Category: Uncategorized

by Maria Haskins

When Grandmother disappears from the nursing home, Marika is the only one who understands what’s happened. The family and staff, they wonder how and why a 96-year-old woman could walk out of her room unnoticed and disappear in the middle of the night. They whisper about dementia and Alzheimer’s. They make phone calls to the police and hospitals.

Marika looks at the window left ajar and shivers in the cold spring air.

She’s already seen the deep paw prints in the flowerbeds outside, the muddy tracks leading across the nursing home’s parking lot towards the greenbelt by the creek. She knows that Grandmother is not missing but gone.Taken.

Grandmother told her the stories. About the woods where she grew up and lived most of her life. About the fog that wraps itself around the branches of the pines in the moonlight. About the shadows that…

Hello! Eachyearfornearly adecade, I’ve posted mostly bi-annual lists (this one’s from July) of some of my reading, as well as projects I’ve worked on. It gives me a chance to look back at the year, my reading and work, and what has struck me as especially powerful. This is the final 2018 version — however, the list is, as always, incomplete, sometimes spelled funny, and not in any order except category…*

(*Want to see more complete deep lists? Be a patreon for $1 a month or more and my reading journals are open to you.)

So! Reading suggestions – both mine and others. Whether you’re a SFWA member or not, you should absolutely check out the recommended Nebula reading list for many more than I can list here. Same goes for the Hugo Spreadsheet, organized by Renay, and the Hugo wiki here

I don’t recall the exact moment I connected with poet and author, Maria Haskins. All I know is she has been extremely supportive of my work, and when I dug a bit deeper, I was not surprised to learn how talented she is.

For the past couple of months, we have both read for The Word Count Podcast, and it’s made me appreciate Maria’s stories and writing style.

I’m very happy to offer Maria a forum to share of herself and her books on Eden’s Exchange.

* * * *

Welcome Maria! Let’s start with a personal question. Tell readers about your greatest extravagance.

Probably books and food. I buy books all the time, though luckily these days a lot of them are ebooks so they’re not as expensive as they once were. Plus, I enter any and all sweepstakes and giveaways for book that I like to fuel…