Francesca Forrest's Blog, page 151

Building a boardwalk

There's a narrow portion of road along the ways I often walk where the road passes over a marsh. There are guardrails on either side and water beyond the guardrails, and the cars and trucks hurtle by, so vigilance is the order of the day when you walk that stretch.

Now, thanks to patient advocacy, a boardwalk is going in, paid for by the developer of a nearby patch of land.

the road



close-up on the construction



the marsh grasses



on the level!



getting ready to cut some wood



The road was marked for t...

A monster for New England

Some years ago I reviewed Gott'im's Monster, by S. Dorman. (Review here.) It's a retelling of, and conversation with, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I liked it a lot, but thought it was complicated by a secondary plot that took place in the twentieth century.

A new edition of the novel is now available, containing solely the 1808 plotline, with the monster. See below for more details. It's well worth reading.

Originally posted by cinda_cite at for checking out at a local indie store?



Gott'im's M...

A great reprieve

So at some point, I guess before I was quite awake, I was musing on being HIV-positive and thinking, well, it's not as bad as all that; I mean, I'm not symptomatic or anything. And then I woke up, and after about a half-hour of being awake, I realized, Hey wait! I'm not HIV-positive!

It was the best, best feeling: It was all just a dream.

Not a great way to end a story, but a swell way to get out of an HIV diagnosis!

a good land, golden and sweet smelling, rich in grapes

I cannot quite recall whether it was that I'd been pressed into service showing some fairy visitors the sights hereabouts or whether it was the other way round, and I was the guest and they were showing me the sights thereabouts. I do remember it was all uphill at first; near the crest there was a toddler running around with an American flag while his mother moved brush in a tarp, and then there was a black cat with no tail, right by these signs:



At that point we took a detour, heading down, d...

Saturday miscellany

Pen pal seed exchange

88greenthumb 's granddaughter was going to send me her avocado seedling to grow, but I think it will do better in southern California, so instead I asked her to send me updates on its progress, and 88greenthumb will send me loquat seeds to try growing--and I am sending them apple seeds, from an apple that came from the apple tree that I grew from a seed. That tree is twenty feet tall now ♥

Acceptable and unacceptable protest

"No vandalism! Don't give the protest a bad...

a method of instubstantiating

The window fan knows the secret to disappearing. At rest, it appears as a five-petaled flower, or as a person: head, arms, and legs all the same size and shape, not quite Vitruvian Man. But then a breeze takes it and it spins, and spins faster, until ... it is a blur. Here it's not spinning all that fast, but when it does, then you can see it vanish--which is to say, then you can see that you can no longer see it.

The same thing happens with children. They spin round and round faster and faste...

rain-washed mud

In the smooth brown mud, the wildflowers are admiring their silhouettes, and the grass is practicing its calligraphy

The Test

Once upon a time, long ago--right after college, in fact--I found myself living overseas in an international house, surrounded by people from all over. I fell into friendship with a girl I really admired. She was my age, but had had a much more exciting life, including growing up on a tropical island, having an affair with a powerful politician, and going to university in Paris.

She had this thing she'd do. She'd show you something--a book of photos, a manga, a shirt--and say, "Look at this."...

plantain faces

I made plantain chips yesterday. They all had faces. These two look like wookies. They also don't look very happy. The one on the left, in particular, has an expression of melancholy resignation.



Here's a whole crowd of them. The one on the far left, second row from the bottom, is actually smiling. Even plantain chips can be happy, sometimes?



The extension cord plug's face shows surprised alarm. Perhaps it's only for the first time recognizing its facial similarity to a plantain chip.

Kraken, by China Miéville

Having read and adored China Miéville's Railsea, it was very interesting to read Kraken, which was full of the same crazy, wonderful imagination, and which was for sure an absorbing, engaging read, but which I didn't love the way I loved Railsea.


My first explanation for this was that the storytelling was tighter for Railsea. Kraken, like Railsea, was bursting at the seams with cool ideas, inventions, and conceits, as well as a vivid landscape, compelling (sometimes terrifying) characters, and...