Whale-Oil by Sylvia V. Linsteadt
Why it springs to mind: The idea of the souls of whales and seals being tethered to streetlamps in San Francisco.
Where read: Beneath Ceaseless Skies online, April 28, 2016; recommended by writer Maria Haskins on Twitter
Summary: A boy can see what others cannot — a magical world in which float the souls of whales.
Memorable: a balloon of whale souls; San Francisco named for Saint Francis of Assisi; a unique take on San Francisco earthquakes
Quote:
Pairs well with:
“Else This, Nothing Ever Grows” by Sylvia V. Linsteadt, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, July 11, 2013; an entry from Linsteadt's blog "Winter's Dark," and Maria Haskins' Dark Flash, an anthology of flash fiction
About the author: From her website: "Sylvia Victor Linsteadt is a writer, artist and naturalist whose work is rooted in deep in the realms of ecology and mythology." Her forthcoming novel is Tatterdemalion (Unbound, 2017). See also her wonderful blog: The Gleewoman's Notes.
Why it springs to mind: The idea of the souls of whales and seals being tethered to streetlamps in San Francisco.
Where read: Beneath Ceaseless Skies online, April 28, 2016; recommended by writer Maria Haskins on Twitter
Summary: A boy can see what others cannot — a magical world in which float the souls of whales.
Memorable: a balloon of whale souls; San Francisco named for Saint Francis of Assisi; a unique take on San Francisco earthquakes
Quote:
"That night, Altair did not sleep at all. His tiny bedroom was thick with a fog of whales. He dreamed, though, swathed in those benthic phantoms—of dark cold water where the weight of it pressed stars into the brain; of songs more beautiful than any he had ever heard, sieving through the salt and waves; of great distances underwater and the way the moon pulled, and roads only whales could see, and then, terrible: harpoons, the keels of whaling boats, the pain of a body wrenched up dangling from a hook and a chain, not all the way dead."Personal connection: A beautiful piece of environmental literature, #ecolit, a new fairytale, which allows us to see nature in new ways.
Pairs well with:
“Else This, Nothing Ever Grows” by Sylvia V. Linsteadt, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, July 11, 2013; an entry from Linsteadt's blog "Winter's Dark," and Maria Haskins' Dark Flash, an anthology of flash fiction
About the author: From her website: "Sylvia Victor Linsteadt is a writer, artist and naturalist whose work is rooted in deep in the realms of ecology and mythology." Her forthcoming novel is Tatterdemalion (Unbound, 2017). See also her wonderful blog: The Gleewoman's Notes.
Comments
Post a Comment