•   CONTENTS                                                            Before Paphos
                          Christmas Season
           Art Gallery                                                  by Loretta Casteen
       o
                          By Jay Lake
           Articles                                                     8 January 2007
       o
                          17 June 2002
           Columns                                                      It starts again. The baby
       o
                                                                        begins to cough and choke.
                          Every year come the Friday after
           Fiction
       o
                          Thanksgiving, Pawpaw gets to cleaning his     Locked Doors
           Poetry
       o                  shotgun. "Millie Ann," he always tells me,
                                                                        by Stephanie Burgis
                          "this is gonna be our best Christmas ever."
           Reviews
       o
                          What he means is we'll eat Christmas
                                                                        1 January 2007
                          sausage for months. That's good. Daddy
           Archives
       o
                          don't earn much, and we won't take        You can never let anyone
•   ABOUT US              government handouts, so we don't get food suspect, his mother told him.
                          stamps or nothing.                        That was the first rule she
           Staff
       o
                                                                    taught him, and the last,
                          Pawpaw is Ma's Daddy. On account of Ma
                                                                    before she left him here
           Guidelines
       o                  dying when I was four and Daddy's work on
                                                                    alone with It.
                          the oil rigs keeping him away so much,
           Contact
       o
                          Pawpaw pretty much raises me himself.     Heroic Measures
           Awards
       o
                          Pawpaw sits there singing "On Comet, on       by Matthew Johnson
                          Cupid, on Donder and Blitzen" while he
           Banners
       o
                          cleans the barrel of his old ten-gauge. He    18 December 2006
•   SUPPORT US            likes carols about reindeer and Santa's
                                                                        Pale as he was, it was hard
                          sleigh.
           Donate                                                       to believe he would never
       o
                    "Up on the housetop, click, click, click," as       rise from this bed. Even in
           Bookstore
      o             he loads the shotgun shells. Pawpaw smiles          the darkest times, she had
                    at me. "Next year, Millie Ann, when you're          never really feared for him;
      o Merchandise
                    thirteen, you can help me with the reloads."        he had always been strong,
                                                                        so strong.
•   COMMUNITY
                    "Thank you, Pawpaw." This seems like a
                    good time to ask. "Can I come tonight? I         Love Among the Talus
      o Forum
                    hate staying with Aunt Gemma. Her trailer
                                                                     by Elizabeth Bear
      o Readers'    smells like cat pee and her cookies are
        Choice      always stale."
                                                                     11 December 2006
                    Pawpaw smacks his lips as he stares at me.
                                                                     Nilufer raised her eyes to his.
                    That means he's thinking. "I reckon you're
                                                                     It was not what women did
                    old enough this year, girl."
                                                                     to men, but she was a
                    "Goodie!" Pawpaw doesn't think I'm a little princess, and he was only a
                    kid any more. I grin so hard my teeth feel bandit. "I want to be a
                                                                     Witch," she said. "A Witch
                    like to fall out.
                                                                     and not a Queen. I wish to
                    It's real early Saturday morning, so early it's be not loved, but wise. Tell
                    almost still Friday. Our hunting blind is at the your bandit lord, if he can
                                                                     give me that, I might accept
                    edge of some trees above a long, sloping
                    field with more trees at the bottom. There's a his gift."
                    few other blinds around. When we got here
                                                                     Archived Fiction Dating
                    those folks made a big fuss over my first
                                                                     back to 9/1/00
                    Christmas season. That was nice, and it
                    made me feel important. Now it's so cold my
                    hands ache. Pawpaw drinks coffee to keep