Laughter at the Academy

Dust jacket illustration by Carla McNeil.

From fairy tale forest to gloomy gothic moor, from gleaming epidemiologist’s lab to the sandy shores of Neverland, Seanan McGuire’s short fiction has been surprising, delighting, confusing, and transporting her readers since 2009. Now, for the first time, that fiction has been gathered together in one place, ready to be enjoyed one twisting, tangled tale at a time. Her work crosses genres and subverts expectations.

Meet the mad scientists of “Laughter at the Academy” and “The Tolling of Pavlov’s Bells.” Glory in the potential of a Halloween that never ends. Follow two very different alphabets in “Frontier ABCs” and “From A to Z in the Book of Changes.” Get “Lost,” dress yourself “In Skeleton Leaves,” and remember how to fly. All this and more is waiting for you within the pages of this decade-spanning collection, including several pieces that have never before been reprinted. Stories about mermaids, robots, dolls, and Deep Ones are all here, ready for you to dive in. 

This is a box of strange surprises dredged up from the depths of the sea, each one polished and prepared for your enjoyment. So take a chance, and allow yourself to be surprised.

Enjoy.

Table of Contents:

• Laughter at the Academy: A Field Study in the Genesis Of Schizotypal Creative Genius Personality Disorder (SCGPD)
• Lost
• The Tolling of Pavlov’s Bells
• Uncle Sam
• Emeralds to Emeralds, Dust to Dust
• Crystal Halloway and the Forgotten Passage
• Homecoming
• Frontier ABCs: The Life and Times Of Charity Smith, Schoolteacher
• We Are All Misfit Toys in the Aftermath of the Velveteen War
• The Lambs
• Each to Each
• Bring About the Halloween Eternal!!!
• Office Memos
• Lady Antheia’s Guide to Horticultural Warfare
• Driving Jenny Home
• There Is No Place for Sorrow in the Kingdom of the Cold
• In Skeleton Leaves
• Please Accept My Most Profound Apologies for What Is About to Happen (But You Started It)
• Threnody for Little Girl, With Tuna, At the End of the World
• From A to Z In the Book of Changes
• #connollyhouse #weshouldntbehere
• Down, Deep Down, Below the Waves

Limited: 1250 signed numbered hardcover copies and sold out at the publisher