Good choices, but I probably would have substituted a few:

"Granny Weather" by Charles de Lint,
"Instructions" by Neil Gaiman, and
"The Heidelberg Cylinder" by Jonathan Carroll.

True I am a little biased (these three authors are my current all-time favourites), but not unduly so. The story by Carroll is immensely enjoyable, and shows off his quirky way of thinking. I'm pissed that I won't get to meet them all at World Fantasy this year, since I'll have made a sizable dent in my savings account after going to Clarion, but I suppose that attending the most prestigious writers' workshop in the country makes up for it. Hee hee. Only six weeks away now!

I liked those three stories, but the de Lint felt a little too loose, and the ending he had felt tacked on. I enjoyed the Carroll a lot too, but it felt like the plot made too many arbitrary turns and had too many made-up rules that it didn't hold up as well for me. I liked the ending tho!

And the Gaiman poem was good, but I just have trouble with poetry. My bad!

Thanks for checking in, Mr. Clarion East 2002.

The deLint felt very derivative to me. If you liked the Stacey Richter story, check out Ray Vukcevich. I also quite liked "Jack Daw's Pack" but it was definitely to a specific taste.

Jay

Now that you mention it, Jay, the de Lint felt a lot like Gaiman's Sandman stuff. And while I really really liked what he had to say about art and writing at the end, it just felt tacked on.

I'm looking at buying Ray's collection as soon as I get caught up on my other reading!

I need to try "Jack Daw" again later, when I have an hour or two to spare and rest my head every few paragraphs...