Dame a la Licorne

Judith Tarr

Peter Beagle asked me for a story about unicorns. Naturally it turned out to be science fiction.

Signs and Stones

Judith Tarr

A locked room, a dead alien, a starship full of deceptions and disguises...

by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff

Meddling in history may involve special dangers, but it does offer some unique opportunities.

This story was first published in Analog science fiction magazine and is part of a wide-ranging collection of stories I wrote that are connected through a technology I invented that allows both time travel and FTL flight. I call it Spectral Shift. It does not require a Tardis. This is the third story in which I actually used it for time travel. It's my take on that old conundrum about going back in time and messing with the family tree.

by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff

  Some families move from one place to another, following a parent's job. The Jones family also travels in time. In that context, teenage rebellion can take on an entirely new character.

Orignally published in Analog, this story has been used in college curricula and turned into a radio play. I'm an Air Force brat, so there's a little of my own experience in it, but there is a real Jones family that inspired the story, though they only got as far as Botswana...

by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff

When there's no more war, what happens to an ancient profession? Or, as the old song almost says: What do you do with an obsolete sailor?

Heroes was first published in Analog science fiction magazine with cover art and illustrations by the wonderful Frank Kelly-Freas. Historical note: It was written before the fall of the Berlin Wall and other developments. I was accused of possessing a crystal ball. I don't, but I will reveal my sources upon request. This was the story in which I first used Spectral Shift Technology—a time travel mechanism that's also ducky for Faster Than Light (FTL) travel.

by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff

The basis of any conversation is a shared interest. Things may be a bit slow getting started if you don't know what that interest is...

This story was published in Analog in 2003 and combines two of my favorite subjects with one of my favorite writers. (Just wait, you'll see.) Those of you familiar with his iconic work will get the "inside" joke.

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Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff

Any principle can have practical applications—even "truth is stranger than fiction."

When Qtzl crash-lands on an alien planet called Earth, he is at a loss to know how get home to Mom and Dad. Faced with the need to earn money to buy materials to repair his wrecked spaceship (and stay hidden while doing it) Qtzl realizes that, like most teenagers far from home, he needs to get a job...

This story was published originally in Analog and was a Nebula Award nominee. It is featured in the Book View Press anthology, ROCKET BOY AND THE GEEK GIRLS (only $4.99 in a variety of formats). 

Download a sample PDF of Ask Arlen (with this nifty illustration by the author, herself!)

Buy Rocket Boy and the Geek Girls

 by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff

Those who lose one ability often compensate by developing others. But what is a "means" and what is an "end?"

Blythe Magic is dedicated to my sister Patricia Joy, anchorwoman and woman's rights activist, who died too early in life of Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, a rare and swift-moving degenerative brain disease for which there is currently no cure. The story first appeared in Analog Magazine. 

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By Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff

Might principles that help solve individuals' problems also work for social problems? 

HAND-ME-DOWN TOWN was originally published in Analog Science Fiction Magazine in 1989 and was my first published work of fiction. I wrote it in reaction to the criminalization of homelessness by a California town trying to protect its tourist industry. The name of the town in this novella is fictionalized.

It is reprinted in I LOVED THY CREATION, a collection of my short fiction from Juxta Publishing.

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by Vonda N. McIntyre

In which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle hires Mr Sherlock Holmes to investigate crop circles; and Dr Watson demonstrates to Holmes the value of astronomy.

First published in Sherlock Holmes in Orbit, DAW Books

Reprinted with the kind permission of the editors:
Mike Resnick & Martin Harry Greenberg

Copyright © 1995 by Vonda N. McIntyre

Reprinted with the kind permission of the editors.

by Pati Nagle

Roger Zelazny was a beloved fantasy and science fiction writer who lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  I had the honor of knowing him, though less well than I would have liked.  I was at his last birthday party, and at his wake, and had the additional honor of contributing a story to Lord of the Fantastic, an anthology in his honor. 

The genesis of "Arroyo de Oro" was an invitation Roger made to me to submit a story to an anthology he was editing.  Sadly, I was unable to do so at the time, but the germ of the idea stayed with me and eventually blossomed into this story.  That it was included in his tribute was both sad and sweet for me.  Roger had his story, a bit late. 

 by Amy Sterling Casil

"The Renascence of Memory" is a longer story that was first published in my first collection of short fiction and poetry, Without Absolution, in 2001. Jim Blaylock, the wonderful writer who was my advisor at Chapman University from 1996-1999, thought it was some of my best writing. Due to the story's length and possibly its subject matter, it wasn't the highest-flying seller in the world. It has also appeared in the online magazine Coyote Wild.

Carol Meyers, a former academic, suffers from Alzheimers. Thanks to a new nanotechnology treatment, Carol has now awakened from her long sleep in childish Alzheimer dreams. She has anew friend, Ned, who is in her head - a nanofriend. But becoming young again in both mind and body, with the memories of a lifetime may be more painful than anything she ever imagined.

 A Rhys Llewellyn story by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff

Traders and negotiators must deal with superior cultures -- though that doesn't always mean what they think! 

This story was published originally in ANALOG Science Fiction Magazine and is the first in a series of stories about xeno-anthropologist/archaeologist Rhys Llewellyn. 

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 A Rhys Llewellyn story by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff

It's not easy working from fragmentary evidence ... and that's all the planet Leguin has to offer the xenoarchaeological survey team assigned to ferret out the secrets of a lost civilization. Rhys Llewellyn gets a chance to work the dig with hero and mentor Sir Drew Burton, but their professional relationship does not go as smoothly as Rhys might have hoped. 

Originally appearing in ANALOG magazine, this is the third in a series of stories about Rhys Llewellen, xenoarchaeologist. (The second story is the SF novel SQUATTER'S RIGHTS.) 

A Rhys Llewellyn story by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff

The trouble with consultants is that they may do exactly what you hired them to do, instead of what you hoped they would. Rhys Llewellyn, xenoanthropologist, seeks sentient life on an unlikely planet named Bog.

This is the fourth in my Rhys Llewllyn series from ANALOG magazine and is also contained in I LOVED THY CREATION, a diverse collection of my published short fiction.

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