A riddle: What could possibly be better than an unexpected new book of short fiction turning up in your mailbox?
The answer: When that new book includes short fiction from Zamiatin, Zweig, Zantner, and Zugsmith.
The explanation: As Miette's Bedtime Story Podcast inches ever-closer to its 100th episode (I can hear your audible gasps!), I look at my index page, to make sure that I'm being somewhat diverse in my selection. Many different styles, from different ages, different castes, cultures, ethnicities, genders, and so on. Well, not "many" different genders, just two, but still. The catalogue is filling itself nicely, actually, and I'm pretty proud of this.
But what I'm not proud of, what I can't live with, and what bothers me more than unbitable hangnails, is the gross underrepresentation of certain letters. Look at H; I used to think H was underrepresented. Sure, Hemingway's there, but there's more to H than Hemingway. More distressing, however, is what happens at the end of the alphabet. I've got an image to maintain-- do you really think I want people thinking I'm x-ist? That I'm biased toward B! That it has anything to do with anything other than issues of letter frequency?
So, in addition to the new book, which is fantastic in itself, Z has a voice at long last.
A cry for help: I've only a handful left until the hundredth. Any idea what might fill in those gaps? (Including that "U;" "Unknown" hardly needs more recognition.)