"let them know you are strong and peaceful"
October 8, 2020 5:20 PM   Subscribe

Three scifi/fantasy stories on caretaking. "Callme and Mink" (text and audio) by Brenda Cooper (published this month) has cute dogs and an ill child: "Not lying to him meant she didn’t signal emotions she didn’t believe were appropriate. She could signal most feelings back to humans, but they were always a lie." That one feels reasonably happy, despite its implied postapocalyptic setting. Two more are more wrenching, including one by a MeFite.

The adult daughter in "Sundowning" by Joanne Merriam (MeFi's Own joannemerriam) lives in a difficult world overall, AND takes care of a dad with Alzheimer's: "I was tempted, but I shook my head. That blood had to come from somebody, who needed it as badly as we all did."

Merriam also recommends short sf/f on her Twitter feed.

And the adult daughter in "Élan Vital" (text and audio) by K. Tempest Bradford is visiting her mother at the Institute even though she can barely afford it -- not the Institute so much as the visit. "The wind kicked up, sending freckles of reflected light across her face. Her skin was still perfect, beautiful and dark brown, though stretched across her cheekbones a little too tight. I hated that I never had enough to restore her round cheeks and full figure. I have to look at pictures just to remember her that way."

In 2014 & 2015, Bradford recommended many short scifi/fantasy stories in a regular feature at io9, and previous to that, did so on her blog.
posted by brainwane (5 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
Thank you for these, Callme and Mink is very nice. Not sure why it is happening but I am loving the scifi short story Mefi delivery service lately!
posted by Meatbomb at 8:52 PM on October 8, 2020


I appreciate the sci-fi posts! Excellent work!
posted by drewbage1847 at 12:55 PM on October 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


"Callme and Mink" was happy indeed, given the setting and stresses.
posted by doctornemo at 2:26 PM on October 9, 2020


I wanted to say, thank you so much for posting all of these short stories. Things haven’t been great for me lately, and these have been such a delight to read. I love the mix of sources, and the inclusion of fanfic in your posts. Thank you, brainwane, for making my life better with your short fiction posts.
posted by hackwolf at 5:08 PM on October 9, 2020 [1 favorite]


I just want to add my appreciations to the chorus. These posts are all great.
posted by Harald74 at 11:14 PM on October 10, 2020 [1 favorite]


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