Firebirds Rising: An Anthology of Original Science Fiction and Fantasy

She still had all of her marbles, though every one of them was a bit odd and rolled asymmetrically.

The idea of fairyland fascinates me because it's one of those things, like mermaids and dragons, that doesn't really exist, but everyone knows about it anyway. Fairyland lies only in the eye of the beholder who is usually a fabricator of fantasy. So what good is it, this enchanted, fickle land which in some tales bodes little good to humans and, in others, is the land of peace and perpetual summer where everyone longs to be? Perhaps it's just a glimpse of our deepest wishes and greatest fears, the farthest boundaries of our imaginations. We go there because we can; we come back because we must. What we see there becomes our tales.

if someone you loved died, someone who you were really close to, would they be like a phantom limb, still attached to you?

walls change whatever they enclose, and whatever they leave out. And

He was much interested in all family activities, and was so often tripped over that they named him after Ghologhosh, the god of small curses. Not

Get used to it. The world’s a big and strange place, my dad says, and just because you haven’t seen a thing doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.” “Obviously.