Gavin Grant* has a tremendously excellent story up at Strange Horizons, "Widows in the World," which I waited to link to here until both parts were up. Part One and Part Two.
I remember hearing him read from this in a small, dark room in Glasgow** at a WorldCon years ago now and being dazzled all over again by the way he plays with language and the expected in his stories. Getting the whole of this one was well worth the wait. Happy Valentine's.
*Karen Joy Fowler has some guest entries up at the Small Beer blog, including one from today. Snippet: "A singing tree: Just west of the dog beach, along the clifftop is a Monterey pine. There are many Monterey pines along the cliff and one tries not to have favorites, but this is a very appealing tree. Today it was making a tremendous racket as I approached and I had to get quite close to understand that a congress of blackbirds was hidden among the needles, each of them shouting as loudly as possible. There were so many that if they’d all flapped their wings at once, the tree would have taken flight." Go read the rest of this too. And then read all her other entries; you will not be sorry.
**At least, I'm almost certain this is that story. I'm sure he'll let me know if I'm wrong.
Yes, it is the story he read at the Glasgow WorldCon. I envy that you got to hear some of it spoken aloud in that voice of his!
I was 99.9 percent sure (you never know if there’s *another* granny story up a sleeve), but I so remembered how fabulous it was.
Hey Gwenda, have been offline most of the week. Now I’m blushing to have missed thanking you for the link and the too kind words!
Yes, as Karen says, it is the same story I read part of long, long ago in Glasgow.
Blush away! Great story.
And, seriously, I understand. Have been scarce on the internet myself this week.