I love this cover

[dianeduane]

Just got my author's copy yesterday. The anthology features stories about a suburban U.S. high school catering to young wizards and witches, and my story "The House" bats cleanup in the volume (always a fun position to be in):

She lay face down on her bed, clutching her pillow over the back of her head, and moaned, “It’s useless. Useless!”

            In the hallway outside her bedroom, Brianna’s mom had the linen closet open and was stacking sheets in it: Bri could smell the lavender water from here as her mom sprayed it onto layer after layer. And for the moment, the light clean scent infuriated her. Her mother’s compulsive housewifeliness didn’t usually bother Brianna so much except at moments like this, when the world was ending, and how nice the sheets smelled wasn’t even slightly germane.

            “Sweetie,”  her mom said,  “maybe you should just wait a few days and ask him again.”

            “It wouldn’t help,”  Brianna muttered. “He’d just get the idea I really wanted to do this project with him.”

            “Yes, but you do really want to do this project with him.”

            “That’s not the point!!”

            From out in the hall came the perhaps understandable long silence as her mother tried to parse this statement. Unfortunately Brianna had noticed that her logic and her mom’s sometimes just didn’t intersect, and occasionally serious annotation became necessary.  “If I ask him again,”  Bri said, pulling the pillow up a little so she wouldn’t have to shout,  “he’ll tell everybody that I was desperate. It’ll be all over school. My rep will never recover.”

            “Which rep are we talking about, honey?”  her mother said, pausing to spray some more lavender water, and then to sneeze. Her mom was allergic to lavender, which always added a slightly surreal quality to this operation in Brianna’s eyes.

            “My reputation as an independent kid who doesn’t need anybody’s help to get the job done!”

            “Well, you don’t, if you ask me. So do it without him.  If he’s not smart enough to want to pair up with you on this science fair thing -- ”

            “Parascience, please, Mom! This is not just people fussing around with anemometers and toy erupting volcanoes: it’s going to be the main event of Heritage Week!” Though she had seen Carol Anne Naylor’s plan for a real miniature exploding volcano, genuine magma and all, and had been consumed by envy at not having thought of it first. If it worked, it would be terrific, and even if it malfunctioned, that could still potentially be desperately cool. After all, there was never any guarantee when you were working with a fire elemental, even a baby one, that it wouldn’t get out of hand --

            Another few sneezes came from outside, and then the sound of her mother shutting the linen cupboard.  A few seconds later her mom came in and sat down on the bed beside Brianna, smelling strongly of lavender.  “All right,”  she said to Brianna,  “I’m missing something here. What exactly is it that makes Arthur Etchison so necessary to what you’ve got in mind?”

            His eyes. His shoulder muscles. His haircut. His –  But there was no point in getting into this line of reasoning with her mother. Brianna pulled the pillow up over her head again, this time with reason, as she was blushing again. It was the curse of her life: she had always been an easy blusher, and this year when Arthur arrived at school from England, an exchange student, yes, and I’d exchange any ten of our guys for one of him, he is just so --  Brianna moaned again, feeling like her face should just about be able to scorch the sheets under it at this point.  “Mom, it’s just such a good idea! He’s the King of Shop:  he’s got a way with metal, it listens to him. You should see him under the hood -- ” Wouldn’t I like to get under his hood!!  said one completely unrepentant part of her mind:  in response, the blush scaled right up to blowtorch level.  She started talking faster, hoping to distract herself. “And nobody, nobody else has even thought about doing anything with the paraphysics of magic swords.  Everybody’s all hung up on organics this year, the specific gravity of potions and catalytic thaumachemistry. Or else this vague paperwork stuff, diagramming hexes, the structural analysis of spells.” She waved a hand from under the pillow. “Airy-fairy stuff where nothing’s likely to blow up or make a mess.  Nothing concrete. Nothing practical.”

            Her mother sat quiet for a moment.  “Okay,”  her mom said. “So if you can’t ask him again to help you, what are you going to do?”

            Brianna was tempted to cover her head with the pillow again… except that wouldn’t help her solve the problem.  “Think of some other project?”  she said after a moment.

And she does. Then matters ensue which are not merely hilarity.   

 A lot of good company in this anthology: Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Laura Resnick, Jody Lynn Nye, Esther Friesner, Debra Dixon...  Worth a look, I'd say.

Comments

[londonbard.livejournal.com]

That cover would attract me to come shopping - and thank you for greatly improving my morning.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Added to my Amazon wishlist. But: an oddity. Amazon.co.uk says a publication date of 4th December 2008, but also has it available 'now' with delivery in 1 to 3 weeks! Which of these (if any) is actually correct? Not the only time they've done that sort of thing, admittedly...

[readinggeek451]

My library got it's copy several weeks ago (and I read it Sunday). It's very good, especially the last story.

[dduane.livejournal.com]

Aww! Thank you. :0

[lunalovegoddess.livejournal.com]

*must order for Yule* The cover rocks, plus my daughter is as big a fan of your work as I am.
(Also, my daughter's name is Bryanna, and she's in junior high. It just begs to be purchased.)

[lady-autumnstar.livejournal.com]

Ooh, cool! Thanks for the heads-up. One can *never* have too many good books.

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

In flist-skimming mode, I originally parsed that as subject-verb, "bats clean up," and was trying to picture how many of the poor little critters it would take to clean even a small school at all effectively. (Clearly this morning calls for more caffeine.)

That is a fantastic cover, and looks like a fun book. Thanks for the heads-up!

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

I bought this at FenCon, haven't gotten to it yet but it's high on the list. Im looking forward to it!

[eavanmoore.livejournal.com]

Just the other week, I searched your name in my public library system and was delightd to find how many anthologies they had with your stories. I've read "Herself" so far, and it's delightful. This one sounds fun, too.

[particle-person.livejournal.com]

Is it out in the US too?

[dduane.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah. That's the US edition, from DAW.

[danceswithlife]

Just ordered! Looks like fun.

[moonreviews]

This cover reminds me a bit of the Dutch children's book "Een bezem in het fietsenrek" (A broom in the 'fietsenrek'). I can't find the English word for fietsenrek, but it looks like this. The story not about a high school at all, though :) Summary from the book cover, roughly translated:

When the witch Marijn finds a mail-order catalogue in her forest with images of all kinds of strange-looking devices and people who look very happy, she decides to venture into the world to become very happy as well. But because she doesn't know how the human world works, she experiences many absurd situations.

[dduane.livejournal.com]

If "fiets" is bicycle (I think it is, because I've been planning to buy an omafiets for a long time) then fietsenrek is "bicycle rack". :)

[moonreviews]

*adds to dictionary*

Oma = grandmother :) I have a bicycle like that, but I got it from my mother who used it 20 years ago to go to places with three little children on the bicycle. Nowadays I see mothers cycling with a cart behind their bicycle with children in it, like a kind of caravan...
Is an omafiets called the same in English?

[dduane.livejournal.com]

Re omafiets: I don't think the word has an English equivalent -- I had to learn the Dutch word to describe to people what I wanted. :)

[foomf.livejournal.com]

Is this something like a three-wheel cart with a big wire basket behind? I've seen those used locally from time to time, but they're uncommon. Usually ridden by little old ladies and the occasional hippie-type guy. (We still have them here in Oregon.)

[moonreviews]

Omafiets?
It looks like this: http://bp0.blogger.com/_MnFhyji8V2M/RlWIBjW_hZI/AAAAAAAAABM/LV3tWYrcRFM/s1600-h/omafiets-zwart-efvi.jpg
Or just google 'omafiets' for images :)

[foomf.livejournal.com]

oh boy is that ever a granny-bike! With the giant fender for mud and to keep skirts from catching.
Not the three-wheeled thing I've seen here though :)

[dduane.livejournal.com]

No, an omafiets is sort of a class term for a simple street bike, three to nine gears as a rule (but sometimes more), staid, solid and meant for shopping and daily business. Since the Netherlands aren't hilly, most omafiets aren't overgeared. These are what Peter would describe as a "sit-up-and-beg" bike, one on which you sit up straight rather than being crouched over the handlebars as if you were Lance Armstrong. Here's one. (http://www.workcycles.com/workbike/bicycles/dutch-city-bikes/workcycles-omafiets-dutch-granny-bike.html) And here are some assorted images. (http://images.google.com/images?q=omafiets&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title)

[keristor.livejournal.com]

As far as I am aware it is illegal in England (and Wales and Scotland, I don't know about Ireland) to ride a bicycle with children towed behind (or on the same bicycle at all, I think). It would certainly be dangerous with the cars on the road (the Netherlands of course has proper cycle lanes, and cars actually avoid bicycles), I wouldn't ride a bicycle at all on the roads these days.

[moonreviews]

I am very happy with the separate cycle lanes here! I've lived in Japan but even if I'd have had a bicycle there, I probably wouldn't have ridden it very much. In some ares you even had to walk between the white line on the side of the car lane and the grass on the side of the road...
If I have children I wouldn't put them in a cart behind my bicycle. Who knows what can happen, especially when taking a corner. I'd put them in front of me or behind me on the bicycle.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

Ah, young hormones love. :)

[cornerofmadness.livejournal.com]

that is a nice cover and I quite like Brianna

[cgbookcat1.livejournal.com]

Wonderful cover! I just placed an order.

Is there any word on The Big Meow?

[estrelladesax.livejournal.com]

I bought that yesterday! Haven't read it yet. The cover was what caught me. :)