Jane never lost her beauty; let it not be said by anyone that she lost her beauty, for Beauty is an eternal thing, like Truth, and there can be no changing it once it is possessed.
And I said this to Azrael, as he stood by me, I said, “Is she not beautiful, is she not possessed of some higher substance? Does she not deserve something more than that clod of a husband? What a noble mind, what a keen observer of the human condition, what a record-keeper of all that transpires in the hearts of those who surround her.”
And he said, “I was made to serve just like you. This is what they have asked of me, it’s not cannons, it’s not thunder and death, but it’s what they asked me to do.”
“Let me speak with her.”
Let us say that she was sitting at her desk when he came for her; let it not have been the pianoforte where she had laboured, for hours, for the love of a husband who did not love her in return. Let us say that there was no husband. Let us say that she was only passably good at the pianoforte, and that she had, instead, a keen fascination with words, with writing out the hearts of men and women upon the page. Let us call her, not Missus Bigg-Wither, as she herself might have done, but Miss Austen, alone, yes, but beautiful and keen-witted and happy.
Perhaps she would have heard a tolling of a bell, as some do, and she would have turned to see a stranger standing before her, tall, resplendent, with hair as soft as lamb’s wool. Perhaps there would have been a rushing noise in her ears, the sound of a great cataract, more deafening, perhaps, than the crack of a cannon.
And he will have said to her, “Fear not, madam, that I should disturb you at this late hour, for I have come with tidings.” And she will have been shocked, but that stubborn grace to which she was born will have steeled her resolve, and she will have said, “Indeed, sir.” And he will have said, “You are to die.” And she will have said, “That is known. For is it not that every woman on God’s earth is appointed an hour of death?” And he, with a terrible smile, though not terribly meant, of course, but frightening, nonetheless, to a mortal, will have said, “Yes, Miss Austen. That is so.”
Afterwards, I would say to Azrael, “Why pillars of salt and punishment? Why manna in the wilderness and the twelve plagues of Egypt? Why sadness? Why death?”
And he would shrug, looking uncomfortable, “I don’t know, mate.”
They say, in Heaven, that there is a Book, and in it are written all the names of the universe, that an accounting can be made of each. They say that beside the name of Azrael it is written He was a good servant. And I know it to be true. And there will be another name, Harris Bigg-Wither, and there will be a very brief account, and there will be another name, Jane Austen, and it will say, She was very beautiful and died too early. Let her fondness for words have never stinted, let her books last for generations, let them be written as truth in the hearts and souls of the generations to come; let her never have feared the footsteps on the hall, let her have known much love, let her have disliked the pianoforte. I do not know if it is a kindness, these things I have written. But it is a record. Of a sort.
They say, in Heaven, that Time is infinite and all things happen at once, that there is no order to events; that there is no such thing as music for all notes sound together and the listener cannot differentiate; music is temporal; music is of the flesh; it is mortal. In Heaven, they say, there is no grandsweeping narrative, for God stands outside the possibility of such things; that He sees all things, the loves, the triumphs, the betrayals and reversals in a single moment, an eternity that renders as chaos for his servants what is perfect order for him. They say that his forgiveness is absolute, his love is absolute, his observance is absolute. They say this, my many detractors. Let it be a jest between us; let it be the first betrayal; let it be a mark, spilled ink, in that perfect chronicle of his that I should believe otherwise, that I should doubt, that this doubt should run through to the very depths of me.
In Heaven, there is a book, and in that book, there is a name: Lucifer, called Lightbearer, a good servant, once, turned rebel.
About these Authors
Brian Baldi’s writing has appeared in The Massachusetts Review, Denver Quarterly, Fairy Tale Review, Invisible Ear, and elsewhere. He is fond of seltzer.
Erica Hildebrand has a soft spot in her heart for superheroes, dinosaurs, and the conquerors of antiquity. A graduate of the Odyssey Writing Workshop, her fiction has appeared in Bewere the Night, M-Brane SF, The Edge of Propinquity, and more. Her comics have appeared in Space Squid and Kaleidotrope. She lives in Pennsylvania.
Jenny Jerome was a Brooklyn girl who moved to London, married, had kids, published a literary journal, and had a fair amount of fun.
Krista Hoeppner Leahy is a writer and actor. She attended the Odyssey Writing Workshop in 2007. Her work has appeared in Shimmer, The Way of the Wizard, Writers of the Future, and elsewhere. She lives in Brooklyn.
Kamila Zeman Miller (kzmillers.blogspot.com) lives with her family on small acreage in the Columbia River Gorge, where she paints and writes. She has the obligatory large number of rescued cats, as well as dogs, goats, chickens, and a very weird rabbit. If you meet her, be careful not to ask about her garden unless you’re a plant nerd with a patient ear.
Nicole Kimberling resides in Bellingham, Washington with her epically long-time partner, Dawn Kimberling, two bad cats and a rotating assortment of houseguests. Her first novel, Turnskin, won the Lambda Literary Award. Though currently the editor of Blind Eye Books, she has mostly made her money working as a professional cook.
Aurora-winning poet Helen Marshall is an author, editor, and self-proclaimed bibliophile. Her poetry and fiction have been published in ChiZine, Paper Crow, Abyss & Apex and Tesseracts among others. Her of poems have been collected in Skeleton Leaves and her short stories in Hair Side, Flesh Side. Currently, she is pursuing a Ph. D in medieval studies at the University of Toronto.
Andrea Pawley (andreapawley.com) is a state of mind. No, make that several states of mind all going at once. Raised under curious circumstances, she now lives in the long shadow of the Washington Monument with a man and a plan, neither of which is perturbed by her nocturnal habits, her odd diet or her devotion to dead presidents. (Not money, actual dead presidents.)
Michael Penkas (michaelpenkas.blogspot.com) has lived in Chicago since 2004. He’s had a half-dozen short stories published, most recently in War of the Worlds: Frontlines.
Kevin Waltman has an MFA from the University of Alabama, and has published two young adult novels, Nowhere Fast and Learning the Game. He has also published short fiction with Six Bricks Press, Esquire.com, the Emerson Review, and the Connecticut Review. He lives in Coker, Alabama, with his wife Jessica and their magical dog Henry.
John McKernan—who grew up in Omaha Nebraska—is now retired after teaching 41 years at Marshall University. He lives—mostly—in West Virginia where he edits ABZ Press. His most recent book is a selected poems Resurrection of the Dust. He has published poems in many places from The Atlantic Monthly to Zuzu’s Petals.
Junyi Wu is an illustrator from Los Angeles who likes pops of color, weathered textures, and pools of light, and likes to draw, arrange shapes, and be outdoors (junyiwu.com).
“Strange, beautiful, and occasionally disturbing territory without ever missing a beat. . . . Johnson’s language is beautiful, her descriptions of setting visceral, and her characters compellingly drawn. . . . [S]ometimes off-putting, sometimes funny, and always thought provoking.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) Best of 2012
Includes the Hugo and Nebula Award winner
“The Man Who Bridged the Mist.”
paper · $16 · 9781931520805 | ebook · $9.95 · 9781931520812
Ursula K. Le Guin’s stories have shaped the way many readers see the world. By giving voice to the voiceless, hope to the outsider, and speaking truth to power—all the time maintaining her independence and
sense of humor—she has proven herself a truly great writer.
This two-volume selection—as selected and organized by the author—contains almost forty stories and both volumes include new introductions by Le Guin.
“She is the reigning queen of . . . but immediately we come to a difficulty, for what is the fitting name of her kingdom? Or, in view of her abiding concern with the ambiguities of gender, her queendom, or perhaps—considering how she likes to mix and match—her quinkdom? Or may she more properly be said to have not one such realm, but two?”
—Margaret Atwood, New York Review of Books
The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories Volume One: Where on Earth
cloth · $24 · 9781618730343 | ebook · $14.95 · 9781618730367
The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories Volume Two: Outer Space, Inner Lands
cloth · $24 · 9781618730350 | ebook · $14.95 · 9781618730374
Shirley Jackson Award winner · Publishers Weekly Top 10 Best Books of the Year · io9 Best SF&F Books of the Year · Story Prize Notable Book · Tiptree Award Honor List · Philip K. Dick Award finalist · NPR Best of 2012
“Each tale is a beautifully written character study. . . . McHugh’s great talent is in reminding us that the future could never be weirder — or sadder — than what lurks in the human psyche. This is definitely one of the best works of science fiction you’ll read this year, or any thereafter.”
—Annalee Newitz, NPR
paper · $16 · 9781931520294 | ebook · $9.95 · 9781931520355
Recent and forthcoming short story collections and novels from Small Beer Press for independently minded readers:
Joan Aiken, The Monkey’s Wedding and Other Stories
“Wildly inventive, darkly lyrical, and always surprising.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Nathan Ballingrud, North American Lake Monsters: Stories
Ted Chiang, Stories of Your Life and Others
“Shining, haunting, mind-blowing tales”—Junot Díaz (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao)
Karen Joy Fowler, What I Didn’t See and Other Stories
“An exceptionally versatile author.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Angélica Gorodischer, Kalpa Imperial (trans. Ursula K. Le Guin);
Trafalgar* (trans. by Amalia Gladheart)
Kij Johnson, At the Mouth of the River of Bees: Stories
“I can’t think of any other writer whose stories terrify me the way Johnson’s do.”
—Lev Grossman
Nancy Kress, Fountain of Age: Stories
“A master class in the art of short-story writing.”—Kirkus Reviews
The Unreal and the Real: Selected Stories of Ursula K. Le Guin
In two volumes: Where on Earth & Outer Space, Inner Land
Kelly Link, Magic for Beginners; Stranger Things Happen
Karen Lord, Redemption in Indigo
Mythopoeic, Crawford, Carl Brandon Parallax, & Frank Collymore Award winner
Maureen F. McHugh, After the Apocalypse: Stories
“Incisive, contemporary, and always surprising.”—Publishers Weekly Top 10 Books of 2011
Geoff Ryman, Paradise Tales
“Includes one of the most powerful stories I’ve read in the last 10 years.”—New York Times
Sofia Samatar, A Stranger in Olondria
“A story of ghosts and books, treachery and mystery, ingeniously conceived and beautifully written. One of the best fantasy novels I’ve read in recent years.”—Jeffrey Ford (The Girl in the Glass)
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www.smallbeerpress.com
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