Shel Graves' Sensorium

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.

Taste:  a ripe blackberry by the side of the road Sight: wall of tires; pink dusted lilacs; deer tail, rabbit tail Sound: lowered voices, pleading voices; The Connells, "Get a Gun"; "Bingo!, Bango! Bongo!" Touch: dripping nectarine juice, sticky hands Smell: growing lavender; dill; nectarine Extra: sunrise/sunset; thresholds Grateful for: my home

Taste: iced coffee Sight: a pink parrot, a painted fence, free books, a magical neighborhood Sound: " To Lose My Life ," White Lies; "Never Forgive," "Bi-Polar,"  Contempt , Assemblage 23; "Laughing in July," piano in the park Touch: unicorn plushy Smell: petunias and phlox; jasmine and campfire smoke Extra: happiness, uplift, lightness; "Range after range of mountains Year after year after year I am still in love." — Gary Snyder  Grateful for: dancing

Taste: chives Sight: " I am Dust ," Gary Numan directed by IAMX; "Atlantis" by Stephen Cooper, plantman.org Sound: "Lithium," Nirvana; " Love Bleed Hurt ," Gary Numan; "Lithium can be a miracle drug." Touch: sobbing Smell: skunk Extra: a midnight craving for carrots and hummus; Pratipaksha Bhavana - the art of replacing negative thoughts with positive ones; the end of an abusive relationship "Poor Bert, I'd say, except Bert is a freestanding catastrophe. I don't feel bad for Bert. He brought this on himself." — "Dim Sun," Maria Dahvana Headley  Grateful for: endurance

Taste: avocado, blueberry, cocoa Sight: neon pink, green, purple, orange and black butterfly pajamas; bumblebees on stalks of pale green flowers with purple centers; father's face folded into tears Sound:  " Keep hopeful. It’s a chore. " — Margaret Atwood; mother's anguish Touch: yoga in the park Smell: Vampire Blood incense; a waft of patchouli in a parking lot Extra: seeing something for the first time and discovering the unknown; discovery; "I stride along with calm, with eyes, with shoes, / with fury, with forgetfulness." — Pablo Neruda Grateful for: the globe; walking "Walking is an indicator species for various kinds of freedoms and pleasures: free time, free and alluring space, and unhindered bodies." — Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking

Taste: fennel, avocado; sweet Russian Trumpeter Imperial Stout, Skagit River Brewery Sight: a thin white woman in a long flowing white dress skipping beneath a supermoon; a big black man carrying a glistening boa constrictor around his neck on an 86 degree day fingering the tail in one hand; Passion flower-passiflora Sound: skateboard wheels on the sidewalk Touch: heat-salt encrusted sweat; 88 degrees Smell: on a hot day: licorice, sugar cone and incense Extra: dread; uselessness of anger; an unreliable narrator; Hemmingway-esque six words: Dad walked naked into a pond.; red-haired muscular pale-skinned 20-something year old virgin; long-maned creme and beige spotted horses lying in a field of pink and white wildflowers Grateful for: dreams

Taste: lemon cayenne; raspberry caramel Sight: two awesome 80 year olds Sound: cacophony; "Fuck you!" Touch: runny nose, itching eyes; walking-peripatetic Smell: smoke Extra: her otherworldly, compassionate, soulful gaze  “A truly good book is something as natural, and as unexpectedly and unaccountably fair and perfect, as a wild-flower discovered on the prairies of the West or in the jungles of the East. Genius is a light which makes the darkness visible, like the lightning’s flash, which perchance shatters the temple of knowledge itself--and not a taper lighted at the hearthstone of the race, which pales before the light of common day.” ― Henry David Thoreau, Walking Grateful for: a quiet demeanor;  "Dreamer of World Peace," statue of Peace Leader Sri Chinmoy at Lake Union, installed November 7, 2010