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eBook Category: Mystery/Crime Edgar Award Nominee
eBook Description: One of this year's Edgar nominees for best short story, "Cowboy Grace" is a tale of a woman who starts a new life, only to be haunted by her old one.

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: The Silver Gryphon, 2003
Fictionwise Release Date: April 2004

36 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [152 KB], eReader (PDB) [55 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [43 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [39 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [84 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [109 KB], hiebook (KML) [130 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [72 KB], iSilo (PDB) [35 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [45 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [72 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [62 KB]
Words: 13457
Reading time: 38-53 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

"Some of the tales don't even fall within the boundaries of science fiction or fantasy but deal with more mainstream concerns. Kristine Kathryn Rusch's "Cowboy Grace," the story of a woman looking to erase her past, and "After Ildiko," Lucius Shepherd's dank tale of tropical betrayal, are two splendid examples."--San Francisco Chronicle about the anthology where the story was first published, The Silver Gryphon

"I can't help but enjoy Rusch's "Cowboy Grace," which deals as badly with stereotypes females place on each other as it does with the techniques used by their unscrupulous male husbands and lovers. As Grace's erstwhile female friend hears: 'When I told you about my lumpectomy,' Grace said, 'you didn't care. I was scared. I told you that and you didn't care. When I found out I didn't have cancer, I called you to celebrate and you didn't care. Seems to me like you vanished first' (247). To turn her life from tragedy to triumph, Cowboy Grace undergoes a series of psychological transformations that are lovingly detailed in her own entertaining monologues and dialogues, realistically embedded in the foibles of our own social system and much more satisfying than, say, 'Thelma and Louise.'"--SFRA Review

"Kristine Kathryn Rusch takes a look at the relationships between men and women in her suspenseful and involving story "Cowboy Grace," another favorite of mine."--SFrevu

"Kristine Kathryn Rusch's non-fantastic success, 'Cowboy Grace,' about a woman on the run from her own self. In less deft hands, the story would have quickly become boring at best and polemical at worst, but Rusch manages to keep the story from becoming a tirade against men and instead is an evocative look at how women can create for themselves a positive identity instead of having to create their identities in negative terms ('we're not men')."--Greenman Review

"Every woman tolerates misogyny." Alex said. She slid her empty beer glass across the bar, and tucked a strand of her auburn hair behind her ear. "How much depends on how old she is. The older she is the less she notices it. The more she expects it."

"Bullshit." Carole took a drag on her Virginia Slim, crossed her legs, and adjusted her skirt. "I don't tolerate misogyny."

"Maybe we should define the word," Grace said, moving to the other side of Carole. She wished her friend would realize how much the smoking irritated her. In fact, the entire night was beginning to irritate her. They were all avoiding the topic du jour: the tiny wound on Grace's left breast, stitches gone now, but the skin still raw and sore.

"Mis-ah-jenny." Carole said, as if Grace were stupid. "Hatred of women."

"From the Greek," Alex said. "Misos or hatred and gyne or women."

"Not," Carole said, waving her cigarette as if it were a baton, "misogamy, which is also from the Greek. Hatred of marriage. Hmm. Two male misos wrapped in one."

The bartender, a diminutive woman dressed wearing a red and white cowgirl outfit, complete with fringe and gold buttons, snickered. She set down a napkin in front of Alex and gave her another beer.

"Compliments," she said, "of the men at the booth near the phone."

Alex looked. She always looked. She was tall, busty, and leggy, with a crooked nose thanks to an errant pitch Grace had thrown in the 9th grade, a long chin and eyes the color of wine. Men couldn't get enough of her. When Alex rebuffed them, they slept with Carole and then talked to Grace.