bear with me as i restore all the reviews deleted by overzealous GR librarians who arbitrarily and with no notice decided which short stories could stbear with me as i restore all the reviews deleted by overzealous GR librarians who arbitrarily and with no notice decided which short stories could stay and which needed to be removed from the site before just as arbitrarily adding them back, without restoring any of the reviews. since so many of y’all do december short story advent calendar challenges and need stories to fill those requirements, imma try to help by plopping mine back on here, praying they don’t get deleted again, because it’s a lot of work—fixing five years’ worth of broken links and missing reviews and i don’t want this to be a lot of wasted effort, y’know? deep breath. here goes nothing: 2016.
WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.
i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly." i might just do a picture review or - if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.
and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar. <--- that part is no longer true, but i am still interested in getting suggestions!
DECEMBER 12
She wrapped herself up in a quilt that night and sat in the rocking chair on the back porch. “We’ll see what kind of rat bastard steals an old lady’s tomatoes,” she grumbled.
(Grandma Harken thought of herself as an old lady, because she was one. That she was tougher than tree roots and barbed wire did not matter. You did not steal an old lady’s tomatoes. It was rude, and also, she would destroy you.)
this one is more of a novelette than a short story, so if you're planning to read it yourself during a similar story-a-day challenge, make sure you set extra time aside for it. this is the second grandma harken story, after Jackalope Wives, and they are both wonderful, totally worth the length and in fact, you will probably wish they were longer. or that there were more of them. i certainly want more. but not tonight - tonight i am sleepy.
bear with me as i restore all the reviews deleted by overzealous GR librarians who arbitrarily and with no notice decided which short stories could stay and which needed to be removed from the site before just as arbitrarily adding them back, without restoring any of the reviews. since so many of y’all do december short story advent calendar challenges and need stories to fill those requirements, imma try to help by plopping mine back on here, praying they don’t get deleted again, because it’s a lot of work—fixing five years’ worth of broken links and missing reviews and i don’t want this to be a lot of wasted effort, y’know? deep breath. here goes nothing: 2016.
WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.
i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly." i might just do a picture review or - if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.
and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar. <--- that part is no longer true, but i am still interested in getting suggestions!
DECEMBER 12
She wrapped herself up in a quilt that night and sat in the rocking chair on the back porch. “We’ll see what kind of rat bastard steals an old lady’s tomatoes,” she grumbled.
(Grandma Harken thought of herself as an old lady, because she was one. That she was tougher than tree roots and barbed wire did not matter. You did not steal an old lady’s tomatoes. It was rude, and also, she would destroy you.)
this one is more of a novelette than a short story, so if you're planning to read it yourself during a similar story-a-day challenge, make sure you set extra time aside for it. this is the second grandma harken story, after Jackalope Wives, and they are both wonderful, totally worth the length and in fact, you will probably wish they were longer. or that there were more of them. i certainly want more. but not tonight - tonight i am sleepy.
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.
i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly;" i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.
and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar. <--- that part is no longer true, but i am still interested in getting suggestions!
DECEMBER 13
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Everything that lives can have jaws that bite and claws that catch, if the need is dire enough.
this is SO MUCH FUN!
it's a standalone set in a the world of well-known children's story, so it's all the spooky joy of mcguire without any anxiety that you might be missing out on references if you haven't read any of her UF series. which may be a fear only i have, or had, when i first saw this one.
it has all the strengths of her kind of characters, with a nice fairytale feel to it in its language and themes, and even its cadence at times:
When I was very small, no more than a comma of a creature compared to the pages and paragraphs of my parents, they used to tell me stories of the world outside the wood. “It’s terrible there,” said my mother, shivering. “Their sense is nonsense, and their nonsense is sense. You can trust nothing outside the wood. Nothing. All of it waits only to destroy you.”
“It’s terrible there,” said my father, with eyes like chips of ice, so cold that they burned. “Their truths are lies, and their lies are truth. You can believe nothing outside the wood. Nothing. All of it waits only to disprove you.”
wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, i loved it to pieces.
if she has any others that are standalones and suitable for this project, lemme know, please!
bear with me as i restore all the reviews deleted by overzealous GR librarians who arbitrarily and with no notice decided which short stories could stbear with me as i restore all the reviews deleted by overzealous GR librarians who arbitrarily and with no notice decided which short stories could stay and which needed to be removed from the site before just as arbitrarily adding them back, without restoring any of the reviews. since so many of y’all do december short story advent calendar challenges and need stories to fill those requirements, imma try to help by plopping mine back on here, praying they don’t get deleted again, because it’s a lot of work—fixing five years’ worth of broken links and missing reviews and i don’t want this to be a lot of wasted effort, y’know? deep breath. here goes nothing: 2016.
WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.
i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly." i might just do a picture review or - if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.
and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar.
DECEMBER 4
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On my nighttime walks the neighbors’ lives reveal themselves, the lit windows domestic aquariums.
this is another lovely story, and i'm so glad i finally took the time to read it. it has been on my to-read radar for a long time and it's - what? nine pages? yeah, that was a silly thing to have put off. do not put this off (unless you have already used up your free new yorker magazine online visits.)
her words are beautiful things and they are there for you, free of charge...
…the swiftness of youth, these gorgeous changes that insist that not everything is decaying faster than we can love it.
bear with me as i restore all the reviews deleted by overzealous GR librarians who arbitrarily and with no notice decided which short stories could stbear with me as i restore all the reviews deleted by overzealous GR librarians who arbitrarily and with no notice decided which short stories could stay and which needed to be removed from the site before just as arbitrarily adding them back, without restoring any of the reviews. since so many of y’all do december short story advent calendar challenges and need stories to fill those requirements, imma try to help by plopping mine back on here, praying they don’t get deleted again, because it’s a lot of work—fixing five years’ worth of broken links and missing reviews and i don’t want this to be a lot of wasted effort, y’know? deep breath. here goes nothing: 2016, take two.
WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.
i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly." i might just do a picture review or - if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.
and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar.
DECEMBER 1
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The guy and his wife built their house to be strong, fortifying it with wood, sticks, mud, stones, whatever they could find. They lived carefully, quietly, didn’t even look at each other most days. They’d had enough of living in a half-assed fairy tale. Enough bloodshed, enough potions and elixirs, enough of that for a lifetime. They figured if they didn’t talk, didn’t try to understand it all, then the story would just go away. Would stop trying to mean something, would stop trying to break their broken hearts.
this was wonderful. just a perfect story, and a lovely tom gauld illustration.
thank you all for following along, and many wonderful wishes for a jubilant 2017!!!
last yeaWELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
DECEMBER PROJECT IS OVER!!!
thank you all for following along, and many wonderful wishes for a jubilant 2017!!!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.
i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly." i might just do a picture review or - if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.
and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar. <--- that part is no longer true, but i am still interested in getting suggestions!
DECEMBER 31
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Each time Mr. Henry and his friends come they want to take me away with them. Mother always refuses, which is how I know she can’t admit what I am.
phew - i'm so glad to go outta this project on a high note! this is a fantastic story - original, horrifying and triumphant, sad and strong, with a gutpunch of an ending that'll make your feeling parts ache. loved it!
and i loved this project, even though it got a little gluey in the days of post-christmas exhaustion. i hope some of you found some good stories for yourselves in my forays into the world of internet-free fiction, and let's do it again next year!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.
i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly." i might just do a picture review or - if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.
and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar. <--- that part is no longer true, but i am still interested in getting suggestions!
DECEMBER 30
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Would you rather have the cops haul you out of bed, or the robbers? The answer to this riddle is that the cops are supposed to haul the robbers out of bed and leave me out of it.
this is a very low three stars, but it might be my own fault for trying to read something on the longish side when i was so hungry and sleepy. because i am both things very much right now. this was disjointed in a way that never came together for me - that never made me understand the point of its fragmentation, although the parts i understood i enjoyed. mostly. i'm not sure what is paranoia, what is real, what the parts of the story that seem extraneous are meant to convey...
but a lot of that is probably my body trying to eat its own organs. your turn now.
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.
i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly." i might just do a picture review or - if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.
and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar. <--- that part is no longer true, but i am still interested in getting suggestions!
DECEMBER 29
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“We’ll aim for thirty seconds of exposure, but if there’s any trouble, I’ll signal you. If there’s any sign of trouble, we’ll kill the whole thing. Don’t you think it will be okay? I think it will be fine.”
dammit - i just remembered today that there were a bunch of stories connected to the monument 14 series i'd been meaning to read but hadn't gotten around to. this is the first, and there are two more after it, but that would mean that the entire rest of this project would be stuck in that world, which is fine for me, but maybe not fun for others who are trailing me in this project looking for good free stories. i am so very thoughtful, eh? so i will probably just read those after the project is over, when i got back to my "one tor short a week" cycle. because this one was fine, but no great shakes, and i don't want to go out on a low note. watch out for science, kiddies - some experiments are just awful...
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.
i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly." i might just do a picture review or - if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.
and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar. <--- that part is no longer true, but i am still interested in getting suggestions!
DECEMBER 28
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With a supreme effort of will, and using the broomstick as support, I was able to lift myself onto the boots and stagger about, sending the children who had unwittingly animated me running in terror. They fled a short distance and peered at me from the protection of the surrounding trees. I had no wish to alarm them, and so attempted some reassuring words. The effort proved most difficult, as I seemed to have no mouth, only a corncob pipe thrust into the uppermost sphere of snow, below whatever objects served as my eyes.
“Did he . . . say something?” one of the children asked. He spoke in English, a language I do not know well.
“I mean you no harm,” I managed to respond.
Slowly they emerged and began to approach me. “What’s your name?” one of them asked.
“Friedrich,” I tried to say, though the sounds that emerged were much distorted.
“Frosty!” cried one of the children happily. “His name is Frosty!”
“Nietzsche!” I corrected him firmly, but the children all laughed.
“Gesundheit!” one of them said.
a wintry story in which nietzsche and frosty the snowman become one. somewhere, someone's prayers have been answered.
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.
i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly." i might just do a picture review or - if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.
and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar. <--- that part is no longer true, but i am still interested in getting suggestions!
DECEMBER 27
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“You are but one of a thousand retainers to the Beldame. But each of you is a finger, or a toe. Your movements are her movements. Do not make her a disgrace.”
huh. i just don't know about this one. i liked the writing and the characters and the setting, but it's one of those stories that just ... goes nowhere. no resolution, no conclusiveness. maybe this is the opening of a longer piece not indicated here, but as it stands, it's a bit disappointing.
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.
i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly." i might just do a picture review or - if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.
and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar. <--- that part is no longer true, but i am still interested in getting suggestions!
DECEMBER 26
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From the greatest distance possible, Harding reaches out and prods the largest shoggoth with the flat top of his hammer. It does nothing, in response. Not even a quiver.
He calls out to the fisherman. "Do they ever do anything when they're like that?"
"What kind of a fool would come poke one to find out?" the fisherman calls back, and Harding has to grant him that one. A Negro professor from a Negro college. That kind of a fool.
oops, i accidentally read a lovecraft-reimagining. i read lovecraft ages and ages ago, and he never clicked for me, and any writer i've read in the lovecraft tradition has been the same - there's some kind of barrier between me and the reading that prevents the love from happening. i didn't recognize the shoggoth as being a lovecraft creature, or i probably wouldn't have invested the time in this longish story, as much as i have loved elizabeth bear's stories in the past. i started getting lovecraft vibes early on and i was pleased to see that my itchings were correct, although i was not pleased to be stuck in a lovecraft story, albeit one i enjoyed more than most, due to bear's excellent prose. but still - lovecraft and i were not meant to be, even with the lubricant of better-than-average writing. maybe you will fare better.
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.
i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly." i might just do a picture review or - if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.
and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar. <--- that part is no longer true, but i am still interested in getting suggestions!
DECEMBER 25
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Some days it just doesn’t pay to crawl out of your crypt. Or out from under the covers of your waterbed. Take your pick.
eeee!! so much seanan mcguire fun! it's got all the humor and weirdness i love about her writing, all smooshed in a little bite-sized package! no commitment necessary, people! how can you resist the reluctant relationship between a vampire cursed to subsist on veggies and the lingomancer who accidentally made her that way as they bicker their way to an oopsie of an ending? fun fun fun.
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.
i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly." i might just do a picture review or - if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.
and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar. <--- that part is no longer true, but i am still interested in getting suggestions!
DECEMBER 24
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I wish there were a way to spend more time on the surface. But oh well. 31 sols will have to do.
i was in a serious time crunch as holiday approached, so i needed to read another andy weir story, because i knew that even if it wasn't going to be a favorite, at least it would be short! of course, since it took me so long to post the stories i'd been reading and been just too exhausted to sit in front of a computer and format links and etc, i coulda read many other things and just lied about it. but NO! i read this one! and it was indeed very very short. my thinking was that a prequel to The Martian would be more interesting to me than some of his other GOTCHA stories, with their twists and not much else, but this one didn't really contribute much to the general plot of the martian. i suppose it's rife with irony, but there's really no reason to get excited about it. unless it's christmas eve and you need a super short story for your advent calendar. and then - WHEEE!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.
i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly." i might just do a picture review or - if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.
and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar. <--- that part is no longer true, but i am still interested in getting suggestions!
DECEMBER 22
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Sylvain sang the song now to the little fish, gently at first, just breathing the tune, and then stronger, letting the sound swell between them. He sang of care, and comfort, and loss, and a longing to make everything better. And if tears seemed to rain down his cheeks as he sang, it was nothing but an illusion—just water dribbling from his hair.
this is another one that is on the long side, so plan accordingly! it's also another one that is completely worth reading, so carve out some time for yourself to dive into it. it opens with a bit of sexxytime, but it becomes a really lovely story of courtly manners, licentious liberties, ambition aided by supernatural means, and a slow-dawning understanding that changes a character's desires from the selfish to the paternal, in an almost scrooge-like transformation. definitely one that you'll want to reread, so get started now!
and yes - i totally missed posting a few days here because of holiday distractions, so i'm going to try really hard to getWELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
and yes - i totally missed posting a few days here because of holiday distractions, so i'm going to try really hard to get caught up. yeesh!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.
i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly." i might just do a picture review or - if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.
and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar. <--- that part is no longer true, but i am still interested in getting suggestions!
DECEMBER 21
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I suppose if one is not acquainted with an actual vampire, love disguised as cruelty sounds better than the world outside. All these monsters, waiting for the right girl. All these girls, hoping for monsters. Once a beauty finds her beast, she blossoms. Her junky old jewels turn out to be talismans, her dead mother’s cheap locket a portal to another plane. All she needs to learn magic is for someone to call her pretty.
man, i almost missed out on this one. i was on my nook, scrolling through the tor site, choosing what to read next for this project, and my giant finger meant to keep scrolling down, but accidentally hit on the title link, and there it was, right in front of me, for my eyes to read. i figured it was a sign, even though that first paragraph had me rolling my eyes big time, but i'm so glad i kept going, because my eyes were meant to be rolling at that first paragraph, and from there on out, this story was a complete delight to me.
vampires, grammar, the loneliness of the city, the allure of eternal life when your own seems to be taking too long to become anything significant... so many things here made me laugh, in a rueful way:
The vampire is suspicious of vampires with arcane tattoos, bare pectorals, magical powers, secrets; vampires who eat deer instead of girls. Vampires who are looking for love.
—Where on earth does she get her ideas, do you think? the vampire asks, paging through Rosamunde’s adventures.
—They hate that question, I tell him. —They write essays online about how much they hate it. The vampire looks up at me, an eyebrow raised.
—Where do you get your ideas?
—I don’t have ideas, I say. Since the vampire started helping me, my editorial letters have gone more cutting and less enthusiastic. The literary agent says I am showing promise.
i loved this one and am very grateful for my gigantic fingers!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.
i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly." i might just do a picture review or - if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.
and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar. <--- that part is no longer true, but i am still interested in getting suggestions!
DECEMBER 20
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It was the middle of the night when the elves came out of the mirrors. Everyone in the house was asleep. Outside, the city slumbered. Silent as shadows, the warriors went from room to room. Their knives were so sharp they could slit a throat without awakening their victim.
They killed all the adults.
The children they spared.
this one started out so strong - can you beat that opener i just quoted? you could, but it would be difficult. it begins as a horror-laced christmas adventure that kind of loses focus halfway through and became more complicated than it ought to have been. it's definitely worth reading for its good parts; i just wish it had lived up to the opening energy. but points for being yet another bleak christmas story that leaves you more unsettled and uncomfortably nostalgic than suffused with christmas cheer.
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.
i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly." i might just do a picture review or - if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.
and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar. <--- that part is no longer true, but i am still interested in getting suggestions!
DECEMBER 19
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'Why don't we try for a baby?'
This was mid-March. My memory of that moment is of hearing birds outside. I always loved that time of year, that sense of nature becoming stronger all around. But I always owned the decisions I made, I didn't blame them on what was around me, or on my hormones. I am what's around me, I am my hormones, that's what I always said to myself. I don't know if Ben ever felt the same way. That's how I think of him now: always excusing himself. I don't know how that squares with how the world is now. Perhaps it suits him down to the ground. I'm sure I spent years looking out for him excusing himself. I'm sure me doing that was why, in the end, he did.
I listened to the birds. 'Yes,' I said.
We got lucky almost immediately. I called my mother and told her the news.
'Oh no,' she said.
first of all - apologies for being late on this posting. i read this one yesterday, but was too exhausted to sit at the desk and do it up proper. i hate falling behind on projects, but this time of year is very depleting!
it's even worse that anyone following along on this adventure with me had to wait for such a mediocre response by me, because this story was just ... fine. it's christmas meets science meets self-sabotage meets poor impulse control in what ends up being a pretty bleak christmas story, no matter the silver lining. it was fine, but not the best of the bunch.
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.
i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly." i might just do a picture review or - if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.
and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar. <--- that part is no longer true, but i am still interested in getting suggestions!
DECEMBER 18
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“Does everything look a little too charming to you?” I asked Coco.
“We’re in New England,” my sister said. “It gets like this a lot.”
ONE WEEK 'TIL CHRISTMAS!!
fyi, there are a bunch of christmas-themed free tor shorts available, some of which i've already read, and i'm gonna get through the rest of them this week because festive. this is a sweet little holiday story about the magic of christmas! but also, curses, ghosties, holiday scams, theater, and how the show must always go on. the author said there would be more adventures featuring this pair of sisters, but there aren't any on the tor site. if anyone knows where they can be found - let me know! merry merry!!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.
i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly." i might just do a picture review or - if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.
and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar. <--- that part is no longer true, but i am still interested in getting suggestions!
DECEMBER 17
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I closed my eyes again, feeling the land sliding again into the place I wanted to go least in the world. There is no reasoning with it, no forcing it. Mapmakers don’t make the land; we only hold fast to whichever shape it gives us. I walked forward.
another beautiful tor short. seriously - any of you who might be reading this who haven't yet taken advantage of the stories tor puts out there for free need to start taking advantage of 'em, because while they're not all spectacular, enough of them are jaw-droppingly good that you're only hurting yourself by not rushing over there weekly to see what's new. this one even has FOOTNOTES! and it's all the things i love - densely plotted, haunting and bittersweet, beautiful imagery and just the right balance of realism and magical elements. this author has just made my watch list.
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.
i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly." i might just do a picture review or - if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.
and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar. <--- that part is no longer true, but i am still interested in getting suggestions!
DECEMBER 16
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"It's an ugly world," she said. "An ugly, stinking world."
another wonderful donna tartt surprise. not surprising that it was wonderful, but it's a true christmas miracle to think you've read all the donna tartt there was and to then discover SECRET SHORT STORIES BY DONNA TARTT FOR FREE ON THE INTERNET!!
what other secrets does internet hold? let's find out together!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.
i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i'm going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don't think i will be reviewing each individual story "properly." i might just do a picture review or - if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can't be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we'll just see what shape this project takes as we go.
and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i'm no good at finding them myself unless they're on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar. <--- that part is no longer true, but i am still interested in getting suggestions!
DECEMBER 15
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If your heart stops, blood stops moving around your body. Then your cells die because they aren’t getting oxygen. If you get shot and bleed to death, you don’t have enough blood to transport oxygen around. Do you see? It’s all about oxygen.
finally - a story by andy weir i actually liked! i know i had said i was through with his short stories, since they've usually left me unwowed, but dammit, they're so wonderfully SHORT! and this project isn't always easy - some nights i get home and i'm just dead on my feet, and if i find a really short one, i'm gonna jump on it, even if the author has let me down in the past. and lo - this one was not bad at all! high praise from a girl dead on her feet.