Addendum: Wow. I'd entirely forgotten "Mercury." That is, I'd forgotten the story , and, more alarmingly, I'd forgotten how very personal this particular story is. This is further evidence that I've been writing more than I should be writing, and that I need a long, long break that isn't coming. I wrote "Mercury" back in October, immediately after having finished Murder of Angels . In a lot of ways, "Mercury" was an escape from all the difficulties of the composition of MoA . Anyway, I think I really love this story, and it makes me a little angry that it had slipped from my mind after a mere seven months. As we read through it, at times it was almost as though I'd never read this story, much less written it. It'll be released as a chapbook by Subterranean Press, free with every copy of the subpress edition of Low Red Moon . We found lots and lots of typos and mistakes, which is also indicative of how frazzled I was when I sent the "finished" ms. to Bill Schafer. And it was also a bit odd to be reading "Mercury" today, and remembering it, this story about a very young Deacon Silvey's brief, clumsy affair with a transsexual woman, because fifteen years ago today, with the prick of a needle, I began HRT. I was a mere babe of twenty-five. Wow. That afternoon seems, simultaneously, like something that happened at least a hundred years ago and just yesterday. And I've now used "wow" twice in one entry, which is surely a record for me.