Yes, the pun will make you squirm.

[mrissa]

Today's new story is a special case: Grist magazine is having a special climate fiction issue called Imagine 2200, and for it they selected my story A Worm to the Wise.

Frankly it is not easy to focus on hope and optimism this year, so I'm very pleased to have managed this story with its focus on soil science and community. I also love what Grace Abe did with the illustration. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the issue, but in the meantime I hope you enjoy this one.

Comments

[sartorias]

That is a lovely story! (I chuckled at the disappointment at not finding the orgies . . .)

[mrissa]

Thank you!

[anne]

I don't think I can ever be excited about woodlice, but the rest! Yes.

[mrissa]

<3

[themagdalen]

Doodlebugs! I didn’t know they were useful as well as cute.

[davidgoldfarb]

I just got around to reading the story, and as someone who grew up in the SF Bay Area I have to call this out as a linguistic misstep. In Northern California they're pillbugs.

Great story otherwise; nice to get a little optimism in these times. It reminded me a little of Becky Chambers.

[howardkhto]

I agree that it's a great story. It reminded me of how I felt after reading KSR's Pacific Edge.

I don't think there's a misstep, linguistic or otherwise, unless you assume everyone in the story grew up in Northern California and wouldn't pick up new words. I can't remember everybody else, but Reuben is explicitly from North Dakota. And let's face it, there's something so much more evocative about "wood lice" compared to "pillbugs". Even if I grew up in an area where they were known as "pillbugs", I wouldn't need another reason to switch to "wood lice". There's something about hearing "lice" (or "scabies") that just makes me feel itchy!

[davidgoldfarb]

I had picked up the impression that Augusta was a Northern California native, but looking at the story again, I don't think it's specified. I do think that if she were, she'd need to call them "pillbugs" in her tight-third narration, and be surprised to hear anybody call them anything else.

[anef]

Thank you, I enjoyed this. As a gardener I particularly enjoyed the descriptions of lovely dark rich crumbly soil.

[mrissa]

Oh yay, I'm glad I hit that note.

The first draft had the protag talking about what the soil was like where she was from, and I took it out, because part of the point is that she literally would not have noticed.

[vcmw]

This is full of several kinds of optimism (quiet, unexpected, fierce) and it makes me very happy.

[mrissa]

Thank you!