“A Journey of Only Two Paces” by Tim Powers will be appearing in Prime’s forthcoming Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror: 2012 edited by Paula Guran. Molly Tanzer interviews him on the story.

I have a big, fluffy, orange and white cat. His life seems pretty all right, what with the chasing stuff, rolling around, getting petted, and doing whatever he wants all the time. It got me thinking about Kohler’s resistance to Jack’s plan … do you think there’s anyone out there who, having figured out the angle of the wake, would have chosen differently? Do you think you might ever choose differently?

Depending on what day you asked me, yes, I think I might have chosen the life of a cat in that nice old building! I often look at our cats — Uh-oh, you can imagine one of them thinking, it’s already ten-thirty and I’ve been sleeping on the windowsill! I’m supposed to be sleeping on the bookshelf now! — and envy their lives!

MORE: Read the rest of the interview here!