The Mammoth Book of Angels & Demons (74 page)

BOOK: The Mammoth Book of Angels & Demons

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Norman Partridge
’s fiction includes horror, suspense and the fantastic – “sometimes all in one story” according to Joe Lansdale. Partridge’s novel
Dark Harvest
was chosen by
Publishers Weekly
as one of the best one hundred books of 2006, and two short-story collections were published in 2010 –
Lesser Demons
from Subterranean Press and
Johnny Halloween
from Cemetery Dance. Other work includes the Jack Baddalach mysteries
Saguaro Riptide
and
The Ten-Ounce Siesta
, plus
The Crow: Wicked Prayer
, which was adapted for film. His work has received multiple Bram Stoker awards. He can be found on the web at
NormanPartridge.com
and
americanfrankenstein.blogspot.com
.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch
has written a lot of bestselling, award-winning fiction under a variety of names, including Kristine Grayson, Kris DeLake, Kris Nelscott and, of course, her own name. She’s the former editor of
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
. Her entire thirty-year backlist is slowly returning to print, courtesy of WMG Publishing. For more information on her work, go to
www.kristinekathrynrusch.com
.

Lucius Shepard
’s short fiction has won the Nebula Award, the Hugo Award, International Horror Guild Award, National Magazine Award, Locus Award, Theodore Sturgeon Award and the World Fantasy Award. His most recent book is a short fiction collection,
The Dragon Griaule
. Forthcoming are two novels, tentatively titled
The Piercefields
and, for young adults,
The End of Life As We Know It
.

John Shirley
is the author of more than thirty novels. The latest is
Everything is Broken
. His numerous short stories have been compiled into eight collections including
Black Butterflies: A Flock on the Darkside
, winner of the Bram Stoker Award, International Horror Guild Award, and named as one of the best one hundred books of the year by
Publishers Weekly
and, most recently,
In Extremis: The Most Extreme Short Stories of John Shirley
. He has written scripts for television and film, and is best known as co-writer of
The Crow
. As a musician, Shirley has fronted several bands over the years and written lyrics for Blue Öyster Cult and others. To learn more about John Shirley and his work, visit
john-shirley.com
.

Stellan Thorne
is a transatlantic queer geek. He writes speculative fiction from his perch in Manchester, where he lives with his husband and two cats.

Genevieve Valentine
’s first novel,
Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti
, won the 2012 Crawford Award and was nominated for the Nebula. Her short fiction has appeared in
Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Journal of Mythic Arts, Fantasy Magazine, Lightspeed
,
Apex
and others, and the anthologies
Federations, The Living Dead 2, The Way of the Wizard, Running with the Pack, Teeth
and more. Her story “Light on the Water” was a 2009 World Fantasy Award nominee, and “Things to Know About Being Dead” was a 2012 Shirley Jackson Award nominee. Her non-fiction and reviews have been published by NPR.org,
Strange Horizons
,
Lightspeed
,
Weird Tales
,
Tor.com
and
Fantasy
. Valentine is a co-author of
Geek Wisdom
(Quirk Books). Her appetite for bad movies is insatiable, a tragedy she tracks at
glvalentine.livejournal.com
.

Over the span of her fifty-year career,
Kate Wilhelm
’s writing has spanned the genres of mystery, science fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy and magical realism; psychological suspense, mimetic, comic, and family sagas, a multimedia stage production, and radio plays. Her works have been adapted for television and movies in the United States, England and Germany. Wilhelm’s novels and stories have been translated to more than a dozen languages. She has contributed to
Quark
,
Orbit
,
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
,
Locus
,
Amazing Stories
,
Asimov’s Science Fiction
,
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine
,
Fantastic
,
Omni
,
Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine
,
Redbook
and
Cosmopolitan.
Wilhelm and her husband, Damon Knight (1922–2002), also provided invaluable assistance to numerous other writers over the years as teachers and lecturers. Kate Wilhelm currently lives in Eugene, Oregon. In her spare time she likes to garden.

Gene Wolfe
worked as an engineer before becoming editor of trade journal
Plant Engineering
. He retired to write full time in 1984. Long considered to be a premier fantasy author, he is the recipient of the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as Nebula, World Fantasy, Campbell, Locus, British Fantasy and British SF Awards. Wolfe has been inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. His short fiction has been collected over a dozen times, most recently in
The Best of Gene Wolfe
(2009). His latest novel is
Peace.
Both are from Tor.

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
is the first woman to be named a Living Legend by the International Horror Guild (2006). She was honored in 2009 as a Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement by the Horror Writers association and, in 2003, was named as Grand Master of the World Horror Convention. She is the recipient of the Fine Foundation Award for Literary Achievement (1993) and (along with Fred Saberhagen) was awarded the Knightly Order of the Brasov Citadel by the Transylvanian Society of Dracula in 1997. A professional writer since 1968, Yarbro has worked in a wide variety of genres, from science fiction to westerns and from young adult adventure to historical horror. Yarbro is the author of over eighty books, more than seventy works of short fiction, and more than two dozen essays and reviews. Best-known for her Count Saint-Germain series,
Commedia della Morte
(2012) is its twenty-fifth book and twenty-third novel. Her website is
chelseaquinnyarbro.net
.

Acknowledgements

“Frumpy Little Beat Girl” by Peter Atkins © 2010 Peter Atkins. First publication:
Rolling Darkness Revue 2010
(Earthling Publications). Published by permission of the author.

“One Saturday Night, with Angel” by Peter M. Ball © 2010 Peter M. Ball. First publication:
Sprawl
, ed. Alison Kranostein (Twelfth Planet Press). Published by permission of the author.

“Monsters of Heaven” by Nathan Ballingrud © 2007 Nathan Ballingrud. First publication:
Inferno: New Tales of Terror and the Supernatural,
ed. Ellen Datlow (Tor). Published by permission of the author.

“Lost Souls” by Clive Barker ©1985 Clive Barker. First publication:
Time Out #800
, 19 December 1985–1 January 1986. Published by permission of the author.

“Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel” by Peter S. Beagle © 2008 Avicenna Development Corporation. First publication:
Strange Roads
(DreamHaven Books). Published by permission of the author.

“Angel” by Pat Cadigan © 1987 Pat Cadigan. First Publication:
Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine,
May 1987. Published by permission of the author.

“Come to Me” by Sam Cameron © 2012 Sam Cameron. First published:
Women of the Dark Streets: Lesbian Paranormal
, eds. Radclyffe and Stacia Seaman (Bold Stroke Books). Published by permission of the author.

“Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep” by Suzy McKee Charnas © 1991 by Suzy McKee Charnas. First publication:
A Whisper of Blood
, ed. Ellen Datlow (William Morrow). Published by permission of the author.

“Murder Mysteries” by Neil Gaiman © 1992 Neil Gaiman. First publication:
Midnight Graffiti
, eds. Jessica Horsting and James Van Hise (Warner). Published by permission of the author.

“Oh Glorious Sight” by Tanya Huff © 2001 Tanya Huff. First publication:
Oceans of Magic
, ed. Martin H. Greenberg and Brian M. Thomsen (DAW Books). Published by permission of the author.

“Alabaster” by Caitlín R. Kiernan © 2005 Caitlín R. Kiernan. First publication:
Subterranean Press Newsletter
, April and May 2005 issues. Published by permission of the author.

“The Goat Cutter” by Jay Lake © 2004 Joseph E. Lake Jr. First publication:
Greetings From Lake Wu
(Wheatlands Press). Published by permission of the author.

“The Big Sky” by Charles de Lint © 1995 Charles de Lint. First publication:
Heaven Sent: 18 Glorious Tales of the Angels
, ed. Peter Crowther (DAW Books). Published by permission of the author.

“The Man Who Stole the Moon” by Tanith Lee © 2001 Tanith Lee. First publication:
Realms of Fantasy
, February 2001. Published by permission of the author.

“Only Kids Are Afraid of the Dark” by George R. R. Martin © 1967 by Larry Hearndon. First publication:
Star Studded Comics #10
. Prose version, first publication:
GRRM: a RRetrospective
© 2003 George R. R. Martin (Subterranean Press). Published by permission of the author.

“Elegy for a Demon Lover” by Sarah Monette © 2005 Sarah Monette. First publication:
Tales of the Unanticipated 26
, October 2005. Published by permission of the author.

“Demon” by Joyce Carol Oates © 1996 Joyce Carol Oates. First Publication:
Demon and Other Tales
(Necronomicon Press). Published by permission of the author.

“Sanji’s Demon” by Richard Parks. © 2010 Richard Parks. First publication:
Beneath Ceaseless Skies
, Issues #38 and #39, 11 March and 25 March 2010. Published by permission of the author.

“Stackalee” by Norman Partridge. © 1990 Norman Partridge. First publication:
Cemetery Dance #5
, Summer 1990. Published by permission of the author.

“Spirit Guides” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch © 1995 Kristine Kathryn Rusch. First publication:
Heaven Sent: 18 Glorious Tales of the Angels
, ed. Peter Crowther (DAW Books). Published by permission of the author.

“The Night of White Bhairab” by Lucius Shepard © 1984 Mercury Press, Inc. First publication:
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
, October 1984. Published by permission of the author.

“. . . And the Angel With Television Eyes” by John Shirley © 1983 John Shirley. First publication:
Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine
, May 1983. Published by permission of the author.

“Pinion” by Stellan Thorne © 2011 Stellan Thorne. First publication:
Strange Horizons
, 17 January 2011. Published by permission of the author.

“Demons, Your Body, and You” by Genevieve Valentine © 2011 Genevieve Valentine. First publication:
Subterranean Press Magazine: Summer 2011
. Published by permission of the author.

“And the Angels Sing” by Kate Wilhelm © 1990 Kate Wilhelm. First publication:
Omni
, April 1990. Published by permission of the author.

“Bed and Breakfast” by Gene Wolfe © 1996 Gene Wolfe. First Publication:
Dante’s Disciples
, eds. Peter Crowther and Edward E. Kramer (White Wolf). Published by permission of the author.

“Lammas Night” by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro © 1976 Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. First publication:
Sleight of Crime
, eds. Cedric Clute, Jr and Nicholas Lewin (Henry Regnery). Published by permission of the author.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Things Are Complicated Paula Guran

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Suzy McKee Charnas

Stackalee Norman Partridge

Bed and Breakfast Gene Wolfe

Frumpy Little Beat Girl Peter Atkins

The Night of White Bhairab Lucius Shepard

. . . And the Angel With Television Eyes John Shirley

Lost Souls Clive Barker

Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel Peter S. Beagle

Demon Joyce Carol Oates

Alabaster Caitlín R. Kiernan