Skip to main content

Sensorium Year in Review: Best of 2018!

This year, the legendary writer Ursula K. Le Guin died on Jan. 22. My little dog, Trooper, died on Aug. 13. I worked my first full year at Pasado's Safe Haven as a dog caregiver.

My story "Watch Out, Red Crusher!" was published in Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers.

My best of reflects this — lots of dog, solarpunk, and Le Guin.

Taste: A new vegan restaurant opened on the Mukilteo waterfront — Sage and Cinder's dates stuffed with blue cheese and wrapped in vegan prosciutto. I got to try it opening weekend.
  • GoMacro Bars: Um, I ate a lot of these this year. The peanut butter ones are now my favorite. I first tried them because they were a giveback bar for Farm Sanctuary, . 
  • Wayward Vegan Cafe added a breakfast poutine to their menu. I ordered this often.
  • At home, I made gluten-free cornbread and really liked macadamia and oat milk.
  • In drink, it was all about the Reign in Blood (I just love the name of Highline Bar's bloody mary) at Mechanismus.

Sight: I just loved the cover of Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers!
  • Porg Solo--Sam got me a stuffed porg and I'm kind of obsessed with it.
  • One of the dogs I walked had a tail like a mountain lion.
  • Mud, mud, muddy dogs! 
Sound: All about dogs! Barking, howling, snoring, whining, snarling, growling, squeaking!

Smell: Dorian Hair Gloss--someone actually told me I smelled nice because of this (which considering how much I must smell like dog/duck or other kinds of poo was especially nice).

Touch: Speaking of ducks: I love helping with waterfowl checks — the soft and smooth duck feathers, strong wings and chests, duck squirms and the webbed feet, rubbery paper, tiny toenails.

 Quotes: Hey, this year these are my own quotes:
 It's made for snot and anarchy.
and
Sleep is a wordless place.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Springy story review: "State Change" by Ken Liu

Why it springs to mind:  You'll never look at an ice cube the same way again. Where read: In the 2014 Hugo award-winning Lightspeed Magazine , August. Length: 5,194 words Summary: A woman has an ice cube for a soul. Memorable: How the story invites us to think about the shape of our soul, how it (or our perception of it) influences us and how it changes. What ordinary every day object would your soul be? A silver spoon, a beech stick? A great party conversation starter, this. Quote:  “All life is an experiment." Notable:  The protagonist Rina is an avid reader (always a good choice). Pairs well with: T.S. Elliot, Edna St. Vincent Millay Origin:  The story was written in 24 hours based on a writing prompt. (See Author Spotlight: Ken Liu ) About the author: Ken Liu’s debut novel, The Grace of Kings , the first in a fantasy series The Dandelion Dynasty, is due out from Saga Press ( a new Simon & Schuster imprint ) in 2015.

What is Solarpunk? Good question, great answers from our community

What is solarpunk? My fellow Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers authors Commando Jugendstil and Tales from The EV Studio put together this video for the Turin International Book Fair . It features editors and authors from the solarpunk community sharing their thoughts. Together we're imagining optimistic futures based on renewable energy. My soundbite was: "Solarpunk futures are — green spaces with clean water that are pedestrian, collective, feminist, creative communities. And they include non-human animals. " Mary "solarpunk" Shelley cat did a great job (at 6:15) helping from her rather ridiculous cat tree which she absolutely loves. And what better time to wear this solar-colored "Veganism is Feminism" tee from The Herbivore Clothing Company . Seriously. I'm holding a stack of solarpunk books: Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Summers  edited by Sarena Ulibarri which includes my story "Watch Out, Red Crusher!".  Wings of R...

Springy story review: "Torching the Dusties" by Margaret Atwood

Why it springs to mind: Relevant thoughts about how we view aging and how we treat the aged in our society. In this story, young people protest the existence of old people in an assisted living facility for taking up resources. Not far from the callous viewpoint of people sometimes expressed in the national news. Where read: The last story in  Stone Mattress: Nine Tales   (2014) a collection by Margaret Atwood Summary: Wilma and her boyfriend Tobias escape an assisted living facility, Ambrosia Manor, that has come under attack by protestors carrying signs that say "Time to Go" and "Our Turn" who think the old people are just taking up space and resources. Memorable: the delightful use of Charles Bonnet Syndrome as a character trait for Wilma Quotes:  "We have to be kind to one another in here, she tells herself. We're all we have left."   "According to Tobias, women hang around longer because they're less capable of indignation and...