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| Hello! I hope the new years is off to a great start for you all. (I know – fires – politics – the eminent end of the world as we know it… but besides that.) It’s been good here. I already sold a (non-fiction) piece on Monarch butterflies to Solarpunk (issue #20) which comes out March 11. It’s about a project I did in South Central Los Angeles that could be easily and cheaply replicated and would bring these, now endangered, lovelies to the inner city- or outer city- basically anywhere you can grow milkweed!In addition, I sold a science-fiction piece to Black Cat Weekly, inspired by The Great Unconformity and H. G. Wells, The Time Machine. The Great Unconformity is a real geological mystery, a missing chunk of time that appears in rocks across the world. This giant lapse in Earth’s memory exceeds one billion years in some places, resulting in 550 million-year-old rocks sitting atop ancient layers that date back 1.7 billion years, with no trace of the many lost epochs in between. Where did the time go takes on a whole new meaning:) In addition, my newest novel, Gods & Monsters is out after a ten month long serialization on MetaStellar Magazine. Working with everyone there has been amazing! In addition to releasing the text in weekly sections, I also recorded Youtube videos of me reading each part and made it available on Spotify. If you order a book I will be thrilled. and if you enjoy it and write a good review, my gratitude will be boundless. I also, with help and encouragement from my fantastic and very patient publisher, Maria Korlov, have redone my website and am starting this newsletter! I hope you enjoy it. I will be sharing news on new publications, art, and life as a digital nomad. I’m also delighted to have sold a piece, Snow Cat, to one of my favorite places, Short Edition! They are short story dispensaries, providing food for the brain, rather than the belly. There are more than 300 dispensers around the world from San Francisco to Melbourne, Hong-Kong, Paris, London and Philadelphia. And they pay their writers, well! So far 10,189 people have read my stories! As some of you may know, I moved to Barcelona almost a year ago with my drummer, husband Kevan and my beautiful, brilliant, black cat Max.I love it here! The relaxed pace of life, the people, the ancient architecture the old streets cobbled with memories. There are few things more magical than wandering the Gothic quarter at night, hearing the most amazing violinists and opera singers serenading the night (and passersby) in the narrow alleys behind the old cathedral. The stones are thick with history, and the seagulls winging overhead in the night must surely be ghosts in avian disguise. We have built a huge cage on the balcony so the cats, we have two new additions, can go birdwatching. And the birdwatching is great. In my actually newsletter are photos of the things of which I speak. One more reason to subscribe:) Below are some of the birds I feed on my balcony. The common waxbill (Estrilda astrild) is native to sub-Saharan Africa, but like so many foreigners. has made itself at home here.The Eurasian blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) is not uncommon, but like hummingbirds back home, it seems a miracle every time I see one. Last year, three months ago, we went to the Red Sea, a place I have long wanted to dive. We spent a week in the South and a week in the North. The first boat was filled with Marine biologists! It was wonderful.The South was beautiful too, but coral bleaching and death are worse there. Diving in these times is a sadly perfect metaphor for living… how to stay happy, enjoy life and be conscious in the face of disaster.I saw beautiful fish, interesting behaviors and mountains of dead coral. What coral was still alive was bleached. There were huge mountains of dead staghorn. Some of the soft coral lives and I wonder what happens next year to the fish that remain? Will they remain?But still, I watched the fish interact and smile. Two spotted groupers challenge each other by seeing who can open their mouths the widest.The aggressive blue striped saber- toothed Benny pretending to be a cleaning wrasse so he can get close enough to Take a bite out of a big fish and scurry away to hide in a worm tunnel. I may have an article on coral coming out this year, though like the coral itself, its fate is uncertain. Also, this year, I managed to set the broken wing of a pigeon, and it flew again. A small triumph for me, and a big one for the bird! And to close this letter/blog let me once again wish everyone a fantastic year to come, and share my favorite Catalan custom: Caga tió or the”shitting log.” Caga tió is a log who wears a red hat and has a smiling painted face.From the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8), children feed the log every day. It’s much like leaving cookies out for Santa.On Christmas Day, after a long month of gorging on free food, Catalan kids grab a stick and beat the shit (literally) out of the tió whilst singing a special song, which basically translate to, “Poo! Poo, Sweets. POO now!” How can you not love that.There will be more in the next newsletter – on readings (in costume) Catalonian customs, some exciting publication news and cat tales. STAY SAFE and healthy! E. E. Kingeviekng@gmail.com https://elizabetheveking.com Update your preferences |