m. c. de marco

Here’s a lovely flash fiction story by Erica Hildebrand, a fellow Odyssey graduate: Product Safety.

I probably tweeted this back when it came out, but here, via a mailing list I’m trying to catch up on, is the Telegraph’s story on folktales:

A study by anthropologists has explored the origins of folk tales and traced the relationship between varients of the stories recounted by cultures around the world.

The researchers adopted techniques used by biologists to create the taxonomic tree of life, which shows how every species comes from a common ancestor.

Via Biology in Science Fiction: The Vector by MCM is a serial novel about a super-viral apocalypse.

The reader is a bit obscure; click the right side to turn the page.

Via Tor.com: The Lone Star Stories Reader is available as a free PDF.

With contributors like Jay Lake, Catherynne M. Valente, Tim Pratt, and Ekaterina Sedia, this is a solid anthology. You’ll find stories by writers you know, and a wealth of stories by writers you don’t know…yet.

I keep remembering, googling, and recommending this story, but I don’t seem to have ever blogged the link. So, for the record, “I don’t know, Timmy, being God is a big responsibility” by Sam Hughes is a great story about simulism.

The New York Times Sunday Book Review has an article by Stephen King on What Ails the Short Story:

I walk past the best sellers, past trade paperbacks with titles like “Who Stole My Chicken?,” “The Get-Rich Secret” and “Be a Big Cheese Now,” past the mysteries, past the auto-repair manuals, past the remaindered coffee-table books (looking sad and thumbed-through with their red discount stickers). I arrive at the Wall of Magazines, which is next door to the children’s section, where story time is in full swing. I stare at the racks of magazines, and the magazines stare eagerly back.