At the beginning of each month, we here at Tor.com will post the next two months of our schedule of original short fiction. Check back monthly to get excited for upcoming short stories, novelettes, and novellas on Tor.com! Below the cut you’ll find information on new stories by Charlie Jane Anders, Pat Cadigan, and more.
December 4
“In the Greenwood”
Written by Mari Ness
Edited by Liz Gorinsky
Illustration by Allen Williams
Tor.com blogger, fantasy writer, and insatiable reader Mari Ness makes her Tor.com short fiction debut with a beautifully told tale of complicated and conflicted love, a translation and transformation of a very old story that is sure to be familiar to every fan of folklore and history.
December 11
“Friedrich the Snow Man”
Written by Lewis Shiner
Edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Illustration by Ross MacDonald
“Friedrich the Snow Man” is a festive holiday story from Lewis Shiner, but beware. If you gaze long enough into the holidays, the holidays will gaze back into you.
December 17
“The Christmas Show”
Written by Pat Cadigan
Edited by Ellen Datlow
Illustration by Goñi Montes
“The Christmas Show,” by Pat Cadigan, is the perfect Christmas story about a pair of sisters under a mysterious curse that forces them to travel around the US producing local theatrical productions. This Xmas, they’re producing A Christmas Carol with the real ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. Humorous and charming.
December 18
“The Writ of Years”
Written by Lee Mandelo
Edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Illustration by Sam Wolfe Connelly
Few things can be as terrible as to get your heart’s desire.
January 1
“Ekaterina and the Firebird”
Written by Abra Staffin-Wiebe
Edited by Liz Gorinsky
Illustration by Anna and Elena Balbusso
Mineappolis writer Abra Staffin-Wiebe brings us a new take on an old Russian fairy tale: the quest for a blessing from the elusive firebird. In this iteration, young Ekaterina celebrates her fourteenth birthday, and a rare firebird sighting sets in motion a chain of events that will change her life forever.
January 8
“The Eighth-Grade History Class Visits the Hebrew Home for the Aging”
Written by Harry Turtledove
Edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Illustration by Robert Hunt
Some people will tell you that world-class fame is better than living to a contented old age. Other people disagree. One of those other people might possibly be the protagonist of this tale by Harry Turtledove, master of the counterfactual.
January 14
“The Intelligence Director”
Written by Jessica Brody
Edited by Janine O’Malley
Illustrated by Goñi Montes
Hidden deep in the southwest desert, away from civilization, a top-secret, high-tech research facility is experimenting with many forbidden things. Things that even most of the employees don’t know about. The task of protecting the compound and keeping its various experiments under wraps is Director Raze, Head of Security for Diotech Corporation. But when one of those experiments manages to escape and Raze is to blame, he must figure out a way to recover the missing property without exposing himself. In a place where minds can be manipulated and secrets can be wiped from existence, how far will one man go to keep his own secrets buried?
January 15
“The Cartography of Sudden Death”
Written by Charlie Jane Anders
Edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden
Illustration by Richard Anderson
Time travel doesn’t actually solve problems. It just makes them more complex…
January 22
“Nighttime in Caeli-Amur”
Written by Rjurik Davidson
Illustration by Allen Williams
Caeli-Amur is a city-state where magic and technology are interchangeable; where minotaurs and sirens are real; where philosopher-assassins and seditionists are not the most dangerous elements in a city alive with threat. During the day, the ordinary citizens do what they must to get along. But at night, the spirit of the ancient city comes alive, to haunt the old places.
January 29
The Anderson Project
Written by Ken Liu and Judith Moffett
Edited by David G. Hartwell
Illustration by Richard Anderson
The Anderson Project is the successor to 2012’s Palencar Project. Judith Moffett and Ken Liu have written one story each, inspired by a beautiful original illustration by artist Richard Anderson.
