The Woman in the Woods

The Woman in the Woods

“The Woman in the Woods”
Uncommon Miracles
PS Publishing
September 21, 2018
Reprint

First Lines

Papa’s Death and the Orphan Train

No matter how many times Horace told her different, Eliza knew her brother was wrong. The woman in the woods didn’t look the least bit dead. The woman in the woods looked beautiful. With her long flowing hair and a leaf-gold cape, she made Eliza think of an ancient Irish queen. Of course, the woman didn’t speak as she made her way along the trail. The woman was communing with her subjects, the dead and dying trees.

Sometimes Eliza suspected her brother’s heart was an ancient stone, rigid as a dead man’s body. “You don’t try hard enough to remember,” Horace accused whenever he caught her following the leaf-cape of the woman in the woods, “I think that’s why Mother still hasn’t come.”

 

Collection Reviews

“If Julie C. Day was a singer she’d have a five-octave range. This is a collection of astonishing variety and power. She is one of those alchemists of the short story who offers uncomplicated engagement, while provoking knotty thoughts and mutable responses. This is not merely a promising debut, it is simply astonishing.”

–Andrew Hedgecock, Collection Review Interzone 

 

Praise for the Collection

“Julie C. Day’s new collection, Uncommon Miracles, relates stories about what happens when strangeness, dream-like and nightmarish, infiltrates the lives of everyday people. A unique new voice in short fiction – sharp writing and a wonderfully idiosyncratic imagination.”

Jeffrey Ford, author of The Girl in the Glass, The Physiognomy, The Drowned Life, A Natural History of Hell, and many others.
World Fantasy Award winner, Nebula Award winner, Shirley Jackson Award winner, Edgar Allan Poe Award winner.

“A collection of stories to unsettle your dreams and make the world a stranger and more delightful place.”

Kelly Link, author of Get in TroubleStranger Things Happen, and Magic for Beginners.
Pulitzer Prize Finalist, Hugo Award winner, Nebula Award winner, World Fantasy Award winner.

“Julie C. Day makes a bold debut with this genre-bending collection of stories. At times whimsical, at times heartbreaking, but always clear-eyed and honest, Uncommon Miracles proves that Day has joined the front ranks of the writers carrying American fantasy into a new golden age.”

Nathan Ballingrud, author of North American Lake Monsters and The Visible Filth.

“Julie C. Day’s stories are strongly strange, whether happening in a sort of now in this country or in a weirdly altered past. These stories seem to be what the term American Gothic was meant for.”

John Crowley, author of Little, Big and the Ægypt tetralogy.
World Fantasy Award winner for Best Novel, World Fantasy award winner for Life Achievement, & recipient of the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters Award in Literature.

 

The Collection

My debut collection Uncommon Miracles contains eighteen stories, many of which have been previous published in venues such as the Cream City ReviewInterzoneBlack Static, and Farrago’s Wainscot. A few of the stories will be finding their way into the world for the very first time.

Leave a Reply