Miguel Montevista
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miguelmontevista.bsky.social
Miguel Montevista
@miguelmontevista.bsky.social
360 followers 250 following 390 posts
Writer of speculative fiction and magical realism. Delver into religion and irreligion. Believer in humanity.

http://www.miguelmontevista.com
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miguelmontevista.bsky.social
I shared one earlier, but here's a second, from a prelude:

#SFFChat
“The sun! The sun has spotted us!” The expansive ball of fire passed beneath the Queen’s Vessel Briganda, all too slowly for its crew’s comfort. Forewatchman Albannog called to his mates regarding the change in the solar disk’s character. He silently thanked the people of the Briganda’s last port of call for their gift of obsidian-lensed goggles he wore. Without them, the sun would have been a blinding, featureless plain of fiery death, instead of the roiling mass of currents of flame, and shadows in light hinting at the intelligence therein, resolving across the orb as a giant, glowing eye, staring judgingly at the speck of a vessel that dared traverse its surface. “Albannog, watch for salamanders! Orantia, stick to the ley line! And above all, for Queen and Land, protect her cargo!” Captain Clurachaun watched the crew jump at his commands. Albannog leaned out over the prow, trusting a web of silken threads to keep him from falling into the conflagration below. Orantia focused on the giant amethyst before her, her eyes glowing lavender as she sang to the crystal monolith that turned with her voice, to keep the Briganda aligned with the ley line leading home.
November 14, 2025 at 11:05 PM
miguelmontevista.bsky.social
Oh, this gets interesting in the Land of Old.

#SFFChat
But The Cobbles were for the nockers, and they worried about concerns like food and sleep. And schedules. The Cobbles’ central clock tower chimed the half hour, and Edditomas scowled. He checked his increasingly soaked list, trying to fulfill every item before the ink ran away in rivulets. It wasn’t supposed to be this late, already! Shops would already be closing and there, the lampblacker was already making his rounds. The lad strode with the nimbleness of youth along the muddy street. He wore a black floppy cap, a long, oiled coat, and a pressurized tank on his back, with a hose attached to a long rod, twice his height. At the rod’s end, a flame appeared, perfectly black. The lampblacker stepped up to the next streetlamp, reached up, and let his rod’s flame set the lamp adark. The night extended back behind him down the street. The Land of Old did not have day or night. The sidhe had no use for it. Why would the stuff of dreams need sleep for themselves? This left the nockers with the important task of managing dusk for themselves, letting their clock set their schedule, and the lampblackers were the front line of this quest. The sky above might remain a pale grey, the Palace might continue to look on in alabaster glory, but the streets themselves, at least, grew dark in a makeshift night.
November 14, 2025 at 10:52 PM
miguelmontevista.bsky.social
Here's a snippet from a published work, "@kittypooka." During the pandemic, Pedro meets a nihilist e-girl online.

#SFFChat
It’s been the Fifth Sun, but he was an old sick man who needed regular blood transfusions to keep going. ​ But like, you don’t do blood sacrifice anymore, so. Sun turns black. ​ - The sun is still shining, though. ​ Yeah, but do you care? ​ Pedro put the phone down and swallowed. He paced back and forth across his apartment. That’s why kittypooka always gives him a headache, he thought. She always took some ridiculous position, but then hammered it home with an equally ridiculous point. ​ Not only was he in his cramped, artificially lit studio 24/7, but it no longer mattered when he woke up, when he slept, when he ate, when he perched over his phone, when he… that was pretty much it. That constant miasma of mild panic in the air robbed him of the desire to even play his guitar or try to write any new music, leaving him waiting for something, anything, to happen. The panic settled into his mind like tinnitus, a never-ending drum roll, promising a crescendo that never came. He imagined the Black Rider chuckling as he carefully tabulated all the fleeting moments forever denied him. ​ A week was a month was a day was a night, and the time and order things happened all blended together into a freakish now. These days, time was marked more by kittypooka’s posts than by dawn or dusk. Might as well turn off the sun, solve global warming once and for all. ​ Pedro reached out and grasped at air, pulled it in close, and bit at the space between his fists, imagining the taste of her snarky, taunting lips with that permanent rakish upturn. Silently chastising himself for unseen weakness, he snatched his phone and replied. ​ - You’re right. I don’t care about the sun.
September 12, 2025 at 10:45 PM
miguelmontevista.bsky.social
Here's a little something I worked up for the AGI lover in one's life:
The classic depiction of the basilisk from "Serpentum, et draconum historiae libri duo," 1640, surrounded by the words, "The Basilisk thanks you for your service" in the Old English Script font.
September 8, 2025 at 10:31 PM
miguelmontevista.bsky.social
We consistently sleep on just how innovative and willing to experiment Farscape was.

Through the Looking Glass (S1 E17) is one early example, where the sounds and visuals can be seriously off-putting. It also builds on events from earlier in the series.
The starship Moya from Farscape, splitting into three ships, one red, one yellow, one blue, from Through the Looking Glass, S1 E17.
July 29, 2025 at 5:26 PM
miguelmontevista.bsky.social
Catrina 💖
La Calavera Catrina by José Guadalupe Posada, a black and white illustration of a bust of a skeleton wearing a fancy, elegant woman's hat with feathers and flowers.
July 7, 2025 at 7:42 PM
miguelmontevista.bsky.social
Post a meme made by you.
On the left is a triptych. The first image is a skull in pyrite and turquoise, the Mosaic Skull of Tezcatlipoca. The second is an illustration of a man being prepared for sacrifice by Aztec priests. The third is the first image again, displayed on someone's smartphone. The right side is text, reading, "I am Tezcatlipoca, the Smoking Mirror, God of Kings, Warriors, Sorcery, and the Night. I was the First Sun. I am the great tempter, the ravenous jaguar in each of us. My priests were cast off from their families, the survivors of plague and hardship. They consult the black glass mirror for my guidance. Just like you."
July 6, 2025 at 2:12 PM
miguelmontevista.bsky.social
A medieval icon of a saint being baptized, with a caption in Blackletter reading "When you just want a bath, but people keep bothering you"
July 3, 2025 at 5:13 PM
miguelmontevista.bsky.social
I got the chance to join a superhero RPG. I had an idea of making La Catrina Calavera into a superhero. The name "Miss Calaveras" stuck in my head, imagining La Catrina as a local beauty queen. I found this image on Flickr by Alfredo Cruz (@aurum_aeolus) and presented it as a character image. 1/2
A young woman dressed as La Catrina, with a red dress with black accents, her black hair done up and decorated with red flowers, black nylons and high heeled shoes, black gloves, and her face painted with a skull. She sits on a low stone wall within a garden, with a pine forest behind her in the distance.
June 4, 2025 at 1:00 AM
miguelmontevista.bsky.social
K2 doesn't just hate you. It's so antithetical to humanity that it's the Mountain Who Would Not Be Named.

Because although we use K2 as a name, it's really just a designation. A reference on a survey chart. You'd expect it to be Mt. Random European Explorer, like Everest, but no. 1/x
Sketch by Thomas Montgomerie made during his exploration of the Karakoram. He noted two prominent peaks, labeling them K1 and K2. K1 is now known as Masherbrum, but K2 was never formally named.
May 1, 2025 at 1:06 PM
miguelmontevista.bsky.social
Image of Peter Rabbit from the Beatrix Potter story getting stuck in a watering can.
April 29, 2025 at 5:10 PM
miguelmontevista.bsky.social
Have I got unfortunate news for you.
The late Pope Francis, as a priest in the 1950s.
April 21, 2025 at 11:35 PM
miguelmontevista.bsky.social
Bird protocol. Take a bird, leave a bird. Bird.
An American robin on a cedar fence.
April 15, 2025 at 7:57 PM
miguelmontevista.bsky.social
Although, the keep of Borthwick Castle in Scotland did stand up to cannon fire.

The walls were so thick, that when Oliver Cromwell laid siege to it, hoping to just blow it up, he ended up having to write a sternly worded letter instead. The spot hit by cannons is still visible today.
The keep of Borthwick Castle, a sturdy tall stone box of a building. Some cosmetic damage to the upper wall is visible, where it resisted a cannon attack.
April 11, 2025 at 12:19 PM
miguelmontevista.bsky.social
Based on the art style, was this originally from Germany?

Germans can often receive a bratwurst in a roll ("Bratwurst im Brötchen") like this from street vendors and cafés.
A German bratwurst in a roll, with mustard, served with a soda and fruit cup, in an outside environs in a city in Germany.
March 31, 2025 at 2:25 PM
miguelmontevista.bsky.social
Post a warning
A sign saying, "Please be advised: This is a post; Use caution, thank you"
March 22, 2025 at 9:03 PM
miguelmontevista.bsky.social
I commissioned this piece by @descendinight.bsky.social to depict an important place in my WIP fantasy novel: the Gossamer Court, where Queen Elphaba hears the petitions of the fae and all her subjects.

The Court is ancient, and her lands beyond the Veil are vast.

#fantasy #writing #art
An Elizabethan-styled court, with a Faerie Queen seated on a throne, and associated elves and faeries in attendance. The figures are dark, as if standing in shadow, and one faerie holds a single candle burning red. The whole court appears in pinks and greens, but mottled and washed out, as if something molds.
March 7, 2025 at 9:13 PM
miguelmontevista.bsky.social
A very round dark-eyed junco sitting in a winter bush, through a window screen.
February 3, 2025 at 7:37 PM
miguelmontevista.bsky.social
February 2, 2025 at 7:08 PM
miguelmontevista.bsky.social
The moon is crowding out Mars tonight. Take a look for the next hour to watch it get closer and closer.
The moon, close to Mars, through tree branches
January 14, 2025 at 1:12 AM
miguelmontevista.bsky.social
Something something 7.0 earthquake and tsunami warning
December 7, 2024 at 11:19 PM
miguelmontevista.bsky.social
"There is heresy and then there's is denying the Trinity heresy; tis the reason 'heretic' is used for others of the same faith, and 'infidel' for the other Children of the Book (same Big G, diff book), though there are some Christian heretics who do super heresy but since they don't have an extra book they don't get the same infidel name, tis complicated and confusing I know" "How do I do super heresy Asking for a friend"
November 28, 2024 at 8:20 PM
miguelmontevista.bsky.social
I've mentioned how we've followed the birds at our birdbath, but here's how much we've watched.

The first photo was five years ago. My wife and robin got to know each other. He came back every year; the second photo is from this past spring. His son in the third photo likes being on top of things.
A male American robin on a concrete floor in front of wooden stairs A close-up of the same male American robin, standing on a fence, taken five years later. Another male robin, the first robin's son, atop a chimney
November 22, 2024 at 11:51 PM
miguelmontevista.bsky.social
This art bothers me terribly. It has the letter R twice.
October 22, 2024 at 11:53 PM
miguelmontevista.bsky.social
I saw the article and realized I could make it better.

How? By making it worse.

I made it clear that it's attacking out of jealousy, trying desperately to appear as attractive to men as possible. The result was an article someone described as "literally bleeding internalized misogyny." 5/
A female mannequin with long burgundy hair and a pink Hello Kitty shirt. The lifeless gaze of the mannequin could be taken to be one of someone barely holding on, filled with self-doubt.
October 21, 2024 at 12:37 PM