Until Forgiveness Comes
Just taking a moment to share a beautiful and brilliant bit of fiction from K Tempest Bradford.
Until Forgiveness Comes is up on Strange Horizons, and it’s a very good short story about the anniversary of 9/11. A lot of 9/11 fiction (both pro and con) tends to descend into bombast and political screeds.
In the years following 9/11, consideration of the event has basically fallen into two camps:
- 9/11 was an unimaginable tragedy and the changes to our nation a needed sacrifice.
- 9/11 was a horrible event made even more horrible because it’s become a political crowbar to separate us from what makes us american.
You can probably guess from my wording which side I’m on, but regardless of sides, Tempest uses SF to it’s best ability in Until Forgiveness Comes. She puts a human face on what (for most of us) has become an abstract event, and reminds us that regardless of politics, true tragedy is always human.
4 Comments
So, um, maybe you’re tired of being asked this, but is there any hope of Darkened Heart picking up again? I was really enjoying it, and I drop by periodically in the hopes that it will someday rise from the ashes…
Not at all. I appreciate the interest and share your frustration.
I’ve had a lot happen to me over the course of 2011. I’ve moved, I’ve dealt with surgery, I’ve started (and stopped) innumerable projects. But in the back of my mind, I’ve continuously asked myself one question: “So when and how are you going to restart Darkened Heart?”
I’m in a better situation to do that than I have been for quite a while. My legs are nearly dealt with, my life is relatively stabilized, and I only have a few specific bits of prop work to finish before I can reveal the next box.
I’ve been kicking around ideas about how to deal with the hiatus/restart. I have some thoughts, but they’re incomplete. I wish I could give you a timetable or a specific date, but all I can really say is “soon”.
Fair enough. (I surely understand how real-life concerns get in the way! Heck, I’ve had real-life concerns get in the way of real-life concerns…) I missed the news about your legs – I generally skip the behind-the-scenes stuff for fear that it’ll interfere with my suspension of disbelief – but whatever the problem was, I hope it’s fixed/cured/no longer an issue.
Do me a favor? If and when you do get Darkened Heart started again, drop me a line at michael mock {at} mockwriting ddott kom (I assume you can back-translate to a real email address from there) and let me know. I don’t have a huge readership on the Blog o’ Doom, but the sorts of readers I do have are exactly the kind of people who would love DH, and I’d be happy to put up a plug for the project.
I thought you’d like to know, the project is undergoing reboot right now. There will be a month or two of intermediary materials (a bit filler-y to be honest, but hopefully the writing will be good enough to not waste everyone’s time).
I have a functioning workshop again, though I’ve yet to rebuild/replace my paint booth. Once that’s set up, it’ll be time to restart proper prop crafting.