short stories

The Bones of Giants

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (August/September 2009)

Whatever else might be said of the sorcerer who ruled the rim of the Pit, he had never been able to animate the bones of giants. The bones lay scattered in the rimlands, green-grey with moss and crusted with crystals, whorled with the fingerprints of desperate travelers. The bones did not easily surrender fingerprints. The locals considered it bad luck to leave their marks on the giants’ bones.

A suicidal young man and a mysterious necromancer try to take down the sorcerer-king who has, they say, subjugated the realm of death. Thanks to Sonya Taaffe, Marissa Lingen, Coniraya, Keilexandra, Sam Ashwell, Yune Kyung Lee, and Rachel Brown. Dedicated to Rachel Brown. Published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction Aug./Sept. 2009.

The two main characters originated as parodies of characters from the anime Gundam Wing.  The necromancy system came partly from reading up on traditional 2D animation.  I don’t draw well enough to make a credible animator, but I did have fun playing with flash and LivingCels once upon a time.  It may or may not be an accident that the technology behind LivingCels was called “skeletal strokes,” using B-splines.

Forthcoming book

Code & Codex