At Long Last — One Bright Star To Guide Them!!!

My favorite story written by my husband is called "One Bright Star To Guide Them." For years, however, he could not sell it because it was very long. One day, he and I were taking a walk and I said that I didn’t like the end of it. John went home and rewrote the end, making the story even better than it had been!

Well….at long last, the story appears in the current (April/May) issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Here’s what Sam Tomaino at SFRevu has to say about it:

The April/May 2009 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction is the first issue in its new bi-monthly double issue version. It has some fine new stories (one Hugo-worthy) and a two classic reprints.

The issue concludes with the novelette, "One Bright Star to Guide Them" by John C. Wright, which turned out to be my favorite. Thomas S. Robertson has just turned 40 and has been promoted at work. Arriving home late one night, he finds a black cat at his door. He recognizes it as Tybalt, a magical cat of his youth. When he was a boy. He and three friends, Richard, Sally and Penny had entered a fantasy world called Vidblain, "and broke the Black Mirror of the Winter King, and restored Prince Hal to his throne at Caer Pendewen". Tybalt warns him that England itself is menaced by the Shadow King and he must do battle again. But Thomas is now an adult, didn’t he put away "childish things"? I loved this story for the hints we got of a story that never existed, mentioned, in passing, in a way that makes it real. We get a great story here of Thomas, his childhood friends and how he does battle as an adult. I’ll be putting this on my Hugo short list for next year

He is exactly right! He said exactly what I love about this story. I’ve always felt that it was the kind of story that should win an award. I’m so tickled that someone else agrees!

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