Shel Graves' Sensorium

Taste:  nutmeg, peas, cayenne pepper Sight:  plush garnet and onyx velvet Sound:  dice fall Smell:  piss Touch: oppressive heat, weighty heat Extra: dark curly hair, black glasses, clumsy white hands, an unplaceable foreign accent, studying to be an astronaut, running marathons, a vegetarian wife learning Vietnamese cooking; a dreamscape -- a festival memento mori ? death but something undefinable, a maze of art filled with visual puzzles - black red, beige, the room of zombies and a bar that eats you; you are quickly lost, won't find your way out, every room looks different when you come back the way you went Grateful for: sleep

Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers edited by Sarena Ulibarri out from World Weaver Press It's tough to be an optimist. In general. These days. As a writer. Definitely, as a writer. Dystopia checks all the boxes: High stakes.  Rising tension.  Character arc.  Plot.  A utopia is just — better. From somebody's point of view. So, boring? It doesn't have to be. Please, don't give up. Because, living in a dystopia? No thanks. No!! We need to imagine utopias (optimistic futures) — many. We need them. "...if you can’t imagine something, you sure as hell can’t make it real."  — Commando Jugendstil and the EV Studio  on the World Weaver Press Blog I began writing in earnest driven by: Memento mori.  Utopian impulse. I started alone and then found community — from feminist utopias to optimistic science fiction to solarpunk. Utopia: which makes new rules. ...optimism is way punk. Not that we will emerge from catastrophic dystop...

Taste:  oregano oil; saffron; lavender; bergamot; coconut Sight: floating cottonwood floof Sound: chittering, moaning, whining, shrieking, one solid bark, a big dog bark Smell:  disinfectant; peppermint Touch:  webbing; sticky, stringy, faint cobwebs Extra: a cow's 10 year birthday Grateful for: Pasado's Safe Haven