free fiction

[truepenny]

"White Charles" is live at Clarkesworld Magazine, as is "Non-Zero Probabilities" by N. K. Jemisin.

ETA: also, "White Charles" is Clarkesworld Magazine's podcast this month, read by Kate Baker and available right there on their front page, so you have your choice of medium.

Go! Read! Enjoy!

And tell me what you think, if you want to.

Comments

[starlady38.livejournal.com]

That might be my favorite Booth story yet. The ending is killer, of course, but I liked Acitophel Bates, and the Frankenstein references, and that book-burning was not the answer, very, very much.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[g33kgrrl]

The first thing I thought was, "I will open the tab then read it tomorrow, since I have to go to sleep" - and then I saw the word Parrington and was lost. Booth!

Anyway, I liked it. A good twist on the monster story, and part of Booth's evolving personality. Where does the story stand chronologically compared to the stories in the book?

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

"White Charles" comes after "Listening to Bone" and before "The Yellow Dressing Gown" which was published in Weird Tales last March.

[handful-ofdust.livejournal.com]

Personally, I love it: Golems always do it for me. Also, the ghost of a Hand of Glory! That's genius.;)

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Thanks--I admit, I was particularly pleased with myself for coming up with that.

[april-art.livejournal.com]

Fantastic. Love the alternate point of view at the end that causes one to stop and think instead of just react and seek the obvious path. Wonderful brief characterizations. They all come alive. Creepy and thought-provoking; good stuff!

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[alan-yee.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed "White Charles" very much. I still need to get The Bone Key so I can read the other Booth stories.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[elmocho.livejournal.com]

I love the sense of museum politics, including Booth's less-than-beloved tasks. I work in the genealogy collection of the Arizona State Library. We have the capitol museum and the state archives also, and at times this seems familiar... but not nearly as fun. Nothing that old, though we did have a lurid murder in the early days of the capitol rotunda that people swear they can feel the emanations from.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

I'm glad the politics ring true; I enjoyed writing that part possibly more than I should. Thanks!

[elmocho.livejournal.com]

It's fun to watch the intersection of bureaucracy and eccentricity. "This is my little empire!" will regularly collide with "That's someone else's problem!"

[emblazonet.livejournal.com]

Great story. I read The Bone Key last summer and liked it, and this brought back good memories. Your characterizations are fantastic, and I especially liked the bit at the end where Booth finally tells the watchmen apart.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[girlpunksamurai.livejournal.com]

Like the other Booth stories, it reads like a classic ghost story

It has that misty haunting feeling and everything is deep undercurrents. I also like the mix of politics in this story. Few people can write a story with that classic ghost story feel, so brownie points squared ^_^

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[ghostrunner7.livejournal.com]

Great story! Loved the idea of a ghost of a Hand of Glory; that's really, really clever.

I've been meaning to read The Bone Key since I discovered Melusine a year ago and now that I'm almost finished with it I've been rationing the stories like a traveler in the desert. Please, please tell me all the various other Booth stories will eventually be collected!

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

You are not the only person wondering. My current best answer is here (http://truepenny.livejournal.com/687828.html).

[sovay]

And tell me what you think, if you want to.

Belated, but I love "White Charles" very much, and not only because it has golems and books and complex moral questions of necessity posed in simple Latin. Is there any chance you will soon have enough stories for another collection of Kyle Murchison Booth?

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

Eventually, I hope I can do a second collection, but it's not going to be "soon" in anything but geologic time. (More detailed, though not really more satisfactory answer here (http://truepenny.livejournal.com/687828.html).)