All the Time We've Left to Spend - A Short Story by Alyssa Wong, Nebula and World Fantasy Award Winner - published 2018

Gateway to Alyssa Wong on The Reading Life

A Link to Today’s Story

Alyssa Wong's Beautiful Webpage- Includes Links to Eight of her Award Winning Fiction 

From Nightmare Magazine May 2017- A Very Open and Interesting Conversation with Alyssa Wong

In May last year I first read a story by Alyssa Wong, a multi awarded Science Fiction and Fantasy writer.  I was really amazed by “Hungry Daughters and Starving Mothers”.   I was simply blown away by this story.

“A few days ago I as kindly given a review copy of a forthcoming soon anthology, The New Voices of Fantasy, edited by Peter S. Beagle and Jacob Weisman.  I was completely shocked by how much I liked the beautiful lead story, "Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers by Alyssa Wong.  Last month I first read the surrealistic short fiction of Leonora Carrington.  If April 2017 was for me the month I "discovered" Leonora Carrington, then quite possibly May will be observed as the month I first read Alyssa Wong.  I know this sounds hyperbolic but I can for sure visualize Leonora being stunned by "Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers, i certainly was.  I was on first reading mesmerized by the sheer elegance of Wong's prose combined with the very ugly and evil story she tells.”  From my post of May 17, 2017

In short sequence I went onto read two more of her stories ( my posts include links to the stories).  As often happens I got distracted and up until this week had not had the intriguing pleasure of reading of her stories since January of 2018.   

Wong self identifies as having an interest in exploring alternative sexuality via S/F and Fantasy. All three of the stories I have so far posted upon involve romances between women, all involve violence.  Today’s story, “All The Time We Have Left to Spend” is set in a special kind of “love hotel”.  The sexual providers are robots, designed to look like dead media stars, with as much as possible of the personality and memory of the celebrity down loaded into a crafted to look very like the subject robot.  If you ever had a fantasy of having sex with a now dead rock star, bring your money to the Aidoru Hotel:

“No one in their right mind came to the Aidoru Hotel. But those who did always came for a very specific reason. Mostly, in Ruriko’s opinion, that meant a horde of superfans, otakus, and would-be stalkers who wanted a night to do whatever they pleased with the celebrity of their choice. The disreputable folks from Kabukicho who ran the Aidoru Hotel didn’t care, as long as their clients paid handsomely for the privilege.”

Ruriko has a monthly standing two hour date with Yume, or the robot version of her 

“Ten years ago, Yume Ito had been one of the four founding members of IRIS, one of the country’s top teen idol groups. Her face, along with Miyu Nakamura’s, Kaori Aoki’s, and Rina Tanaka’s, had graced advertisements all over Tokyo, from fragrance ads to television commercials to printed limited-edition posters. But then the real Yume Ito had died, along with the real Miyo Nakamura, Kaori Aoki, and Rina Tanaka, and now all that was left was an algorithm of her mannerisms and vocal patterns, downloaded into an artificial skin and frame.

“No music, please,” said Ruriko. Her voice sounded strange and small, but too loud at the same time. “Just talking.”

Yume, dead ten years, rested her hands on Ruriko’s shoulders. Her fingers traced the cloth mask that hung from one ear like a wilted flag. She tucked it back over Ruriko’s reassembled mouth. “Whatever you want us to do.”

There is a lot to ponder in this story.  I will leave the plot action untold.  I wondered why people were willing to pay large sums for sex with robots.  She has a male friend who goes with her.  She thinks he does really nasty things to his female clone of a rock star.

The story merits serious attention.  I wondered what kind of hospital downloaded the personality and memory of Celebrity patients on their death bed into a robot host.  I read it twice, I suggest you do the same.

Alyssa Wong’s stories have won the Nebula Award, the World Fantasy Award, and the Locus Award. She was a finalist for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and her fiction has been shortlisted for the Hugo, Bram Stoker, and Shirley Jackson Awards. She lives in California.

We look forward to following the career of Alyssa Wong for years to come

Mel u

Oleander Bousweau 

“Olivia’s Table” - A Short Story by Alyssa Wong - A Nébula and World Fantasy Award Winning Author - 2018

Allysa Wong’s Webpage. Includes links to several stories  

Recently i was kindly given a review copy of a forthcoming very interesting sounding anthlogy, A Thousand Beginings and Endings: 15 Retellings of Asian Myths and Legends, edited by Ellen Oh and Elsie Champan.  I was delighted to find a short story by the very creative Alyssa Wong, a Multi Award winning fantasy writer.  I loved two Short Stories of Wong upon which I have previously posted, “God Product” and especially “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers”,  a Nebula and a World Fantasy Winning Short Story.  

Each of the stories in the anthology is a reimagining of a classic Asia myth, legend, or folk belief.

“Olivia’s Table” by Alyssa Wong is a retelling of the Chinese legend of an annual feast for Ghosts.

As the story opens Olivia is heading for what was once a prosperous town in the American West which went into decline once the silver mines were worked out.  Now the town survives on tourists who come to see Wild West Shows.  The big day of the year is the annual ghost feast.  As Olivia comes into the town she sees the ghosts, most have marks of the violent deaths of the old west.  Her mother for many years cooked all the food for the ghost feast and was an exorcist.  We learn why ghosts do not move on.  Wong gives a wonderful description of the ghost feast.  From her descriptions of the ghosts we can see the dark dangerous history of the old west.  We get to know Olivia and her family history, her troubled same sex relationships.

This is a very good story.  It can, as far as I know, be read only in the anthology but on her webpage you will find links to several of her stories and her essays.  I look forward to reading more of her work and watching her career develop.  

Alyssa Wong lives in Chapel Hill, NC, and really, really likes crows. Her stories have won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story, the World Fantasy Award for Short Fiction, and the Locus Award for Best Novelette. She was a finalist for the 2016 John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and her fiction has been shortlisted for the Hugo Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the Shirley Jackson Award. Her work has been published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, Nightmare Magazine, Black Static, and Tor.com, among others. Alyssa can be found on Twitter as @crashwong..  from her webpage. 

I hope to read more stories in the anthology.

Mel u

"God Product" - short story by the Nebula and World Fantasy Award Winning Alyssa Wong (2017)

My Post Upon Alyssa Wong's multi award winning short story "Hungry Daughters of Starving 

Mothers"

Allysa Wong's Website, includes links to today's story, numerous others, essays, and her bio

"She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted. As she stood over the god taped down to the kitchen table, Caroline knew this was the only way to win Hyeon’s attention.
“Watch me,” she said to Hyeon, who leaned against the counter on the opposite wall, her eyes glittering. “Don’t look away.”
All of Hyeon’s eyes blinked slowly, in a concentric pattern. How beautiful, thought Caroline. Hyeon was a god: sharp, lean, and bright with power, nothing like Caroline’s small god, whose restrained limbs trembled against the wooden tabletop. “You’ll regret doing this,” said Hyeon. Her voice was quiet, but it rang hard in Caroline’s ears. “The two of you are bonded.” - from "God Product" by Alyssa Wong

Not long ago I read and posted upon  Alyssa Wong's beautifully wicked multi award winning work about the dangers of online dating, among other things, "Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers" (you can read it on Wong's very well done website along with several of her other stories, including "God Product").

Today I want to journalize my reading of another of her stories, "God Product".  As this marvelous very thought provoking story opens Caroline stands before a small new god, still encased in his pre- emergence wooden shell.  It is Caroline's task to break the shell.  Once she does this she and the god will be bonded.  The problem is Caroline is already bonded to Hyeon, the female god who is walking her through the procedure.  We never learn how gods are created, where we are, or the nature of the society in which Caroline resides. .  For me these mysteries add more to the impact and fun of the story.

The close of the story is very exciting.  I will leave it untold.  I think this would make a very good story to stimulate class room discussion.

This story was first published on Tor.com, a leading SF/F webpage on March 18, 2017, in observation of International Women's Day.

I plan to read and post upon all of Wong's works as I return to the SF/F world.

Mel u

"Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers" by Alyssa Wong ( 2015 Nebula Award Winner for Best Short Story and 2016 World Fantasy Award Winner for Best Short Fiction)

Alyssa Wong's Beautiful Webpage- Includes Links to Eight of her Award Winning Fiction 


From Nightmare Magazine May 2017- A Very Open and Interesting Conversation with Alyssa Wong





A few days ago I as kindly given a review copy of a forthcoming soon anthology, The New Voices of Fantasy, edited by Peter S. Beagle and Jacob Weisman.  I was completely shocked by how much I liked the beautiful lead story, "Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers by Alyssa Wong.  Last month I first read the surrealistic short fiction of Leonora Carrington.  If April 2017 was for me the month I "discovered" Leonora Carrington, then quite possibly May will be observed as the month I first read Alyssa Wong.  I know this sounds hyperbolic but I can for sure visualize Leonora being stunned by "Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers, i certainly was.  I was on first reading mesmerized by the sheer elegance of Wong's prose combined with the very ugly and evil story she tells.

Told in the first person by a young woman out on a first date with a man she met online, a Harvard alumni he claims, the setting is Manhattan.  She is from Taipei.They are on their way to dinner.  We soon learn the woman can read thoughts.  The man is trying to impress her by telling her of his penthouse complete with a Jacuzzi.  Most women would be frightened to learn their date was a serial killer was eagerly looking forward to splitting her body open.  I want to share enough of Wong's style to give my readers a fair sample of her style, which I just love:



"As we cruise uptown toward his fancy-ass penthouse, I ask him to pull over near the Queensboro Bridge for a second. Annoyance flashes across his face, but he parks the Tesla in a side street. I lurch into an alley, tottering over empty cans and discarded cigarettes in my four-inch heels, and puke a trail of champagne and kale over to the dumpster shoved up against the apartment building. “Are you all right?” Harvey calls. “I’m fine,” I slur. Not a single curious window opens overhead. His steps echo down the alley. He’s gotten out of the car, and he’s walking toward me like I’m an animal that he needs to approach carefully. Maybe I should do it now. Yes! Now, now, while the bitch is occupied. But what about the method? I won’t get to see her insides all pretty everywhere—I launch myself at him, fingers digging sharp into his body, and bite down hard on his mouth. He tries to shout, but I swallow the sound and shove my tongue inside. There, just behind his teeth, is what I’m looking for: ugly thoughts, viscous as boiled tendon. I suck them howling and fighting into my throat as Harvey’s body shudders, little mewling noises escaping from his nose. I feel decadent and filthy, swollen with the cruelest dreams I’ve ever tasted. I can barely feel Harvey’s feeble struggles; in this state, with the darkest parts of himself drained from his mouth into mine, he’s no match for me. They’re never as strong as they think they are. By the time he finally goes limp, the last of the thoughts disappearing down my throat, my body’s already changing. My limbs elongate, growing thicker, and my dress feels too tight as my ribs expand."  She changes briefly into his appearance, before she leaves his body near a dumpster, not knowing or caring if he is still alive.

This is not the first man whose life she has ended.   "Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers" shows us the sexual love of our narrator, her roommate and a high fashion woman she meets for each other.  We also meet the narrator's mother, a hoarder whose house is shoulder high packed with junk, including jars containing the essences of men she has killed, including our narrator's father.  Her mother advised her it is best just to go for common criminals as no one will make a big effort to figure out why they disappeared.  There is a deep feeling of evil in the story, hidden by the beautiful prose and the elegance of the women.

Wong says she wants to write stories in which the chief characters are Asian American lesbians.  There is much in the story I have not touched upon, I want first time readers to not have too much advanced knowledge.

Bio Data from the collection

Alyssa Wong’s considerable reputation rests on only the handful of stories. Still in her mid-twenties, she is the youngest author to appear in this collection. Her work has appeared in Fantasy & Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, Black Static, Tor.com, and Lightspeed: Queers Destroy Science Fiction. Her first published story, “The Fisher Queen,” earned immediate acclaim and was nominated for the Nebula, World Fantasy, and Shirley Jackson awards. Wong’s fourth story, “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers,” was published the following year to even stronger acclaim, winning the Nebula and World Fantasy awards, and was nominated for the Shirley Jackson and the Bram Stoker awards, and was a finalist for the Locus Award. She was nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2016. She lives in Raleigh.

She is the first author of Filipino ancestry to win a Nebula Award.

I will be reading and posting on seven more of her stories.

If just a few of the stories in The New Voices of Fantasy are close to this good, it is well worth acquiring.

Leonora Carrington, best known broadly for her paintings had a very long, seventy years or so, creative career.  I wish the same for Alyssa Wong.

Mel u