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Tue
25
Mar '08

A free fiction sampler

My Campbell clock started January 30, 2006 when Strange Horizons published my story, Portrait of Ari. That story is still on the web, but much of my other short fiction is hard to find. I’ve pulled five stories out of my sales that reflect a range of the kinds of fiction I write.

If you are a voting member of WorldCon and would like to read more, visit the bibliography on my website. See a story that isn’t available? Drop me a line and I’ll send it to you.

You can download the .zip directory of stories. This collection includes
For Solo Cello, op. 12 — Originally published in Cosmos
Bound Man — Originally published in Twenty Epics
Death Comes But Twice — Originally published in Talebones
This Little Pig — originally published in Cicada
Cerbo en Vitra ujo — originally published in Apex Digest [Warning: explicit sex and violence]

13 Comments »

  • Chuck

    Cool. Thanks.

    Now I won’t have to formulate an evil plan to obtain the relevant stories. (Unless you prefer evil plans. I’m here to help.)

    But I still have to formulate a completely different evil plan to accumulate the funds for admission into WorldCon. (It’ll only be a couple miles away, after all.) The non-evil plan involves solving my unemployment problem, but nobody’s been fooled by that one so far.

    Later,
    Chuck

    • http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com Mary Robinette Kowal

      Glad to help, although I always enjoy evil plans. Was yours a diabolically evil plan or just a run-of-the-mill evil one?

  • Chuck

    I think the most evil of my plans involved a quick look at your bibliography, and then an attempt to rewrite each story based off the titles alone.

    But the only way to make this evil plan work would be to fully commit to it and pose as you. I could run around WorldCon, with a substandard sock puppet on each hand, shouting, “Look at me! I’m Mary Robinette Kowal!”

    Another downside is that I’d have to hope and pray that I (you) don’t win, because otherwise I’ll get dragged up on stage, and my evil plan will be EXPOSED. But, of course, my downfall would arise from self interest: I wouldn’t be able to resist voting for myself … or you … or me (I’d probably experience some identity crisis by this time). My vote would give you (me) the victory by one vote, or at least a draw with someone else. You and whoever you tied with would pummel me on stage. It’d be really embarrassing.

    Heck, I’ve already been forced to pose as Frank Wu at the last MileHiCon’s closing ceremonies. And we look nothing alike.

    Maybe I could turn that into a tradition. Every time I go to a convention, one of the organizers could compel me to pose as a SF/Fantasy celeb who I don’t even remotely resemble.

    • http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com Mary Robinette Kowal

      Clever, although where will you get the ballgown?

  • Chuck

    With any luck — and a chloroform-soaked rag — there’ll be a debutante ball at the Brown Palace Hotel scheduled on the same night. (It’s on the way to the Convention Center — not a big side trip.)

    “No, officer, he didn’t hurt me, really. But he stole my dress.”

    • http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com Mary Robinette Kowal

      No, no! Not a debutante ball. Those dresses will all be white. That’s totally inappropriate if you are pretending to be me. You’ll have to try harder, I’m afraid.

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  • http://inbedwithbooks.blogspot.com Liviania

    I posted reviews of the stories here:

    http://inbedwithbooks.blogspot.com/2008/04/mary-robinette-kowal.html

    Thanks for making them available for free.

    • http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com Mary Robinette Kowal

      Thank you for the review! I saw that you were planning on covering the stories and have been waiting with anticipation to see them pop up.

      • http://inbedwithbooks.blogspot.com Liviania

        You were waiting for them? Wow. It unfortunately took me awhile due to schoolwork and going out of town for a couple of days. (It was very spontaneous. I’m still proud of myself.)

        I put a sex warning on Cerbo en Vitra ujo because many of my readers are underage. I figured I was better safe than sorry. (I love that story – I still feel creeped out by it.)

        • http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com Mary Robinette Kowal

          You get an astonishing amount of reading done. Where’d you go for your trip (if I may ask)?

          And thank you again, for your kind words.

  • http://inbedwithbooks.blogspot.com Liviania

    I’m a natural speed reader. It’s one of my favorite abilities.

    I went to San Antonio for my neighbor’s little brother’s talent show. On our way back we (her roommate came as well) stopped in San Marcos for outlet mall shopping. ‘Twas very fun . . . and the fact nothing went wrong will help us convince our parents to let us drive to Canada this summer. Maybe.

    • http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com Mary Robinette Kowal

      I used to just eat books like candy. I think all my time is sucked away by the internet these days. It’s a habit I need to break.

      Good luck with convincing your folks to let you do the Canada drive. I remember the challenges in trying to convince mine to let me do a cross-country drive at 25. It’s not like I needed their permission by that point, but just finding a way to make them be not-uptight was a challenge.

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