Logorrhea: Good Words Make Good Stories

Jeff VanderMeer · Elizabeth Hand · Michael Moorcock · Liz Williams

May 2007 · Sold by Spectra

About this ebook

“Delightful . . . A treat for dictionary hounds and vocabulary-challenged word lovers everywhere.”—Booklist

For most of us, these prizewinning spelling bee words would be difficult to pronounce, let alone spell. We asked twenty-one of today’s most talented and inventive writers to go even further and pen an original tale inspired by one of dozens of obscure and fascinating championship words. The result is Logorrhea—a veritable dictionary of the weird, the fantastic, the haunting, and the indefinable that will have you spellbound from the very first page.

Including twenty-one stories and the inscrutable words that inspired them:

Chiaroscuro: “The Chiaroscurist” by Hal Duncan
Lyceum: “Lyceum” by Liz Williams
Vivisepulture: “Vivisepulture” by David Prill
Eczema: “Eczema” by Clare Dudman
Sacrilege, Semaphore: “Semaphore” by Alex Irvine
Smaragdine: “The Smaragdine Knot” by Marly Youmans
Insouciant: “A Portrait in Ivory” by Michael Moorcock
Cambist: “The Cambist and Lord Iron: A Fairy Tale of Economics” by Daniel Abraham
Logorrhea: “Logorrhea” by Michelle Richmond
Pococurante: “Pococurante” by Anna Tambour
Autochthonous: “From Around Here” by Tim Pratt
Vignette: “Vignette” by Elizabeth Hand
Sycophant: “Plight of the Sycophant” by Alan DeNiro
Elegiacal: “The Last Elegy” by Matthew Cheney
Eudaemonic: “Eudaemonic” by Jay Caselberg
Macerate: “Softer” by Paolo Bacigalupi
Transept: “Crossing the Seven” by Jay Lake
Psoriasis: “Tsuris” by Leslie What
Euonym: “The Euonymist” by Neil Williamson
Dulcimer: “Singing of Mount Abora” by Theodora Goss
Appoggiatura: “Appoggiatura” by Jeff VanderMeer

“This book is a logophile’s dream—a left-field collection of stories inspired by winning words from the Scripps National Spelling Bee. Anyone who has ever spent an hour or two happily browsing the pages of a dictionary will find something to love here.”—Kevin Brockmeier, author of A Brief History of the Dead

About the author

Anthology editor John Klima spent the first quarter century of life in the state of Wisconsin. He moved to New Jersey in the late 90s to get a job in publishing. Since then John has worked in publishing, computer programming, and—since completing his Master's degree in Library and Information Science in December 2005—librarianship. He currently works as the young adult librarian and systems administrator at his local library. Outside of work, he edits the science fiction zine, Electric Velocipede.