I wrote a short piece a few weeks ago, when it still felt like summer here (we've had a lot of rain since then) and I've touched it up and posted it on soundcloud.
It has one of the sparser textures I've used for a while, so I'd be interested to hear any thoughts on it.
It is, again, about 1:30 minutes. I'm going to have to fiddle with something longer sometime soon so I know I can!

I managed to write a poem this week. I've been thinking about persimmons recently - I had some amazing roast persimmon and goats cheese bruschetta, and the persimmon tree in our yard fruited only a few months ago (much to the dog's delight - he loves eating them!) but I'm still not sure where this poem came from.

Persimmons

Roast your persimmons. A silver
spoon lying ready beside you,
light scatters on the ceiling.
Watch as the orange-red innards spill out
into the baking pan. Wait.

Persimmons, like umbrellas,
tandem bicycles, rain, the sunset, are made
to be shared.
Simple to cut, easy to slice.
They divide evenly, and so
you should gobble them up.
Be wary of intrusion.

 Over the last month, I've collected some links to ten or so short (and free!) stories that I enjoyed. (A decent number of them are a product of reading the archives of a magazine, though...)

The Hair Nest is an interesting take on superstition and the village witch. The Piscine Gifts is a mythical study on the importance of the sea. Diamonds, Twelve (this one a poem), In The Ashes, Bad Mothers (another poem) and Stepsister are based on fairytales that I personally am familiar with, while Nor Yet Feed The Swine, At The Palace Of The North, Alice's Place, Drinking The Moon, Rules for Entering Enchanted Cities and But Not Always are in the fairytale style, or inspired by them.

No Reservations: Narnia is a lovely piece of Narnia fanfic, and I'm not quite sure how to classify The Ascent of Unreason and Tourist Regulator (the last being a clever play on an Australian legend).

In other news, this is the last month in which Uncle Sam will be available free online, so read it while you can! And Catherynne M. Valente has a new book out.