Created by Mercedes Lackey
edited by Josepha Sherman
Copyright 1996
version 2.0 completely edited, compared to original, spell checked. finished March 13, 2004
CONTENTS
Introduction — Josepha Sherman
Lammas Night — Mercedes Lackey
Hallowmas Night — Mercedes Lackey
Harvest of Souls — Doranna Durgin
The Heart of the Grove — Ardath Mayhar
Miranda — Ru Emerson
Demonheart — Mark Shepherd
Sunflower — Jody Lynn Nye
Summer Storms — Christie Golden
A Choice of Many — Mark Garland
The Captive Song — Josepha Sherman
Midsummer Folly — Elisabeth Waters
The Mage — the Maiden and the Hag — S.M. Stirling and Jan Stirling
The Road Taken — Laura Anne Gilman
A Wanderer of Wizard-Kind — Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Circle of Ashes — Stephanie D. Shaver
A Choice of Dawns — Susan Shwartz
Miranda's Tale — Jason Henderson
Lady of the Rock — Diana L. Paxson
Before — Gael Baudino
First there was the song.
Several years back, Mercedes Lackey wrote "Lammas Night," a spooky, supernatural ballad that ended with the wizard protagonist facing a very perilous choice that was left to the listener to decide.
Then came the birthday present that wasn't.
Bill Jahnel and friends put together a collection of endings for the song, intending to offer it as a tribute to Mercedes, known to her friends as "Misty." However, the best laid plans often don't come off as intended. The project was shelved for a time, then offered to Baen Books for possible publication. Unfortunately, while this project, in its original form, made a lovely tribute and Misty was quite touched, it was felt that a book made up strictly of endings to a song would have made for rather limited reading.
And so the book now known as Lammas Night was born.
What you hold in your hands is an all-new collection of fantasy stories by some of the brightest stars in the field. Each was given a copy of "Lammas Night" and was told to use it as a springboard for his or her imagination. The only restriction was that their stories must show some tie-in to the original song.
What resulted is a wild range of stories, some traditional, some outright bizarre. Lammas Night is both a tribute to the song and to Misty herself. It is also a chance for readers to enter new worlds of fantasy and see the creative imagination at work.
—Josepha Sherman
MERCEDES LACKEY