by C. L. Kagmi
A Hundred Lifetimes, Deep Magic, December 2016
Being a Giant in Men’s World, Galaxy’s Edge, May 2018
The Worst Breed of Vultures, Bourbon Penn Vol. 12
The Diamond Fish, Myriad Lands Issue 1; available as Kindle single.
Sing Me A Song, LampLight Vol. 5, Issue 1; available as Kindle single.
Irony So Efficient, James Gunn’s Ad Astra
Acknowledgments
All books are the work of many hands. I’ve been dreaming and woolgathering and cross-pollinating for years, but this book would not be what it is without the support and assistance of many people.
I would of course like to thank my parents, including author Mary Marshall, who managed to instill in me a passion for storytelling and a love of weird fiction from an early age. Thanks also to my mentor and life coach, Colleen McGee, for helping me to take a no-nonsense approach to the business side of my writing career.
Thanks to my dearest Twila, my writer brothers Andrew L. Roberts and Doug C. Souza, my most relentless fan C. T. Silver, and the wonderful Cliff Winnig for their sometimes forceful encouragement to get this manuscript to the presses. I will take this opportunity to make a shameless plug in favor of Roberts’ recently released book “Duramen Rose,” which I believe is one of the finest texts available today for learning about the reality of war.
Writers of the Future judges Robert J. Sawyer, David Farland, and Tim Powers have been instrumental in convincing me that stories can change lives and that this work is worth doing. The speculative fiction community as a whole owes them a great debt for the generous support and teaching they’ve offered to dozens of new authors over the years.
I also owe a great debt to Joe Stech, who bought the first story I ever sold for Compelling Science Fiction and who helped bring my work to wider audiences. His enthusiasm over “Skychildren” years later was also a gift, especially when he checked the math on some of my worldbuilding physics.
Tremendous thanks to Bảo Lã and Long Nyugễn for reaching out to me to initiate the translation of “Skychildren” and “Twiceborn” for Vietnamese-speaking readers, and to Sean Patrick Hazlett for arranging the publication of my short story “Evangeline” in 2020 Baen Books anthology Weird World War III.
“Evangeline” isn’t in this book, her publication helped encourage me to move forward with publishing this collection. She can be found in Baen’s wonderfully strange tome about what might have happened if the Cold War had gone weird.
Thanks to Jamie Wahls, Julianne Angeli, and the late Walter Dinjos for their thoughtful and sensitive feedback on my previously unpublished works. I believe I’ve benefited tremendously from their wonderfully diverse feedback.
Special honors are due to Michael Michera, who won the Golden Brush Award for the beautiful illustration that accompanied “The Drake Equation” in Writers of the Future Vol. 33 and who generously agreed to allow me to offer a version of this art to purchasers of this book.
Thanks to the good folks at Teaologie Tea Company for keeping me fueled.
And lastly, thanks for the encouragement of oathkeeper Jesse Kulla, who is authorized to make really, really sure I make my publication deadline.
Copyright © 2021 by C.L. Kagmi
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Copyright © 2021 by Stella Luma
“After the Upload” © 2015 by C. L. Kagmi
“Sheanna” © 2015 by C. L. Kagmi
“Twiceborn” © 2016 by C. L. Kagmi
“The Drake Equation” © 2016 by C. L. Kagmi
“On Speaking With The Stars” © 2017 by C. L. Kagmi
“Skychildren” © 2017 by C. L. Kagmi
https://clkagmi.com/contact/
Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by bookstores, corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address above.
Paperback ISBN: 979-8-9850761-0-3
Ebook ISBN: 979-8-9850761-1-0
Contents
Introduction
Twiceborn
The Drake Equation
Sky Children
Sheanna
After the Upload
On Speaking with The Stars
Like this Book?
In Memoriam
Acknowledgments
About the Author
About the Author
C. L. Kagmi is an inveterate wanderer who splits her time between the American Midwest and West Coast. She likes any surprise that doesn’t end in grievous bodily injury. Don’t test her on that, though, as she has a firm grip and has been known to bite.
She earned her B.S. in Neuroscience from the University of Michigan in 2011 and worked in emergency medicine research for five years before becoming a full-time freelance writer. Today she offers ghostwriting and writing coaching services. She has assisted in the production and publication of dozens of books and articles for business and tech publications.
Her work has appeared in Analog Science Fiction & Fact, Compelling Science Fiction, SFVN, and Writers of the Future Vol. 33.
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