As we continue the series of blog posts which began here, in order to say goodbye to the Magical Menageries series as they begin to make their way toward being out of print continues with this one about Equus. Unlike Fae it hasn’t been a decade since Equus came out, it’s “only” been 8 years. Ish. But still…
If you haven’t got your copy of it already now is absolutely the time because soon it will be impossible. Here are some handy links for that:
Buy it now
OR buy it direct from my publisher — World Weaver Press. They have the ebooks discounted and are offering free shipping on the paperbacks they have in stock.
And then here are some excerpts and ‘Ten Year Updates’ from some of the contributors of Equus. Give it a read, it’s fun to see what people have been up to since their stories were included in this anthology.
Excerpt from “Eel and Bloom” by Diana Hurlburt:
…the wind picked up, chiding my eavesdropping. It whistled through the Australian pines, the tongue of it hard against the windowpanes and carrying a scent—not rain or exhaust from the highway a quarter mile west but something heavy and rotten, some dead flesh I didn’t feel like dealing with. It was summer, not butchering season, and I wanted spring water in my nostrils, hay and horse sweat, not death.
The door bumped open and hit me in the chest, and I stepped aside as three men came out. Whatever the dead animal was, wherever the carrion lay, it was less important than the business the horses’ riders had been here about. No one came to see my mother this close to sunset because they wanted to.
Each of the men looked at me as they passed, which suited me not at all.
I watched them trot down the road toward Tampa, the horses’ hooves stamping crescents into the dirt. The gray had a nice long gait. God usually gave horses with a blue eye something extra to make up for it.
“You smell that?” Ma cooed when I came into the sitting room. Death-scent was all through the house now, bad enough that I wanted to close the windows, though the heat probably would have been worse. She rocked in the chair my grandfather had left before running north, her feet firm on the hooked rug. “That’s swamp money in the air, girl.”
I didn’t know what she meant, and there was no sense in wondering, because she was about to tell me anyway.
What has changed for you since Equus came out?
It feels like a very long time indeed since the Magical Menageries series launched and built up. They’re such enjoyable books, and it feels bittersweet to know they’re going out of print–but I’m happy to have been involved with Equus. Actually, I’ve always felt indebted to this anthology in particular, as it was the first story I wrote featuring a certain carnivorous Florida horse… which has ended up being a fruitful corner of my fiction career! Since “Eel and Bloom” appeared in Equus, two more short stories about limerunners have emerged (one in my collection Something in the Water and one in issue 39 of Luna Station Quarterly), and Queen of Swords Press published a novella about them in 2023. I’ve continued writing fiction, and have also worked my interest in creatures and haunted landscapes into a Lit Editor position with the horror website DIS/MEMBER.
Excerpt from “To Ride a Steel Horse” by Stephanie A. Cain:
“It’s like watching my horse die all over again,” Demy lamented. She was sprawled halfway across the bar, partly because the world was starting to do a slow roll and partly because she was just too sad to keep sitting up. “Did I ever tell you about that?”
“Maybe once or twice,” Bear said, setting another glass of water in front of her. This was, Demy calculated, her third glass of water. She probably should have gone a little slower with the bourbon shots.
“Foxy. She was just the color of a fox, that bright russet color.” Demy rubbed her face. “She was such a good horse.”
“Smart, too,” Bear agreed.
Demy felt her face heat up. She’d told him this already tonight. She just couldn’t get over how much it hurt to think about the bike.
“There are some things even magic can’t fix,” she said. “Magic can’t make a horse live forever.” She pinched the bridge of her nose, fighting the stinging in her eyes. “Can’t make a person live forever, either.”
“Nothing lives forever, Demy,” Bear said, his voice gentle. The jukebox had quit playing twenty minutes ago, and since the roadhouse was empty except for the two of them, a zombie waitress, a kittenified waiter, and a self-absorbed couple in the corner, no one had started it up again. “We’re not meant for it.”
She sighed and shook her head. She knew he was right, but she was tired of losing people she loved. The bike’s breakdown felt like another loss.
“I could make the bike live forever,” she muttered.
What has changed for you since Equus came out?
I’ve published SHROUDLING, the next-to-last book in my epic fantasy Storms in Amethir series. I’m hard at work writing the last book, which should release sometime in 2025. Also in 2025, I hope to publish the next book in my Indianapolis-based urban fantasy series Circle City Magic. At some point in the future, I plan to revisit Demy and her magical steed Aenbharr. During NaNoWriMo several years ago I started writing a novel about them, and someday I will finish that and share that with the world.
As I say, it simultaneously feels like a long time and an incredibly short one since these books came out, but I really enjoyed this look at what some of the contributors have been doing in that time — I hope you did too!
Let me save you the trouble of scrolling all the way back up for links to pick up your own copy of Equus if you haven’t already. Here they are:
Next time we’re going to take a look at what some of the contributors to Sirens have been up to 🙂
