that Damon Knight saw in a flatulent early version.  (Bless the man's heart.  Years after those annoying rejections I begin to appreciate a little of what he suffered at my hands.)  I later completely rewrote the story, shortening it by almost a third, and resubmitted it to Damon with an epigraph from his fine 1968 short story "Masks".  For perfectly good reasons — nor am I being coy — he declined this version, too, and it subsequently appeared as the lead story in the first issue of the regrettably short-lived magazine Cosmos, edited by David G. Hartwell.  Soon afterward Terry Carr, Gardner Dozois and Donald A. Wollheim acquired reprint rights for their respective best-of-the-year anthologies.  My first, and so far only, hat trick. — from Preface to Blooded on Arachne

1. Cosmos Science Fiction and Fantasy #1 (David G. Hartwell)
   [New York: Baronet Publishing Co.], May 1977; pp. 5 - 17 + [cover and interior illustrations by George Schelling]
2. The 1978 Annual World's Best SF (Donald A. Wollheim)
   • New York: DAW Books UJ1376 [#288] [pb], May 1978; pp. 61 - 97
   • New York: DAW Books [book club edition published by Doubleday] [hc], Aug 1978; pp. 59 - 96
   • [as Wollheim's World's Best SF: Series Seven]
     New York: DAW Books [pb], Dec 1983
3. The Best Science Fiction of the Year #7 (Terry Carr)
   • New York: Ballantine [Del Rey] 27338 [pb], Jul 1978; pp. 99 - 140
   • London: Gollancz [hc], 1978
4. Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year, Seventh Annual (Gardner Dozois)
   • New York: Dutton [hc], 1978; pp. 128 - 156
   • New York: Dell 11208 [pb], 1979
5. [as Het Huis van Barmhartige Vertroosters] [Dutch translation by Mark Wynants]
   SF-Top Class 1 (Donald A. Wollheim)
   • Zele (Belgium): D.A.P. Reinaert Uitgaven, 1978
6. [as La Casa dei Compassionevoli] [Italian translation by Giampaolo Cossato and Sandro Sandrelli]
   Nella sala dei re marziani. Il meglio della fantascienza nel 1978 (Donald A. Wollheim)
   • Milan: Armenia Editore [Robot 37], Apr 1979; pp. 61 - 96 [illustrated by Giuseppe Festino]
7. [as La casa de la compasión] [Spanish translation by César Terrón]
   Nueva dimensión #121
   [Barcelona: Ediciones Dronte], Feb 1980
8. [as Het Huis van de Meevoelende Deelgenoten] [Dutch translation by J. & H. M. Verheydt]
   De schroefvliegen en andere verhalen (Terry Carr)
   • Utrecht (Netherlands): Het Spectrum Prisma #1909; 1980
9. Blooded on Arachne (MB), Jan 1982; pp. 86 - 124
10. [as Das Haus der Mitfühlenden Teiler] [German translation by Johannes R. Blasius]
    Arachne (MB), Jun 1983, pp. 89 - 127
11. [as Die Barmherzige Gemeinschaft] [German translation by Reinhard Heinz]
    Science Fiction Story Reader 21 (Wolfgang Jescke)
    • Munich: Heyne SF 4041 [pb], 1984; pp. 232 - 278
12. Strange Dreams (Stephen R. Donaldson)
    • New York: Bantam Spectra 37103 [trade pb], Jul 1993; pp. 145 - 177
    • London: HarperCollins UK [trade pb], Aug 1993
    • London: TSP [book club edition] [trade pb], Sep 1993
    • London: HarperCollins UK [pb], Mar 1994
    • New York: Bantam Spectra [book club edition published by Doubleday] [hc], Jul 1994
13. [Japanese translation by Makoto Yamagishi]
    20th Century SF 4. The 1970's: The Girl Who Was Plugged In (To'oru Nakamura & Makoto Yamagishi)
    • Tokyo: Kawade Bunko [pb], May 2001

1. Century #6 (Robert K. J. Killheffer)
   [Brooklyn NY: Century Publishing], Spring 2000; pp. 3 - 16

1. The Anthology of Speculative Poetry #3 (Robert Frazier)
   [Sand Ridge WV: TASP Press], 1978; pp. 10 - 11
2. Time Pieces (MB), Dec 1998; pp. 19 - 22

1. Crank #5 (Bryan Cholfin)
   [Cambridge MA: Broken Mirrors Press], Summer 1995; pp. 3 - 40
2. At the City Limits of Fate (MB), Aug 1996; pp. 279 - 328
3. The Best of Crank! (Bryan Cholfin)
   • New York: Tor Books [hc], Sep 1998; pp. 119 - 162

1. Spirits of Christmas (Kathryn Cramer & David G. Hartwell)
   • New York: Wynwood Press [hc], Sep 1989; pp. 274 - 284
   • New York: Tor 55159 [pb], Nov 1995
2. Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (Edward L. Ferman)
   [Cornwall CT: Mercury Press], Nov 1989; pp. 6 - 19
3. [as Musica di ghiaccio] [Italian translation by Antonio Cecchi]
   Millemondiestate 1990
   • Milan: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore [Millemondi 37], Jun 1990; pp. 209 - 221
4. [slightly revised]
   Pulphouse: The Hardback Magazine #10, Spring 1991 (Kristine Kathryn Rusch)
   • Eugene OR: Pulphouse Publishing; Mar 1991; pp. 107 - 120
     • [leatherbound hardcover; signed and limited to 250 copies]
     • [trade hardcover]
5. [as The Ghost of Christmas] [Japanese translation by Osamu Asai]
   S-F Magazine #409
   [Tokyo: Hayakawa Publishing Inc.], Apr 1991; pp. 92 - 103
6. At the City Limits of Fate (MB), Aug 1996; pp. 245 - 258
7. A Yuletide Universe: Sixteen Fantastical Tales (Brian M. Thomsen)
   
   • New York: Warner Aspect [trade pb], Nov 2003; pp. 95 - 108

1. Worlds of Fantasy #3 (Ejler Jakobsson)
   [New York: UPD Publishing Corp.], Winter 1970; pp. 152 - 183
2. Chapter One of Catacomb Years (MB), Jan 1979; pp. 25 - 60
3. [as Wenn eine Blume sich verfinstern könnte] [German translation by Walter Brumm]
   Die Jahre in den Katakomben (MB), 1982; pp. 13 - 46

On the planet Blaispagal, in the empery of Chinistrex Fortronza, the people are machines.  And when their leader, Pajetric Stat, hears the rumor of a machine that has the ability to emulate emotions, such as laughing and crying, he demands that this machine, the Homunculus, be brought before him.

Thomas M. Disch and Charles Naylor provided the incentive for writing this story.  They were compiling an anthology of original stories based on cagey recastings of myths, legends, and fairy tales (whether ancient or contemporary); and my jumping-off place was "The Nightingale" by Hans Christian Andersen.  Andersen's version begins "In China, you know of course, the emperor is Chinese, and everyone he has around him has to be Chinese too."  The charm in the original tale lies in its simplicity; whereas the chief shortcoming of my far-future adaptation, as Richard Delap once correctly pointed out, is its infernal busyness.  Still I am fool enough to think that a second perusal — I know, I know — may well reward the patient reader: "Zizizi, click, rescan." — from Preface to Blooded on Arachne

1. New Constellations (Thomas M. Disch & Charles Naylor)
   • New York: Harper & Row [hc], Nov 1976; pp. 165 - 181
2. [as A Chinistrex Fortronza gli uomini sono macchine] [Italian translation by Giorgio Pagliaro]
   Nuove costellazioni (Thomas M. Disch & Charles Naylor)
   • Milan: Armenia Editore [Robot 32], Nov 1978; pp. 143 - 157
     [illustrated by Giuseppe Festino]
3. Blooded on Arachne (MB), Jan 1982; pp. 125 - 143
4. [as Die bewohner von Chinistrex Fortronza sind maschinen] [German Translation by Johannes R. Blasius]
   Arachne (MB), Jun 1983, pp. 127 - 144

1. The Architecture of Fear (Kathryn Cramer & Peter D. Pautz)
   • New York: Arbor House [hc], Oct 1987; pp. 237 - 248
   • New York: Avon 70553 [pb], Jan 1989; pp. 217 - 227
2. Western Ghosts (Frank D. McSherry, Jr., Charles G. Waugh & Martin H. Greenberg)
   • Nashville TN: Rutledge Hill Press [trade pb], Feb 1990; pp. 39 - 49
3. [as En la sala del recuerdo] [Spanish translation by Josep Rovira]
   Las Moradas del Terror (Kathryn Cramer & Peter D. Pautz)
   • Teiŕ (Spain): Ediciones Robinbook [pb], Jul 1991
4. At the City Limits of Fate (MB), Aug 1996; pp. 197 - 208

The tornados that are plagueing several small towns in Kansas and nearby states seem to have a pattern, in that each town hit has been larger than the one before.  A young boy, Justice Weir, sits in the barbershop where the town crones have come to swap stories about the storms.  When the school teacher who has volunteered to help in the aftermath of the most recent tornado comes in to relate the latest events, only Justice (even though most people thinks he's slow) knows the truth behind the tornados.

1. Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (Edward L. Ferman)
   [Cornwall CT: Mercury Press], Feb 1974; pp. 84 - 92
2. [as Prière dans les décombres] [French translation by Bruno Martin]
   Fiction #255
   [Paris: Opta], Mar 1975; pp. 3 - 15