Author Archives: ogresan

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About ogresan

Richard Parks' stories have have appeared in Asimov's SF, Realms of Fantasy, Fantasy Magazine, Weird Tales, and numerous anthologies, including several Year's Bests. His first story collection, THE OGRE'S WIFE, was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. He is the author of the Yamada Monogatari series from Prime Books.

Still Waiting

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View from Rte 167

View from Rte 167

To be fair, the movers said they’d be here Saturday and they were. The catch was that they’d brought our stuff in the biggest monster rig that they possessed. Our stuff is not a monster load, nor is this a monster street. It is a narrow, village-y kind of street. Law says they can’t block the street. Truck was blocking the street by default. They needed to move truck to neutral space, find smaller truck, reload and shuttle. Only they couldn’t, since it was Saturday and the shuttle truck needed official approval, and it was Saturday, so no officials available for said approval….

You get the idea. Load had to go back to Schenectady. They will attempt delivery this morning. We hope.

I have things to do, and yet my entire life has been on hold for several months, First it was getting the old house ready to sell, then getting the new house ready to move into (or at least things that needed doing before moving was possible), then going back to finish packing for the movers, making the trip, waiting on the movers who have things we need for the next steps….

Almost there. Not there. Almost.

Story Reprint

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The Queen’s Reason, originally published in Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet in 2010, has been reprinted in the current issue of Lightspeed Magazine. Check it out.

“The courtiers and servants did their best to conceal the truth, but that was a losing battle. The final straw, so to speak, was when their beautiful young queen managed to elude her Ladies in Waiting and greet the South Islands Confederation ambassador while wearing only a skirt made of broom straw and a gardenia pot for a hat. After that incident there was little point in denying the obvious: Mei Janda II, newly crowned Queen of Lucosa, was barking mad.”

Camping With Electricity

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IMG_0402That’s the way a friend of mine described it–that in between time when you’ve arrived at your new place but the movers haven’t caught up. So we have lights and heat, thank goodness, but almost no furniture. Still living out of suitcases, eating off paper plates, and sleeping on an air mattress.

I’m typing this on a Linux laptop. It’s not my regular workstation, but the thing is, just right before the move, as in literally days before, my regular workstation decided to die, and unless I can mount a successful rescue, it took all my files with it. Backup? Of course. Problem is, I have apparently managed to lose it. I don’t know if it’s in one of the boxes on its way here or is gone forever. I do not know how I managed to do something so completely asinine as to lose a very important backup. To be fair, I actually have two, and I do know where one of them is. It’s just going to be more of a pain to restore, but it exists, so eventually everything should be back in place. My new computer is ordered and in transit. Assuming everything else arrives some time this year, maybe I can get myself back together. That would be nice, since I have a hell of a lot to do.

I hope we love it here, since I don’t plan to move ever again.

Dream Time

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Our Lady of 47 Ursae Majoris Uff, what a night. That combination of cold medicine and antihistamine sent me to a very strange place. I dreamed an entire series of stories, far future dystopian with some nasty day to day situations to get through and people barely recognizable as human, at least on an emotional level, yet recognizable enough. Not my usual thing at all. They were so vivid that at one point it was as if I was remembering that I had read them and trying to remember who the author was.

Then I realized that I had never read them before, or even heard of anything like them. So maybe I’m supposed to write them. If I can capture the tone of those dreams it’ll be worth it, yet they still have to wait their turn. After the book is done.

Home Again

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IMG_0402Three days on the road with two energetic cats and we’re home. I apparently picked up an allergy of some sort in Bowling Green, KY. Which is a shame, really, since I’ve always liked Bowling Green. Never had an allergic reaction like this before. I hope whatever triggered it is a rare thing, only to be found in Bowling Green, since I’m not likely to be back there any time soon, or ever.

There’s a lot to do in the new house, but we knew that. The boys are exploring. One has already discovered the radiator covers, which are probably about as close to the perfect cat bed ever invented. There are also chipmunks and fat squirrels loitering on the hillside, The boys can’t wait until the cat doors are installed. Personally, I can.

After we finish cleaning, the next step is for the movers to arrive and pile boxes everywhere. I’m not sure what a normal life is or if we’ll have one, but I do know the next few months are going to be interesting.