Across the street from the high-rise where I live in Chicago, right below my living room window, there used to be a Chinese restaurant called Wing Hoe. It opened 43 years ago in building that had originally been a mansion, built in 1913. The restaurant closed in December 2020 because the owners lost their lease, and the old house was going to be torn down and replaced by a 50-unit apartment building. (Photo by Jonathan Ballew/Block Club Chicago).

Plans stalled over zoning issues, and the property sat empty. Spaces in the old parking lot were rented out. A new building plan was eventually approved by 2023, but for some reason did not move forward. Meanwhile, the owners didn’t do a great job of maintaining the property or shoveling snow.

On Thanksgiving morning, 2023, before dawn, I woke to a two-alarm fire across the street.

The fire department put it out quickly with no injuries or apparent damage to the cars in the parking lot. Then the building sat burned-out and untended for a while. Our alderwoman reported: “Permits for demolition have been submitted and approved for January 2024, and the subsequent construction on the building is set to commence in March, 2024.”

But not much was done to secure the site or clean up the broken glass, despite complaints. Nothing happened in January — or February or March. Finally, our alderwoman had enough, and here in Chicago, the local alder is a mini-mayor with real power. An emergency demolition was ordered by the city.

In the third week of April, an excavator was delivered to the property, and on April 29, a crew showed up and got to work, perhaps to the surprise of the people renting parking spots.

A lot was accomplished by May 1.

Historic bricks, which have a good resale value, were collected on pallets and removed on May 3.

Some of the remaining rubble was pushed into the basement and covered over with clean dirt on May 7.

On May 10, it was a parking lot again. Will the fresh soil be covered with sod or grass seed, or will it sprout weeds? Or will it attract some of the neighborhood’s ambitious guerilla gardeners?

Eventually, construction will begin on a 50-unit building.

Groundbreaking was scheduled for two months ago, though. By the time it actually starts, the weeds might have grown lush and inviting to bees and butterflies. I wouldn’t mind.

Each year, the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Association choose the winners of the Nebula Awards in seven categories, including Short Story (less than 7500 words). As a member, I get to read them and vote for the one I consider most deserving. Voting is closed, and the awards will be presented June 8.

I think all the short stories are deserving works by accomplished authors, and if you want a fast overview of where the SFF genre is today, look no further. Topics range from timeless to timely, and styles from folksy to lyrical. My specific thoughts:

“Once Upon a Time at The Oakmont” by P.A. Cornell (Fantasy 10/23) — An apartment building in Manhattan exists out of time, drawing residents across many years and turning them into a family of sorts. Wondrously spellbinding and touching.

“Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200” by R.S.A Garcia (Uncanny 7–8/23) — An old lady and a goat learn to live with and love an AI robot. Cute, funny, and heartwarming, with a twist at the end.

“Window Boy” by Thomas Ha (Clarkesworld 8/23)— A boy discovers clues about the awful depth of the dystopia he lives in. A grim story, but the boy’s emotional growth is well-told.

“Better Living Through Algorithms” by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld 5/23) — A new app seems suspiciously and very specifically helpful. I laughed out loud. It ends with an apparent solution to app culture.

“Bad Doors” by John Wiswell (Uncanny 1–2/23) — A strange door appears in the middle of the covid epidemic, and the man who sees it doesn’t want to believe his eyes and starts running instead. Possibly allegorical.

My vote:

“The Sound of Children Screaming” by Rachael K. Jones (Nightmare 10/23) — Not even a portal into fantasy land can save school children from an active shooter. A gut-wrenching story about our reality — the kind of story that fantasy is uniquely well-equipped to tell. It won my vote for being the most risk-taking among an excellent field of finalists.

Barnes & Noble is holding a pre-order sale for members of  Rewards (10% off) and Premium & Rewards (25% off) from April 17 to 19.

You can get a bargain when you pre-order Usurpation, the third book in the Semiosis trilogy, which will be published in October this year.

If you’re not a B&N member, you can pre-order the novel, too. Links to your favorite bookseller are here.

Usurpation starts where the second novel in the series, Interference, ended with an epilogue: A Pax Institute has been established on Earth, three rainbow bamboo grow there, the first of their species on humanity’s convulsed home planet. Stevland sends them a message telling them they must dominate the Earth and its humans. Levanter, one of the bamboos, asks Stevland how to carry out this impossible task. The answer will come in one hundred ten years. It might be too late.

Carnivory is not the worst thing a plant can do.

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Preordering a book can make a big difference to its success. Pre-order sales are used by retailers to decide which books to stock and promote, and pre-orders allow publishers to anticipate how many copies need to be printed and how the book should be distributed. Pre-orders are also used by online booksellers to make algorithmic recommendations.

After you read a book, leave a review somewhere online! That’s another big difference you can make to its success.