Hello my lovely readers! Welcome to the sixth issue of the Cervid, and the second monthly issue! The month’s wait has given me plenty of time to have material to work with (a lot more changes in a month than in a week, surprisingly!) so monthly will likely be the format I continue forward with! Happy New Year to all, I hope your 2026 is going well so far. The world is, as always, a scary place – so do stay careful out there!!
I’M DOING THINGS! Three whole magazine submissions in the month! It may not sound like a lot, but for my first active month of submissions, it certainly feels like a lot. I am not expecting to receive any positive news back from any of them; rejections are, of course, a crucial part of the process. Even I (a fledgling!) understand this. Aside from submissions, life still pushes forward. I am always trying to learn and make more things, which is as it should be!
Haiku Break #1:
A slice of the world
Caught within my snow-white view
To eat with my eyes
I have been loving Tool so much this past month. So far, my entire new year has been spent listen to Tool’s discography. I say this at the risk of being labeled a crazy Tool fan (because they exist; I have seen some *really* dedicated people), but their music has been hitting insanely hard to me lately. 10,000 Days is the only album I’ve sit through in full, and it is VERY good. It feels like it’s all building up into the climax of Rosetta Stoned; it feeds you so many long stretches of instrumentals before peaking with the clarity of “But I forgot my pen.” Maynard’s voice and lyricism is truly genius, but ultimately (in my eyes!) Danny Carey takes the cake for my favourite member. Although not a very musically knowledgable person myself, hearing the drumwork in certain songs such as Pneuma almost makes me forget that the other instruments are playing (but they still contribute!!!!) I’ll put it in the Cool Stuff, but there’s a live performance of Pneuma that’s entirely from the drummer’s perspective which made me listen to the song in an entirely different manner. If you like metal, ambients, and odd time signatures, I can wholeheartedly recommend Tool. Wow.
Haiku Break #2:
Cream and shortened crust
Filled with nature’s bountiful
Fruit harvest; be seen
As I grow older, I really begin to understand my late great grandfather. My family and I lived with my great grandparents for a while when I was younger, well into their retirement. I would often accompany him on the patio while he drank his coffee in the mornings – and he, to my memory, was quite the fan of crosswords. I was never quite good at them (so I never quite got into them) but lately I find myself completing mini 5x5s with ease, and even trying my hand at full-sized ones quite often. They’re fun, surprisingly so! I was thinking about perhaps doing a mini crossword of my own for the next Cervid issue, who knows. It would be a terribly boring blog without a game to play, after all :)
Oncemore, some neat Stuff!
longcon: A Nova Scotia magazine that has a really interesting concept: art responding to art. “Psychopomp” by Jessica Patterson off of Issue 2.2 has to be my favourite work I’ve seen on it thus far.
Rainy Day VGM: Another video game ost mix! I love these things like crazy, and I love discovering new ones! I’ve tried my hand at making my own playlists and mixes, perhaps I should return to it?
Pneuma Performance: And finally, the aforementioned Pneuma performance. I hope to get better at understanding the technicalities of music so I can truly appreciate the skill and endurance required to do something like this – but until then, I’m just here to enjoy the music!
Thank you for reading, dear reader! The next month should hopefully bring some more works to be displayed, hoping for more poetry of course and a crossword as I mentioned! I have so many short story ideas too, it’s just a matter of being disciplined enough to get the words down on the page. Nevertheless, take care, and I’ll be seeing you in a month!!
[Kim Flake, 2026 (for the first time)] <3
(ps. hi curly fries if youre reading this :3)