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Allyson Shaw, Writer of Tales

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“The Cairn” in Rituals and Declarations 2

Image | March 27, 2020March 27, 2020 | Allyson Shaw

My piece on the Maggie Wall monument, “The Cairn” will appear in issue 2 of Rituals and Declarations, now available for preorder here. (cover by Maria Strutz)

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Seaweed tastes like blood—at least brown seaweeds like laver and tubular weed do. It satisfies some deep, vampiric craving. (“umami” by another name.) I have been gathering seaweed for several years, perfecting recipes. Foraging seaweed grounds me like nothing else. When I go early in the morning at the neap tide, there is always the same seal watching me from the shallows. (Then Orcs Amalgamated or some industry descended building a wind turbine tunnel going out into the sea. They never rest, and the peace of the place is gone forever.) The kelp bed is not happy, and seems to be shrinking, so I have resorted to picking fresh weeds floating in the shallows rather than cutting like I used to. There’s lots of laver, though, and I cut a little from one place and move on. Sea lettuce and the unfortunately named gut-weed is fresh now, and I make salads with it. I fry the tube weed—it’s already crunchy, and could be eaten raw in a salad, too. I make shichimi togarashi with the dried laver, and I put the dried kelp in any tomato-based sauce I make. I dry the red dulse and use it to make a vegan approximation of clam chowder.

Happy New Moon “Ring of Fire” Eclipse! This image is “A Conjugal Eclipse,”

My coming of age story inspired by Kelpie myths set in the abandoned swimming pool of Tarlair is live at Fireside Quarterly. You can read it now- Link in bio!

“Dark Archives: a librarian’s investigation into the science and history of books bound in human skin” by Megan Rosenbloom. I just finished this— thanks to @jesse_bullington for recommending it. It was a fascinating read and could have been longer. I wanted more stories of those who had been used as binding—(though to be fair they have mostly been erased-)and perhaps more discussion of the disturbing “souvenir” aspect of these objects. Years ago, I wrote a short story about the Harvard skin book and my (possibly excessive) time spent haunting the Huntarian in London when I lived there. The story was feminist horror—not really in vogue at the time I was sending it out. (Is it even in vogue now?) @curatrix111 I wondered what you would make of this book.

It’s #womancrushwednesday and I want to shout out to my visionary friend @ms__barbie_jean aka @b_nijinsky_embroidery_art -the second account is her art one! Thank you for inspiring me with your work, Barbie.

Surréaliste Leonora Fini my new obsession #womancrushwednesday

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