Francesca Forrest's Blog, page 74

almost murmuration, pearl, colors

The starlings over the cornfields of Hadley, Massachusetts, sometimes achieve murmuration levels--I saw them do it Saturday, them moving together like a great whale at play. It was breathtaking. I went back yesterday with a camera but came too late in the day, and then again today, and was only a *little* too late, or they weren't in a mood to all rise (ALL RISE) and swoop, and then settle.

Also, maybe if I had turned the phone sideways it would have made a wider video? I am very new to the wa...

early morning, Thanksgiving Day

When I went out this morning, the sun was just leaving its nest of trees on the horizon-woods, shining golden white. Stretched across the sky were the white ghost-bones of some giant fish, an ancestor fish--the waters of morning revealed those bones. At the houses playing host this Thanksgiving Day, cars were clustered quietly, like sleeping pups or kittens. High up in a tree somewhere, one bird was calling; on the ground, just a few leaves and chipmunks were scurrying.

I found a golden fairy...

Leidy Tabares

Having finished La Niña, Wakanomori and I found a new, non-narco (this rules out the majority of what's available on Netflix) Colombian telenovela to watch: Lady: La Vendedora de Rosas. It's very loosely based on the life of Leidy (Lady) Tabares, a Colombian streetkid who got lifted up to glory as the star of a film called La Vendedora de Rosas [the rose seller] (1998) aaaannnnd then dumped right back into the situation from which she came. Gotta love exploitative directors.

The real Leidy Tab...

photo prompts

Today I did a creative-writing session using the collection of photos I'd put together, and it was fascinating (and in some cases touching) to see what photos people chose, and why. It'll take me some time to put the stories online, but when I've got them up, I'll link to them.

But here are some of the photos people chose:



That's by Wanda Lotus, who does great photos from the subways, streets, and parks of New York City. Check out her work here or here , and consider supporting her Patreon.

This...

Family of Man

In 1955, the Museum of Modern Art staged an exhibition titled The Family of Man. I wasn't alive then, but in my childhood, I often took the accompanying book out of the library, and as an adult, I bought a copy. The list of famous photographers (and photographs, like Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother" ) is impressive, but what I loved and continue to love is, first, seeing powerful moments in human experience from all over the world--grieving, celebrating, solitary and in pairs and crowds--and...

a high hidden place

Back when I was doing Inktober posts, I posted the image of the eight of swords, from the Rider-Waite tarot deck:



I decided to use that and other tarot images as writing prompts with the group of adult students I'm working with, and that image prompted two very diverging responses. You can read both of them here , but I wanted to feature the first--a story told in just four sentences, but so full of drama--here:

The woman is from Sparta and she’s the king’s daughter. The Romans want to retaliate...

leaf maze

It's been a while since I made one of these. sartorias and I were talking about maze walking as a form of meditation, and so last night I took the opportunity to do some creative raking.



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November

Prick my skin and peel it back
Inside you'll find
November skies
That filled me to the brim
When I looked up today

Speaking of winter (....more or less) a story of mine, "The Stars' Chill Song," which was originally published in Zahir (a speculative fiction zine that has since closed) in 2011, is reprinted in Still Water: A Noblebright Fantasy Anthology.

The only other stories in it that I've read are the ones by Sherwood Smith, but I sense a theme of coldness, at least in the titles ("Ice and Fir...

"Halloween Lucky" a success

I was pleased with how it went. I had a big vat of candy, as usual, and then a glow-in-the-dark plastic pumpkin with the cards in them. (Confused? Entry here.)

This is how the setup looked at about 5 pm:



The jack-o-lanterns are supposed to look like No-Face from Spirited Away (right) and the cat bus from Totoro (left)--the latter without the ears, though, which takes away from the effect. Pleasingly, a number of kids not only recognized No-Face, but commended me for being in what they considere...

in prison

Is it a human person or a fairy being, imprisoned behind the leaf-vein bars? What was the crime, or were they falsely accused? When and how will they be freed, or will they free themselves?



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