I like bears. A lot. They just seem to know what’s up. I’ve only ever seen two bears in my life (not including a zoo) and I was in a car both times. I found this video of a Montana bear falling from a tree onto a trampoline to be mildly horrifying although I get the feeling most people find it funny. Bears have big, thick necks so I’m sure he’s okay, but still…poor bear.

Speaking of bears, I just received the edited copy of “Change of Seasons” back from Cicada yesterday along with an extremely nice letter from the editor who re-emphasized how much he really, really enjoyed the story. The returned copy is a lesson in editing. I rewrote the story a number of times before submitting it and it’s amazing how much more tightening could be done by a skilled editorial team. Lots of good notes in the margins, too, including high praise for the “lovely” ending–which is more or less the feeling I was trying to invoke. Considering one of the main characters was killed a paragraph earlier and another was nearly fatally mauled, I’m pretty proud that “lovely” comes across as a strong emotion a few heartbeats later! Just a few touch-ups on my part and I’ll get the contract in another 2-3 months. Once that’s done and dusted, I should get some idea of when it’ll be appearing.

To conclude the bears theme, I just finished Terry Bisson’s “Bears Discover Fire.” Here’s what I thought of each story:

A number of these stories didn’t really catch my fancy but several did. I think I was most surprised by “The Message” and “England Underway,” each of which is simply marvelous in its own way. Even for the stories that left me a little cold, I still was in awe of Bisson’s mastery of language and, more than anything, his use of distinct voice. I can read an issue of F&SF or Asimov’s and really think some stories are duds, but there really weren’t any in BDF that I had a hard time getting through. Okay, well “Two Guys From the Future” was probably my least favorite and I saw the ending almost immediately, but other than that one, the rest simply flowed.

I’ve only got two stories left in John Kessel’s “The Pure Product” and I’ll be interested to compare the two books side-by-side once I assign those stories knee-jerk ratings like I did Bisson’s.