HAPPY MAY

It is a happy month indeed. Just out, my science fiction piece, Th​e great unconformity in Black Cat Weekly. ​

THE GREAT UNCONFORMITY
By E.E. King

The great unconformity is a real event .It is the discovery of billions of years of history that were not recorded in the geological time. Newer layers of rock sit on very old layers with no middle sediments in between. Think of an Oreo with no filling! It was first discovered by ​John Newberry​ in ​New Mexico​, in 1857–1858.ut since has been found to appear all over the world. There are various theories, including an ice age where all the history melted, but nothing that seems to really fit the bill or fill the rock. I took H.G. Wells Time Machine as an inspiration. I hope you like it.
Also, I am pleased to be able to share the award winning poem, inspired by my painting, Siblings under the Skin this painting, as I have previously mentioned was published in the Rattle, as their Ekphrastic , Art Inspiring Poetry,Challenge. received about 500 poems. I picked the winning one and it wasn’t easy. (If you wrote a poem for my particular painting and didn’t win just now that it was not because your poem wasn’t amazing all the poems. I read were fabulous, Even one that wasn’t submitted to me, but was later sent by a friend -so shout out to ​Crystal Sidell​ for sending me a wonderful, thoughtful piece.The winning poem was written byMatt JosephA Skeleton Walks into an Art Classwhere it sees the living,trying their best to paint a skeletondoing what skeletons do, which is lots of hanging aroundon metal stands, their eye socketsbony cups filled with silence, or doing what skeletons don’t do, normally,like cuddling, or giving birth,given the lack of a wombor a lover, though it may have had bothwhen it was wrapped in flesh and sinew,filled with organs and desires and doubts,
but in the painting, it’s just bones on a bed,femurs wishboned apart, pelvis spitting a baby outonto the sheets, which makes the visiting skeleton think,
hell, anything’s possible, so let me invite a buddy,and we’ll paint the living,doing what they do,which looks a lot like trying hard to forgetthey’re a flash of dry lightning, or a strand of hairstuck in amber, or maybe a lonely particlein a million-mile dust storm, but also, most importantly,their life is a warm, cozy duvetmomentarily draped around a skeletonthat’s biding its time, impatientlywaiting for the big reveal. Image: “Siblings Under the Skin” by Elizabeth Eve King. “A Skeleton Walks into an Art Class” was written by Matt Joseph for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, March 2025, and selected as the Artist’s Choice.from ​Ekphrastic Challenge​As soon as I saw the title I was hooked. I love its humor, and treatment of skeletons as individuals. I love the simplicity of words and depth of emotion. I love that it somehow captures my work in words. I love the symmetry. I love the music of the words. I love the image and idea that we are a ‘warm, cozy duvet’ wrapped around our bones. That we spend our time trying to forget we are ‘a flash of dry lightning, or a strand of hair stuck in amber.’ I also loved many of the others and was deeply moved by a few. All of the twenty -nine poems I read are honestly wonderful and deserving of publication. I loved the incredible diversity that sprang from a single, albeit complex, image.Matt is a doctor in real life, which is very appropriate, considering the anatomy of the painting. I am sharing it above, with his gracious permission. Meanwhile, the criminally poetic firm of Addison, Flores, Goyan. King and Wong is getting ready to have our first book published! We are working on final edits with our fabulous, fabulous publisher, ​Broadstone Books​ . In other life events, I was lucky enough to spend a few days in Florence and then 11 days in Cinque Terre, which means five towns, and it is five towns! A beautiful, beautiful x five = towns spread over the cliffs of Italy, lining the coast like small crystals in the rock. I seem to be into geology these days.
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And talking of geology… or at least nature, let me recommend the app Inaturalist. It’s been around now for quite a few years, and people have tagged plants from all over the world. It started out with many wrong identifications but now it’s really good. It’s free! Also let me recommend Merlin Bird app put out by Cornell University. It too is free, and not only can you identify birds by photos, you can identify them by sound, so if you hear a bird singing and want to know what it is, Merlin will tell you. Unless you record your neighbor singing bad opera, in which case you will probably confuse the app and it will crash.What if a Mockingbird learn to sing opera? Would it confuse the app or would the app say, “This is a mockingbird mocking your neighbor?”Also, in audio production now are two of my books. ​Gods and Monsters​, being read by the wonderful Missy Davis. I got a lot of auditions for this book and it was really difficult. I got one request for an audition, but when the actor read the book said there were words that she would not feel comfortable pronouncing. Were these words like, Kishelemukong, the great spirit of the Lenape? I don’t think so. It was probably something more an anatomical nature, even though any readers of my writing will know that I’m not into erotica or romance.Still, sex happens and in a book that deals both with vampires and AIDs things are bound to get bloody. Also in production is​ Dirk Quigby’s Guide to the Afterlife​ in Spanish, or ​La guía de Dirk Quigby al más alláor​!The The Guide is already available in English audio the book- ​long​, and the ​short​ story.My Long Lost Friend, writer ​Andrea Goyan​ and I did a wonderful interview with horror writer Cindy O’Quinn. Horror writers are the nicest people!
Here are some of my most recent paintings. They are mostly of friends, musicians or musicians who are friends.


My DoctorI hope you are all staying happy and healthy and as soon as one can be in these increasingly insane times .And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for… Interesting Catalonian customs !Dancing EggSixty days after Easter Sunday, on Corpus Christi, locals celebrate the tradition of L’ou com balla, or ‘the dancing egg’. Church fountains all across Barcelona are lavishly decorated with flowers, and an egg is set atop the stream of water. As with most curious Catalonian customs, No one knows exactly how the tradition started. The egg, represents rebirth, Holy Communion or omelets (depending on who you ask.)Readers of this newsletter might be able to help me with a mystery. In many Italian churches I saw what looked like either overgrown, alfalfa or cat grass. They were just in little plastic containers, long and pale due to lack of light, as if they’d been locked in a church without any sun for days. I’ve been looking up the mystery of the virigin of alfalfa, but can’t find anything. I’ve asked some Italian friends who just looked at me with a kind, slightly condescending expression, the kind you give right before you’re going to give someone a free session with a therapist. Is it homage to the Virgin of the Alfalfa of Guadalupe of the cat grass, or maybe some kind of lent for grass? Must they go without sunlight to prove their worthiness? Please feel free to email me, eviekng@gmail.com, with any ideas or suggestions.And of course, it is always appreciated if you would buy a book and or leave a good review. Also, for those of you who like to listen if you email me, I will send you a free audio link to my book of your choice!Stay safe, strong, healthy and sane. Remember to look for happiness in each moment, because if you look ahead too far, nothing has a good ending.That was supposed to be a cheery ending. That doesn’t sound very cheery does it? So instead, I will share this quote from ​Gods and Monsters​, Which you can read in ​sections.​Or listen to here:
https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/4cxxxhZXba0hTkYm3YLJbf?theme=0

Season II of E.E. King Reads, is me reading short stories.
https://open.spotify.com/embed/show/5RtKwRt44Dhwwya0ysS6Rf?theme=0Here is the quote. I think is very good advice and I strive to remember it daily although I don’t always succeed
“If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change…I wish I’d known that happiness is seeing the water lily you’ve been watching for a week blossom, even if the bloom lasts only a day.”Best to all of you, Evie
PS I am reading Entangled Life. It’s an absolutely fascinating book on mycological connections.