Rachel Swirsky's Blog, page 8

Check Out “The Problem with My Dachshund” on Guernica!

[image error]


“The problem with my dachshund is that he pees.


Constantly. Unrelentingly. On rugs and furniture and laps.


He looks up at you with those large, dark eyes, and attempts to communicate innocence. I know better. He’s a malicious bladder loosener. He knows that he’s a tiny dog in an enormous, chaotic world.”


Global warming has taken its toll on Appalachia: a depressed economy, outbreaks of tropical fevers, and worse. Returning to her declining hometown, a college dropout has only one friend left–her dachshund. Who pees. A lot. “The Problem With My Dachshund” was published in the December 2019 issue of Guernica. 

Opportunity to Support a Palestinian Library

I’ve been making microloans through Kiva.org through years, and this project caught my eye. A Palestinian woman is looking to convert an old house into a library and bookshop: 

“Duha is a nice girl who lives with her family in a small humble house near Ramallah. Duha has an amazing idea: she decided to restore an old house to make it a library and a place to sell books and other stationery.

She went to Palestine for Credit and Development (FATEN) to request a loan to help her to cover all restoration expenses to convert the old house into a library. Duha hopes that all the students and residents of the area will benefit from the library.“

Check it out at Kiva: https://www.kiva.org/lend/1893559

A Haiku for Friday, December 13th

Unmoored, I’m a stone


pitching through bottomless dark


from nothing, toward–

Pete (aka Petrichor)

[image error]

Pretty sure we’re getting asked for snacks here.

A Haiku for Monday, December 5th

Soon, the cold solstice


will spin us back toward the sun.


Until then, I nest.

A Haiku for Thursday, November 21st

Winter-whitened sun

makes a cold, pretty morning–

gentle, short-lived light.

“The Book of Dragons” Announcement

Any time I get to write a story with Ann Leckie is a good time. “We Continue” was called “bee dragons” for most of its draft life, so I’m guessing you can infer what it’s about.

Follow this link to find out more!

NF Reads Interview

Thanks to NF Reads for hosting me for an interview! I wrote up a bunch of  thoughts on things like titling stories, taking criticism and how emotions influence creativity. 

Here’s a part of it:

“People. We’re really cool, and complicated, and weird, and unpredictable, and predictable, and everything else. We invented language, after all. I’m just sort of fascinated by the human condition. One of my undergraduate degrees was in Anthropology and it was a deep pleasure to spend hours delving into the ways other humans organize and experience their lives. It’s the same urge that drives me to writing, I think. Ways to learn about people, to understand them, and to communicate. I want to write about our dreams of ourselves and of the future.”

 

Click through to read the rest!

Zephyr

[image error]

Zephyr is posing for his princely portrait.

Something’s Over There

[image error]Something’s over there, and it will cower in the face of her glamour.