I especially want to thank Ada Palmer for Florence, and also for being supportive and perceptive about this book both in progress and in revision.
After the book was done it was read by Caroline-Isabelle Carron, Maya Chhabri, Pamela Dean, David Dyer-Bennet, Ruthanna and Sarah Emrys, David Goldfarb, Steven Halter, S. Kayam, Madeleine Kelly, Naomi Kritzer, Marissa Lingen, Elise Matthesen, Lydia Nickerson, Emmet O’Brien, Doug Palmer, Alison Sinclair, and Tili Sokolov.
Ruthanna Emrys and Lila Garrott helped me write more confidently about sexuality. Doug Palmer was immensely helpful on matters relating to amputation. Maya Chhabri was a godsend when it came to Italian affairs. Lesley Hall was terrific on many things medical and sexual. Marissa Lingen gave me wonderful help with tech, and not the kind people usually mean when they say that.
I’d like to thank the Evans Library at Texas A&M for allowing me to do my copyedit in their space.
Patrick Nielsen Hayden and everyone at Tor have been supportive and worked hard on this book, as always. I really value that and try not to take it for granted.
BOOKS BY JO WALTON
The King’s Peace
The King’s Name
The Prize in the Game
Tooth and Claw
Farthing
Ha’penny
Half a Crown
Lifelode
Among Others
What Makes This Book So Great
About the Author
J
O
W
ALTON
won the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer in 2002 and the World Fantasy Award for her novel
Tooth and Claw
in 2004. Her other novels include the acclaimed Small Change alternate-history trilogy, comprising
Farthing, Ha’penny,
and
Half a Crown.
Her novel
Among Others
won the Hugo and Nebula awards in 2012. She blogs at
papersky.livejournal.com
and as a columnist on
Tor.com
. A native of Wales, she lives in Montreal.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
MY REAL CHILDREN
Copyright © 2014 by Jo Walton
“Sonnet Against Entropy” copyright © 2003 by Patrick and Teresa Nielsen Hayden
All rights reserved.
Cover photographs by Irene Lamprakou/Trevillion Images
Cover design by Jamie Stafford-Hill
Edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden
A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
Tor
®
is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Walton, Jo.
My real children / Jo Walton. — First edition.
pages cm
“A Tom Doherty Associates book.”
ISBN 978-0-7653-3265-3 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-4668-0079-3 (e-book)
1. Women—Fiction. I. Title.
PR6073.A448M9 2014
823'.914—dc23
2013029673
e-ISBN 9781466800793
First Edition: May 2014