Why I got down out of the tree.
She came over and stood under the tree. She looked a lot like my mother. Get down out of that tree this instant! she said. Don't you know it's time for dinner?
About the Author
Kelly Link is the author of the collection Magic for Beginners, editor of the anthology Trampoline, and co-editor of the zine Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet. With Ellen Datlow and Gavin J. Grant, she edits The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror (St. Martin 's Press).
She once won a free trip around the world by answering the question "Why do you want to go around the world?" ("Because you can't go through it.") Link lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.
PUBLICATION HISTORY
These stories were previously published as follows: Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, Fence, 1998
Water Off a Black Dog's Back, Century, 1995
The Specialist's Hat, Event Horizon, 1998
Flying Lessons, Asimov's, 1995
Travels with the Snow Queen, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, winter 1996/7
Vanishing Act, Realms of Fantasy, 1996
Survivor's Ball, or, The Donner Party, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, 1998
Shoe and Marriage, 4 Stories, 2000
The Girl Detective, Event Horizon, 1999
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am extremely grateful to the following people. Some of them are relatives, some are friends, some are writers or editors. All of them have been incredibly kind encouraging. Some of them have cooked meals for me, or taught me various card games, or pointed me towards necessary books, or read my stories when I needed readers. I was a member of various workshops while writing these stories: I owe a lot to the instructors and members of the MFA workshop at UNC-G, Clarion East, Sycamore Hill, the Cambridge Auxiliary Women's Workshop, CSFW, and Rio Hondo. Partial inspiration for "The Specialist's Hat" came from an exhibit at the Peabody Museum in Cambridge, MA. I borrowed part of a passage (stuck up beside an empty exhibit case) to begin the longest poem in that story. Also adapted, for that same story, is a passage about snake whiskey from a folklore exhibit in Raleigh, NC. I would like to thank my mother, Annabel J. Link, who read to me until her voice gave out; my father, Bill Link, who read me books when my mother was too hoarse; my sister, Holly; my brother, Ben; Sam, Babs, Bryan and Laurie Jones, my grandparents, Edwin and Lou Jones; my wicked stepmother, Linda. I am indebted to Joyce Nissim, Michele Harley, Barb Gilly, Lynne and Tom Casey, Fleur Penman, Ada Vassilovski, Pete Cramer, Jack Cheng, Margaret Muirhead, Jim Clarke, Cassandra Silvia, Vincent McCaffrey, the fabulous Avenue Victor Hugo Bookshop, Bill Desmond, K. Wyndham, Mimi Levin, Janis Fields, Lea and Anna (girl sleuths), Christopher Hammond, Jim Clark, Fred Chappell, Lee Zacharias, Michael Parker, Raymond Kennedy, RAchele Taylor, Hadas Steiner, Melissa DeJong, John Golz, Lauren Stearns, Justine Larbalestier, Jenna A. Felice, Vanessa Felice, Veronica Shanoes, William Smith, Anna Genoese, Steve Pasechnick, Bryan Cholfin, Terra Cholfin, Ian McDowell, Anne Abrams, Mr. Jeremy Cavin, Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling, Delia Sherman, Ellen Kushner, Gwenda Bond, Neil Gaiman, Nalo Hopkinson, Dora Knez, Jim Patrick Kelly, Sarah Smith, John Kessel, Richard Butner, Walter Jon Williams, Greg Frost, Sean Stewart, Tim and Serena Powers, Jonathan Lethem, Shelley Jackson, and Karen Joy Fowler. (Especially Karen J. Fowler.) I am so very grateful for the hard work and patience and generosity of Gavin J. Grant, who has given me, among other things, a pair of shoes, a glass eye (I broke it), CDs by Mayumi Kojima and Super Butter Dog, a kimono, and, on my thirtieth birthday, thirty books, wrapped up in paper.
