Author Archives: Kate

Kage Baker. Phantom noises of sleigh bells in the kitchen, phantom perfumes of nutmeg and semolina. Red Door, red doors, doors red with sunset – and the colder it gets the brighter the last red light of day: how does … Continue reading →

Kage Baker, as has been made pretty plain, loved Dickens Fair. It wasn’t just that, as an older lady, she appreciated the joys of flush toilets, chairs to sit on in stead of hay bales, an indoor venue instead of … Continue reading →

Kage Baker caught influenza with a graceful inevitability. Once a year, usually, the last weekend of a Dickens Fair, she would start to glow with fever and ache in every joint; her sinuses would silt up like the lost drainage … Continue reading →

Kage Baker would tell me to go back to bed. I don’t feel sick, exactly – nothing hurts – but I’m dizzy and light-headed and my ears are ringing. And I’m running a fever of 100 degrees. My doctor, too, … Continue reading →

Kage Baker, when faced with the necessity of fashioning a segue where none easily presented itself, would usually remark, “Speaking of camels …” I don’t remember why. At some point, it must have been something that cracked us up, because … Continue reading →

Kage Baker assigned me all the IT tasks in our household. And the garbage, and the baking. She did the rest of the cooking, the beds and stubborn stains. Plumbing and other utility disasters were mine; bugs and spiders were … Continue reading →

Kage Baker loved Shakespeare, and England, and archeology, and heroes and sailors. She also loved staying warm, and was a devout believer in instant cocooning in the face on inclement temperature – which, for her, was anything below 70 degrees … Continue reading →

Kage Baker’s favourite season was undoubtedly summer – for sheer personal pleasure, for warmth and freedom and endless hours of light. But she had special remembrances for all seasons, and took their progression and suitable rituals quite seriously. It was … Continue reading →

Kage Baker lived on colour. She associated everything with a colour of its own; she assigned temperments, tastes, scents, weather, and moods with specific colours. There were “green bottle dawns” and “blue days” and “saffron black nights”. She understood Homer’s … Continue reading →

Kage Baker finally has a Best Of compilation coming out from Subterranean Press – 489 pages of assorted goodness, several novellas and lots of short stories. The stories range from her very first sale, “Noble Mold”, which appeared in Asimov’s … Continue reading →