Probably not going to leave the slightest trace in the wake when it's my turn

[sovay]

Since the light is officially supposed to have returned in my hemisphere, it is pleasing that my morning has been filled with the quartz-flood of winter sun. I could not get any kind of identifying look at the weird ducks clustered on their mirror-blue thread of the Mystic as I drove past, but I saw black, blue, buff, white, russet, green, and one upturned tail with traffic-cone feet.

On the front of ghost stories for winter, Afterlives: The Year's Best Death Fiction 2024, edited by Sheree Renée Thomas, is now digitally available from Psychopomp. Nephthys of the kite-winged darkness presides over its contents, which include my queer maritime ice-dream "Twice Every Day Returning." It's free to subscribers of The Deadlands and worth a coin or two on the eyes of the rest.

For the solstice itself, I finally managed to write about a short and even seasonal film-object and made latkes with my parents. spatch and I lit the last night's candle for the future. All these last months have been a very rough turn toward winter. I have to believe that I will be able to believe in one.

Comments

[regshoe]

That's a lot of colours on one duck :D Shoveller (Spatula clypeata) was one of my first thoughts, could account for all of them and looks like it might be found wintering in your part of the world?

[sovay]

Shoveller (Spatula clypeata) was one of my first thoughts, could account for all of them and looks like it might be found wintering in your part of the world?

I was wondering about that one, but only because I found it when looking for darker greens than a mallard! Thank you for weighing in! There was a sort of brilliant spatter of them on the water and then I had to keep my eyes on the road.