Francesca Forrest's Blog, page 43

A song, and some thoughts

Here's something you can play while you do whatever you do during the next, oh, let's say a week? That's probably optimistic...



( cut for politics )

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advance readers

Melanie Nelson, my publisher at Annorlunda, is looking for advance readers for LAGOONFIRE, people who will post an honest review on their blog or other site in return for a copy of the book. If you'd like to do that--or if you know someone who might-- here is where you can sign up, or you can email info(at)annorlundaenterprises.com and ask for a copy.

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2020 jack-o-lantern

The jack-o-lantern I carved for my storytime with the girls next door decayed before Halloween arrived, so I made another.



That photo was from October 29. October 30, we got snow:



It was supposed to be Dave, the bug character from Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts, making this face:



But the mouth glows almost too bright in the jack-o-lantern.

I love Dave! He cycles through the stages of his life. Fortunately for his friends, he's mainly at the adult stage:



But eventually he falls into old age...



And th...

"A Ghost in Brazil"

As the translator of this Japanese short story says in the tweet that brought it to my attention, "I won't blame you for not knowing you needed an Olympics ghost story in your life, but at least now you do." ( source )

It begins promisingly...

I was ever so keen to visit the Aran Islands, but unfortunately, I died before ever making it out of Japan.

And continues that way!

And yet. In the months just prior to my death the idea had been mooted among the members of the neighbourhood association to go a...

friendship rock

All neighborhoods have these little landmarks. This broad, flat rock at the edge of mine has become very popular during pandemic times:



I see couples sitting here all the time. There's a woman who comes with a blind man; sometimes women-who-walk-for-exercise sit and chat here. Yesterday it was these girls, who said they didn't mind if I posted their picture--so I am!



Bless you, friendship rock.

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chairs

One amusing thing I noticed earlier in the pandemic was that chairs were popping up in odd places. First an office chair appeared in the middle of the neighborhood common. A little later a metal chair with a vinyl cushion on the seat and for back support appeared wedged below the railway bridge. "I'd like to get my picture taken there when I'm just finishing a run," I thought--it would be just perfect because it's often right around that spot that I end a run, and I'm tired.

Unfortunately, I did...

And---preorders are now available, paperback too.

At first it seemed preorders wouldn't be available for the paperback, but they are!

Here is the link to the publisher's preorder page

(This is one time when I wish DW did the thing that both FB and some formats of Twitter do, where they give you a little preview of the web page you're linking too. )

Here are the first two paragraphs:

I was on my way to visit the retired gods of Sweet Harbor District when I received a communication from Decommissioner Five, my superior at the Ministry of Divinities. ...

Lagoonfire proof, cosmos and bees

The mail brought a welcome item--my uncorrected proof for LAGOONFIRE!



I must go through it carefully and root out typos! The Polity approves of rooting out errors.

Last book featured a deity who wasn't ready to be retired. This one features a bunch of retired gods. How do they spend their time? How does the Polity treat them? You can learn a lot about a government by how it treats its decommissioned deities.

I've been spending too much time just working, but when I'm not, I step outside to enjoy t...

weird thing that just happened

I was talking to my neighbor on her front lawn, and an unknown-to-us guy, White guy in his 50s, maybe, or maybe 60s, short silvery hair and sunglasses on, drives up. He rolls down the window and...

Him: Hey, hey, I need to ask you something.

Us: .... Yes?

Him: My daughter is thinking of moving into this neighborhood, is looking to move into this neighborhood, but I need to know: are there a lot of Trump supporters here?

Us: .... There are ... some. You'll see a few signs if you drive around.

(I woul...

A couple more quotes from The Souls of Black Folk

Suddenly all my copyediting clients need copy editing! Which is excellent from an income-stream perspective, but suddenly my life of leisure has evaporated.

But in the spirit of Wednesday reading, here are a couple more quotes from WEB DuBois's The Souls of Black Folk These are from Chapter 8, "Of the Quest of the Golden Fleece." Each chapter opens with a quote from the lyrics of a song--and also a bit of the music for the song, which is cool. Here's an excerpt from the one for chapter 8:

“On the...