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Basement Magic
A short story from Ellen's first collection called, 'Portable Childhoods'.
- GenresFantasy
Unknown Binding
6 people want to read
About the author
Ellen Klages
74 books244 followersEllen Klages was born in Ohio, and now lives in San Francisco.
Her short fiction has appeared in science fiction and fantasy anthologies and magazines, both online and in print, including The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Black Gate, and Firebirds Rising. Her story, "Basement Magic," won the Best Novelette Nebula Award in 2005. Several of her other stories have been on the final ballot for the Nebula and Hugo Awards, and have been reprinted in various Year’s Best volumes.
She was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award, and is a graduate of the Clarion South writing workshop.
Her first novel The Green Glass Sea, about two misfit eleven-year-old girls living in Los Alamos during WWII, while their parents are creating the atomic bomb, came out in October 2006 from Sharyn November at Viking. Ellen is working on a sequel.
She has also written four books of hands-on science activities for children (with Pat Murphy, et al.) for the Exploratorium museum in San Francisco.
In addition to her writing, she serves on the Motherboard of the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, and is somewhat notorious as the auctioneer/entertainment for the Tiptree auctions at Wiscon.
When she's not writing fiction, she sells old toys and magazines on eBay, and collects lead civilians.
from ellenklages.com
Her short fiction has appeared in science fiction and fantasy anthologies and magazines, both online and in print, including The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Black Gate, and Firebirds Rising. Her story, "Basement Magic," won the Best Novelette Nebula Award in 2005. Several of her other stories have been on the final ballot for the Nebula and Hugo Awards, and have been reprinted in various Year’s Best volumes.
She was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award, and is a graduate of the Clarion South writing workshop.
Her first novel The Green Glass Sea, about two misfit eleven-year-old girls living in Los Alamos during WWII, while their parents are creating the atomic bomb, came out in October 2006 from Sharyn November at Viking. Ellen is working on a sequel.
She has also written four books of hands-on science activities for children (with Pat Murphy, et al.) for the Exploratorium museum in San Francisco.
In addition to her writing, she serves on the Motherboard of the James Tiptree, Jr. Award, and is somewhat notorious as the auctioneer/entertainment for the Tiptree auctions at Wiscon.
When she's not writing fiction, she sells old toys and magazines on eBay, and collects lead civilians.
from ellenklages.com
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 31, 2021
This retelling of Cinderella in a magic realist setting has a lot going for it. The young girl and her situation is believable and doesn’t strain the connection to the fairy tale too much, while the servant cum fairy godmother and the source of magic in the story is also well-drawn. And I liked the story all the way up to the ending, where the last page and scene fails to deliver the promise of the magic realism by either going full into magic (read one way) or simply failing to follow its own internal logic in that if something dire has happened to the stepmother and/or the little girl goes missing, the first person to be questioned would be Ruby.
Displaying 1 of 1 review