• “How to Get Back to the Forest” was inspired by three pieces of writing: “Everyday Barf” by Eileen Myles, “Barf Manifesto” by Dodie Bellamy, and “Apoplexia, Toxic Shock, and Toilet Bowl: Some Notes on Why I Write” by Kate Zambreno. They’re all about narrative and bodily excesses and ecstasy and control. They’re also about, as Zambreno puts it, the revolt and the revolting, about women in a state of sickness and defiance. In “How to Get Back to the Forest” I wanted to explore that connection. I was also interested in the fact that nausea is catching, and the idea of rebellion as a kind of sympathetic reaction. Of course it’s no accident that my rebels are a bunch of girls whose bodies are controlled and who get up to a secret vomit-fest in the bathroom. Feminist writing has always been concerned with the body and its potential, the body as a site of resistance, and how that affects writing.
In the library of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, as a graduate student, I came across a book called A Picnic Party in Wildest Africa by C.W.L. Bulpett, published in 1907. It’s an account of a hunting trip, full of admiration for the animals and loathing for the people of East Africa. I found it almost mesmerizingly vile. The hunter in “Ogres of East Africa” is loosely based on Bulpett. I think of the story as a kind of speculative excavation of history, and also as a space for language play, for the sheer joy of imagining what escapes bullets and indexes, what goes on in the margins, in the deep forest. The ogres, of course, are real.
Kelly Sandoval’s fiction has appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Esopus, Shimmer, Grimdark, Flash Fiction Online, and Daily Science Fiction. In 2013 she attended Clarion West with some of the best writers she’s ever had the pleasure of reading. By day she works as a procedure writer at a bank, where she’s developed strong feelings about the use of the word verbiage. She’s currently writing an urban fantasy novel about the fall of Faerie and a steampunk game about the adventures of Bernadette Charity Darlington. You can find her online at kellysandovalfiction.com.
• When I first moved to Seattle, I noticed everything. The woman with piercings all down her spine, the nude cyclists, the homeless teens camping by the overpass. There was so much beauty and so much pain everywhere I looked. But that was five years ago. Eventually, I stopped looking. When there’s always something to see, you get overloaded. You stop noticing anything. I think that’s tragic.
I wrote “The One They Took Before” to remind myself to look. To show that sometimes magic is right there, leaking in at the edges. We just need to see it. There’s magic in winter roses. In the guy on the bus with the punk outfit and the pink umbrella. In the people who remember to be kind.
Of course, magic has its costs. So does noticing. Once you see, you start to feel responsible. Beauty and pain can both get under your skin.
Jo Walton has published twelve science fiction and fantasy novels, three poetry collections, and a book of essays about rereading. She won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2002, the World Fantasy Award for her novel Tooth and Claw in 2004, and the Hugo and Nebula Awards for her novel Among Others in 2012. Her most recent books are fantasies set in Plato’s Republic, The Just City and The Philosopher Kings. She comes from Wales but lives in Montreal, where the food and books are more varied.
• I very rarely have short-story-length ideas. I had been interested in the idea of a Soviet sleeper who gets left behind by the unexpected collapse of the USSR since reading a bunch of Cold War thrillers at the time when the Cold War was ending. I came across the commonplace assertion that all biographers fall in love with their subjects. When disputing this and pointing out exceptions, I suddenly thought of a future where biographies routinely featured an artificial intelligence that replicated the subject but was programmed by the biographer. This came together in my mind with the idea of a left-behind Soviet sleeper who is, like King Arthur, sleeping until his country needs him. The details of the future world were manufactured out of wondering what kind of country would lead anyone to need that particular sleeper woken.
Daniel H. Wilson is a Cherokee citizen and the best-selling author of nine books, including Robopocalypse, Amped, A Boy and His Bot, and Robogenesis. He coedited the science fiction anthologies Robot Uprisings and Press Start to Play. His playable short story, Mayday! Deep Space, is available in the App Store. He publishes a monthly comic, Earth 2: Society, and his graphic novel, Quarantine Zone, is forthcoming. Robopocalypse was purchased by DreamWorks and is currently being adapted for film by Steven Spielberg. Wilson earned a PhD in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
• I made a terrible mistake. In “The Blue Afternoon That Lasted Forever,” I included the exact bedtime routine, word for word, that I used for my daughter when she was three years old. She is nearly five at this moment, and so, of course, that particular bedtime routine has disintegrated. The rituals that we have with our children are so special and so personal—yet they are rendered ephemeral by a child’s constant growth and development. Letting go hurts a little. Sometimes it hurts a lot. The instinct to memorialize those special patterns is strong. We want to hold on forever. At the event horizon of a black hole, this becomes a physical possibility. Drawing on conversations with my brilliant friend-since-childhood-and-now-physicist, Dr. Mark Baumann, I was able to thread these two elements together as hard science fiction. In my mind, the black hole represents the terrible actuality of holding on forever. It violently demonstrates what we all know to be true in our hearts: we must always be letting go. Life itself is a long, slow letting go. Sad and beautiful. So why the terrible mistake? Quite simply, this story triggers a nostalgia in me so deep that I cannot read it out loud without leaking from the eyes in a deeply embarrassing manner. That’s life for you.
Other Notable Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories of 2014
Selected by John Joseph Adams
ALEXANDER, WILLIAM
The War Between the Water and the Road. Unstuck 3
ANDERS, CHARLIE JANE
The Day It All Ended. Hieroglyph, ed. Ed Finn and Kathryn Cramer (William Morrow)
Palm Strike’s Last Case. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July-August
ARNASON, ELEANOR
The Scrivener. Subterranean, Winter
BACIGALUPI, PAOLO
Moriabe’s Children. Monstrous Affections, ed. Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant (Candlewick Press)
Shooting the Apocalypse. The End Is Nigh, ed. John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey (Broad Reach)
BLACK, HOLLY
Ten Rules for Being an Intergalactic Smuggler (The Successful Kind). Monstrous Affections, ed. Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant (Candlewick Press)
BROADDUS, MAURICE
The Iron Hut. Sword & Mythos, ed. Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Innsmouth Free Press)
BROCKMEIER, KEVIN
The Invention of Separate People. Unstuck 3
BUCKRAM, OLIVER
The Black Waters of Lethe. Beneath Ceaseless Skies, June
CORREIA, LARRY
The Great Sea Beast. Kaiju Rising, ed. Tim Marquitz (Ragnarok)
DELANCEY, CRAIG
Racing the Tide. Analog, December
DUE, TANANARIVE
EL-MOHTAR, AMAL
The Lonely Sea in the Sky. Lightspeed, June (special issue: Women Destroy Science Fiction!)
ERDRICH, LOUISE
Domain. Granta, October
EVENSON, BRIAN
The Blood Drip. Granta, October
FINLAY, C. C.
The Man Who Hanged Three Times. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January-February
FRIED, SETH
Hello Again. Tin House, Spring
GILBOW, S. L.
Mr. Hill’s Death. The Dark, May
GRIFFITH, NICOLA
Cold Wind. Tor.com, April
HANKS, TOM
Alan Bean Plus Four. The New Yorker, October 27
HEADLEY, M
ARIA DAHVANA
The Tallest Doll in New York City. Tor.com, February
Who Is Your Executioner? Nightmare, November
HOWARD, KAT
The Saint of the Sidewalks. Clarkesworld, August
IRVINE, ALEX
For All of Us Down Here. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January-February
JEMISIN, N. K.
Stone Hunger. Clarkesworld, July
JONES, KIMA
Nine. Long Hidden, ed. Rose Fox and Daniel Jose Older (Crossed Genres)
JONES, RACHAEL K.
Makeisha in Time. Crossed Genres, August
KELLY, JAMES PATRICK
Someday. Asimov’s Science Fiction, April-May
KENDALL, MIKKI
If God Is Watching. Revelator, April
KENYON, SHERRILYN, AND KEVIN J. ANDERSON
Trip Trap. Dark Duets, ed. Christopher Golden (Harper Voyager)
KIERNAN, CAITLÍN R.
Bus Fare. Subterranean, Spring
LAVALLE, VICTOR
Lone Women. Long Hidden, ed. Rose Fox and Daniel Jose Older (Crossed Genres)
LEE, YOON HA
The Contemporary Foxwife. Clarkesworld, July
LE GUIN, URSULA K.
The Daughter of Odren. ebook (HMH Books for Young Readers)
LIBLING, MICHAEL
Draft 31. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, April-May
LIPPMAN, LAURA
Ice. Games Creatures Play, ed. Charlaine Harris and Toni Kelner (Ace)
LIU, KEN
The Long Haul: From the ANNALS OF TRANSPORTATION, The Pacific Monthly, May 2009. Clarkesworld, November
MACLEOD, CATHERINE
Sideshow. Nightmare, October (special issue: Women Destroy Horror!)
MARCUS, DANIEL
Albion upon the Rock. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, March-April
MCINTOSH, WILL
Dancing with Death in the Land of Nod. The End Is Nigh, ed. John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey (Broad Reach)
MOHANRAJ, MARY ANNE
Communion. Clarkesworld, June
MORAINE, SUNNY
Singing with All My Skin and Bone. Nightmare, September
NELSON, SHALE
Pay Phobetor. Lightspeed, December
PERALTA, SAMUEL
Hereafter. Synchronic, ed. David Gatewood (David Gatewood)
PRATT, TIM
Ghostreaper, or, Life After Revenge. Nightmare, January
REED, ROBERT
Blood Wedding. Asimov’s Science Fiction, July
SCHROEDER, KARL
Kheldyu. Reach for Infinity, ed. Jonathan Strahan (Solaris)
SIGLER, SCOTT
Complex God. Robot Uprisings, ed. Daniel H. Wilson and John Joseph Adams (Vintage)
STALKER, GABRIELLA
In the Image of Man. Lightspeed, June (special issue: Women Destroy Science Fiction!)
STEWART, ANDY
The New Cambrian. The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January-February
SWIRSKY, RACHEL
Tender. Upgraded, ed. Neil Clarke (Wyrm)
TOLBERT, JEREMIAH
In the Dying Light We Saw a Shape. Lightspeed, January
VAN EEKHOUT, GREG
The Authenticator. Flytrap, March
VAN LENTE, FRED
Neversleeps. Dead Man’s Hand, ed. John Joseph Adams (Titan)
VOGEL, NIKKI
The Past, of Course. One Throne, Winter
WASSERMAN, ROBIN
Dear John. The End Is Now, ed. John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey (Broad Reach)
WATTS, PETER
Collateral. Upgraded, ed. Neil Clarke (Wyrm)
WILLIS, CONNIE
Now Showing. Rogues, ed. George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois (Bantam)
YANT, CHRISTIE
This Is as I Wish to Be Restored. Analog, January-February
YAP, ISABEL
Have You Heard the One About Anamaria Marquez? Nightmare, March
Visit www.hmhco.com to find all of the books in The Best American Series®.
About the Editors
JOE HILL, guest editor, is the New York Times best-selling author of the novels Heart-Shaped Box, Horns, and NOS4A2, and the award-winning short story collection 20th Century Ghosts. He is also the writer of the critically-acclaimed comic book series Locke & Key.
JOHN JOSEPH ADAMS, series editor, is the best-selling editor of more than two dozen anthologies, including Brave New Worlds, Wastelands, and The Living Dead. He is also the editor and publisher of the digital magazines Lightspeed and Nightmare, and is a producer for Wired’s podcast The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy.