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 stories in September and October by Julio Cortázar, Seanan McGuire, Charlie Jane Anders, and more.
September and October’s fiction contains crushing headaches, sasquatch(es?), and a dog. To find out all the details, check below the cut.
September 3
“Headache”
Written by Julio Cortázar
Translated by Michael Cisco
Edited by Ann VanderMeer
Artwork by Dave McKean
Originally published in Spanish as “Cefalea” in the late Julio Cortázar’s 1951 collection Bestiario, this story has never before been presented in English. Inspired by Cortázar’s sickly childhood, “Headache” introduces us to the mancuspias: fantastical creatures who must be maintained on a very specific schedule.
September 9
“Tuckitor’s Last Swim”
Written by Edith Cohn
Illustration by Michael Manomivibul
Edited by Susan Dobinick
Tuckitor Hatterask had a fierce desire to go for a swim, even though a storm was brewing and he knew it wasn’t a good idea to go into the water. But the forces pulling him toward the ocean were much stronger than he ever could had imagined. In this companion short story to Spirit’s Key, Edith Cohn’s debut novel, readers learn how a family on a small southern island came to be haunted by hurricanes.
September 10
“As Good as New”
Written by Charlie Jane Anders
Illustration by Yuko Shimizu
Edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden
From the author of the Hugo-winning “Six Months, Three Days,” a new wrinkle on the old story of three wishes, set after the end of the world.
September 17
“Selfies”
Written by Lavie Tidhar
Illustration by Greg Ruth
Edited by Ellen Datlow
“Selfies,” by Lavie Tidhar, is a creepy little horror tale about the fate of a young woman who makes the mistake of a lifetime when she buys a new phone in the local mall.
September 23
“The Golden Apple of Shangri-La”
Written by David Barnett
Illustration by Nekro
Edited by Claire Eddy
Another story from the world of David Barnett’s Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Girl.
September 24
“Midway Relics and Dying Breeds”
Written by Seanan McGuire
Illustration by Theo Prins
Edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden
A tale of bioengineering, a carnival, and the cost of finding one’s right place.
October 1
“Daughter of Necessity”
Written by Marie Brennan
Illustration by Ashley Mackenzie
Edited by Paul Stevens
By day she crafts; by night she unmakes. Surely somewhere, in all the myriad crossings of the threads, there is a future in which all will be well. Marie Brennan offers an intriguing new spin on a classic tale.
October 8
“Mrs. Sorensen and the Sasquatch”
Written by Kelly Barnhill
Illustration by Chris Buzelli
Edited by Ann VanderMeer
When Mr. Sorensen—a drab, cipher of a man—passes away, his lovely widow falls in love with a most unsuitable mate. Enraged and scandalized (and armed with hot-dish and gossip and seven-layer bars), the Parish Council turns to the old priest to fix the situation—to convince Mrs. Sorensen to reject the green world and live as a widow ought. But the pretty widow has plans of her own.
October 14
“The Girl in the High Tower”
Written by Gennifer Albin
Edited by Janine O’Malley
In Arras time and space can be manipulated—and so can people. Beautiful Spinsters work day and night in four coventries to ensure a perfect world, but above them all, at the top of the high tower, works the Creweler. Until the Creweler makes a decision to help a young girl escape. Now bound by the strands of the universe, trapped between her memories and mistakes, subject to brutal experiments, Loricel has one more impossible decision to make. The Girl in the High Tower is an original short story set in Gennifer Albin’s Crewel World. The final book in the series, Unraveled, is available October 7th.
October 15
“Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza”
Written by Carrie Vaughn
Illustration by John Picacio
Edited by George R.R. Martin
The Wild Cards universe has been thrilling readers for over 25 years. In Carrie Vaughn’s “Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza,” ace Ana Cortez discovers that sometimes to be truly healed, you must return to your roots.
October 22
“This Chance Planet”
Written by Elizabeth Bear
Illustration by Robert Hunt
Edited by Ellen Datlow
“This Chance Planet” by Elizabeth Bear is a near future science fiction story about a young Russian waitress with ambitions to become an engineer and her musician boyfriend, who wants her to gestate a liver for money so his band can tour. Plus, there’s a dog.
October 29
“A Kiss with Teeth”
Written by Max Gladstone
Illustration by Dave Palumbo
Edited by Marco Palmieri
Vlad has grown distant from his wife. His son has trouble at school. And he has to keep his sharp teeth hidden.
