Water Rites is Out!
When I wrote The Drylands it was actually only 2/3 of the plot arc of my Drylands story. That story began with the novelette Water Bringer first published in Asimov's and continued on with Celilo and The Bee Man also published in Asimov's. While I aluded to these earlier events as backstory in The Drylands, that part of the story arc wasn't as strong as it would have been, I felt, if readers had had the first part of the story. Now, finally, the entire story has been put together and I am thrilled with the result!
We now begin with the reality of our failure to check global warming. In this dry future we have adapted to shortages that have turned back the clock on prosperity and technological development. We are coping, but at a price. Water is the most valuable resource. It is power. And in the US, the Army Corps of Engineers has become the guardian and keeper of water. Life is metered by water – by it’s lack and its location. And who controls it. We meet that dry future through the life of Jeremy, a boy born in a dying community in the Dry, in a world of hard choices, and continue on as Dan Greely learns some hard lessons about hope and honesty, finally meeting the quiet man, Sam Montoya who precipitates the first water confrontation between farmers in the Columbia Gorge and the keepers of the water. His daughter, Nita, ultimately takes us from the reality of agriculture in this dry future back to the Gorge just as tensions rise again and the ghost of her father rises to haunt her.
There, Major Carter Voltaire, newly in charge of The Pipeline, the enormous water project that keeps much of the western US alive, finds himself standing between thirsty locals and the need to provide water to the many. He has seen devastating water riots and must find a way to prevent that from happening here, while protecting precious water.
There are no good answers.
Water Rites is now available Fairwood Press . It includes a forward by me. I scared myself. I went back and reviewed the extensive research I did in the early 90s and compared it to what we're seeing now... Oh, boy, I hope it's not already too late for us! I talk about that in my forward.
If you'd like a peek at what else I have written, you can take a look at my Publication List.
I did a fun interview for a really cool new website:
WOW Women On Writing This is an outstanding new website that offers a lot for writers and fans both. I had a great time meeting Beryl and Angela, the creators. Watch for this site to go places!
On the Magic Realism front, Woman Who Walked With Dogs has appeared in Modern Magic, an anthology of modern dark fantasy.
Take a walk in a Portland public park after dark and find out why you should always take your dog! And the illustration for the story is a total hoot. I nearly fell off my chair laughing. I love it.
My story Home Movies has been selected for The Year's Best SF, 24th Edition edited by Gardner Dozois. It has also been selected for the Year's Best Science Fiction #12 to be published by Harper Eos in the spring, as a mass market paperback. I'll put links up here for both books when they're actually on the shelves. This is probably the closest I will ever get to writing a romance. And I delve into one of my favorite areas -- human memory and it's quirks. I also get to add to my foreign language bookshelf as Search Engine will appear in the Russian SF magazine Esli. I can't wait for my copy!