Lyn C. A. Gardner

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Excerpt

She turned the corner to the den, squinting. The door to the study was a black well.

With two glowing eyes.

Toni jerked back.

Two tufted ears topped a crouching shape, shaggy in the dark.

The creature opened its mouth with a white flash of fangs. From Toni's collar, a tiny ghost whispered in her ear. Below the translator's hum, she could hear the low growl in front of her. "Help me."

She felt trapped. She couldn't move, though she knew the collar was supposed to protect her, through its connection to the collar of every other animal. She'd worked in the National Forest one summer, and it was true--even the grizzlies would pretend to ignore a human. And every collar translated two ways, mapping posture and action as well as sound, projecting a translation to any animal that faced it.

The beast growled, low. "Help me," her collar's tinny voice whispered again--a female voice. Those eyes burned up at her in the dark.

Toni crouched before the beast and stretched out her hands. Slowly, gracefully, the creature padded toward Toni and sniffed her fingers delicately. Tufts made the animal's ears look as long as horns; she wore a ruff like a mane around her cheeks. Her fuzzy feet were as wide as snowshoes. Her gray body, frosted in the moonlight, bore faint spots and a short tail tipped in ink, as if she'd carried the darkness with her. Three feet long; thick, silvery fur; thirty pounds of wilderness, padding through Toni's house. The lynx sat patiently as Toni stroked her head, her flank, the incredibly soft fur. Toni's fingers assured her of the shape her mind refused to believe.

from "Love Gaia, Live Green" by Lyn C. A. Gardner, Penumbra, April 2012, Vol. 1, Iss. 7,

Bio

I’m an active member of SFWA with stories published in Daily Science Fiction, the Green Knight Press anthologies Legends of the Pendragon and The Doom of Camelot, Challenging Destiny, and Penumbra. I've also had poetry published in Strange Horizons, Goblin Fruit, Talebones, and American Arts Quarterly, among others; my first poetry collection, Dreaming of Days in Astophel, is available from Sam's Dot Publishing. Two stories and a poem earned honorable mention in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. I'm a 2004 graduate of the Clarion West Writers Workshop.

Publications

"Love Gaia, Live Green," Penumbra, April 2012, Vol. 1, Iss. 7, Animals Issue.

"The Mysterious Barricades," Daily Science Fiction, Feb. 25, 2011.

"The Adventure of the Hidden Lane," A Study in Lavender: Queering Sherlock Holmes, Ed. Joseph R. G. DeMarco (Maple Shade, NJ: Lethe Press, 2011). ISBN: 9781590210383.

"Kelmscott Manor: In the Attics," Challenging Destiny, No. 25, December 2007. Reprinted in Timelines: Stories Inspired by H.G. Wells' The Time Machine, Ed. J. W. Schnarr (Canada: Northern Frights Publishing, 2010, ISBN 9780973483734).

For more, visit groups.yahoo.com/group/gardnercastle/


Writing Goals

My goals this year are simple and straightforward: 15 hr./wk. on first drafts + 5 hr./wk. on second drafts. I hope that this will result in either new first drafts or rewritten drafts of at least six stories. However, so long as the hours are maintained, I will have accomplished something magnificent in my world, for I am also working full-time, engaging in necessary DIY house repair about 20 hr./wk., and visiting nearby family members. The most I've achieved with my writing so far since the DIY began over a year ago has been 10 hr./wk., and that’s only recently. Wish me luck!


Website

www.gardnercastle.com


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