I just stumbled on a review of "Must Read" short stories from November last year. And my story's there on the list!
Read it here: https://reactormag.com/must-read-short-speculative-fiction-november-2024/
A blog for people who don't want to spend all their free time in the real world. After all, we live and work there. Escape the mundane with books, travel, and writing.
I just stumbled on a review of "Must Read" short stories from November last year. And my story's there on the list!
Read it here: https://reactormag.com/must-read-short-speculative-fiction-november-2024/
One reason I love Europe: Compare these train station departure boards.
This is from Flagstaff Arizona, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in Arizona, population about 78,000.
Yes, you read that right. There is one per day eastbound, leaving conveniently at 5:37 am. There is one per day westbound, also at a super-convenient time. Want to go north or south? Too bad.
Flagstaff is, sadly, the city with the best train connections in all of Arizona. Tucson has three per WEEK eastbound and westbound. The Phoenix metro area (capital and principle city, population about 5 million) doesn't have any train connections. Not any (unless you count having someone drive you into the middle-of-nowhere train station at Maricopa in the middle of the night three times per week--about a 50-minute drive from where I lived).
Compare that to Dresden's second-biggest train station's departure board:
Okay, so look at Bystřička's departure board.
Bystřička is a small village in the Czech Republic (population about 1000) where the fast trains don't even stop. And it's like a 15-minute bus ride (and yes, the buses are frequent) to either Vsetin or ValMez, where there are more train connections. And it STILL has about 25 times more connections than Flagstaff.
I love Europe.
In August, I stayed a few nights in Kouty nad Desnou, in the Jeseniky Mountains. It was a little ski resort area, but in summer it's a hiking and biking paradise. My first afternoon there, I thought I'd just take a little hike to a waterfall I found on the map--not even one of the two recommended on the tourist brochures and signs. And this is what I found:
Then, the next day I hiked to Borový vodopad on the way to Praděd, Moravia's highest mountain.
The pictures really don't do these cascades justice, but here's an attempt:
Above the clouds:
Before I left home, one of my students gave me two little cat figurines, because she knew I'd miss my cats, and since I couldn't take my cats with me, I could take these. I was so touched. I left one to console my mom and brought the other with me. Mine's called Marshmallow, and here she is, hunting mice at the Convent of St. Agnes in Prague: