Song of the day

The Devil Went Down to Georgia by the Charlie Daniels Band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBjPAqmnvGA

Stories of the Day

This flash fiction of mine was long listed in the 2018 Spring Reflex Fiction competition and published in the Reflex Fiction Vol Two 2019: The Real Jazz Baby

https://www.reflexfiction.com/rita-used-to-know-how-to-dance-flash-fiction-by-shannon-savvas/


This story by Tracy Slaughter a New Zealand writer is another favourite and was the runner up in the Moth Short Story Award in 2018.

http://www.themothmagazine.com/

It is startling, raw, an erotic riff that is like a tidal wave of sensory details in which the reader (well this reader) almost drowns. 

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/postcards-are-a-thing-of-the-past-by-tracey-slaughter-the-moth-short-story-prize-runner-up-1.3618103

Song of the Day

Ladies and Gentlemen, the wonderful Harry Nilsson:





https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AzEY6ZqkuE

My short fiction of the day and short story of the day by another writer

This is my short fiction called Athene Cunicularia was published last year in Into the Void magazine online:
https://intothevoidmagazine.com/current-issue/



In the current issue of Cabinet of Heed, curated by the inestimable Simon Webster is a short story by my unofficial niece Jody Connor and for someone who is recently discovering her talent and voice, I found it quite marvellous.

https://cabinetofheed.com/2020/03/19/the-price-of-a-fairytale-ending-jordana-connor/

Song of the Day

Foy Vance - She Burns



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TfRPCdMfCM

Short story of the day: B (Dimitra Kolliakou)

This morning, I read this beguiling short story in an Australian Journal 

https://verityla.com/2020/03/26/b-dimitra-kolliakou/

It is by a Greek writer Dimitra Kolliakou and her story of loss, neglect, grief is so gentle, kind and forgiving.

http://dimitrakolliakou.gr/cv-english/ 

Song for the Day

Leonard Cohen and Dance Me to the End of Love

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye6JssTdnvw

The world goes on without us.

Yesterday I struggled with mood. As I'm sure most people do these days. The day before, even yesterday morning, I was almost buoyant, only for all that positivity to dwindle over a couple of short hours. My heart lifted last night reading a message from my son about taking his wee cooped up daughter out for a freedom walk - I smiled and was so jealous not to have been with them in London. Not to be in New Zealand with the other grandchildren with their bursting smiles, exploding with life and joy at even the most mundane of things. God, it was so bad yesterday I felt compelled to take this photo of two tiny spiders (much as I hate the damn things).

Clearly social distancing is not on their agenda.

Out with the dogs yesterday and this morning, I continue to be struck how this  natural world of ours endures and thrives when we take a step back (think Venice and the return of fish and clarity etc to the canals). Everywhere I look, I see the smallest perfections - a tiny snail nestling in an appropriately named Lazarus daisy, the wonderful structures of grasses and composite flowers which if you bend down and look even closer at, have flowers within flowers like endless mirrors. On the cusp of the day this morning as the darkness began to be pushed back, bats and small birds in frenzied flight and loud with song - almost a cacophony and it is almost as if all of this is saying, fuck you all, we're alright.

I suspect we will all have roller coaster moods for the forseeable future.

On a lighter note, watched a Guy Ritchie film last night - The Gentlemen 

- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8367814/

with a pretty stellar cast and typically Ritchie script of violence, swearing and supposedly clever but authentic dialogue. But what stood out for me, was Hugh Grant as a sleazy private investigater called Fletcher, who won the whole move beating Matthew McCaughey, Colin Farrell, Michelle Dockery.

It ate up a couple of hours.

So, in an effort to move on with the technology and to get through this pandemic, I have signed up to Zoom. Family conference across the globe set for Sat night/Sun morning. If you have to live (hopefully) through a pandemic, now is the time to be in one.

Spring is here, the world looks beautiful but a dark heart lies across the lands. What a strange and unsettling time this is. We are sequestered here in Cyprus, must request with a SMS to leave the house even to walk the dogs but what other choice does the world have? If a year ago, anyone had suggested to world would turn off, they would have been mocked as crazy, deluded or dangerous. Yet, here we are. Let's hope turning off, then on again is as effective for us as it is for computers.