COPYRIGHT
ISBN-13: 978-1-62205-017-8
MUSIC MAKERS
Kate Wilhelm
Copyright © 2012 InfinityBox Press LLC
“Music Makers” was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction , May 2011.
“Shadows On The Wall Of The Cave” was first published in Asimov’s Science Fiction , Oct. 2009.
“Mockingbird” was first published in Northwest Review , 2008.
“The Night Train” was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction , Jan/Feb 2010.
“An Ordinary Day With Ja s on” was first published in Asimov’s Science Fiction , Apr/May 2009.
All rights reserved. Except for the use of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews, no part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means in any manner without the written permission of the publisher.
All characters, groups, places, and events portrayed in this book are fictitious.
Cover: Richard Wilhelm
InfinityBox Press LLC
7060 North Borthwick Avenue
Portland, OR 97217
http:// www.infinityboxpress.com
http://www.facebook.com/InfinityBoxPress
http://www.facebook.com/kate.wilhelm.52
Music Makers
WHEN JAKE WAS INTERVIEWED for the job at the magazine Music Makers he had admitted that he knew little or nothing about music. The response from the magazine was the only one he had received from a couple of dozen resumés and he knew it was not helping to say that, but he felt he had to reveal his limitations up front.
Marsha, the editor across the desk that day, had nodded. “We have critics and reviewers. I read your stories from that newspaper in-- Where was it? Muncie? Anyway, I like the way you write. What we would want from you are more of the same kind of thing. Profiles of up-and-coming new artists, personal stories, bring them to the attention of a larger audience.”
That had been seventeen months earlier, and six months after that he had started to send out resumés again. What he was writing was no more than filler. A thousand word story hacked to five hundred words, seven hundred, whatever was needed to finish filling a page.
He had stared at Marsha when given the present assignment. “Up and coming artist? The guy was ninety-two when he died!”
“He was a very important figure to a lot of world-famous musicians. He deserves more than a routine obit, which is all he got.”
And that was that, Jake thought gloomily, driving a rental car through a commercial section on the outskirts of Memphis, Tennessee. A strip mall, gas stations, mattress store, a used car lot . . . He slowed down as a white fence, a deep lawn, big magnolia tree came into view. After checking the number, he pulled to the curb, parked, and glanced again at the name in his notes, Luellen Germaine, the old man’s life-long companion or something. An hour, he had already decided, was all he needed here, the rest could be lifted from Google or Wikipedia.
The house was a three-story white frame building with blue trim, surrounded by a lot of shrubs and plants in bloom. The house seemed to be in good shape, well maintained, as out of place in this neighborhood as he was looking for a new up-and-coming artist, or an old one who had died a week before.
He walked onto a wide porch with planter boxes of blooming geraniums. It was eleven, he was right on time.
Luellen Germaine opened the door and said, “Mr. Manfried? I’m Luellen. Come on in.” He was younger than she had expected. Dark hair just a little too long, dark eyes, tall and not at all athletic looking. Strip him down, she thought looking him over, and he probably would be pale and scrawny, plucked chicken came to mind, but since he was wearing a rumpled sport coat and jeans, it was hard to tell. “We’ll go this way,” she said, motioning for him to follow her.
He entered a wide, bright foyer that had several good urns with potted plants. On one side an archway opened to a sunken room, with broad stairs leading down a couple of feet to a
ISBN-13: 978-1-62205-017-8
MUSIC MAKERS
Kate Wilhelm
Copyright © 2012 InfinityBox Press LLC
“Music Makers” was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction , May 2011.
“Shadows On The Wall Of The Cave” was first published in Asimov’s Science Fiction , Oct. 2009.
“Mockingbird” was first published in Northwest Review , 2008.
“The Night Train” was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction , Jan/Feb 2010.
“An Ordinary Day With Ja s on” was first published in Asimov’s Science Fiction , Apr/May 2009.
All rights reserved. Except for the use of brief quotations in critical articles and reviews, no part of this book may be used or reproduced in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means in any manner without the written permission of the publisher.
All characters, groups, places, and events portrayed in this book are fictitious.
Cover: Richard Wilhelm
InfinityBox Press LLC
7060 North Borthwick Avenue
Portland, OR 97217
http:// www.infinityboxpress.com
http://www.facebook.com/InfinityBoxPress
http://www.facebook.com/kate.wilhelm.52
Music Makers
WHEN JAKE WAS INTERVIEWED for the job at the magazine Music Makers he had admitted that he knew little or nothing about music. The response from the magazine was the only one he had received from a couple of dozen resumés and he knew it was not helping to say that, but he felt he had to reveal his limitations up front.
Marsha, the editor across the desk that day, had nodded. “We have critics and reviewers. I read your stories from that newspaper in-- Where was it? Muncie? Anyway, I like the way you write. What we would want from you are more of the same kind of thing. Profiles of up-and-coming new artists, personal stories, bring them to the attention of a larger audience.”
That had been seventeen months earlier, and six months after that he had started to send out resumés again. What he was writing was no more than filler. A thousand word story hacked to five hundred words, seven hundred, whatever was needed to finish filling a page.
He had stared at Marsha when given the present assignment. “Up and coming artist? The guy was ninety-two when he died!”
“He was a very important figure to a lot of world-famous musicians. He deserves more than a routine obit, which is all he got.”
And that was that, Jake thought gloomily, driving a rental car through a commercial section on the outskirts of Memphis, Tennessee. A strip mall, gas stations, mattress store, a used car lot . . . He slowed down as a white fence, a deep lawn, big magnolia tree came into view. After checking the number, he pulled to the curb, parked, and glanced again at the name in his notes, Luellen Germaine, the old man’s life-long companion or something. An hour, he had already decided, was all he needed here, the rest could be lifted from Google or Wikipedia.
The house was a three-story white frame building with blue trim, surrounded by a lot of shrubs and plants in bloom. The house seemed to be in good shape, well maintained, as out of place in this neighborhood as he was looking for a new up-and-coming artist, or an old one who had died a week before.
He walked onto a wide porch with planter boxes of blooming geraniums. It was eleven, he was right on time.
Luellen Germaine opened the door and said, “Mr. Manfried? I’m Luellen. Come on in.” He was younger than she had expected. Dark hair just a little too long, dark eyes, tall and not at all athletic looking. Strip him down, she thought looking him over, and he probably would be pale and scrawny, plucked chicken came to mind, but since he was wearing a rumpled sport coat and jeans, it was hard to tell. “We’ll go this way,” she said, motioning for him to follow her.
He entered a wide, bright foyer that had several good urns with potted plants. On one side an archway opened to a sunken room, with broad stairs leading down a couple of feet to a
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