Un-Familiar: Winston & Ruby

By Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Winston’s familiar Ruby, a small black cat, avoids dogs whenever possible. So when Winston finds her in cahoots with a toy poodle-Chihuahua mix, he wants to know why.

Ruby, usually so vocal, says nothing. Her silence, that dog, and a storm in the Oregon Coast community of Seavy Village all combine into one of the most memorable days of Winston’s life.

Part of Fabulous Familiars, an Uncollected Anthology

“Rusch is a great storyteller.”

—RT Book Reviews

• Language: English
• Publisher: WMG Publishing
• Release date: Oct 25, 2016
• ISBN: 9781540126436

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

USA Today bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in almost every genre. Generally, she uses her real name (Rusch) for most of her writing. Under that name, she publishes bestselling science fiction and fantasy, award-winning mysteries, acclaimed mainstream fiction, controversial nonfiction, and the occasional romance. Her novels have made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction has appeared in eighteen best of the year collections. She has won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov’s Readers Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award. Publications from The Chicago Tribune to Booklist have included her Kris Nelscott mystery novels in their top-ten-best mystery novels of the year. The Nelscott books have received nominations for almost every award in the mystery field, including the best novel Edgar Award, and the Shamus Award. She writes goofy romance novels as award-winner Kristine Grayson, romantic suspense as Kristine Dexter, and futuristic sf as Kris DeLake.  She also edits. Beginning with work at the innovative publishing company, Pulphouse, followed by her award-winning tenure at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, she took fifteen years off before returning to editing with the original anthology series Fiction River, published by WMG Publishing. She acts as series editor with her husband, writer Dean Wesley Smith, and edits at least two anthologies in the series per year on her own. To keep up with everything she does, go to kriswrites.com and sign up for her newsletter. To track her many pen names and series, see their individual websites (krisnelscott.com, kristinegrayson.com, krisdelake.com, retrievalartist.com, divingintothewreck.com). She lives and occasionally sleeps in Oregon.

Book preview

Un-familiar

UN-FAMILIAR

A WINSTON & RUBY STORY

KRISTINE KATHRYN RUSCH

WMG Publishing, Inc.

CONTENTS

Un-familiar

Newsletter sign-up

Also by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

About the Author

UN-FAMILIAR

First major storm of the year. A typical November winter storm that had hit, for some reason, in mid-October. The newscasters on the Portland television stations were blathering about how unusual it all was, and then comparing it to the Columbus Day Storm of 1962, which was what they always did whenever storms looked bigger than average.

Winston ignored the coverage as best he could, although he kept it running on the tiny ancient television he had put on a high shelf fifteen years before. He hunched over his work table in the back of his small store, and continued making potions. Over the last several years, his little business had grown—not here in Seavy Village, but on the web. On the advice of one of his colleagues, he had moved his mail-order business online, and thanks to great customer reviews, he could have had more work than he could possibly do.

Most internet entrepreneurs simply hired help, but Winston couldn’t do that. He had small magicks, yes, but he had magic, and that was rare enough. It would have taken him years to train the right person to master the potions and tiny spells that he had created—and that was if he wanted to teach someone else, which he decidedly did not.

He didn’t want an apprentice. He had been an apprentice (all of the magical had), and he knew that the best way to train someone was 24/7, supervising every little thing.

Winston liked his time alone. He saw people daily—or at least, weekly—in his store, and that was more than enough for him. Occasionally he had coffee with friends, and even more occasionally, he went to someone’s home for dinner.

Those occasions were always dicey, though, since he had to bring his familiar, Ruby. And, as he liked to say, she was 10% familiar and 90% cat, which meant that she was never the most gracious creature. Plus, she hated it whenever someone interfered with her routine.

At the thought of her, Winston raised his head. He hadn’t heard her complain about anything in the past five minutes. She had been sustaining a running commentary about the weather news, primarily reminding the newscasters (who could, of course, not hear her), that Columbus Day was in October, you idiots, so therefore storms