I love the number thirteen. I was born on the 13th of March and turned 13 on Friday the 13th. I decided that thirteen would have to be my lucky number.
There’s even a word for it: triskadecaphilia. Technically, it means obsession with the 
number thirteen and I wouldn’t say I’m obsessed. I think.
Which leads me to a story titled “Triskadecaphilia” by the Haiku Ninja herself, Dover Whitecliff, in a new anthology we’re both in, Next Stop on the #13. This anthology contains a whole lotta punk: steampunk, dieselpunk, and solarpunk, plus some historical fantasy and straight up historical fiction.
My own story is “Riverhag,” a story set 500 years in the future, in a London 40 meters under water. I’m exploring the #solarpunk genre and this is my first foray.
The characters run a rusty freight barge up and down the Thames basin, skirting the remains of skyscrapers. It’s a light-hearted story (What? No heartbreak?) about one of their trips involving exotic pets and river monsters. Something about monsters in the water keeps turning up in my stories. Hmm. Must be something Jungian going on. One of the characters was loosely based on my caustically funny grandmother and I had a blast using quotes from her.
A whole array of other authors contributed to this anthology: Harry Turtledove, Anthony Francis, T.E. MacArthur, Katherine Morse, David Drake (aka Drake and McTrowell), Lillian Csernica, Madeleine Holly-Rosing, Chip Michael, Eddie Louise, and Michael Tierney.
What’s your lucky number? Any fellow triskadecaphilians out there?
BJ Sikes, author 