Locus Magazine released their “2011 Recommended Reading List” in the February 2012 issue, and yesterday they posted the list online.

I was thrilled awestruck to see my own “Absinthe Fish” included as a recommendation. Lois Tilton has been a strong advocate of the story, but according to Locus’ own description, the list “is a consensus by Locus editors and reviewers... for short fiction, Jonathan Strahan, Ellen Datlow, Gardner Dozois, David G. Hartwell, Rich Horton, Lois Tilton, and others.” A consensus generally means that more than one person liked it, and that makes me giddy.

As of a few minutes ago, the “Fiction” section has been updated to include ePub, Mobi, and PDF versions of the story.

Last night we had Chinese.

Or, more accurately, last night my wife had Chinese, and I had Thai. It’s one of those Americans-assume-all-this-Asian-food-belongs-together places, which isn’t the most culturally sensitive way to market cuisine, but the hosts are always friendly and the food is good. And after every meal, you get a fortune cookie (which, by happenstance, is of Japanese origin!), regardless of which way your palate swings.

I love the taste of fortune cookies. The hint of lemon, the barely-perceptible traces of vanilla... and then there is the fun little slip of paper inside.

What I don’t love is the fact that more often than not, the “fortune” is more of a “platitude.” I dig that it’s easier to produce a pile of platitudes — all you need to do is shake a few greeting cards — and the occasional pseudo-mystic predictions that make it out of the cookie factory are so generalized that they require a high degree of interpretation and an exceptionally open mind to bear even the faintest whiff of relevancy.

All the same, I am a science fiction writer. How could I not love a fortune like this one?