Author
Tim Pratt
Tim Pratt's stories have appeared in the Best American Short Stories, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, and other nice places, and his work has won a Hugo Award (and lost Nebula, World Fantasy, Stoker, Sturgeon, and Mythopoeic Awards). He is the author of two story collections and half a dozen novels, and works as a senior editor at Locus. He grew up in the rural south and now lives in the urban west with his wife Heather Shaw and their son. His website is www.timpratt.org.
Care and Feeding
"Most people can't even see this place." The alley librarian leaned against a five-foot-high stack of wooden pallets like a makeshift counter. He wore a lumpy no-color knit cap pulled low on his forehead, and he had the sallow skin of a meth addict and bloodshot eyes the color…
Fiddle
Popular cliché has it that Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus (better known as Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, or simply the Emperor Nero) played the fiddle while Rome burned. But here are some facts: Rome burned in the year 64, and fiddles (well, violins, but the distinction…