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Nebula Award winning short story. It originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, July 1982. The story can also be found in the anthologies The 1983 Annual World's Best SF, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha, The Nebula Awards #18, edited by Robert Silverberg and New Skies: An Anthology of Today's Science Fiction (2003), edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden. It is included in the collections Fire Watch (1985), The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories (2007) and Time Is the Fire: The Best of Connie Willis (2013).

This new, expanded edition of Miracle and Other Christmas Stories features twelve brilliantly reimagined holiday tales, five of which are collected here for the first time.

Christmas comes but once a year, yet the stories in this dazzling collection are fun to read anytime. They put a speculative spin on the holiday, giving fans of acclaimed author Connie Willis a welcome gift and a dozen reasons to be of good cheer.

Brimming with Willis's trademark insights and imagination, these heartwarming tales are full of humor, absurdity, human foibles, tragedy, joy, and hope. They both embrace and send up many of the best Christmas traditions, including the holiday newsletter, Secret Santas, office parties, holiday pageants, and Christmas dinners (both elaborate and spare). There are Rockettes, the best and worst Christmas movies, modern-day Magi, Ghosts of Christmases Past, Present, and Yet to Come -- and the triumph of generosity over greed. Like all the timeless classics we return to year after year, these stories affirm our faith in love, magic, and the wonder of the season.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• Miracle - (1991) - novelette
• All About Emily - (2011) - novella
• Inn - (1993) - novelette
• All Seated on the Ground - (2007) - novella
• In Coppelius' Toyshop - (1996) - short story
• Adaptation - (1994) - novelette
• deck.halls@boughs/holly - (2001) - novella
• Cat's Paw - (1999) - novella
• Now Showing - (2014) - novella
• Newsletter - (1997) - novelette
• Epiphany - (1999) - novella
• Just Like the Ones We Used to Know - (2003) - novella
• A Final Word on the Subject

These ten classic stories, each featuring well-developed, strong female characters, have garnered numerous literary awards and span every style and theme in speculative fiction.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction: Women's Lib, "The Liberation," and the Many Other Liberations of Science Fiction - essay by Connie Willis
• Inertia - (1990) - novelette by Nancy Kress
• Even the Queen - (1992) - short story by Connie Willis
• Fool's Errand - (1993) - short story by Sarah Zettel
• Rachel in Love - (1987) - novelette by Pat Murphy
• Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand - (1973) - novelette by Vonda N. McIntyre
• The July Ward - (1991) - novelette by S. N. Dyer
• The Kidnapping of Baroness 5 - (1995) - novelette by Katherine MacLean
• Speech Sounds - (1983) - short story by Octavia E. Butler
• The Ship Who Mourned - (1966) - novelette by Anne McCaffrey
• A Woman's Liberation - (1995) - novella by Ursula K. Le Guin
• About the Authors - essay by uncredited

Theater legend Claire Havilland fears she might be entering the Sunset Boulevard phase of her career. That is, until her manager arranges a media appearance with her biggest fan--a famous artificial intelligence pioneer's teenage niece. After precocious Emily's backstage visit, Claire decides she's in a different classic film altogether. While unnaturally charming Emily swears she harbors no desire for the spotlight, Claire wonders if she hasn't met her very own Eve Harrington from All About Eve. But the story becomes more complex as dreams of fame give way to concerns about choice, free will, and identity.

With this long, 17,000 word novelette, acclaimed author Connie Willis combines the glamour of old Hollywood and the eternal allure of Broadway to explore the cutting edge robotics of a richly-imagined near future. All About Emily is sure to join 'The Last of the Winnebagos,' 'Inside Job' and 'All Seated on the Ground' as one of multiple-award-winner Willis' seminal works.

The aliens have landed! The aliens have landed! But instead of shooting death rays, taking over the planet and carrying off Earthwomen, they've just been standing there for months on end, glaring like a disapproving relative. And now it's nearly Christmas, and the commission assigned to establish communications is at their wits' end. They've resorted to taking the aliens to Broncos games, lighting displays, and shopping malls, in the hope they'll respond to something!

And they do, but in a way nobody ever expected, and Meg, the commission, and an overworked choir director find themselves suddenly caught up in an intergalactic mess involving Christmas carols, scented candles, seventh-grade girls, Alvin and the Chipmunks, Meg's Aunt Judith, Victoria's Secret, and Handel's Messiah.

Multiple Nebula and Hugo Award-winning author Connie Willis may be most famous for her books To Say Nothing of the Dog, Doomsday Book, Inside Job, D.A., and The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories, but she's also a huge fan of the holidays and their accompanying frivolity and nonsense, and has written a marvelous array of Christmas stories, including Miracle and Other Christmas Stories, "Just Like the Ones We Used to Know" (made into the CBS movie Snow Wonder), "deck.halls@boughs/holly", and now the hilarious "All Seated on the Ground."

Nebula Award winning and Hugo Award nomnated novelette. It originally appeared in Omni, October 1989. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Seventh Annual Collection (1990), edited by Gardner Dozois, Nebula Awards 25 (1991), edited by Michael Bishop, and Women of Wonder: The Contemporary Years: SF by Women from the 1970s to the 1990s (1995), edited by Pamela Sargent. It is included in the collections Impossible Things (1994), Even the Queen and Other Short Stories (1998), The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories (2007) and Time Is the Fire: The Best of Connie Willis (2013).

Sandra Foster studies fads and their meanings for the HiTek corporation. Bennet O'Reilly works with monkey group behavior and chaos theory for the same company. When the two are thrust together due to a misdelivered package and a run of seemingly bad luck, they find a joint project in a flock of sheep. But a series of setbacks and disappointments arise before they are able to find answers to their questions.

Hugo Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, January 1984. The story can also be found in the anthologies Best SF of the Year #14 (1985), edited by Terry Carr and The Year's Best Science Fiction: Second Annual Collection (1985), edited by Gardner Dozois. It is included in the collection Fire Watch (1985) and The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories (2007).

WFA nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, May 1986. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fourth Annual Collection (1987) and Modern Classics of Science Fiction (1991), both edited by Gardner Dozois. It is included in the collections Impossible Things (1994) and The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories (2007).

Hugo Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, December 1990. The story can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Eighth Annual Collection (1991), edited by Gardner Dozois.

In the not-too-distant future, a simple outpatient procedure to increase empathy between romantic partners has become all the rage. And Briddey Flannigan is delighted when her boyfriend, Trent, suggests undergoing the operation prior to a marriage proposal -- to enjoy better emotional connection and a perfect relationship with complete communication and understanding. But things don't quite work out as planned, and Briddey finds herself connected to someone else entirely -- in a way far beyond what she signed up for.

It is almost more than she can handle -- especially when the stress of managing her all-too-eager-to-communicate-at-all-times family is already burdening her brain. But that's only the beginning. As things go from bad to worse, she begins to see the dark side of too much information, and to realize love -- and communication -- are far more complicated than she ever imagined.

Theodora Baumgarten has just been selected as an IASA space cadet, and therein lies the problem. She didn't apply for the ultra-coveted posting, and doesn't relish spending years aboard the ship to which she's been assigned.

But the plucky young heroine, in true Heinlein fashion, has no plans to go along with the program. Aided by her hacker best friend Kimkim, in a screwball comedy that has become Connie Willis' hallmark, Theodora will stop at nothing to uncover the conspiracy that has her shanghaied.

Hugo Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Galileo, November 1979. The story can also be found in the anthology The 1980 Annual World's Best SF, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha. It is included in the collections Fire Watch (1985) and The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories (2007).

Hugo Award winning and Nebula and Stoker Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, March 1993. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Eleventh Annual Collection (1994), edited by Gardner Dozois, Nebula Awards 29 (1995), edited by Pamela Sargent, The New Hugo Winners, Volume IV (1997), edited by Gregory Benford. It is included in the collections Even the Queen and Other Short Stories (1998) and Time Is the Fire: The Best of Connie Willis (2013).

Hugo, Nebula and Locus Award winning short story. It originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, April 1992. The story has been reprinted many times. It can, among others, be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Tenth Annual Collection (1993), edited by Gardner Dozios, Nebula Awards 28 (1994), edited by James Morrow, A Woman's Liberation: A Choice of Futures by and About Women (2001), edited by Connie Willis and Sheila Williams, and Best of the Best: 20 Years of the Year's Best Science Fiction (2005), edited by Gardner Dozois. The story is collected in Impossible Things (1994), The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories (2007) and Time Is the Fire: The Best of Connie Willis (2013).

Winner of six Nebula and five Hugo awards, Connie Willis is one of the most acclaimed and imaginative authors of our time. Her startling and powerful works have redefined the boundaries of contemporary science fiction. Here in one volume are twelve of her greatest stories, including double award-winner "Fire Watch," set in the universe of Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog, in which a time-traveling student learns one of history's hardest lessons. In "A Letter from the Clearys," a routine message from distant friends shatters the fragile world of a beleaguered family. In "The Sidon in the Mirror," a mutant with the unconscious urge to become other people finds himself becoming both killer and victim. Disturbing, revealing, and provocative, this remarkable collection of short fiction brings together some of the best work of an incomparable writer whose ability to amaze, confound, and enlighten never fails.

Table of Contents

• Fire Watch - (1982)
• Service for the Burial of the Dead - (1982)
• Lost and Found - (1982)
• All My Darling Daughters - (1985)
• The Father of the Bride - (1982)
• A Letter from the Clearys - (1982)
• And Come from Miles Around - (1979)
• The Sidon in the Mirror - (1983)
• Daisy, in the Sun - (1979)
• Mail Order Clone - (1982)
• Samaritan - (1978)
• Blued Moon - (1984)

Jim is in New York City at Christmastime shopping a book based on his blog--Gone for Good-- premised on the fact that "being nostalgic for things that have disappeared is ridiculous." Progress decides for people what they need and what's obsolete. It's that simple. Of course, not everyone agrees. After Jim bombs a contentious interview with a radio host who defends the sacred technology of the printed, tangible book, he gets caught in a rainstorm only to find himself with no place to take refuge other than a quaint, old-fashioned bookshop.

Ozymandias Books is not just any store. Jim wanders intrigued through stacks of tomes he doesn't quite recognize the titles of, none with prices. Here he discovers a mysteriously pristine, seemingly endless wonderland of books--where even he gets nostalgic for his childhood favorite. And, yes, the overwhelmed and busy clerk showing him around says they have a copy. But it's only after Jim leaves that he understands the true nature of Ozymandias and how tragic it is that some things may be gone forever...

This novella originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, November-December 2017. It was published in chapbook edition in 2018.

Winner of six Nebula and two Hugo awards for her fiction, Connie Willis is acclaimed for her gifted imagination and bold invention. Here are eleven of her finest stories, surprising tales in which the impossible becomes real, the real becomes impossible, and strangeness lurks at every turn.

The end of the world comes not with a bang but a series of whimpers over many years in "The Last of the Winnebagos."

The terror of pain and dying gives birth to a startling truth about the nature of the stars, a principle known as the "Schwarzschild Radius."

In "Spice Pogrom," an outrageous colony in outer space becomes the setting for a screwball comedy of bizarre complications, mistaken identities, far-too-friendly aliens--and even true love.

Table of Contents:

• Foreword - essay by Gardner Dozois
• The Last of the Winnebagos - (1988)
• Even the Queen - (1992)
• Schwarzschild Radius - (1987)
• Ado - (1988)
• Spice Pogrom - (1986)
• Winter's Tale - (1987)
• Chance - (1986)
• In the Late Cretaceous - (1991)
• Time Out - (1989)
• Jack - (1991)
• At the Rialto - (1989)

Hugo Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Mid-December 1991. The story is included in the collections Impossible Things (1994) and The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories (2007).

Hugo-winning Novella

Rob, a professional debunker, is watching yet another performance by a supposed psychic. But as she calls forth the spirit entity known as Isus, another voice suddenly interrupts. And this one is so unexpected and so real, even the hardened skeptic finds he can't help but believe.

Hugo and Nebula Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, October 1991. The story can also be found in The Year's Best Science Fiction: Ninth Annual Collection (1992), edited by Gardner Dozois and The Mammoth Book of Vampire Stories by Women (2001) edited by Stephen Jones. It is included in the collections Impossible Things (1994) and The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories (2007).

Hugo and Nebula Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, December 2003. The story can also be found in the anthology Best Short Novels: 2004, edited by Jonathan Strahan. It is included in the collection The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories (2007). It was made into a TV movie in 2005 under the title Snow Wonder.

Blazing action. High-tech devastation. Explosive intrigue. The ultimate future was has begun.

The world as we know it has changed considerably. A civil war is raging between the eastern half of North American and the west. The latest methods of destruction are frightening, brutal, inescapable. They are called light raids--massive laser-beam assaults that are as effective as they are merciless.

Seventeen-year-old Hellene Ariadne, daughter of a prominent Western scientist, has been evacuated to Victoria for her protection. But when letters from her parents suddenly stop, followed by a supposedly innocent lunch with a family friend, Ariadne quickly begins to suspect that things will never be the same. The unexpected happens in an instant and Ariadne is forced to leave the safety of the North and return to her home in Denver Springs. There she finds her house in ruins, the city devastated by a savage light raid.

Ariadne assumes that her parents are dead. But the truth is much worse. Her mother is in prison, accused of sabotage and treason, and her father is left helpless, an emotional cripple.

It is up to Ariadne to clear her mother's name. But, as she plunges deeper and deeper into a fatal web of intrigue and deception, she discovers there are truths far more shocking than war, more devastating than the fiercest light raids and she is alone with a secret she must protect at all costs, even if it means placing her life - and her heart - in the hands of Joss, the so-called and compelling equerry to the prince.

Fast-paced, exciting and unforgettable, Light Raid is an electrifying achievement for authors Connie Will and Cynthia Felice.

For Jeff Johnston, a young historical reseacher for a Civil War novelist, reality is redefined on a bitter cold night near the close of a lingering winter. He meets Annie, an intense and lovely young woman suffering from vivid, intense nightmares. Haunted by the dreamer and her unrelenting dreams, Jeff leads Annie on an emotional odyssey through the heartland of the Civil War in search of a cure. On long-silenced battlefields their relationship blossoms: two obsessed lovers linked by unbreakable chains of history, torn by a duty that could destroy them both.

Hugo Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, December 1991. The story can also be found in the anthology Christmas Stars (1992), edited by David G. Hartwell. It is included in hte collection Miracle and Other Christmas Stories (1999).

The winner of multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards, Connie Willis has thrilled countless readers with her enthralling science fiction novels that entertain as well as enlighten. Now this superb writer captures the timeless essence of generosity and goodwill in a magical collection of Christmas stories that showcase her remarkable talent while taking us on breathless journeys to fascinating realms filled with wonder and joy.

This enchanting group of eight tales--two of which are original to this collection--begins with the title story, "Miracle," in which an office worker hopes that her handsome colleague will finally notice her at the company Christmas party. But her carefully devised plans go awry when her guardian angel takes it upon himself to show her the true meaning of love. In the cautionary tale "In Coppelius's Toyshop," the motto What Goes Around Comes Around serves as an eerie reminder to a jaded narcissist who finds himself trapped in a crowded toy store at Christmastime.

In the touching "Adaptation," the Ghosts of Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come pay a visit to a lonely bookstore clerk, who discovers that the best gift of all is to give--even when his one wish for the holidays doesn't come true. "Inn" presents the inspiring story of a choir singer who gives shelter on a cold winter night to a homeless man and his pregnant wife--only to learn later that there's much more to the couple than meets the eye. And "Epiphany" follows three unwitting, modern-day wisemen on a quest unlike any they've ever experienced.

A treasure to cherish anytime of the year, this collection boldly reimagines the stories of Christmas and serves as a testament to Connie Willis's unique genius and skill in bringing the extraordinary to life while conveying the power of human compassion and love.

Table of contents:

• Introduction - essay by Connie Willis
• Miracle - (1991)
• Inn - (1993)
• In Coppelius's Toyshop - (1996)
• The Pony - (1985)
• Adaptation - (1994)
• Cat's Paw - (1999)
• Newsletter - (1997)
• Epiphany - (1999)
• A Final Word - (1999) - essay by Connie Willis
• Twelve Terrific Things to Read... - (1999) - essay by Connie Willis
• And Twelve to Watch - (1999) - essay by Connie Willis

This novelette originally appeared in the anthology The Williamson Effect (1996), edited by Roger Zelazny and was reprinted in Lightspeed, August 2011. It can also be found in the anthology Year's Best SF 2 (1997), edited by David G. Hartwell. The story is included in the collection The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories (2007).

Read the full story for free at Lightspeed.

At Mercy General Hospital, Dr. Joanna Lander will soon be paged -- not to save a life, but to interview a patient just back from the dead. A psychologist specializing in near-death experiences, Joanna has spent two years recording the experiences of those who have been declared clinically dead and lived to tell about it.

It's research on the fringes of ordinary science, but Joanna is about to get a boost from an unexpected quarter. A new doctor has arrived at Mercy General, one with the power to give Joanna the chance to get as close to death as anyone can.

A brilliant young neurologist, Dr. Richard Wright, has come up with a way to manufacture the near-death experience using a psychoactive drug. Dr. Wright is convinced that the NDE is a survival mechanism and that if only doctors understood how it worked, they could someday delay the dying process, or maybe even reverse it. He can use the expertise of a psychologist of Joanna Lander's standing to lend credibility to his study.

But he soon needs Joanna for more than just her reputation. When his key volunteer suddenly drops out of the study, Joanna finds herself offering to become Richard's next subject. After all, who better than she, a trained psychologist, to document the experience?

Her first NDE is as fascinating as she imagined it would be -- so astounding that she knows she must go back, if only to find out why this place is so hauntingly familiar. But each time Joanna goes under, her sense of dread begins to grow, because part of her already knows why the experience is so familiar, and why she has every reason to be afraid....

Delanna Milleflores hasn't set foot on Keramos since she was a little girl. Now her mother has died, and she's returned only to settle and sell her estate. But Keramos has some surprising laws. To sell her farm, Delanna must first live on it for one year. And along with the land comes one Tarleton Tanner, heir to the adjoining land. A man who, at the moment of her mother's death, became Delanna's husband. He has plans of his own for their co-joined estates. Delanna is determined that she will inherit and that this marriage to the Tanner bumpkin will be in name only. Their clashing personalities and the conflicting goals threaten to put both their plans asunder, heatedly and repeatedly.

It's the Hollywood of the future, where moviemaking's been computerized and live-action films are a thing of the past. It's a Hollywood where Humphrey Bogart and Marilyn Monroe are starring together in A Star Is Born, and if you don't like the ending, you can change it with the stroke of a key.

A Hollywood of warm bodies and sim-sex, of drugs and special effects, where anything is possible. Except for what one starry-eyed young woman wants to do: dance in the movies. It's an impossible dream, but Alis is not willing to give up. With a little magic and a lot of luck, she just might get her happy ending after all.

Nebula Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the anthology The Universe (1987), edited Byron Preiss. The story can also be found in the anthologies Nebula Awards 23 (1989), edited by Michael Bishop, The Norton Book of Science Fiction: North American Science Fiction, 1960-1990 (1993), edited by Ursula K. Le Guin and Brian Attebery, The Secret History of Science Fiction (2009), edited by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel and The Big Book of Science Fiction (2016), edited by Jeff and Ann VanderMeer. It is included in the collection Impossible Things (1994).

Hugo Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, October 1986. The story is included in the collection Impossible Things (1994).

Ori's holidays are an endless series of elaborately awful meals cooked by her one-time stepfather Dave's latest bride. Attended by a loose assemblage of family, Ori particularly dreads Grandma Elving – grandmother of Dave's fourth wife – and her rhapsodizing about the Christmas she worked at Woolworth's in the 1950s. And, of course, she hates being condescended to by beautiful, popular Sloane and her latest handsome pre-med or pre-law boyfriend.

But this Christmas is different. Sloane's latest catch Lassiter is extremely interested in Grandma Elving's boringly detailed memories of that seasonal job, seeing in them the hallmarks of a TFBM, or traumatic flashbulb memory. With Ori's assistance, he begins to use the older woman in an experiment – one she eagerly agrees to. As Ori and Lassiter spend more time together, Ori's feelings for him grow alongside the elusive mystery of Grandma's past.

This novella was originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction in November-December 2020.

THREE CLASSIC SCI-FI NOVELLAS IN ONE VOLUME--from a Hugo and Nebula award-winning author

In Terra Incognita, Connie Willisexplores themes of love and mortality whilebrilliantly illuminating the human condition through biting satire.

Uncharted Territory
Findriddy and Carson are explorers, dispatched to a distant planet to survey its canyons, ridges, and scrub-covered hills. Teamed with a profit-hungry indigenous guide of indeterminate gender and an enthusiastic newcomer whose specialty is mating customs, the group battles hostile terrain as they set out for unexplored regions. Along the way, they face dangers, discover treasures, and soon find themselves in an alien territory of another kind: exploring the paths and precipices of sex--and love.

Remake
In the Hollywood of the future, live-action movies are a thing of the past. Old films are computerized and ruthlessly dissected, actors digitally ripped from one film and thrust into another. Humphrey Bogart and Marilyn Monroe in A Star Is Born? No problem. Hate the ending? Change it with the stroke of a key. Technology makes anything possible. But a starry-eyed young woman wants only one thing: to dance on the big screen. With a little magic and a lot of luck, she just may get her happy ending.

D.A.
Theodora Baumgarten is baffled and furious: Why was she selected to be part of a highly competitive interstellar cadet program? After all, she never even applied. But that hasn't stopped the powers that be from whisking her onto a spaceship bound for the prestigious Academy. With her protests ignored, Theodora takes matters into her own hands, aided by her hacker best friend, to escape the Academy and return to Earth--only to uncover a conspiracy that runs deeper than she could have imagined.

Hugo and Nebula Award winning novella. It originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, July 1988. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Year's Best Science Fiction: Sixth Annual Collection (1989), edited by Gardner Dozois, Nebula Awards 24 (1990), edtied by Michael Bishop and The New Hugo Winners, Volume III: (1989-91) (1994), edited by Connie Willis. It is included in the collections Impossible Things (1994), The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories (2007) and Time Is the Fire: The Best of Connie Willis (2013).

When level-headed Francie arrives in Roswell, New Mexico, for her college roommate's UFO-themed wedding--complete with a true-believer bridegroom--she can't help but roll her eyes at all the wide-eyed talk of aliens, which obviously don't exist. Imagine her surprise, then, when she is abducted by one.

Odder still, her abductor is far from what the popular media have led her to expect, with a body like a tumbleweed and a mass of lightning-fast tentacles. Nor is Francie the only victim of the alien's abduction spree. Before long, he has acquired a charming con man named Wade, a sweet little old lady with a casino addiction, a retiree with a huge RV and a love for old Westerns, and a UFO-chasing nutjob who is thoroughly convinced the alien intends to probe them and/or take over the planet.

But the more Francie gets to know the alien, the more convinced she becomes that he's not an invader. That he's in trouble and she has to help him. Only she doesn't know how--or even what the trouble is.

Part alien-abduction adventure, part road trip saga, part romantic comedy, The Road to Roswell is packed full of Men in Black, Elvis impersonators, tourist traps, rattlesnakes, chemtrails, and Close Encounters of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth kind. Can Francie, stuck in a neon green bridesmaid's dress, save the world--and still make it back for the wedding?

Hugo and Nebula Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, April 1983. The story can also be found in The Year's Best Science Fiction: First Annual Collection (1984), edited by Gardner Dozois and The Best Science Fiction of the Year #13 (1984), edited by Terry Carr. It is included in the collection Fire Watch (1985).

Hugo Award-winning short story. It originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, April 1996. The story can also be found in the anthology War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches (1996) edited by Kevin J. Anderson. The story is included in the collections The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories (2007) and Time Is the Fire: The Best of Connie Willis (2013).

Hugo Award winning and World Fantasy Award nominated novella. The story originally appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, October-November 1999. It is included in the collections The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories (2007) and Time Is the Fire: The Best of Connie Willis (2013).

"Variety is the soul of pleasure," And variety is what this comprehensive new collection of Connie Willis is all about. The stories cover the entire spectrum, from sad to sparkling to terrifying, from classics to hard-to-find treasures with everything in between--orangutans, Egypt, earthworms, roast goose, college professors, mothers-in-law, aliens, secret codes, Secret Santas, tube stations, choir practice, the post office, the green light on Daisy's dock, weddings, divorces, death, and assorted plagues, from scarlet fever to "It's a Wonderful Life." And a dog.

Famous for her "sure-hand plotting, unforgettable characters, and top-notch writing," Willis has been called, "the most relentlessly delightful science fiction writer alive," and there are numerous examples here. Among them, Willis's most famous stories--the Hugo- and Nebula-Award-winning "Fire Watch" and "Even the Queen" and "The Last of the Winnebagos"--along with undiscovered gems like Willis's heartfelt homage to Jack Williamson, "Nonstop to Portales." Her magical Christmas stories are here, too, from "Newsletter" to "Just Like the Ones We Used to Know..." which last year was made into the TV movie, Snow Wonder, starring Mary Tyler Moore.

We've collected stories from throughout Willis's career, from early ones like "Cash Crop" and "Daisy, in the Sun," right up to her newest stories, including the wonderful "The Winds of Marble Arch." There's literally something for everyone here. If you're a diehard Willis fan, you'll be delighted with hard-to-find treasures like the until-now uncollected, "The Soul Selects Her Own Society..." If you've never read Connie Willis, this is your chance to discover "A Letter from the Clearys" and, well, "Chance." To say nothing of, "At the Rialto," the funniest story ever written about quantum physicists. And Willis's chilling, "All My Darling Daughters."

And...oh, there are too many great stories here to list and pleasures galore. So enjoy!

Tentative Table of Contents:

In Which May be Found Personal Correspondence, Travel Guides, References to Royalty, Weather Reports, Parking Fines, and Other Violations, including Matters of Life and Death (and Afterwards), an Epiphany or Two, and an Appendix.

Weather Reports

• The Winds of Marble Arch (*)
• Blued Moon
• Just Like the Ones We Used to Know (*)

Personal Correspondence

• A Letter from the Clearys
• Newsletter

Travel Guides

• Fire Watch
• Nonstop to Portales (*)

Parking Fines and Other Violations

• Ado
• All My Darling Daughters
• In the Late Cretaceous

Royalty

• The Curse of Kings (*)
• Even the Queen
• Inn

Matters of Life and Death

• Samaritan
• Cash Crop (*)
• Jack
• The Last of the Winnebagos

And Afterwards

• Service for the Burial of the Dead
• The Soul Selects Her Own Society... (*)

Epiphanies

• Chance
• At the Rialto
• Epiphany

Exclusive to the Limited/Lettered Editions

• Capra Corn (*)--the first screwball comedy Connie published
• Substitution Trick (*)--a haunting uncollected tale
• Bibliography (*)--including, for the first time a list of all of Connie's science fiction short stories, and her now legendary "confessions" stories

* previously uncollected

This new collection by the author of Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog contains stories which have all won the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award, or both - and are compulsory reading for the serious science fiction fan.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (2013) - essay by Lisa Tuttle
• Introduction - (2013) - essay by Connie Willis
• A Letter from the Clearys - (1982) - shortstory
• Afterword for 'A Letter from the Clearys' - (2013) - essay
• At the Rialto - (1989) - novelette
• Afterword for 'At the Rialto' - (2013) - essay
• Death on the Nile - (1993) - novelette
• Afterword for 'Death on the Nile' - (2013) - essay
• The Soul Selects Her Own Society: Invasion and Repulsion: A Chronological Reinterpretation of Two of Emily Dickinson's Poems: A Wellsian Perspective - (1996) - shortstory
• Afterword for 'The Soul Selects Her Own Society' - (2013) - essay
• Fire Watch - (1982) - novelette
• Afterword for 'Fire Watch' - (2013) - essay
• Inside Job - (2005) - novella
• Afterword for 'Inside Job' - (2013) - essay
• Even the Queen - (1992) - shortstory
• Afterword for 'Even the Queen' - (2013) - essay
• The Winds of Marble Arch - (1999) - novella
• Afterword for 'The Winds of Marble Arch' - (2013) - essay
• All Seated on the Ground - (2007) - novella
• Afterword for 'All Seated On the Ground' - (2013) - essay
• The Last of the Winnebagos - (1988) - novella
• Afterword for 'The Last of the Winnebagos' - (2013) - essay
• Editor's Note - (2013) - essay by Anne Lesley Groell
• 2006 Worldcon Guest of Honor Speech - (2006) - essay
• Grand Master Backup Speech (never delivered) - (2013) - essay
• Grand Master Acceptance Speech - (2012) - essay

Hugo Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, July 1989. The story is included in the collection Impossible Things (1994).

Planetary surveyors Fin and Carson battle hostile terrain, bureaucratic red tape, and renegade "planet crashers" in this latest novella by the talented author of Doomsday Book. Willis continues to demonstrate her endless versatility in this archly written satire, which is both a love story and a shameless expose of the dark side of political correctness.

On the desert world of Mahali, he who controls water rules an empire. Mahali's rulers for generations were Water Witches, who could feel the ebb and flow of precious water in their very bones. But the royal family was slaughtered in a bloody coup, and control of Mahali's water passed to the impersonal hands of an immense computer network.

It was Deza's father who hit upon the scheme, dressing Deza in ceremonial garb and passing her off as the last surviving member of the royal house. Deza demonstrated water control with tricks and illusions, and in turn she and her father would be lavishly fed and bribed by off-world traders who dreamed of wealth beyond measure. When their tricks ceased to please, they would cut their losses and move on to the next con.

They were very, very good. But it's the nature of a con man not to know when he's about to get in over his head...

Together at last -- the all-time top Nebula Award-winning author and the celebrated series honoring the Nebula Awards.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1999) - essay by Connie Willis
• Sister Emily's Lightship - (1996) - shortstory by Jane Yolen
• Itsy Bitsy Spider - (1997) - shortstory by James Patrick Kelly
• The Nebula Award for Best Novel - (1999) - essay by Connie Willis
• An Excerpt from The Moon and the Sun - (1999) - shortfiction by Vonda N. McIntyre
• The Flowers of Aulit Prison - (1996) - novelette by Nancy Kress
• The Crab Lice - (1996) - shortstory by Gregory Feeley
• The 1997 Author Emeritus: Nelson Bond - (1999) - essay by Connie Willis
• The Bookshop - (1941) - shortstory by Nelson S. Bond
• Three Hearings on the Existence of Snakes in the Human Bloodstream - (1997) - novelette by James Alan Gardner
• The Dead - (1996) - shortstory by Michael Swanwick
• Rhysling Award Winners - (1999) - essay by Connie Willis
• Day Omega - (1996) - poem by W. Gregory Stewart
• Spotting UFOs While Canning Tomatoes - (1996) - poem by Terry A. Garey
• The Elizabeth Complex - (1996) - shortstory by Karen Joy Fowler
• Abandon in Place - (1996) - novella by Jerry Oltion
• The Grand Master Award: Poul Anderson - (1999) - essay by Connie Willis
• A Tribute to Poul Anderson - (1999) - essay by Jack Williamson
• The Martyr - (1960) - novelette by Poul Anderson
• Alive and Well: Messages from the Edge (almost) of the Millennium - (1999) - essay by Kim Stanley Robinson and Michael Cassutt and Sheila Williams and Christie Golden and Cynthia Felice and Ellen Datlow and Beth Meacham and Wil McCarthy and Geoffrey A. Landis
• A Few Last Words to Put It All in Perspective - (1999) - essay by Connie Willis

Hugo and Nebula Award winning novelette in Wills' Oxford time travelling historians series. It originally appeared in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, February 15, 1982. It has been reprinted many times. The story can be found in the anthologies:

• The Best Science Fiction of the Year #12 (1983), edited by Terry Carr
• The Nebula Awards #18 (1983), edited by Robert Silverberg
• The New Hugo Winners: (1983-85) (1989), edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg
• The Science Fiction Century (1997), edited by David G. Hartwell
• The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century (2004), edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Harry Turtledove
• The Time Traveler's Almanac (2014), edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
• Women of Futures Past (2016), edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

It is included in the collections:

• Fire Watch (1985)
• The Winds of Marble Arch and Other Stories (2007)
• Time Is the Fire: The Best of Connie Willis (2013)

Read the full story for free at Infinity Plus.

For Kivrin, preparing an on-site study of one of the deadliest eras in humanity's history was as simple as receiving inoculations against the diseases of the fourteenth century and inventing an alibi for a woman traveling alone. For her instructors in the twenty-first century, it meant painstaking calculations and careful monitoring of the rendezvous location where Kivrin would be received.

But a crisis strangely linking past and future strands Kivrin in a bygone age as her fellows try desperately to rescue her. In a time of superstition and fear, Kivrin – barely of age herself – finds she has become an unlikely angel of hope during one of history's darkest hours.

In her first full-length novel since her critically acclaimed Doomsday Book Connie Willis, winner of multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards, once again visits the unpredictable world of time travel. But this time the result is a joyous journey into a past and future of comic mishaps and historical cross-purposes, in which the power of human love can still make all the difference.

On the surface, England in the summer of 1888 is possibly the most restful time in history--lazy afternoons boating on the Thames, tea parties, croquet on the lawn--and time traveler Ned Henry is badly in need of a rest. He's been shuttling back and forth between the 21st century and the 1940s looking for a Victorian atrocity called the bishop's birdstump. It's only the latest in a long string of assignments from Lady Schrapnell, the rich dowager who has invaded Oxford University. She's promised to endow the university's time-travel research project in return for their help in rebuilding the famed Coventry Cathedral, destroyed in a Nazi air raid over a hundred years before.

But the bargain has turned into a nightmare. Lady Schrapnell's motto is "God is in the details," and as the l25th anniversary of the cathedral's destruction--and the deadline for its proposed completion--approaches, time-travel research has fallen by the wayside. Now Ned and his colleagues are frantically engaged in installing organ pipes, researching misericords, and generally risking life and limb. So when Ned gets the chance to escape to the Victorian era, he jumps at it. Unfortunately, he isn't really being sent there to recover from his time-lag symptoms, but to correct an incongruity a fellow historian, Verity Kindle, has inadvertently created by bringing something forward from the past.

In theory, such an act is impossible. But now it has happened, and it's up to Ned and Verity to correct the incongruity before it alters history or, worse, destroys the space-time continuum. And they have to do it while coping with eccentric Oxford dons, table-rapping spiritualists, a very spoiled young lady, and an even more spoiled cat. As Ned and Verity try frantically to hold things together and find out why the incongruity happened, the breach widens, time travel goes amok, and everything starts to fall apart--until the fate of the entire space-time continuum hangs on a sÚance, a butler, a bulldog, the battle of Waterloo, and, above all, on the bishop's birdstump.

At once a mystery novel, a time-travel adventure, and a Shakespearean comedy, To Say Nothing of the Dog is a witty and imaginative tale of misconceptions, misunderstandings, and a chaotic world in which the shortest distance between two points is never a straight line, and the secret to the universe truly lies "in the details."

Oxford in 2060 is a chaotic place, with scores of time-traveling historians being sent into the past. Michael Davies is prepping to go to Pearl Harbor. Merope Ward is coping with a bunch of bratty 1940 evacuees and trying to talk her thesis adviser into letting her go to VE-Day. Polly Churchill's next assignment will be as a shopgirl in the middle of London's Blitz.

But now the time-travel lab is suddenly canceling assignments and switching around everyone's schedules. And when Michael, Merope, and Polly finally get to World War II, things just get worse. For there they face air raids, blackouts, and dive-bombing Stukas-to say nothing of a growing feeling that not only their assignments but the war and history itself are spiraling out of control. Because suddenly the once-reliable mechanisms of time travel are showing significant glitches, and our heroes are beginning to question their most firmly held belief: that no historian can possibly change the past.

Note: Blackout and All Clear are regarded as being a single large book split into two volumes for award purposes. We have assigned the award nominations to Blackout, the first of the two volumes, so that we list the same number of awards as Connie Willis has statues on her mantle.

In Blackout, award-winning author Connie Willis returned to the time-traveling future of 2060-the setting for several of her most celebrated works-and sent three Oxford historians to World War II England: Michael Davies, intent on observing heroism during the Miracle of Dunkirk; Merope Ward, studying children evacuated from London; and Polly Churchill, posing as a shopgirl in the middle of the Blitz. But when the three become unexpectedly trapped in 1940, they struggle not only to find their way home but to survive as Hitler's bombers attempt to pummel London into submission.

Now the situation has grown even more dire. Small discrepancies in the historical record seem to indicate that one or all of them have somehow affected the past, changing the outcome of the war. The belief that the past can be observed but never altered has always been a core belief of time-travel theory-but suddenly it seems that the theory is horribly, tragically wrong.

Meanwhile, in 2060 Oxford, the historians' supervisor, Mr. Dunworthy, and seventeen-year-old Colin Templer, who nurses a powerful crush on Polly, are engaged in a frantic and seemingly impossible struggle of their own-to find three missing needles in the haystack of history.

Told with compassion, humor, and an artistry both uplifting and devastating, All Clear is more than just the triumphant culmination of the adventure that began with Blackout. It's Connie Willis's most humane, heartfelt novel yet-a clear-eyed celebration of faith, love, and the quiet, ordinary acts of heroism and sacrifice too often overlooked by history.

Note: Blackout and All Clear are regarded as being a single large book split into two volumes for award purposes. We have assigned the award nominations to Blackout, the first of the two volumes, so that we list the same number of awards as Connie Willis has statues on her mantle.

These are the voyages of the U.S.S. da Vinci. Their mission: to solve the problems of the galaxy, one disaster at a time. Starfleet veteran Captain David Gold, along with his crack Starfleet Corps of Engineers team led by former Starship Enterprise engineer Commander Sonya Gomez, travel throughout the Federation and beyond to fix the unfixable, repair the irreparable, and solve the unsolvable.

The S.C.E.'s missions don't always go as planned -- repairing the weather grid on the resort planet Risa turns into a deadly first contact, constructing an industrial complex on a nonaligned world leads to some startling revelations about the financier behind it, diverting a runaway ship could spell death for the crew the da Vinci didn't even know was there, and a planet in a box proves a more valuable prize than anyone could have imagined -- but their greatest challenge comes much closer to home...

Captain Gold's granddaughter Esther is marrying Khor, son of Lantar, a Klingon politician. Now Gold faces what may be the greatest challenge of his career: officiating the first-ever Klingon-Jewish wedding!

Contents:

• 1 - Paradise Interrupted - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 43] - (2004) - novella by John S. Drew
• 97 - Where Time Stands Still - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 44] - (2004) - novella by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore
• 181 - The Art of the Deal - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 45] - (2004) - novella by Glenn Greenberg
• 277 - Spin - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 46] - (2004) - novella by J. Steven York and Christina F. York
• 337 - Creative Couplings - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 47] - (2004) - novella by Glenn Hauman and Aaron Rosenberg
• 465 - Small World - [Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - 49] - (2005) - novella by David Mack
• 529 - About the Authors (Creative Couplings) - essay by uncredited

This volume contains all the Hugo award winning short fiction for the award years 1989 to 1991, each with an introduction by Connie Willis.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay by Connie Willis
• Kirinyaga - (1988) - novelette by Mike Resnick
• Schrödinger's Kitten - (1988) - novelette by George Alec Effinger
• The Last of the Winnebagos - (1988) - novella by Connie Willis
• Boobs - (1989) - shortstory by Suzy McKee Charnas
• Enter a Soldier. Later: Enter Another - (1989) - novelette by Robert Silverberg
• The Mountains of Mourning - (1989) - novella by Lois McMaster Bujold
• Bears Discover Fire - (1990) - shortstory by Terry Bisson
• The Manamouki - (1990) - novelette by Mike Resnick
• The Hemingway Hoax - (1990) - novella by Joe Haldeman