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ANNOUNCEMENT: Wilde Stories Anthology

by

Wilde Stories 2017

QSFer Nathan Burgoine has a story in a new gay speculative fiction anthology:

A man named Turing visits a museum to see its rarest automata; during the Plague Years, three artists seeking to express a voice for their friends lost to AIDS unwittingly create life; a far-future restaurant offers patrons questionable cuisine; an immortal assassin may be one step closer to a paranoid king, despite his unspeakable precautions; the very existence of a mysterious and ancient golden android challenges a clergyman’s faith…

Wilde Stories showcases the previous year’s best offerings in gay short fantasy, science-fiction, and horror. This edition includes award-winning and critically acclaimed authors Sam J. Miller, A. Merc Rustad, A.C. Wise, Martin Pousson, and more.

The stories in this, the latest volume in this annual series, challenges the definition of life and infamy, existence and reputation, were chosen by Steve Berman, the premier editor of queer speculative fiction for more than a decade.

Nathan’s story “Frost” appears in this volume.

Table of Contents:

“The Tale of the Costume Maker” by Steve Carr
“Das Steingeschöpf” by G.V. Anderson
“Where’s the Rest of Me?” by Matthew Cheney
“The Gentleman of Chaos” by A. Merc Rustad
“Frost” by ‘Nathan Burgoine
“Bull of Heaven” by Gabriel Murray
“The Sound a Raven Makes” by Mathew Scaletta
“Angel, Monster, Man” by Sam J. Miller
“Most Holy Ghost” by Martin Pousson
​”Ratcatcher” by  Amy Griswold
“The Drowning Line” by Haralambi Markov
“My Own Heart’s Desire” by Robert Levy
“The Turing Test” by Eric Schaller
“Of All Possible Worlds” by Eneasz Brodski
“Carnivores” by Rich Larson
“It’s the End of the World As We Know It” by A.C. Wise
“The Death of Paul Bunyon” by Charles Payseur

Amazon

Excerpt

Little Jay went outside, into the snow.
He loved the snow, and the patterns it made. Drifts were like waves, and the ice on the pond sometimes looked like large snowflakes. He would catch flakes on the end of his scarf, so he could peer at them, holding his breath, and see the tiny star-like patterns—tiny, beautiful things—before they melted away. Tonight, the dark sky was full of snow, and the dim lights from the village below, and the single winter lantern his mother kept lit overnight, were barely enough to chase off the darkness.
But still, Little Jay had no fear of the dark, and much love for the dance of the snow, and so he twirled, arms wide, knowing the scorn he’d invoke for what he was doing were anyone there to see.
When he saw the way his footsteps remained in the snow he knew it was the kind of snow that would build and he set to work. What his brother had said—only a snowman would wear a hat so useless—struck him as a dare, and he took pains to craft a man of snow as large as Little Jay himself was small, as wide as he was narrow, and as strong as he was gentle. He took care, and time, to craft a jacket of snow, with pond stones for buttons. For boots he wrapped pale orange leaves he found under the trees, and he used needles from the evergreen trees as though the man’s white trousers were stitched with green thread. For the face, he took two slivers of coal for the eyes, which he placed under a strong brow and a square jaw nothing like his own face, and then he wove his patchwork scarf around the snowman’s neck.
Now he was done, the smile slipped from his lips.
The large man of snow in front of him was nothing like him. And while that had been the point, now Little Jay couldn’t help but think this was the sixth son his father would rather have had.
He pulled the silk hat from his head.
To have a man like this, a man like his father, and his brothers, who would look at him and respect him and—yes—love him, even though he was small, and narrow, and gentle.
What that might be like.
He wiped a tear on the hat, then fit it on the top of the snowman.
Then, Little Jay went to bed, which was how he missed the snowman’s first breath.

Author Bio

‘Nathan Burgoine grew up a reader and studied literature in university while making a living as a bookseller. His first published short story was “Heart” in the collection Fool for Love: New Gay Fiction. Since then, he has had dozens of short stories published, including This is How You Die (the second Machine of Death anthology).

His first novel, Light, is available from Bold Strokes Books and was a finalist for both the Lambda Literary Award for LGBT SF/Fantasy/Horror, and the BOTYA 2013 Gay & Lesbian (Adult Fiction) ForeWord award. His second novel, Triad Blood, is available now from Bold Strokes Books. His first novella-length work, “In Memoriam,” is included in the collection On the Run, by Wilde City Press, and available as a solo e-novella through Lethe Press.

A cat lover, ‘Nathan managed to fall in love and marry Daniel, who is a confirmed dog person. Their ongoing “cat or dog?” détente ended with the adoption of Coach, a six-year old husky. They live in Ottawa, Canada, where socialized health care and gay marriage have yet to cause the sky to cave in.

You can find ‘Nathan on the web at nathanburgoine.com.

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