Francesca Forrest's Blog, page 9

Not One of Us, Issue 80

I'm in this issue of Not One of Us with a piece of very short flash fiction, "Freeing .33333..."

It's ironic, maybe, to write flash about a number that goes on forever, but like the narrator, I've always been fascinated by this endlessly repeating number, and a short form is as good as a long form, I suppose, to talk about something infinite.

There are several other offerings in this issue that I loved--noteworthy among them sovay 's poem "Fair Exchange," about what the dead want. (You know it ins...

Why don't you...

Happy mid-Autumn festival, one day late! Please enjoy this Google doodle that was only shown to people in East Asia. In the United States Google was busy urging us to register to vote.

It was a lovely harvest moon--with a bite taken out of it in these parts, due to a partial lunar eclipse. Like a ghostly version of the moon cakes made in its honor.

Some time ago I learned how to ask questions using "Why" in Tikuna. I gave some sample questions (Why is the cat happy? Why are you tired?) and my tut...

art for a cover

I'm slowly getting ready to self-publish a longish short story, "The Bee Wife," about a bereaved beekeeper and the swarm of bees that loves him. I've made some cover art for it. Let me show you in four steps, broadening out to the whole picture:

Step 1:

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Step 2:

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Step 3:

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Step 4--the complete image:

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It may still be a while before it's out in the world, but I hope when the time comes, people will enjoy Florian, his many children, and his bee wife.

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Three short stories

Quick! Before the day closes.

"Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather," by Sarah Pinsker (Uncanny March–April 2021)

I came to this via purlewe (thank you!) It's done as posts on LyricSplainer, a site for talking about folksongs--in this case, the folksong "Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather," which has many variants (of course), across all of which a man's literal heart is taken out and replaced with an acorn... Dr. Rydell wrote a paper about it back in 2002 and posted more about it on his blog, was even investig...

September con Somadifusa y Plu con Pla.

Here is the September image from my small-batch printed calendar from the Colombian muralist who works under the name Somadifusa.

I love how very Semper Vivens it is.

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Somadifusa has an Instagram here , but you can also see examples of her art on album covers. Here's one for a collaboration between the Afro-Colombian group Plu con Pla and the US-born producer and instrumentalist Biomigrant:



That album, by the way, is great, and available on Bandcamp here.

The name "Plu con Pla" comes from a tradition...

mysterious items

While cleaning out the shed this past weekend, I found a number of things that are no longer useful to our household. A lawn spreader, for instance. I used it once, to spread lime. Then I decided to leave the lawn to its own devices, and now I have thyme and clover and hawkweed and dandelion and plantain growing--along with various sorts of grasses--and contentedly watch the bees and butterflies all summer long.

Also two skateboards, a snowboard, a soccer ball, and a street hockey stick and puck...

Made-up story or true story?

It's a choose-your-own post ;-)

(  made-up story  )

(  true story  )

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pineapple, pepper, charmed

Pineapple
I discovered that a pineapple top I'd tossed in the compost bin was looking very healthy and green, not at all like something that was falling apart to make way for other life. Checking online, I found that yes, pineapple tops grow new pineapples.

You know what this means? I can have my very own bromeliad! I can have another ungainly, climate-inappropriate plant! In three short years, I might harvest my own pineapple.

So I have transplanted it.

(  photos under the cut  )

pepper
My Amazonian pe...

At Worldcon rn: "The Science, FIction, and Ethics of Terraforming"

AT THIS VERY MOMENT at Worldcon in Glasgow, the panel "The Science, Fiction, and Ethics of Terraforming" is happening. In the program guide, the final sentence in the description asks,

"Even if we do [have the ability to terraform], should we, if the world has the potential to develop life of its own?"

What do people think? More broadly, how do people feel about settling on other planets, both in fiction and irl?

It's my observation that H sapiens haven't, so far in our history, looked at a place ...

"The Placeholder," by Patricia Russo

Patricia Russo writes weird, wonderful things, full of heart. "The Placeholder" is a flash piece about planting a stray seed.

I love it on its own merits, and what it's saying isn't the same as what "Semper Vivens" is saying, but there are some harmonies:

What his heart wanted was to lick the leaf that was touching his lip and then bite it, chew it slowly, taste it thoroughly, swallow it, and then the next one on the stem, and the next. Even if they tasted bad. Even if they made him sick. Even if ...