I just found it -- it's here -- and it's really beautiful. So spare, but really emotional. I loved it.

Sox, spare is right, elegant, almost poetic in the way every word earns its place. And very hard-hitting in that way that you can't look directly at some things, but they nevertheless leave your accepted world view in shards.

Thank you Amy and Beverly - your comments mean a great deal. I am glad that the details and especially the emotion came through, even though it was very pared down.

I was more nervous than I'd usually be (which is still a lot) because Analee Newitz pilloried a Nature story from a few weeks ago on Twitter and Facebook - her prerogative, entirely, and she was not wrong. Still holding my breath a little.

Sox, that was wonderful - so quietly and gently heartbreaking in many ways.

Can't agree more. That really had me with a lump in my throat. I understand the urge to hold onto family history that's based in the land, but at the same time, if it means you can't have a family, then it's time to let go and homestead somewhere else.

Thank you Anne and Sail.

I think part of what I like so much about it is the nuanced way you feel for everyone in the story. From their individual point of view, no one is wrong. You can truly understand why each person feels and responds the way they do. And the gentle reveal that gets to such difficulty comes a bit at a time, so there's both a shock response to the dilemma, and an empathy response to the character. Thus the conflict is very natural, and also unresolvable.

I hate when the conflict is there, but for stupid reasons, like the characters won't communicate, or happenstance intervenes, or whatever. It feels cheap, like it's unearned. But this is earned conflict.

Which is a lot to accomplish in such a short story! And the worldbuilding is great; it makes me want to see more set in that world.

Uh . . . what Liese said. That seems simplest rather than writing it all again and trying to find different words.

Thanks, Liese and Connie.

I just got a rejection for a Cog query I sent in February. Maybe I should have sent an e-mail withdrawing it. I just figured it was already rejected since it had been so long.