Northern Correspondent

By Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Severson made a name for himself once, as a crack reporter. But now, years later, he hides behind his typewriter. Until the day Molly walks through the door looking for a job.

Molly, with her ideals and her determination and her courage. Molly might change his life—but not necessarily in the way he hopes.

"Rusch's short fiction is golden."

—Kansas City Star

• Language: English
• Publisher: WMG Publishing
• Release date: May 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201538293

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

Northern Correspondent

Northern Correspondent

Kristine Kathryn Rusch

WMG Publishing, Inc.

Contents

Northern Correspondent

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About the Author

Also by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Northern Correspondent

I’VE SEEN THE obituary they’ve written up for you, Molly. It’s empty and boring and isn’t about you at all. I pointed that out to Knudson and he directed his reply to the entire newsroom: Seversen here thinks he’s so good that he can write a better damn obituary than the publisher of this paper.

I didn’t yell at him, Molly. Honest. I told him that when a person dies, her obituary should be written by someone who doesn’t know her. That way, the cold, hard facts of her life tell their own tale. Whatever I write about you will be impure; it’ll be my vision of you and consequently, the story I tell will be mine, not yours. For that I apologize. You deserve better, but all that you get is me writing a column that Knudson won’t even print.

My typewriter and I were sitting at the front desk the day you arrived, remember, Molly? I was hoping that a change of scenery, no matter how slight, would inspire me. Instead, I had torn up four leads and was sweating over a fifth when the screen door slammed against its frame.

I didn’t look up. That week’s receptionist was on one of her frequent coffee breaks, and I had to work hard to keep my attention on the sentence before me.

Excuse me. Your voice was soft, rich—the tones of a