Coloured pencil illustratioin of a woman with burning eyes running th rough the snow—her legs are the legs of a deer

Cover illustration by Rovina Cai

In honour of the winter solstice I’ve made an illustrated copy of my short story, “Cold Wind.” You can download it in a high-res PDF here. If you have trouble with that, there’s a los-res version but the pictures won’t be quite as clear. (This may or may not be a good thing, seeing as they’re all—apart from the wonderful cover—partly my work based on others’ photographs. Do please read the credits at the end.) The story is set on Solstice night in Seattle. A woman walks into a bar and finds just what she’s looking for—or does she? 

When it was first published, in 2014, the acquiring editor, Ellen Datlow, called it a Dark Fantasy. I can see that, but I also see it as quite a hopeful story. 

This was one of those gift stories that occurred to me one day and I wrote the next (it’s quite sort). The inspiration came from multiple sources: mostly visual art, but also music. But as it was such a gift for me to write I wanted to make a gift of it to you, Dear Reader. Read it in front of the fire with a nice glass of Armagnac, and dream of snow.