Issue 06
Heather Ayres
Heather Ayres is a writer and filmmaker, living in Seattle. She has written for several award-winning short screenplays and recently directed "Betty," a 35mm narrative short film about a young, rebellious woman who journeys doctor to doctor on a strange path that illuminates the heart. Heather attempts to gracefully float between two part-time jobs for two nonprofits, writing grants and raising money, and occasionally freelances. She's the mother of a preschooler who reminds her to laugh and cry at everything, and not to spend all day (or night!) at the computer. In the quiet realm, Heather enjoys soul searching, the music of friends, mountain hiking with her family, planting food she can eat, and reading the works of Martín Prechtel, Arundhati Roy, Paulo Coelho, Isabel Allende, and Milan Kundera.
17I’m surrounded by a dozen eggstories that capture my son’s imagination. We collect them from the library and snuggle up with a strange little book about a boy who places a large, unknown egg into a nest. A nervous Mother bird is baffled. A curious Father bird says, hey, it must be ours. The couple sits on the egg, and one day a baby alligator is born. The couple feeds tiny creatures (ladybugs, worms) around the clock. The gator grows, and grows, until bulging the nest, and the birds must teach it to fly away. Of course an alligator has no wings, so it tumbles out of the nest, into the water below – and happily swims away.