Tartarus Press

publishers

The Clockworm

and Other Strange Stories

by

Karen Heuler

 

As Tonia watched the world slide by, strapped in her seat in the car, she felt another presence always, slightly to the right and behind, almost leaning against her, a pressure, an existence that was intimately reliable. This is good, she would think, and then there’d be an echo, ‘I like it too.’ The other voice always liked motion, and it soothed them both, to be lifted, to be carried, to be rocked, to be bathed.

Tonia eventually called the other voice Vivian. Vivian was the ghost in her head, the sly voice next to her heart.

 

You find you’re just one of many copies being generated by a 3-D printer, or hear that the earth is the subject of a rather cheerful invasion. Whatever the trouble, you still have to find your way . . .

Playful, sober, profound and profane, the characters in Karen Heuler’s stories may build bridges that no one else wants, or join up with a vengeful doll to fight the evil that men do, or remark upon the incursions of a worm that can change time. No matter what impossible event transpires, they face it. Rise up, they seem to say; rise up and meet the unexpected and the unacceptable, and make them yours.

 

Contains: ‘Here and There’, ‘Egg Island’, ‘The Stray Curse’, ‘Footsteps’, ‘Alien Corn’, ‘I Am’, ‘The Missy Show’, ‘Give Me Strength’, ‘The Lovely Kisselthwist’, ‘Figaro, Figueroa’, ‘The Completely Rechargeable Man’, ‘The Clockworm’, ‘The Right Chemistry’, ‘The Reordering of Tonia Vivian’, ‘Searching for Penny’, ‘Exile’, ‘The People in the Mirror’, ‘Calling Out’, ‘A Thing of Beauty and Light’.

 

Cover illustration ‘Twisted Twelve’ by Eric Freitas.

 

Karen Heuler’s stories have appeared in over 100 literary and speculative magazines and anthologies, from Conjunctions to Clarkesworld to Weird Tales, as well as a number of Best Of anthologies. She has received and almost-received a number of awards. This is her fourth story collection.

 

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