Cat Rambo's 250+ fiction publications include stories in Asimov's, Clarkesworld Magazine, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. In 2020 they won the Nebula Award for fantasy novelette Carpe Glitter. They are a former two-term President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). Their most recent works are space opera You Sexy Thing (Tor Macmillan) and anthology, The Reinvented Heart (Arc Manor, March, 2022), co-edited with Jennifer Brozek.

For more about Cat, as well as links to fiction and popular online school, The Rambo Academy for Wayward Writers, see their website. They are represented by Seth Fishman of the Gernert Agency.

Cat's recent space opera, You Sexy Thing, was nominated for Dragon and Locus Awards, as well as an Amazon Editor's Pick for Best SF of 2022.

Carpe Glitter by Cat Rambo

What do you do when someone else's past forces itself on your own life? Sorting through the piles left behind by a grandmother who was both a stage magician and a hoarder, Persephone Aim finds a magical artifact from World War II that has shaped her family history. Faced with her mother's desperate attempt to take the artifact for herself, Persephone must decide whether to hold onto the past—or use it to reshape her future.

CURATOR'S NOTE

I'm also including my own book, Carpe Glitter, which recently won a Nebula Award for Novelette, because it talks about the hope for breaking free of toxic family patterns and the problematic legacies of our families. Its protagonist has been told to seize the glitter — but what happens when you never let go of it? – Cat Rambo

 

REVIEWS

  • "A revelatory joy to read and especially ... the various ways in which the author combined numerous fantasy elements and dark humour with an exploration of complex family relationships. In a psychologically convincing way, and with well-depicted characters, she demonstrated how, following a death, secrets will often emerge which enable survivors to make better sense of their history."

    – NB Magazine, Linda Hepworth (5 stars)

  • "Casually audacious, this novella eases into deep strangeness so persuasively because it's so rooted in the real—here the edgy bond of mothers and daughters and their power over each other. The writing gently but completely and irresistibly pulls you in . . . before it shocks you."

    – Roy Freirich, author of Deprivation and Winged Creatures

  • "Cat's attention to detail pulls you so convincingly into Persephone's world that you can practically smell the dust and feel the grit wafting off the pages ... it lured me in gently, then the rails fell off and everything went bonkers, and I couldn't stop turning the pages. Imaginative and captivating!"

    – Kyle Richardson, author of Beast Heart and co-editor of Behind the Mask

  • "With beautiful writing, a twisty plot, and a fantastic main character, what's not to love aboutCarpe Glitter? Highly recommended and definitely in the running for my favorite read of the year."

    – Jessica Belmont's Blog
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

Carpe glitter, my grandmother always said. Seize the glitter.

And that was what I remembered best about her: the glitter. A fierce dazzle of rhinestones along with a waft of Patou Joy, lipstick like a gleaming red banner across her mouth. Underneath all that, a wiry little old lady with silver hair and vampire-pale skin.

Not that she was a vampire, of course. But she knew her share. Grandmother hung with everyone during her days in the Vegas crowd. Celebrities, presidents, mob bosses, they all came to her show at the Sparkle Dome. Watched her strut her stuff in a black top hat and fishnet stockings, conjuring flames and doves (never card tricks, which she hated), making ghosts speak to loved ones in the audience. When she stepped off the stage, she left in a scintillating dazzle, like a fairy queen stepping off her throne, trailed by their adulation.

All that shine. All that glitter. And at home?

Its antithesis.