Flashlight #11: The Mystery of the Pregnant Stingray
Our local mystery: the pregnant stingray who hasn't shared a tank with a male stingray in eight years, plus house snakes, house bats, a 2-year-old's diet, and book tour info for The Red Grove!
I’ve always had a thing about bats. A freaked-out thing for most of my life. But more recently, especially since our attic has been inhabited by bats for a number of years, I’ve really come around on them. I know, I know, diseases. But they’re really very cute, plus eat mosquitos.
For a while in Alabama, bats were constantly flying into my apartment. My tiny balcony looked out over a densely wooded grove and, it being hot and humid, I kept my door open, and then in one would fly. Twice I didn’t notice until my cat started freaking out, jumping seven feet into the air with his legs splayed in a feat of acrobatic agility I saw neither before or after.
(Have you ever watched this video of hanging bats filmed upside down that look like goth nightclub dancers? It’s truly one of the internet’s finest creations.)
Anyway, now that the days are getting warmer and longer, I’ve started to watch for them at twilight, when they pour out of our roof and cruise the sky. (I’ve written about it more, in this essay, if you are hungry for more bats and other cheerful topics like infertility and loss.)
I love my dog, Moose, but he is not surprising. He is consistent, and there is great stability in that. He is the suburbs, monogamy.
Gonzo the cat, on the other hand, is city living. Just yesterday, I heard him headbutt the backdoor open, mewling, and then scuttle around under the dining room table. When I walked over and peered under, I saw his prize. A snake. Just a lil guy, brown, maybe a foot long and skinny, a regular kind of brown snake I’ve become really accustomed to and don’t even freak out and jump into the air when I see anymore, that’s how regular they are. It was still alive, slithering around. I brought it outside, and let it go—thank you, yes, that was very brave of me. And then the next day, he brought in another one.
I have had a hard two months for a variety of reasons, but one of the ways I know I’m starting to feel a little better is when I start paying more attention to animals. It helps that spring is busting through here in Asheville, showy daffodils on every patch of ground, little orange and black beetles - June Bugs, I think? - flying in manic confused clouds. It helps to look outside, waiting for the bats. Feeling delighted by the snakes, and also a little unhinged by them. But it’s really noticing animals again, and thinking about them, that is a big clue to myself that my mind is settling down. It’s the oldest lesson about pulling yourself out of a dark place - finding ways to see yourself as part of the wider world.
(Even just now, a leaf in the periphery of my vision keeps tumbling in the wind and each time, I’m sure it’s a skittering mouse. My brain wants it to be a mouse. I am hungry for all the little creatures I hadn’t been noticing to force themselves back into my senses, saying “Hey, look at us! We are so strange and great! It’s worth paying attention to us!”)
(Which also makes me think about my most-listened-to-song-of-2020, pandemic times, The Keep Going Song by the Bengsons, who I just adore. Maybe because the song makes me pay attention to life? You won’t regret these 3 mins if you need a little pick-me-up.)
The wider world is out there and teeming with life, like this! Have you been following Charlotte the pregnant stingray on the news? She lives in a tiny aquarium a town over from where I live, but the big news is that the stingray hasn’t shared a tank with a male stingray in eight years, and yet SHE IS PREGNANT. Eight years! She has, however, shared a tank with two male white-spotted bamboo sharks, so there has been a lot of speculation about a hybrid shark-stingray baby, which I am totally here for. I am absolutely down for a world that resembles many of the novels I love where something magical and inexplicable happens— not a whole huge Elvin-fantasy-adventure per se, but more just like the occasional hybrid animal we could go admire over the weekend while chomping a croissant. But scientist’s best guess is that it isn’t a shark-ray hybrid, sorry, though guess what? The best guess is is actually wilder. They believe the ray has impregnated herself.
Up until marrying a biologist (hi, Jeremy!), I didn’t know this was a thing in creatures bigger than, like, amoeba. But it turns out that lots of species (including other kinds of rays and sharks!) have adapted toward parthenogenesis, the females of the species adapting away from needing sperm to create new life and instead self-fertilizing.
Anyway, the world! It’s still out there, and even with all the wars and political scariness and harm, there’s still so much that is beautiful and weird. Thank goodness for that.
The Red Grove Tour Info!
The Red Grove will be out in less than two months! May 14, 2024. Holy cow! I have gotten the most generous, gorgeous blurbs from writers I admire so deeply that they make me want to weep. I’ll share a couple.
And speaking of the world, I have some (though not all!) of my tour dates figured out. More to come! And conversation partners still to come. It’s VERY EXCITING for me because I love this part. I love traveling, and I love bookstores, and I love talking to readers, and I love giving readings, and I love drawing dorky pictures in people’s books.
Here’s the tour info I know so far:
May 14
The Red Grove Launch! Asheville, NC
rEvolve Asheville, co-hosted by Malaprop's and Punch Bucket Lit
7pm, drinks and snacks
May 15
New York, NY
The Center for Fiction
In conversation with Julia Phillips
May 16
Boston, MA
Grub Street Writers' Stage, co-hosted by Porter Square Books
In conversation with Margot Livesy
May 17
Providence, RI
Riff Raff Books
In conversation with Annie Hartnett
June 4
Seattle, WA
Elliot Bay Books
June 8
Corte Madera, CA
Book Passage
(other West Coast and Bay Area dates TBA very soon!)
June 25
Spartanburg, SC
Hub City Bookshop
In conversation with Eric Kocher
June 27-30
Sweet Briar, VA
Sweet Briar Arts Festival, Sweet Briar College
Keynote Speaker
July 18-21
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, that area-ish
The Death Finishers (Clare Beams, Tessa Fontaine, Annie Hartnett, Rufi Thrope) go on tour together! Specific dates TBA.
September 20-21
Asheville, NC
Punch Bucket Lit Festival
Keynote conversation with Lauren Groff
October 16-17
Indianapolis, IN
Carmel Clay Public Library Literary Festival
Squee! You know what makes these events the most fun? Seeing you. I’m serious. That’s the best part! So please come say hello if you’re in or near any of these places. Truly, I’ll be thrilled.
How’s Leela?
Thanks for asking. She's two, and like, pretty dang two. This morning, for breakfast, there were three things she requested in rotation: cinnamon, to be sprinkled on her hand and eaten plain. Salt, to be sprinkled on her hand and eaten plain. Nutritional yeast, which she calls "sprinkles," to be sprinkled on her hand and eaten plain. Reader, I worked so hard to incorporate actual food with these requests, like cinnamon sprinkled on the carrot muffins we'd baked a few days before, "sprinkles" on eggs, salt on avocado toast, but she has wised up, and now understands she can shoot the good stuff straight. Negotiations are ongoing.
She is also just pure delight. She's into trying to pee on her little potty, and after every time she tries, she leaps up and, clapping, shouts "I'm a big beautiful girl!"
She likes being funny and koalas and smoothies and books. She dislikes bugs and getting dressed. I cannot stress this last point enough, the clothes thing. Each time we get her dressed is a truly Herculean feat. I have run marathons and performed in a traveling sideshow and backpacked through West Africa, and nothing has been as challenging as convincing this two-year-old to put on her pants. By the time I’ve gotten her successfully into a socially-appropriate set of clothes each day, I have used up 600% of my daily creativity.
And also, she is an absolute love bug. Yesterday she sat in the driver’s seat of our car and drove me to the moon and then to Portugal and then slowly stroked my cheek, her little pink face inches from mine, and said, hi, mama, you ok?, and she likes to sing happy birthday to her friends while she’s alone in her crib, and loves to play the Beach Boys and then dance/surf on top of blocks, and I just don’t think you can find a sweeter little person.
Upcoming classes and offerings:
Finish What You Started! A Workshop for Novelists (April 23, 8pm ET, zoom), & Finish What You Started! A Workshop for Memoirists (April 30, 8pm ET, zoom)
Join writers Tessa Fontaine and Annie Hartnett as we talk through how to finish the project you started. This is for anyone in the midst of writing a novel, who has had a great idea and put some words on the page and then thought wait--how do I possibly make it to the end? How do I make writing fit into my life, or find community and support? What happens when my plot stalls out in the middle and I want to light my computer on fire? We'll offer tips on creative accountability and artistic confidence, and we'll also go deep into tricks to keep your plot engine cruising. In addition to answering your questions, we'll send you away with ways to re-energize your writing practice, both for your current project and with tools to sustain you long-term.Cost: We happily offer this workshop free to those who email proof of preordering Tessa's forthcoming novel, THE RED GROVE (FSG May 2024) from the indie bookstore of your choice, or bookshop.org. Be sure your name appears on the receipt, or write it there, and email it to: tgfontaine@gmail.com for free entry to the class. If you have previously preordered the book, hooray, thank you so much! Just email the receipt.
(Wait, why is this the cost? I'll tell ya. Preorders matter - a lot. They indicate to a publisher and to bookstores how much attention to pay to a title - if it might be popular, for example, they might put it face out on a shelf near the front of the store. So it's the kind of literary support that can help bolster a little book emerging into the world.)
(Ok, ok, but what does Annie get out of this? Another good question. Annie is a queen and a goddess, and is doing this to support her pal Tessa. Plus, hot tip from Tessa: I just got to read a copy of Annie's new book, forthcoming next year, and it's so freaking good. So when it's available for preorder, we can have a gentleman's shake that you'll really think about preordering it as well.)
Accountability Workshop: Annie Hartnett and I have been writing partners since 2018, and neither of us would have been able to write our second books without each other and our accountability contract. We’ve been running accountability workshops for two years now (!), and have six amazing cohorts of writers who are finding accountability for their creative projects, getting the shit done. We love it! They love it! It’s a win. Included: twice monthly meetings, one-on-one phone/email/zoom meeting support, individual contracts and consultations, a slack cohort channel, cave writing sessions, a monthly speaker series and more.
Good Moms on Paper Podcast: We’ve been on hiatus, but about to record some new episodes! Join me, Annie Hartnett, and Ellen O'Connell Whittet as we interview other writers about writing, parenting, and creative accountability. Three past seasons for your auditory enjoyment.
Individual writing coaching and editing - work one-on-one with me on your manuscript. I love – love! – helping writers get a project to where they want it to be. I have very limited availability right now, but reach out on my website or respond to this newsletter to see if we’d be a good fit.
As a reminder, you are getting this because either you subscribed (thanks!), are a friend (hi!), or are writing-connected (howdy, how’re the words coming?). Please feel free to unsubscribe anytime, no hard feelings. But if you stick around, I think we'll have fun.
Ok, that’s it! Anyone gonna be close to any of these book tour locations and gonna come say hi? Yes please!
xo
Tessa
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Neat! Hope you make it to So. Cal. XO
I love every word you write. And Indianapolis—my home town! I wish I was still there so I could come see you. 😊