shadesong: where to start? She has stories. So do many of us, but her drive to get them written down, published, and shared is strong on the order of a thousand Olympic athletes’ collective heartbeats. Strong, indeed.
She has love. She’s surrounded by it in many glorious/ obscure/ quiet/ sometimes maddening/ always, ultimately, comforting ways. She feels it strongly and is affected strongly by it. She talks about it, with joy and humor and, when needed, fierceness. Probably every emotion can tie into love.
shadesong knows that from hard-won experience.She has goals: get as much of herself written down as she can. Urban fantasy? She writes that. Prompted flash-fiction, sort of like what Harlan Ellison does? She’s done that (it’s called Wind Tunnel Dreams, and she’s about to publish a chapbook of every WTD story she’s written (ORDER IT, CHRIS, WHEN YOU HAVE THE MONEY)). She also can write about medical chaos, recovery from trauma – physical and mental – and (even with all the heaviness she can write about) the funny and the silly. Silly ’Song is a lovely sight.
She has family, starting with husband
yendi and daughter Elayna and growing out from there in permutations too involved for me to list here. She has family-like closeness with many other people who aren’t related, too. Her network of friends is sprawling and strong.This scratches the surface of the surface of
shadesong. I could keep going with description – she can inspire me like that – but it’s simplest to say this: I’m glad I know her. And a huge number of people can say that, too.That she shares a birthday with Dr. Seuss is another reason to celebrate! And, like him, ’Song certainly doesn’t mind the world being a little more surreal.
Happy birthday, ’Song.