…is the name of today’s story at Fictive Dream.
Throughout the month of February 2022 I will be showing you illustrations I did for Flash Fiction February 2022 at Fictive Dream, an online magazine devoted to the short story.
Here’s the image editor Laura Black chose for this story, Brand New Ballgame, by Nina Fosati.
And here is the artwork with the banner. Take a look at this image. And then…
Read the story at Fictive Dream.
Claudia McGill and Her Art World 
Claudia the artwork is beyond perfect for my story. Thank you for creating this marvelous illustration to accompany it.
Thank you. I am so happy you are pleased. As an older person myself living in today’s world, I felt your story very much.
That was a powerful story, with a bleak, harsh and violent atmosphere. I think your artwork captures that atmosphere brilliantly. I especially like the way you have deployed that punchy red and the way you have used spatter.
I think this story hits home for me. Plain and simple.
I see a ship in this
A little too close for comfort. The sky is indeed falling. (K)
Yes. That is a fact. You said it exactly right. A little too close for comfort.
Brand New Ballgame by Nina Fosati is bleak and disturbing story – a scary reminder of where society is heading. The incongruence between a normal domestic setting and the event that occurs is so brilliantly reflected in this illustration. Just wonderful, Claudia, thnak you.
Thank you. As has been said, this story is too close to our society today for comfort. People are learning the wrong lessons somwhere and somehow, and this story reminded me how easily things that were unthinkable become ordinary.
Amazing palette for the piece!
Thank you!
We are daily incrementally building such a world. The red smearing the “ordinary” scene works just right for the dystopia.
Thank you. Yes, I agree. It is very easy to decide some people are not worth as much as others, that is a fact we can see today as well as throughout pretty much the whole human history, I think.
You’re welcome and yes 😦