From the blog of the esteemed Mary Robinette Kowal (it’s her birthday today!), this:
The cover and table of contents for the next issue of Shimmer. This is the “Art Issue,” featuring stories composed to match art — as opposed to the regular art-composed-to-match-fiction setup — and it just happens to include a story of mine (based on a gorgeous drawing by Sandro Castelli).
Here’s the opening of my piece, “A Very Young Boy with Largely Clipped Wings”:
The spring rains of late September were so thick off the salty bay that Pelayo, walking home from the rabbit warrens, didn’t see the little boy in the mud until he’d very nearly stepped upon him. The child, naked but for the bony stumps protruding from his back, which had looked to Pelayo for all the world like the wind-bared stalks of thornweeds until he noticed the fact of their rooting upon the boy’s exposed skin, seemed to be asleep. Arms outstretched like a fallen mime of Christ, he lay face down in the gloppy muck, and Pelayo would have thought him dead were it not for the gurgling of the soupy earth around the sides of his head and the slow rise and fall—perceived once Pelayo stopped to examine him through the foggy downpour—of his rain-splattered back. …
Anyway, if you don’t already have a subscription to this magazine, GET ONE. Seriously. Right now. Go. It’s consistently the best source for short speculation fiction out there.
Besides, you’ll then be able to find out how this story ends!