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I don't know why I expected this to be about Zoom the conferencing platform lol (must be the pandemic), so it was a pleasant surprise to find that it's actually about capturing beauty of every day life <3
...he records an instant that tastes like eternity
i mean wheeere and hooow do you come up with these beautifully poignant lines?? the words here fall so delicately on the floor of my mind, and as i read it out loud sometimes, it sonds perfect.
ah chiara, reading this collection was truly a remarkable experience. i knew you were a great writer, i am not like, surprised at all, but i am in awe at how easily you've captured so many deep feelings and imagery in so few words throughout these drabbles, some of the lines are still ringing around in my head. you are a poet and you have a beautiful soul and thank you so much for sharing these. and never stop writing!
Eli for team snow foxes
Author's Response:Ahahah! A lot of people thought that, and it's so funny because it didn't even cross my mind... :P Glad you enjoyed that it was actually about photography/capturing the beauty of everyday life! :D
You are way too sweet to me... *blushing* Thank you so much for reading through this collection and for all the lovely reviews you've left me and for all your praises! <3 <3 <3 I'm so glad these drabbles spoke to you and that some of the lines stayed with you... Thank you, thank you, thank you! <3
Snowball hug,
Chiara
!! this was intensely cool, it was almost like a song, and i love how you've taken the 'yolo' that did become slightly obnoxious at some point, and turned it into what the phrase really means...just live your life, whatever and however you want, just enjoy it, because this is it, no more chances. i adore how you've written and paced it, the repetition of the you only live once, with a different addition each time: why are you waiting and it's time to start running. I feel like this so often, always a step behind, always late to the party, and instead of breaking into a run, i just contemplate the absence of living? does that make sense lol? i also like the idea of life being a train, that makes a lot of sense in my head.
Eli for snow foxes
Author's Response:Glad you liked this one as well! I need to remind myself often, that life is short and we need to do what we can to live it at its fullest... and yes, it's a harsh feeling, feeling like you are always a step behind... glad you liked the way it's written and the pacing and that it felt relatable, too. Thank you so much for another wonderful review!!! <3
siiigh, yes, this word, so heavy, so ugly, and so unproductive and useless to have it, to have the very concept of it still around, and rising. :/ :/
you've nicely pulled us into an easy to imagine situation, of people reacting to you badly for the colour of your skin, and that can be so damaging, for sneering, and telling you to go back 'home' and as you said...the irony will forever be lost on people like this. And when you say, not inherently different, just perceived so. i guess there is a difference...people who judge and perceive negatively have less kindness in their hearts, they should maybe go back somewhere to learn decency, because like, whyyy
it's sad, but very well written, great job Chiara
Eli snow foxes
Author's Response:Glad you liked this one as well. It was one of the most challenging to write, if only because I know it's a sensitive topic and not something I have experienced on my own skin, so it's hard to talk about... but I'm glad it seemed to come through well... and yes, it's absurd how these behaviours and feelings are still around, still hurting people for no reason at all... :/
Thank you so much for this lovely review once again! <3
I love how here you use the article 'a' when you say you can be an Alice, you can be a Peter Pan, turning the characters into roles we can play. it's again a very clever use of what language offers us. and the word Wonderland links them both, doesn't it? Yet for the person in question it means more than just a land of fairy tale, it's anything that can carry us away from the often difficult to bear reality. it's the fanfic world and writing world and music world and basically any world we create where we can really do the impossible, it is wonderland.
Eli for Snow Foxes
Author's Response:This is exactly what I was trying to express, wonderland is all the places we creative people escape to inside our heads... I think all of us FFTers can relate to this at least a little bit, right? ;)
I'm glad you liked the references to Alice and Peter Pan in particular, and the use of indeterminative article to make them more like roles than characters, in particular. Again, exactly what I was trying to do! :D
Thank you so much for another great review!!! <3
oh wow, i feel you girl of the V drabble. it was very clever how you tied vicinity and proximity into this, yet for the shy and frightened, that will never mean anything, because there will always be a distance between what they want and what they dare to take.
a vortex of emotions sounds so cool, though, although it probably might not be pleasant to feel :D and then the 'mocking proximity which leaves only a void in her chest'. I am really liking, all the way through, how you truly make ever.word.count.and it is beautiful, every word has weight and depth and is stunning.
Eli for snow foxes
Author's Response:Poor girl of the V drabble... :/ sometimes the things we want are just out of reach, no matter how physically close they are, and yes, it's painful... :(
So glad you liked the way I used words in this one (and in the collection in general) and that you could feel for the protagonist here! <3
Thank you for another lovely review! <3
O.M.G PLOT TWIST!!!!
this was so brilliant
how did you plot twist me in so few words?? i am SHOOK
all this time i'm thinking yeah yeah, i am insignificant, but this here story is about ME and how I AM the insignificant ones, when it turns out that this is happening at another planet to another member of another species and omg Chiara i am loving loving the little misdirection you've created here, hats off my girl, this is honestly so cool! and all of it is true, for everyone and everywhere in the universe, we are insignificant, and yet...
Loved this line:
What are you, compared to immensity of the sky and stars above?
Eli for Team Snow Foxes
Author's Response:Ahahah! Yeah, plot twist! :P I thought it would be fun to include that! :P I've always thought that there must be life somewhere else in the universe, but I also always thought that they would be pretty much like us, with the same questions and wonders and I wanted to play with that... :P
Glad you liked this one as well!!! <3 <3 <3
oh my god....this was me at some point, for so long, every day. constantly torn between 'i want to do all the things, fill up all my free time' and 'i honestly can't be bothere to do anything, please let me just have some peace' and while i was constantly contemplating which of the two roads i should take, the time would just slip away. and it still sometimes happens to me, me thinking about time rather than savouring it, and i can totally see here like the constant tick and tock just ends up haunting you. the way you repeated the phrase made me actually hear the damn thing and i was quite unnerved :D very well done (no surprises there of course)
Eli Snow Fox
Author's Response:So glad this one resonated as well... I feel this way too often, to be honest.... glad the repeated tick tock gave this haunting feeling, it's exactly what I was going for.
Thank you for the great review, as always! <3
this is also so very beautiful. i love the line: listening to the voice of your soul, the voice that can be heard only in silence
it's so true too, that hearing our own needs and voice and soul can be so hard in all the real and metaphorical noise of our lives, the chores, the duties we've taken on, the people around us that we love, or those that bring us down, and so often we forget ourselves and lose ourselves and this makes me think of that, how there comes a moment when you need to shut the world out and reach inside. it brings forth this beautiful idea that solitude is not the same thing as loneliness, and that solitude can really heal and perhaps even show us the way, as you so wonderfully put it, to start again
lovely
eli for snow foxes
Author's Response:Eli! Hi again! <3
I'm glad you liked this one, too, and that you could relate... sometimes we really need a break from our frenetic lives to just recharge and start again, and yes, solitude doesn't necessarily equal to loneliness. So glad this one resonated with you! <3
Thank you for another lovely review! :D
Chiara
how amazingly comforting this feels
i just want to settle down into this scene and let the sound of rain fill my ears, and watch the brave birds going against the downpour
i just feel so cozy after reading that, like i want to wrap myself in a blanket and just....be
love how you're able to so easily evoke feelings and images in me, and oh i can almost hear the crackling of a fireplace i never had, it's lovely
and the 'no need to rush, no place to be' can truly be a most blessed feeling and moment in our usually busy lives (though perhaps it's different now)
wonderful
eli for snow foxes
Author's Response:So glad this made you feel cozy... there is a special feeling of peace in just watching the rain fall and enjoy the slowness of the moment, isn't there?
So glad you enjoyed this one, too! <3
Um. Yes. This. It could easily be the anthem to most of last year, and for many, even for now. It is haunting with how real this is. How this extreme emotion and situation you've painted here is the new normal. And still, for a concept that's been on our mind for almost a full year now, you approached it with you delicate skill and unique tone. I love how you compare grocery shopping to saturday night's fever. It totally is, isn'tit? And the looking forward to being free again, but feeling slightly overwhelmed by the idea of having missed so much already and wanting to find all the people and see them, wondering if your relationships can be the same. And of course the sirens...and the math behind it, uncaring unfeeling. Again, parts of this felt like poetry, and in the heaviness and reality of it, i still enjoy the writing, because it's so gooooooood.
eli for snow foxes
Author's Response:Ah, I know... I've pretty much described my lockdown experience, it's absurd to think that we've been living like this for a year and a half now... (things are slightly better now, but it still doesn't quite feel over...) So glad you could still enjoy the writing, despite the heaviness and reality of the theme... that's such a great compliment! Thank you so much! Love you! <3
JAW.AND.DROP
so, i've read this one before because it was nominated i think in Best Drabble and I ran back to the forums to second or third it, because it is fucking amazing, only to find out that others have already beat me to it !! So i was sorry abou that, but I am still so in love with this one, with how the sounds you describe have their own rhythm, and i can almost hear the piano playing, drumming in my ears in exactly the way you put it here.
it's truly spectacular how you've ensnared all my senses here, not just the hearing but also there's a bt of tactile connection there, when you mention the fingers resting on motionless keys in the silence that follows the transcendental feeling of being lost and alone but whole in themidst of the magic that is music
beautiful. absolutely beautiful
Eli for Snow Foxes
Author's Response:Now you're making me blush... :P
I'm so glad you could almost hear the music here, that this enhanced the senses, also the touch... music does have its own magic, doesn't it? There is something special in being lost in it... thank you so much for another wonderful review! <3
watching water conquering land and retreating, conquering and retreating, wet sand marking an ever changing borderline you and your beautiful breath taking lines!!
omg, embarrasing blushing nature - i love that image and idea, it's so lovely to imagine nature personified a little bit, being closer to us humans, and also it's so gorgeous when you say - soft touch of water when the human sight can't reach...like, nature doesn't need us, it can feel and experience all the beauty within itself. i just love this, the words here are so so rpetty.
it's a mystery that one man can't grasp, it's a mystery one can only contemplate - hot damn, i am so here for these thoguhts and how you express them. chiara, again, i will be repeating myself, but these are really really and honestly brilliant, and this one has to be among my favorites so far (because god i love and miss the ocean)
eli for snow foxes
Author's Response:So glad you liked my lines and descriptions in this one! <3
Yes, nature doesn't need us, it's pretty for itself, I love that thought! And I love the way I sort of personified it, with the blushing metaphore... I just liked the image, honestly (I love the sea, and I love sunsets, in case that wasn't obvious... :P)
So glad you liked this one, it's one of my favourites, too! :D
Big snowball hug! <3
This really resonates with me since I have a weird obsession with using memory loss as an everpresent thing in my stories (whyyy though, why must the memory loss constantly invade my stories, lol) and this one so well describes for example what i've been trying to express with ron and hermione's feelings in memory dust, and i applaud you for managing to capture the whole idea and notion into such few words where i take pages upon pages of tedious emotional description lol.
but um, so that this is not like, yk, about me, i really liked this, and the feeling of isolation and loneliness it created when i imagined what it must be to be so dissociated from everyone all of a sudden. i mean, i don't like it, but i love the way you wrote about it. Feeding you bits of your past, is again a very nice evocative line.
and then, it's so sad when this person realizes that they only feel better and fine when they're left alone :/
Eli for snow foxes
Author's Response:Ahahah! Well, you did write an entire novel about this theme... there is something "fascinating" about memory loss (horrible, creepy, but still "fascinating"...) it's such a clever plot device as well... (for the record, your pages and pages of emotional description were never tedious <3)
It must be so terrible and frustrating, and so, so isolating... glad you felt I captured the feeling well... and yes, it is sad that they would feel more comfortable when they are left alone... :(
Thank you for another lovely review! <3
Ok, the first pragraph, so well written,such a nice and sweet quick description of the vastness of the museum world. i love it.
and i love your mention of how it can feel like all the art there is there exclusively for you, because in a way, it truly is :) it's a very lovely sentiment
aaah, you make me want to just walk into a museum all on my own and wander there for hours!
it's like taking home a small treasure no one knows about. yes, it is! just like with the one about travelling and going on the road, here you've captured something sweet and special about the little things and moments in life, and how wonderful that we can experience such beautiful emotions even when alone.
Eli for Snow Foxes
Author's Response:I'm so glad you liked the description of the museum and experiencing the art there! Art speaks to each of us in a different, personal way, so in a sense it is just there for you, isn't it? ;)
So glad you liked the feelings in this! Yes, we can experience joy and treasure certain moments in life even when we are alone! ;)
Thank you for another wonderful review! <3
Aww, my poor baby. You did such a good job, again, of getting into a child's head and describing the whole situation from his perspective. I mean, getting lost when you are little and really have no sense of where to go and who to find must be terrifying.
I loved the line, hope blossomed in his chest, and i can just so well imagine the feeling of relief as it must've flooded him,
Also, lol, this is random, but when he ran up to the man that was dressed as his dad, i was reminded of kevin mccalister in home alone 2 when he follows a man looking like his dad into the wrong plane, and for a second there i was worried that this boy would stray too far and be really, really lost. i'm very glad and relieved you had him found in the end. <3
Eli for snow foxes
Author's Response:Ah, I know, poor child... it is absolutely terrifying getting lost at that age! Glad you thought I captured the perspective/mindset right!
Confession, I've only seen bits and pieces of the Home Alone movies and I can't recall that scene... :P I'll need to pay attention next time they are on TV... :P
I couldn't have him lost for real... all's well that ends well, right? ;)
Thank you!!! <3
wow, Chiara, how rude
this had me feeling all hungry and lovely and then that ending just like...again, punch in the heart, but really i should have seen it coming! i'm just kidding, of course, it's beautiful, moving with that ending, this feeling and idea of a person doing the activities or things that someone else they loved used to do. at least that's what it made me feel, i imagined someone starting to knead like they used to with their mum, only now they have to do it alone, but still the very action of it carries so much meaning and joy as well as pain, and once more, brilliantly put together
Eli team foxes
Author's Response:Sorry for the painful closing... I'm glad you found this moving, though! <3
I really love the idea of family traditions, especially related to food/cooking... it's a way to keep the memory of the person we lost closer, I think... bittersweet, but I'm glad it emotioned you and that you thought I could convey the feeling well! <3
Thank you so much again!
oh my god oh my god oh my god
i love this so much
this is everything
this gives me life
this feeling and reading it here and just having such a wild vivid rush of memories flood my mind
so, i love travelling and i have done a little bit on my own, and there is no other such feeling, it is just...very special, and this hit me completely unprepared with how accurate and wonderfully written and put together it was, and i want to be this person, getting on a bus and yes, of course we'll choose the window seat, and just bask in the thought of everything unknown that is coming, you have nailed and captured that sensation here with absolute PERFECTION
eli (team snow foxes)
Author's Response:So glad this one felt relatable too! I've never had the courage to just leave for a trip alone, but I can definitely feel the appeal of it! I love that this brought back memories and that you thought I capture the feelings right! :D Thank you so much for the wonderful review! <3
Omg hi Eli, nice to see you here in the story, haha. I mean, I'm sure a lot of us can relate to this, but this is so so me at most parties. I am happy to be just left alone and unbothered, to a point, and yes I also always check my watch and contemplate like, is it too early to leave? hm, maybe i can just have one more drink and listen in to conversations and then go. uah, it also makes me feel kind of longing for a party, or for a secluded corner with a drink at one, because i literally haven't been anywhere in forever :D so there's that. and this one was such a pleasant, i'm glad you granted me a bit of a break in between punching me in the heart with the other drabbles, lol. i am very very much enjoying reading these and can't believe i didn't get down to it sooner <3
Eli for team snow fox
Author's Response:Hello again, Eli, my love! :D
Yes, I bet that's every single introvert to a party ever... glad you could see yourself in this! :P
And, yes, I know... stupid covid depriving us of the chance to sit in a corner at a party... lol...
This is definitely a more light-hearted one :D I've tried to put a few positives in between the painful ones. Solitude has also its good facets, am I right? ;)
Thank you so much for the lovely review! <3
Ok, what? How did you manage to absolutely terrify me and then be like, this is actually just a very cute insight into a young child's head and the way their vivid imaginations can work?? and so i'm still kind of terrified but also going 'awww' look at this trooper playing this game so well. This one really made me grin at the end, that's such a cool idea to write it like this. Like, the buildup of it all, how there is this tension and a kind of worry or fear, we don't know, the very description of him hugging himself is like....omg why is scared? what is he scared of? should i be scared? yep, i am scared now!!! and then i loved the lines: but ten is old enough to brave the lack of light and
Everyone for themselves is kind of the point.This was very cool!
Eli and the snowses foxses
Author's Response:Ahahah! I'm so glad the twist worked, I wanted this to appear scary at first and make the reader worried [insert evil writer's laughter here :P] I'm glad that you felt terrified but also went aww in the end, exactly my goal! :P
Glad you enjoyed this one! :D
Oh Chiara, I legit have tears stinging my eyes. The imagery of a lonely person visiting a loved one's grave, sort of at peace with the situation, but still loving, still talking to them, it just resonates with me very personally at the moment, and I love the gentleness of this piece, it truly makes me feel warm inside but also incredibly sad.
her shoulders still curved by the weight of time past - ah, this is so nicely written, lovely line and description
but thank you for writing that ending, it is sweet and hopeful and just...i don't even know what to say, it is wonderful, and i'm again taken aback how much i can feel in the span of reading a few words
eli for snow foxes
Author's Response:I was totally going for peaceful and gentle here! Of course it's sad, too, but I wanted it to be more hopeful and melanchonic than angsty, and I hope it worked that way! <3
So glad this resonated with you and that you loved the imagery here! <3
i love how this one is very descriptive when it comes to movement. like i can almost imagine the sensation of spinning and turning, backwards and forwards, and the words here themselves have the power to make feel a little dizzy
it's a peculiar sensation, this lonely ride - yet again another line that just SOUNDS so good for some reason i can't quite explain, i just love it.
omg and the whole 'thief in the night, too old and alone to enjoy' noooo, that's so sad, and not true, you shouldn't be alone. i am again sitting here thinking, was he just a lonely man, or was he maybe a ghost? does it matter, though? maybe life or death is irrelevant if you are truly lonely, to the point of disappearing.
this was very intriguing
Eli for Snow Fox
Author's Response:This is another sad one, I guess... A funfair is no place to be alone... I was honestly thinking of a man, but I love your idea of a ghost, it works so well in this context! I wish I'd thought about it! :O
So glad you could feel the movement here, that the description of the ride almost made you dizzy! <3
Thank you so much for another awesome review! <3
Ugh, so many feelings in my heart. Again, there is this deep level of humanity in every drabble, whatever the darkness or loneliness you describe, I think that to some extent, everyone can imagine this feeling.
And this is interesting, how sometimes due to our own ego we can isolate ourselves, and feel excluded, and not enough, and then sometimes we get a glimpse of 'maybe we should pull the curtain over, let it fall' but it's too much work, we prefer to stay in the little dark hole of our creation.
an emotion you cannot control chills me, because it makes me think of how so often we are our own worst enemy, but by god is it difficult to be fighting it :/ and the resentment grows, towards others and ourselves too
phew, this one was tough, but again, brilliant
eli for SNOWY FOXY THINGS
Author's Response:I mean, who hasn't felt at least a hint of envy at some point in their lives? (I don't know, maybe someone hasn't... but it is a very human emotion, I believe, even if a dark and self-destructive one...) And yes, that's exactly what I was going for, that sometimes we isolate ourselves because of how we perceive others, when maybe our perception is not even true. And then we just close into autocommiseration instead of trying to give ourselves and others a chance, because it's too much effort otherwise... :/ And yes, we truly can be our own worst enemy so often... :/
Thank you so much for another great review! <3
:O :O :O
Chiara, I don't even...
this is so beautiful in so many ways it really and honestly moved me. first, the rhythm again. this is actual fucking poetry you're writing here, even if it's not spaced that way, it reads like drumming in the deep, like a heartbeat, and it just mesmerizes me completely.
she doesn't stop. One more step, and another, and another... she can't waste a note
Again, you tease here, with so few words you pull me into a universe, and I am dying to KNOW MORE...and the imagery here is so intense and so pressing and full of tension. it is nicely descriptive, but of course not too much, but just enough to be able to imagine it and wonder, forever wonder about who is she and who does she dance for, and why, and why do they let her die :(
amazing work
Eli for snow foxes
Author's Response:I'm so glad this one moved you, and that you could feel the rhythm and the tension and picture the scene...
So, basically, the idea behind this is that this girl has been selected for a human sacrifice, and she literally has to dance herself to death... it's inspired to Strawinski's Rite of Spring, which includes a similar episode. It's sort of creepy and I have no idea why my brain decided to write about this, but the words formed in my mind and I just had to write it...
Thank you again for the lovely review! <3
OMG OMG how is this so...soooo.....i can't even find the words to describe it? absolutely painfully and beautifully real and human? it's like you're in my head, and also everybody's head, and the very words you speak of here, the ideas of how we're this mass of unknown people who don't look twice, and when we think about doing it, knowing it could change everything, we already move on, let it pass, and just....gosh, Chiara, this is perfection, honestly!!
the turbulent waters of a life that they don't really own - that you don't really own
with nothing in common and everything to share. Or maybe the opposite.
And this. And yes, we all feel so alone so often when there's a million people around, so what holds us back? The false perception of time, our fears, ours selfishness, our blindness?? I love how these also make you think...
Eli for Snow Foxes
Author's Response:So glad you liked this one, too! That you could relate and that it made you think... it is kind of sad, because we could really connect to the people around us, but we are so focused on all the things we need to do... we all run such frenetic lives that we feel like we don't have time to connect with what's around us... :/
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts! <3
-imagine me having stars where my eyes are-
this was beautiful!
the way it rhymed, the rhythm of it all, the very story (and hinted history) behind it all...She had everything, except what mattered most - is one of the most beautiful quotes ever! And now I'm sad for her, and her story of isolation, never in danger yet never enjoying life, never feeling pain, yet never really seeing the light. It's a wonderful concept you've created here, and I am in so much awe. I want to read an entire story about this princess now, to wonder if she'll ever know the hunger to know what life's like (i think you should write it, my dear!) and again, the choice of every word in here was amazing!
Eli for Snow Foxes
Author's Response:I'm so glad you found this beautiful, and that you enjoyed the rhythm and the word choices in it... and the story, of course... :P
Poor princess... it is a very sad life, safe and comfortable, but empty... I'm not sure if I would be able to write an actual story about her, to be honest, but I love that you are suggesting it! And now there is a little part of me who would actually like to try... never say never, I guess... :P
Thank you so much for another great review! <3
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