Francesca Forrest's Blog, page 54

drive-by short-story recommendation

A short, wonderful tale by Marissa Lingen, "Every Tiny Tooth and Claw," in Beneath Ceaseless Skies. (I read it, but it's also their audio feature.) It's an epistolary story (yay!), a correspondence between two academics in magical fields (yay!) in a time of political upheaval. They have to be careful of what they say, and reading between the lines of their messages is totally my jam. And/but also, all the details are just charming and wonderful:

In any case, Yudit and I got reacquainted with...

The Wolf and the Girl

The Wolf and the Girl
Aster Glenn Gray




A wonderful thing that Aster Glen Gray does in The Wolf and the Girl—which she also did in Briarley—is transpose a fairy tale to a very particular time and place and make you really feel that time and place. For Briarley it was World War II England; for The Wolf and the Girl it’s pre-Revolutionary Russia—and then early-twentieth-century France.

The first part is like a Russian lacquer box—dark, jewel-like, beautiful. As a small child, Masha would be with...

This is so sad Alexa play Despacito

Although *my* photos are still trapped in a disposable camera, Waka has kindly let me use his. Here is a shot of an iconic house (painted with the Puerto Rican flag) in La Perla, the neighborhood in San Juan where the video for "Despacito" was shot.



Let's take a brief moment to fully appreciate "Despacito." I chanced across it in May 2017, not knowing anything about it, and fell in love with both the song and video on one view. When it became the most-watched video on YouTube, I cheered. The...

I was away but now I'm back

Wakanomori and I went on a five-day holiday. We thought our phones would work in our destination--our phone plan said they would ... but they didn't! His at least worked for non-calling/texting purposes (e.g., taking photos, looking at internet) if we were in wifi range, but mine had decided to try to do an update and so it was a brick.

That's all right though, our destination was fascinating and fun anyway. It did, however, suffer bunches of earthquakes while we were there, including one that...

a brief harangue about Patreon

I was reading a review of a book about writing--according to the reviewer, the book was more a memoir of the writer's experience than a how-to book. The writer has had enough success that they're able to support themselves through writing and freelance projects--which is to say, they're pretty successful!--but they're not wildly famous.

At the end of the review, the reviewer noted that the writer offered a word of caution about Patreon. The author apparently said few of their fans "had put...

further adventures of Decommissioner 37

I'm nearing the climax of my sequel to The Inconvenient God. I'm excited! This story's considerably longer than that one--with more details about the protagonist's past, including her ~ ~ name ~ ~ (Sweeting was what her grandparents called her, but it's not her name.)

I probably won't finish it by the end of the year--too much other stuff going on--but early in the new year.

... okay, going to take my high energy off for a run and to work out more plot details.


Here--enjoy Sofi Tukker singing...

notes from a bathroom stall

I mean to answer posts--and letters/cards (thinking of you, osprey_archer )--but I've got my head down with a long job that I have to finish by tomorrow. I'm taking a break to share with you the wisdom and art of a bathroom stall.

First the art--it's Pikachu! Who doesn't want to see Pikachu's cheerful face at such moments?



Now a blessing--located, aptly, over the toilet paper:




And lastly, some relationship advice. There were other, similarly themed nuggets that expressed themselves more...

tres poemas

My former tutor, current pen pal, said it was okay to link to his poems!

So here they are: "Medusas," "Sirenas," and "La Mentira," by Geovanni Trujillo/Mictlán.

I really like them--there are great lines and images in all of them--I really like in "Sirenas," for instance, the very first line: "A veces le cuento al viento sobre ti"---sometimes I tell the wind about you.

I like the idea of the wind as a confidant.

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patron saint of ...

In her latest Patreon post , sovay talks about two frustrating films and one id-tastic one. The first of the frustrating ones, which, she reports, in large part "feels like someone drew a line through the set labeled "GOOD TASTE" and everyone kept getting CAD injuries trying not to cross it," reminded me of something hilarious and awful that happened at my church's All Saints Day mass.

For All Saint's Day, the religious ed program always has a few teens pick a saint, dress up as them, and then...

Hot Chocolate Run--thank you!

Wow, the running conditions couldn't have been more different this year from last year--last year's post-run entry reveals that it was 37 degrees F, and rainy. This morning we awoke to a world glittering with hoarfrost-the side of the house was decorated with sparkles--and temperatures below 0 F. By the time I reached the race start point, it had warmed up to a balmy 16 F.

Here's a shot of everyone waiting to get started:



I knew I'd run much more slowly this year than last year. I've done way...