The Tomato Thief by Ursula Vernon
My rating: 5/5 cats
WELCOME TO DECEMBER PROJECT!
last year, amy(other amy) tipped me off to this cool thing she was doing: the short story advent calendar, where you sign up to this thingie here and you get a free story each day.
i dropped the ball and by the time i came to my senses, it had already sold out, so for december project, i’m going rogue and just reading a free online story a day of my choosing. this foolhardy endeavor is going to screw up my already-deep-in-the-weeds review backlog, so i don’t think i will be reviewing each individual story “properly.” i might just do a picture review or—if i am feeling wicked motivated, i will draw something, but i can’t be treating each short story like a real book and spending half my day examining and dissecting it, so we’ll just see what shape this project takes as we go.
and if you know of any particularly good short stories available free online, let me know! i’m no good at finding them myself unless they’re on the tor.com site, and i only have enough at this stage of the game to fill half my calendar. <— that part is no longer true, but i am still interested in getting suggestions!
DECEMBER 12
She wrapped herself up in a quilt that night and sat in the rocking chair on the back porch. “We’ll see what kind of rat bastard steals an old lady’s tomatoes,” she grumbled.
(Grandma Harken thought of herself as an old lady, because she was one. That she was tougher than tree roots and barbed wire did not matter. You did not steal an old lady’s tomatoes. It was rude, and also, she would destroy you.)
this one is more of a novelette than a short story, so if you’re planning to read it yourself during a similar story-a-day challenge, make sure you set extra time aside for it. this is the second grandma harken story, after Jackalope Wives, and they are both wonderful, totally worth the length and in fact, you will probably wish they were longer. or that there were more of them. i certainly want more. but not tonight—tonight i am sleepy.
read it for yourself here:
http://www.apex-magazine.com/the-toma…
and you should read jackalope wives, too:
http://www.apex-magazine.com/jackalop…
DECEMBER 1: FABLE – CHARLES YU
DECEMBER 2: THE REAL DEAL – ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 3: THE WAYS OF WALLS AND WORDS – SABRINA VOURVOULIAS
DECEMBER 4: GHOSTS AND EMPTIES – LAUREN GROFF
DECEMBER 5: THE RETURN OF THE THIN WHITE DUKE – NEIL GAIMAN
DECEMBER 6: WHEN THE YOGURT TOOK OVER – JOHN SCALZI
DECEMBER 7: A CHRISTMAS PAGEANT – DONNA TARTT
DECEMBER 8: DEEP – PHILIP PLAIT
DECEMBER 9: COOKIE JAR – STEPHEN KING
DECEMBER 10: THE STORY OF KAO YU – PETER S. BEAGLE
DECEMBER 11: THE HEEBIE-JEEBIES – ALAN BEARD
DECEMBER 13: THE JAWS THAT BITE, THE CLAWS THAT CATCH – SEANAN MCGUIRE
DECEMBER 14: ROLLING IN THE DEEP – JULIO ALEXI GENAO
DECEMBER 15: ANTIHYPOXIANT – ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 16: THE AMBUSH – DONNA TARTT
DECEMBER 17: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A TRAITOR AND A HALF-SAVAGE – ALIX HARROW
DECEMBER 18: THE CHRISTMAS SHOW – PAT CADIGAN
DECEMBER 19: THE GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS – PAUL CORNELL
DECEMBER 20: THE TRAINS THAT CLIMB THE WINTER TREE – MICHAEL SWANWICK
DECEMBER 21: BLUE IS A DARKNESS WEAKENED BY LIGHT – SARAH MCCARRY
DECEMBER 22: WATERS OF VERSAILLES – KELLY ROBSON
DECEMBER 23: RAZORBACK – URSULA VERNON
DECEMBER 24: DIARY OF AN ASSCAN – ANDY WEIR
DECEMBER 25: CHANGING MEANINGS – SEANAN MCGUIRE
DECEMBER 26: SHOGGOTHS IN BLOOM – ELIZABETH BEAR
DECEMBER 27: THE CARTOGRAPHY OF SUDDEN DEATH – CHARLIE JANE ANDERS
DECEMBER 28: FRIEDRICH THE SNOW MAN – LEWIS SHINER
DECEMBER 29: DRESS YOUR MARINES IN WHITE – EMMY LAYBOURNE
DECEMBER 30: AM I FREE TO GO? – KATHRYN CRAMER
DECEMBER 31: OLD DEAD FUTURES – TINA CONNOLLY
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