International bestselling editor and writer with over 35 million books in print, Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in many genres, from science fiction to mystery, from western to romance. She has written under a pile of pen names, but most of her work appears as Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Her novels have made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction has appeared in eighteen best of the year collections. She has won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov's Readers Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award.

Publications from The Chicago Tribune to Booklist have included her Kris Nelscott mystery novels in their top-ten-best mystery novels of the year. The Nelscott books have received nominations for almost every award in the mystery field, including the best novel Edgar Award, and the Shamus Award.

She also edits. Beginning with work at the innovative publishing company, Pulphouse, followed by her award-winning tenure at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, she took fifteen years off before returning to editing with the original anthology series Fiction River, published by WMG Publishing. She acts as series editor with her husband, writer Dean Wesley Smith, and edits at least two anthologies in the series per year on her own.

To keep up with everything she does, go to kriswrites.com and sign up for her newsletter. To track her many pen names and series, see their individual websites (krisnelscott.com, kristinegrayson.com, krisdelake.com, retrievalartist.com, divingintothewreck.com).

Stories for the Cold of Winter by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Light-hearted holiday stories abound, but when the days turn cold and bracing, darker tales tempt the senses. This collection of five stories from award-winning and bestselling master of short fiction Kristine Kathryn Rusch fits that bill.

All centered on the winter holidays, Stories for the Cold of Winter features four crime stories: "The Thanksgiving After," a suspense story set on Black Friday (more or less); "Frank's Corner Bar," a Christmas day story set in a neighborhood bar during an ice storm; "Resolution," which follows an assassin trying to change her life with the new year; and "Other People's Stupidity," which focuses on the legal profession at year's end.

The fifth offering, "Vigil," offers a tale of quiet dedication to lives lost.

So, stoke the fire and let these tales entertain on a cold winter's night.

CURATOR'S NOTE

I write a lot of holiday stories, and I've written a number for the Holiday Spectacular (that calendar of stories that I mentioned). A few years back, I compiled some of the crime stories into a holiday collection, and added one undefinable story to round it out. So if you are a little tired of all the sweetness, this crime volume will get the sugar out of your teeth. – Kristine Kathryn Rusch

 

REVIEWS

  • "Rusch is a great storyteller."

    – RT Book Reviews

  • "[Rusch's] short fiction is golden."

    – The Kansas City Star
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

Introduction

For the past two years, I have edited a very large project called The Holiday Spectacular. It has several parts. The first part—my favorite part, if truth be told—is that every day from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day, subscribers get a brand new holiday story. The holidays aren't always what you'd expect. The stories, written by some wonderful writers, cover everything from the usual suspects (Christmas, New Year's Eve) to things I'd never heard of, like Repeal Day (the day that Prohibition got repealed in the U.S.)

We then put together four anthologies from these stories. One of the anthologies, The Holiday Spectacular, reprints the stories in the order they appeared, along with the introductions that I wrote. That anthology is so big, it can only fit into an ebook, which comes out in July.

The other three vary. They usually have 10-11 stories on a single theme. The first year, those anthologies were called Bloody Christmas, Joyous Christmas, and Winter Holidays. This past year, we had Sweet Holidays, Mysterious Christmas, and Fantastic Christmas.

I write stories to fill in the gaps. The first year, we needed 35 stories, and we got 33 from outside authors. This past year, we needed 37 stories, and we got—again—33. Dean Wesley Smith filled in one, and I added three.

When we started this large project, I figured I would do a collection of my stories when I had contributed five. I got to that number faster than expected

Fortunately, the stories are mostly in the same genre. I wrote four mysteries and one mainstream story. They're longer than the average mystery short story because this Holiday Spectacular format gave me enough room to spread out. I was able to tell the story I wanted to tell in each case.

The mysteries are really crime stories, not puzzle stories. The first, "The Thanksgiving After," is a suspense story set on Black Friday (more or less). "Frank's Corner Bar" is a Christmas day story set in a neighborhood bar during an ice storm. "Resolution" follows an assassin trying to change her life with the new year. And "Other People's Stupidity" focuses on the legal profession at the end of the year.

The mainstream story, "Vigil," is the shortest story. I won't say much more about it. It's a palate cleanser in the middle of the volume.

I hope you like these stories. I had a great deal of fun writing them.

—Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Las Vegas, NV