Fly Away

From this blog. It shows a girl with wings against a bloodstain, implying that it is probably said flying-girl's blood. Gory, but strong. It fits this post.

This story—246 words long; it's what is known as "flash fiction"—is a lipogram, avoiding that glyph which follows "D" in Latin writing distribution. It was truly difficult to draft, and it infracts its own limitations at its finish. Why? For drama, naturally.

Warning: Dark. Of my various works, this would probably win an award for darkness. Shows how much pain I'm in, writing without that glyph... "Optimistic" tags = 10 posts, "dark" tags = 11 posts. Oh, no! Must jot down a happy story now...

I long for this story to satisfy any anticipation I built up....

Fly Away

Pull

Picture taken from http://www.backgroundbandit.com/wallpapers/2/469.jpg, once again courtesy of The Internet. Image depicts an atom, and, as you have no doubt guessed, has something to do with the subject of this story.

Since my last post was so short, I thought I might as well post the third and final in my series of personifications. Again, not holiday-themed, and I apologize if that's what you're in the mood for.

Anyway, here it is. Inspired by Chem class and by Sara Bareilles's "Gravity" (though that actually isn't the name of the force I'm talking about), I present:

Pull

Fall

Picture taken from http://learn.cvuhs.org/file.php/1117/Chloroplast_art.jpg, courtesy of The Internet, as usual. Image depicts the subject of this piece in a very pretty, artsy way. I like it.

Second in my series of personifications, though rather unfortunately timed as it really is more autumn-themed than winter-themed and has absolutely nothing to do with the holidays. Ah, well. What can you do?

The narrator of this one is a bit harder to tell from the text, but hopefully from the picture you will understand. If not, just look up the word "chloroplast," and maybe brush up on your cell anatomy while you're at it... kidding, kidding. Though seriously, do. Who knows? It may inspire a story for you, too!

Fall

Solve

Picture taken from http://media.nowpublic.net/images//11/7/11726611d1157f36f62d70301b103040.jpg, courtesy of The Internet, as usual. It depicts algebra homework, though thankfully not my own.

Written around the beginning of October for my Creative Writing class prompt,  "second person." The idea had been rolling around in my head for several weeks beforehand, inspired very much by some of the works over at livejournal's anthropomor-fic, though I actually haven't gotten around to joining that community, never mind posting in it.

It's actually part of a series of three personifications, all having to do with the maths and sciences. Whether I post the other two or not depends on my mood.

A happy Black Friday to all, and I hope this proves that though we may not like certain school subjects as much as others, we must still be thankful for the inspiration that they can give.

Solve

Toujours (ce n'est rien)

Picture taken from http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/16900000/girl-and-the-rain-sad-songs-16929572-500-706.jpg. Image depicts a girl in the rain. Whether or not she is sad is up to your interpretation.

A (long) short story written for my new Creative Writing class. It has two titles because I am indecisive. Those titles are in French because that language features rather prominently in this story. 

If you are not familiar with the French language, I have tried to make some things clear from context (except when I want it to be ambiguous for dramatic effect). If you are, c'est magnifique! Hopefully the foreign words will enhance your story-reading experience. Si vous êtes français, bienvenue! Et n'ayez pas peur de corriger mes erreurs!

Why French? ...I don't know. Maybe they're from Canada.

Toujours

(ce n'est rien)

Angels

The Presentation in the Temple by Jean-Baptiste Jouvenet, the painting in the Smith College Museum of Art that hath inspired this poem. It depicts the Biblical story of presentation of Jesus in the temple, with a mournful-looking woman in the lower left-hand corner.

 Another one from my summer at Smith, but a poem this time!

This is one of my favorites from the poetry I wrote at the Smith workshop. We took a field trip to the Smith College Museum of Art and came up with poem ideas based the paintings we saw, then went back to the classroom and wrote them. There are probably twenty other ideas that I wrote down, but this is the only one  that has actually been written (so far).

For some reason, it was ridiculously hard to find an image file on the internet of this painting. 1) Jouvenet painted two "Presentation in the Temple"s, the other of which is more well-known; 2) I had been spelling his name wrong for half of my search; and 3) those that I did find had watermarks on them. But I did find it eventually, so here it is in all its glory.

Enough of my rambling, which is probably longer than the poem itself. Enjoy!

Angels

(after The Presentation in the Temple by Jean-Baptiste Jouvenet)

Flutter By, Butterfly

From http://spiritofsage.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/dlw-reiki_butterfly_hands-9015235_std.jpg. Image depicts hands sending up a butterfly. This was the picture that accompanied To Sing to a Butterfly in the OSC Summer 2012 Reporter.

You may remember from a previous post that my "To Sing to a Butterfly" poem had inspired an in-progress piano prelude by composer Erik Gustafson. Well, that piece of music is complete, and it is absolutely stunning!

Here is the link so that you all can listen to it yourselves:

http://erikmusik.net/ToSingToAButterfly.mp3!

So, let's all have an internet round of applause for Erik Gustafson! To check out more of Erik's wonderful work, visit his website at http://erikmusik.net/.

Moment

Yes, this is me and my brother. From the back, to conceal our identities, obviously.

Make way for memoir! Make way for memoir!

Yes, I have as of recently been exploring the treacherous waters of the nonfiction genre, if by "recently" you mean "in July, at Smith," and have made a wary but definite peace treaty with personal experience writing, if only for a little while. I've actually been meaning to post this for some time, but I couldn't figure out how to get the picture in until today...

Posted to the Teen Ink website August 1st, 2012. And even featured on the front page of the entire Nonfiction section! I have a screencap as proof.

With the little VIP sticker next to my name, no less!

I hope you enjoy it!

Moment

Where the Heart Is

Picture from http://lovesagame.com/wp-content/uploads/love_poem.jpg. Image depicts a very pretty heart-shaped light pattern on a book. In case you couldn't tell.

Another one pulled from the recesses of my computer, although it was written more recently--for a summer writing program at Smith College. One of my very few pieces of realistic contemporary fiction, though I did consider an alternate version with magic involved before realizing it would betray the integrity of the story. Enjoy, and by all means, comment!

Note: contains LGBT romance. If for some reason you're uncomfortable with that, it is certainly your right to have that opinion, but please refrain from starting a flame war on my blog.

Where the Heart Is

Falling Rocks

From http://community.sparknotes.com/index.php/2009/11/24/blogging-lord-of-the-flies-chapter-5-beast-from-water/, regarding Lord of the Flies. It doesn't quite fit with the seriousness of this piece, but it's one of the few things that made reading that book bearable.

This has been hanging around on my computer for quite some time now, and I just realized today that you all might want to read it.

I don't actually like Lord of the Flies. In fact, I hate it, almost as much as I hate The Old Man and the Sea. Actually, scrap that. The Old Man and the Sea is much, much worse.

Anyway, you may be wondering why, if I hate LOTF so much, why am I writing essentially a fanfiction about it? Good question. My answer is that the book's ending simply doesn't settle it for me. Being a person who believes in the goodness of humanity as opposed to its evil, I wanted to show a more balanced view of the universe. William Golding may disagree, but then again, I'm not writing to please him.

This piece also has the honor of being tagged with both "dark" and "optimistic." I'm not sure which outweighs which. Oh, and disclaimer: I do not own Lord of the Flies, nor do I want to. Also, spoilers if you haven't read the book.

Falling Rocks

Bountiful Butterfly Blessings

Picture taken from http://images.paraorkut.com/img/pics/glitters/b/butterfly_rainbow-8184.jpg. Image depicts butterflies and a rainbow. I think it's a gorgeous picture.

In May, I wrote and posted a poem called "To Sing to a Butterfly". Here's what that particular poem's been up to since:

• Posted on the Old South Church Forum
• Used by Rev. Dr. Debbie Clark in a worship service at Edwards Church in Framingham
• Inspired an in-progress piano prelude by composer Erik Gustafson
• Used by Rev. Don Remick at the opening worship service for the UCC Mass Conference
• Shared by at an Interfaith Spirituality group at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, and:
• Published in the Summer 2012 edition of the Old South Reporter

So thank you Anonymous, for giving me the prompt that started it all, and all of you for your continued support!

A Beginner's Guide to THE OMNISCIENCE

Image taken from http://www.freevector.com/site_media/preview_images/FreeVector-Futuristic-Machinery.jpg, courtesy of The Internet. It depicts some cool piece of futuristic machinery.

I'm mostly posting this so when I write fanfiction for my own original work on Runaway Tales I can link back here and people will know what I'm talking about. Oh, and also so I can give all my lovely blog readers another taste of my novel-in-progress. Enjoy!

A Beginner's Guide to THE OMNISCIENCE

Remember

This photo was taken from http://www.bestourism.com/img/items/big/530/Boston_Boston-skyline_2104.jpg, courtesy of The Internet.  It shows the Boston skyline.

This was written for the "Opportunity for Readers" challenge in response to Allison Corman-Vogan's prompt (via Facebook), "How about two characters who were classmates in high school and meet again ten years later in a new city?" Sorry it took so long to write, and I hope it doesn't disappoint you!

Posted to the Teen Ink website on May  23, 2012.

Remember

To Sing to a Butterfly

This was written for the "Opportunity For Readers" challenge in response to Anonymous's prompt: "I would love to read a poem about how to sing to a butterfly." I hope you love it as much as you thought you would!

To Sing to a Butterfly

Undone

Picture taken from http://transmedialshakespeare.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/lady_macbeth.jpg. Image depicts Lady Macbeth, also known as Gruoch, the main character of this story.

A short story written for an English class project. Part historical fiction and part fanfiction, it is based on William Shakespeare's Macbeth.

Posted to the Teen Ink website on March 17, 2012.

Undone

ἀνορχέομαι

Picture taken from http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2204/5712721507_09460d604c_z.jpg, courtesy of The Internet. 

This was written for the "Opportunity For Readers" challenge in response to Tree Hugger Mom's prompt: "A poem about the spirit within trees and stones." The poem's title is (at least according to The Internet) Ancient Greek for "leap up and dance."

This poem is also dedicated to my own amazing mom. May you have a warm, happy birthday today (2/6/12) and for many years to come!

ἀνορχέομαι (leap up and dance)

Nemesis

Image taken from http://psd.fanextra.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/medusa8.jpg, courtesy of The Internet. To tell you more about what it depicts would be to give away a plot twist in the story.

 This was my midyear exam for my Creative Writing class this year.

It's been revised and expanded a bit, since that it was originally written in an hour and a half in a classroom on the Friday of exam week and that's hardly enough to do the concept justice. The prompt was an interesting one: we were to record our conversations over lunch the past few days and then use a bit of dialogue from that as the first sentence of our story. Or, in my case, the first line of dialogue.

I had all kinds of interesting sentences to choose from, including but not limited to "Now I'm a little bit mad"; "Because of course the maids would stay home and make juice while the men are off at war"; and "Hmm... maybe there was coercing involved?" But what did I end up going with?

Well, you're going to have to read the story to find out.

Nemesis

Soldiers and Tears

Picture taken from http://s.ngm.com/2007/06/arlington-cemetery/img/arlington-cemetery-615.jpg, courtesy of The Internet. It depicts Arlington National Cemetery.

This was written in response the "An Opportunity For Readers" challenge, in response to AJ's prompt: "He sat on her tombstone and laughed 'til he cried." It's (predictably) dark, but I like it. It's also longer than I expected it to be.

Soldiers and Tears