About “The Road, and the Valley, and the Beasts,” he writes, “The core of this story has hopefully ended up being the characters and how they deal with living in a mostly unknowable world. However, it started with the image of an old, mysterious road and the beings that use that road. A lot of fantasy deals with ancient architecture that has survived to the ‘present day’ of the story, and that’s something which has always fascinated me.”
* * *
Rich Larson was born in West Africa, has studied in Rhode Island, and worked in Spain, and at twenty-three now writes in Edmonton, Alberta. His short work has been nominated for the Theodore Sturgeon Award and appears in multiple Year’s Best anthologies as well as in magazines such as Asimov’s, Analog, Clarkesworld, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Interzone, Strange Horizons, Lightspeed, and Apex Magazine. Find him at http://richwlarson.tumblr.com.
He tells us, “I was inspired to write ‘Innumerable Glimmering Lights’ after reading about liquid oceans under Europa’s ice crust. The idea of sapient life evolving in a similar situation, underneath a physical barrier that blocked out the sky and stars, was really interesting to me. It might be a huge turning point for an aquatic civilization to become aware of outer space for the first time. Four Warm Currents was conceived as a sort of Copernicus figure in that way, permanently reordering their known universe.”
* * *
Beth Cato hails from Hanford, California, but currently writes and bakes cookies in a lair west of Phoenix, Arizona. She shares the household with a hockey-loving husband, a numbers-obsessed son, and a cat the size of a canned ham. She’s the author of The Clockwork Dagger (a finalist for the 2015 Locus Award for Best First Novel) and The Clockwork Crown from Harper Voyager. Follow her at http://bethcato.com and on Twitter at @BethCato.
About “The Souls of Horses,” she had this to share: “When I was in fifth grade, I won a school district library essay contest by saying I wanted to write books about the Civil War and horses, maybe even from the horse’s point of view. Here I am, almost twenty-five years later. I feel like ‘The Souls of Horses’ is the story I have been waiting for all this time. It took me that long to know how to tell it. I think my inner child is pleased.”
* * *
On weekdays, Mike Allen writes the arts column for the daily newspaper in Roanoke, Virginia. Most of the rest of his time he devotes to writing, editing, and publishing. He’s the editor of Mythic Delirium magazine and the Clockwork Phoenix anthologies, and the author of the novel The Black Fire Concerto as well as the short story collections Unseaming and The Spider Tapestries. He has been a Nebula Award and Shirley Jackson Award finalist, and has won three Rhysling Awards for poetry.
If you read Mike’s introduction, you may recall him mentioning that he likes to hide things in his bio notes at the back of the Clockwork Phoenix books. Yet this time he did nothing of the sort. He left not a hint that the Clockwork Phoenix series might be his bid to recreate or even improve on the fantasy compilations that blew his mind open when he was just a kid, Terry Carr’s and Martin H. Greenberg’s A Treasury of Modern Fantasy being the most guilty of all culprits. Nor did he suggest that Clockwork Phoenix could simply be viewed as the prose version of the offbeat, theme-linked mix of provocatively crafted words he and his coeditor Anita Allen had already been assembling for years in the form of their poetry journal, Mythic Delirium. (Now that Mythic Delirium also includes prose, the metaphor no longer smoothly maps.) It certainly never crossed his mind to reveal the delight he’s taken over the years in the various expressions of puzzlement he’s read as readers and reviewers have pondered what makes a story right for Clockwork Phoenix.
(He does know what makes a clockwork phoenix tick, but he’ll never tell.)
Mike did include that he still can’t believe how lucky he is, that his particular variety of artistic weirdness connects so strongly with so many. He’s also bloody lucky to have such a beautiful and creative soulmate in his artist wife Anita. (And he concedes that the entertainment provided by mutt Loki and felines Persephone and Pandora also constitutes a form of luck.)
You can follow Mike’s exploits as a writer at http://descentintolight.com, as an editor at http://mythicdelirium.com, and all at once on Twitter at @mythicdelirium. You can also register for his newsletter, “Memos from the Abattoir,” at http://tinyurl.com/abattoir-memos.
Acknowledgments
The campaign to create Clockwork Phoenix 5 easily constitutes the most ambitious and complicated project I have ever tackled. Individual projects that were in themselves laborious and time-consuming doubled as sprockets fitted into the workings of the beast, interlocking to animate a greater whole. With so much to keep track of, I’d best just apologize up front to anyone I unintentionally leave out.
Thanks first and foremost must go to Anita Allen, my wife and cocreator, who (as she has done with every volume) arranged the stories in the order they appear in this book. She helped me sort through more than 1,300 submissions, both by reading stories as they came in over the transom and offering feedback on the finalists. She also made jewelry, etched tumblers, and even canned jars of jam to broaden the range of rewards we could offer in our Kickstarter campaign to fund this book. She used her editorial eye to arrange the stories in several of the other books put up as rewards, such as Mythic Delirium volumes one and two, my collections Unseaming and The Spider Tapestries, and C.S.E. Cooney’s collection Bone Swans. Finally, she supplied treasured advice, sanity, support, and love every single step of the way.
Thanks to Paula Arwen Owen for her gorgeous cover art for this book, for the new Clockwork Phoenix emblem, and for coming up with rewards of her own to help bring the anthology into being, such as decals and signed prints; and more thanks to her and her husband Kevin for their unflagging shows of support. (I think as the Kickstarter campaign came down to the wire, Paula and Kevin were at least as stressed as Anita and I were.)
I must shower gratitude on my nagini liege, Shveta Thakrar, for the amazing job she did copyediting this anthology on short notice, and for the many evenings she lent this editor an understanding ear. She received help with the former task from Francesca Forrest, whom I also owe a huge debt of thanks, not just for offering her novel Pen Pal and hand-decorated bottles as bounty for Kickstarter backers, but also for helping me keep my digital magazine Mythic Delirium running (more or less) without a hitch in her capacity as the ’zine’s copyeditor.
On the Clockwork Phoenix side, my assistant editors Cathy Reniere, Sally Brackett Robertson, and Sabrina West, all veterans of volumes past, helped me stem the relentless tide of story submissions. Meanwhile, Christina Sng, my new assistant digital editor for Mythic Delirium, provided invaluable and timely help producing the magazine amidst the tumult.
Catherynne M. Valente, Laird Barron, C.S.E. Cooney, and Paul Dellinger all graciously agreed to let me offer their fiction as special rewards. In addition, several more accomplished wordsmiths stepped up during the campaign to add to the goodies: Nicole Kornher-Stace, Rachel Swirsky, Marie Brennan, John Grant, and Patty Templeton. Ken Schneyer proffered sage advice and his skills as a critiquer, plus the chance to get tuckerized in one of his deftly written stories. Thanks, too, to Neil Gaiman, both for signing his poem in the tenth-anniversary Mythic Delirium issue and for sharing that special issue’s availability as a prize with his fans.
A shout-out goes to Carlos Hernandez for organizing a Reddit Ask Me Anything promotion with practically no lead time, with additional tips of the hat to Benjanun Sriduangkaew for explaining the lay of the land and to Claire Cooney, Francesca Forrest, Margo Lea-Hurwicz, and Paul Barnett for getting the conversation started.
Alex Shvartsman, Lynne and Michael Thomas, Bill Campbell, C.S.E. Cooney, and Rose Lemberg were all kind enough to suggest to the backers of their own worthy projects that they should take a gander at mine. Jeremy Holmes set aside a precious chunk of time from family and gaming to co-script and shoot the campaign’s video, and Dan Stace provided timely and vital tech
nical wizardry on multiple occasions.
I don’t know how I could have gotten through this without the cheerful signal boosting of the many contributors to the first four books in the Clockwork Phoenix series and the new incarnation of Mythic Delirium, not to mention previous subscribers and Kickstarter backers. Here’s where I’ll single out Rose Lemberg again, whose incredibly creative suggestions made during our very first Kickstarter are still paying dividends the third time around.
Let me also bow in awe and appreciation to a special muse whose contribution is one of the most crucial of all. You know who you are. We’ll do dinner soon.
And now a curtain call, the other person who gets the award for both “Most Giving” and “Most Crucial”: Elizabeth Campbell. None of the wonderful things that have happened in my writing, editing, and publishing career over the past five years could have happened without her.
Finally, my everlasting gratitude to the backers of the Clockwork Phoenix 5 Kickstarter campaign, both to those few who have chosen to remain anonymous and the many fine folks whose names are listed below.
Danny Adams
Seth Alcorn
Cristina Alves
Jenise Aminoff
Erik Amundsen
Scott H. Andrews
Anonymous
Eagle Archambeault
Asymptotic Binary
Daniel Ausema
Ashley M Baldon
Rayne Banneck
Barbara Barnett-Stewart
Andrew Barton
Robin Bayless
Bec
beentsy
Chris Bekofske
Beth Bernobich
Martin Bernstein
Deborah Biancotti
Edith Hope Bishop
Carina Bissett
Chris Bissette
Chad Bowden
Lisa M. Bradley
Kelly Braun
Romy Brizak
Samantha Brock
Cathy Brown
Terri Bruce
D Burkett
Charlie Byrd
Elizabeth Cady
Patrick Cahn
Dan Campbell
Autumn Canter
Anthony R. Cardno
Paul Cardullo
Castle KleinHouser
CGJulian
Carolyn Charron
Matthew Cheney
Neal Chuang
Ian Chung
Sara Cleto
Jessica Cohen
Alicia Cole
C.S.E. Cooney
Fred Coppersmith
Cathy Cordes
Aleph Craven
Jennifer Crow
Vida Cruz
Dana
Sean Dannenfeldt
Jeanne Davidson
Rob Davies
DB
DeadWriter
Benet Devereux
Alexandra Dimou
Zach Drager
B L Draper
Shana DuBois
Jeff Eaton
David Edelstein
Hisham El-Far
EnricoB
Gary Every
Lennhoff Family
Matthew Farrer
Joanna Fay
C.C. Finlay
Ellen Fleischer
Sam Fleming (ravenbait)
Kori Flint
Victoria Sandbrook Flynn
Francesca Forrest
M. J. Francis
D Franklin
Alis Franklin
Dina G.
Ken Gagne
Joanna Galbraith
Kurt C. Garcia
Gwynne Garfinkle
Gavran
M. E. Gibbs
Andrew Gilstrap
The Goblin Queen to Whom Mike Allen Owes Fealty
Brady Golden
Richard Gombert
Jeremy M. Gottwig
Jenny Graver
Alicia Graves
Cathy Green
Arthur Green
A. T. Greenblatt
Liz Grzyb
Carol J. Guess
Stephanie Gunn
Amy Gwiazdowski
Daniel P. Haeusser
Kathleen T Hanrahan
AJ Harm
C.R. Harper
Benjamin Hausman
Edie Hawthorne
Kate Heartfield
Bran Heatherby
Andy Heckroth
Samantha Henderson
Michael L. Hicks
Cameron Higby-Naquin
Woodrow “asim” Hill
Erin Hoffman-John
Joseph Hoopman
Simon Horn
Lauren Hougen
Margo-Lea Hurwicz
J.M.
Izlinda Jamaluddin
Shawna Jaquez
Paul y cod asyn Jarman
Arun Jiwa
John Philip Johnson
Glenn A Jones
Michael M. Jones
Jules Jones
Rachael K. Jones
Melanie Joy
Ranti Junus
Max Kaehn
Andrew Kaye
Keffy R. M. Kehrli
Brian Kitchell
Jeremy T Kizer
Yoshio Kobayashi
Jeanne Kramer-Smyth
Barbara Krasnoff
Matthew Kressel
Lace
Nat Lanza
lauowolf
Shiyiya LeCompte
Yin Harn Lee
Y. K. Lee
Sandi Leibowitz Zoe Lewycky
Joanna Lowenstein
C.S. MacCath
Alex Dally MacFarlane
S.M. Mack
Kate MacLeod
Alex de Jarem Mandarino
Tommi Mannila
Susana Marcelo
Kevin J. “Womzilla” Maroney
Arkady Martine
Michael J. Martinez
Robin L. Martinez
Melanie Marttila
Michelle Matel
D. Elan McAtee
Elizabeth R. McClellan
Lynne A. McCullough
Ian McFarlin
Ian McHugh
Lynette Mejia
Chris Mihal
Kara Miyasato
Virginia M Mohlere
Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
Diane Severson Mori
Brooks Moses
Andreas Muegge
Simo Muinonen
Vic & Zoe Munoz
Tricia Psarreas Murray
Paul Muse
Paul Nasrat
Craig Neumeier
Andrew Nicolle
Richard Novak
Victor Fernando R. Ocampo
Erica Pantel
Tiago Becerra Paolini
Dominik Parisien
Chuck Parker
Chelle Parker
Rhonda Parrish
Susan Patrick
Helene Pedot
David Perlmutter
Sasha Pixlee
Amanda Power
Sara Puls
Brian Quirt
rachaar
Rivqa Rafael
Adam Rains
Jeff Raymond
The Reinhardts
Catherine Reniere
Suzanne Reynolds-Alpert
Julia Rios
Aaron Roberts
Martin Roberts
S. Brackett Robertson
Karen Robinson
K.A. Rochnik
Lauren Roy
Anastasia Rudman
María Pilar San Román
Amy Scheiderman
Ken Schneyer
Rebecca Schwarz
Nick Scorza
Gopakumar Sethuraman
Katherine Shan
Patti Short
Sita
Mike Skolnik
S Sloyan
Charles Smith
Andrea Smith
Cat Sparks
Spidere
M
ary Spila
Margaret St.John
April Steenburgh
Erica Stevenson
Ian Stockdale
Amy H. Sturgis
Robert E. Stutts
summervillain
Jonah Sutton-Morse
Rachel Swirsky
SwordFire
Tanbiere
Judith Tarr
Natalia Theodoridou
Dave Thompson
Tibicina
Tibs
Chris Tierney
Tiggerperson
Trentmw
John S. Troutman
Anne Tweed
amber van dyk
Dave Versace
Viktor With a K
Jetse de Vries
Ray Vukcevich
Lauren Wallace
Brittany Warman
James Weber
Sarah Lynn Weintraub
Eric Wells
Sabrina West
Tom Whiteley
Brontë Christopher Wieland
Tor André Wigmostad
Ollie Wild
Connie Wilkins
Meg Winikates
Cliff Winnig
A.C. Wise
Jessica Wolf
Navah Wolfe
Greer Woodward
Xewleer
Isabel Yap
Alan Yee
yo
Gretchen Zelle
Books by Mike Allen
Novels
THE BLACK FIRE CONCERTO
(also available in trade paperback
and audiobook)
Story Collections
UNSEAMING
(also available in trade paperback)
THE SPIDER TAPESTRIES
(also forthcoming in trade paperback)
Short Fiction
SHE WHO RUNS
SLEEPLESS, BURNING LIFE
STOLEN SOULS
THE SKY-RIDERS (with Paul Dellinger,
also in trade paperback and audiobook format)
THE QUILTMAKER
Poetry
HUNGRY CONSTELLATIONS
(also available in trade paperback)
As editor
MYTHIC DELIRIUM
An International Anthology of Prose and Verse
(with Anita Allen)
MYTHIC DELIRIUM: Volume Two
(with Anita Allen)
CLOCKWORK PHOENIX
Tales of Beauty and Strangeness
CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 2
More Tales of Beauty and Strangeness