2021: Best of the Year

Because life is sweeter when the senses receive our attention in daily life. I've reviewed my Sensorium posts over the past year and here's the Best of 2021....

Taste: cinnamon rolls; mango lime tanjin; avocado toast with olive oil and nigella seeds; vampire’s feast; Sagrantino

Sight: The Folio Society edition of Middlemarch, a gorgeous shiny spring green, caslon font, white space, creamy pages; valleys with wonderful modulations of light and shadow

Touch: the heft of a book; petals; mossy stone

Sound: Zoë Keating Into the Trees, Escape Artist, Optimist; thump, thump, thump; snoozles

Smell: Vixen, For Strange Women -- woods, black pepper, coffee, ambrette; Black Forest --four varieties of fir trees

Extra: imaginal cells; St Roch Patron St. of Dogs; "the ghostly stag in a pale fantastic world"; reading in a well-tended garden on a sunny summer afternoon before a wedding party

Story ideas: the dogs of Middlemarch: Monk, Fly, Brownie, Fag; a solarpunk letter carrier mystery

In dream: bathing in a deep bathtub of wild picked herbs and flowers—marigold color, chrysanthemum, a purple with an old woman to absorb her wisdom in a dark cave (but not wild picked?); electric blue and pink cats

A jolt of joy: happy dog, relaxed open mouth; a pleasant scent, a whiff of joy; sun breaks; sitting in the sun; a sip of water; a family’s first dog; a well-crafted line; dogs in pjs, dogs in sweaters; "You are a poem..."; Sam’s home!; under covers; a dog appears in a story; a high roll

Quotable:

"Nothing stops her search/for something. Hearts could break or mend/however badly as she reads, tiny/valves doing their best,/the blood flow. Yours. Mine." — Vermeer's Woman in Blue Reading a Letter on Loan in America, The Anti-Grief, Marianne Boruch

"but here we still are, sitting at a small/round table in the dark, drinking/darkness from our glasses,/growing dizzy with darkness,/past midnight now, the date turned over/" — White Flower, Red Flower, Mortal Trash Poems, Kim Addonizio

"It’s alright/if you fall out of love with being alive, but rise again tomorrow/with French pop songs and fresh croissants, wear all your gold/" — Traci Brimhall, Contender, Come Slumberless to the Land of Nod

Comments

Thoughts on "Depression Hates a Moving Target": What I Mean by Relatable

Relatable — I used this word in my reviews of Depression Hates a Moving Target by Nita Sweeney on Goodreads and Amazon . It's a nice word, but overused of late. So, it feels lazy. What do I mean? I connected with this book. It made me reflect more on my own first marathon experience. It made me want to put on my running shoes and head out the door again. In fact, I did. Now, typically, my mental health doesn't hinder my ability to do the stuff I want to do and my body flies under the radar. Still, I also felt goofy stepping out in my running gear a lot of the time. I didn't see myself as a "runner" or an athlete. And, I had no idea if I could run 13 miles let alone 26.2 when I started. More to the point, could I stay moving for the 4+ hours straight it would take to complete the marathon? To do the training mileage, I knew I'd have to run through streets and trails on my own and that made me nervous, too. Waves of grief wash us to strange shores. Whe...

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: "Gestella" by Susan Palwick

Why it springs to mind: A hauntingly beautiful horror story about what happens when a woman relinquishes her power. A unique werewolf story with commentary on aging. Where read: First in Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology ( 2015, PM Press edited by Ann and Jeff Vandermeer) and then in Palwick's collection The Fate of Mice ( 2007, Tachyon Publications ) — both outstanding! These presses won't steer you wrong. Summary: A young woman werewolf allows herself to be dominated by a lover who takes control of her fate. Memorable: The powerful ending! The word: sportfuck. A new take on lycanthropy. Written in second person — you. Quote: "You know that your growing wisdom is the benefit of aging, the compensation for your wrinkles and your fading—although fading slowly as yet—beauty. You also know that Jonathan didn't marry you for wisdom." Personal connection: Some of my favorite stories seem to be the ones that address t...

Shel Graves' Sensorium

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