River — Alma Alexander

"When you put your hand in a flowing stream, you touch the last that has gone before and the first of what is still to come." -- Leonardo daVinci

It begins. Somewhere. An insignificant trickle of water.

And it changes.

And it grows up, and gathers a history, and finds its way into atlases and maps, until it finally reaches the sea, and vanishes into its vastness.

You might think it of no importance. That it does not matter. But you follow where it leads...

Rivers have always been very important to humankind. They've been explored. They've been navigated. They've been called gods. They've been blessed and cursed and venerated and used and enjoyed and exploited and polluted since the beginning of recorded history.

They've been sung about and dreamed about and followed on epic journeys of discovery. They capitals of empires have risen on the banks of rivers - and so have a thousand fishing villages, and river landings, and water mills.

There is only one River. Really. And it's all of them. Every river is dfferent - and yet they're all the same, vast and full of life and death and mystery and history and adventure and quiet dreams.

Full of life. Full of mystery. Full of stories.

Contents:

"The Well Keeper and the Wolf" by Tiffany Trent
"Rites" by Mary Victoria
"Fall" by Irene Radford
"They Are Forgotten Until They Come Again" by Jay Lake
"Scatological" by Deb Taber
"Floodlust" by Jacey Bedford
"Five Bullets on the Banks of the Sadji" by Keffy R.M. Kehrli
"My Grandfather's River" by Brenda Cooper
"The River" by Joshua Palmatier
"Lady of the Waters" by Seanan McGuire
"Vodnik Laughter" by Ada Milenkovich Brown
"River-kissed" by Joyce Reynolds Ward
"Beyond the Lighthouse" by Nisi Shawl