Prophecy

Foreground digital painting of character i-Aten Elena drawn © Amanda Grace Shu 2016. Background image source credit to Frank Vincentz via Wikimedia Commons.

It's time to introduce you to a new character in the Kevarya Universe, one completely unrelated to the Royal Family with which A Winter's Ball was so concerned. Their name is i-Aten Elena, or just Elena, and they provide the first hint of magic at play.

Now a note about Elena. Elena is what's known as genderfluid, a term which may trip up some people. Genderfluidity, according to Genderfluid Support, can be defined as "the feeling of fluidity within your gender identity; feeling a different gender as time passes or as situations change; not restricted to any number of genders." Elena uses singular they pronouns (they/them/theirs). Is this grammatically correct? Yes, of course it is. The singular "they" was even named the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year in 2015. Pronouns have changed from plural to singular before, and since language itself is constantly changing, the idea of what is grammatically correct is rather, shall we say... fluid. Like gender. Or, for example, the nature of Time Itself.

Speaking of which...

Prophecy

Spacedad

Fathers and daughters across time and space: an Adobe Photoshop edit combining photos by Amarinsky, Srichakra Pranav, and NASA. Photos licensed under Wikimedia Commons and remixed by Amanda Grace Shu.

Guess who's been published in her first professional market?

This story was written as a Christmas gift for my father and later revised at the Alpha Workshop. I wanted to write a story that conveyed both the joy of fantasy exploration and the emotional strain of adventure upon a father-daughter relationship. The story darts in and out of Clare's life as her father does, never fully resolving any of the conflicts hinted at, and yet giving us a full sense of their relationship, in all its ups and downs.

So, without further ado, I present to you...

Daily Science Fiction:

Spacedad

Copper and Stardust

Photoshopped by me. Image source credit to NASA ([x] and [x]). The image of the stars is titled "Chaos at the Heart of Orion," which is an absolutely gorgeous title that I might use in a story someday.

Newer readers will remember A Winter's Ball, the first and currently only excerpt from a novel I am working on (read: doing everything but writing). This is a bit of world-building for that novel, exploring the Kevaryese culture's belief in how the universe came to be.

I have always loved world mythology, and particularly creation myths. It always surprises me how similar these ancient cultures' stories are in their imagery, even when many of the cultures had no way of interacting with each other. This myth doesn't have a Creator figure, but rather is centered around the idea that the world came from a union of sky and earth, as the Egyptians and the Ancient Greeks both believed, and the interaction between the darkness and the sun's light mirrors the Chinese concept of ying and yang. However, I like to think I added some unique elements to this story. I'll leave you to figure those out for yourselves.

So, without further ado...

Copper and Stardust:

A Kevaryese Creation Myth

The Little Prince (For My Mother)

A banner adapted from http://www.lepetitprince.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/arsdraw.jpg, with a quote from the following piece: "Meaning something to even one star would keep me going."

For those of you who are unaware, The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is a French existential tale in the guise of a children's book. The story highlights both the absurdity of adult life and the ultimate beauty and innocence of the universe in which we live. It relates the adventures of a Little Prince from Asteroid B-612 who travels to different planets, including Earth, in search of knowledge about the world around him.

I was going to publish this on my mother's birthday, February 6th, since the piece is dedicated to her. However, I missed the deadline and, well, better late than never, I suppose!

For my mother

The Omniscience: Nevermore

Photoshopped by yours truly. I don't own the words, as they belong to Edgar Allan Poe, nor do I own the picture of the raven. 'Tis from  http://csicreativesceneinvestigation.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/sketch__undead_raven_by_michifromkmk-d5n804p.jpg.

Since I shared this with the folks at Runaway Tales on LJ, I figured I would share this with you lovely folks on this blog, too. It is Chapter Six of The Omniscience, written from Lilah's perspective, and was initially inspired by the prompt, "all that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream" (a Poe quote), but eventually wound up being more about Poe's The Raven through the very complicated series of events that is the writing process.

Nevermore

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

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

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

Stephen

Our two protagonists, famous composers and lyricists Stephen Sondheim (left; image taken from http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/252/4474907.jpg) and Stephen Schwartz (right; image taken from http://www.glamadelaide.com.au/main/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/schwartz_color-277x300.jpg). To my knowledge, they have never collaborated... yet...

This was written in response to the "An Opportunity For Readers" challenge, for Ninja Dad's prompt: "Sondheim meets Schwartz in a duel of words (using quotes from their songs), starting out as rivals and adversaries but ending as friends and collaborators." I'm surprised I was able to write it so fast, but half of the words aren't even mine anyways...

Disclaimer: Whatever it is, I probably don't own it. Any song lyrics belong to their respective creators. The views expressed in this short story do not necessarily express the views of Stephen Sondheim, Stephen Schwartz, Irving Berlin, Herbert Kretzmer, Alain Boublil, or Oscar Hammerstein II.


Useful Notes: Irving Berlin is the lyricist for "Annie, Get Your Gun" ("Anything you can do, I can do better"); Herbert Kretzmer reworked the lyrics of Les Miserables into the English language ("Valjean! At last! We see each other plain"); Alain Boublil wrote the original French lyrics ("Enfin! Valjean! Tu vas purger ta peine"); Oscar Hammerstein II was Stephen Sondheim's mentor and father figure.

Stephen

Autobiographical Poems

Image taken from http://www.ourcatholicprayers.com/images/Morningsuncrop.jpg, courtesy of The Internet. The picture depicts morning sunlight, the kind that I wish I could wake up to every day.

It's time for a poetry post!

Here are two poems, both written in eighth grade, both results of school assignments, both about creating art, specifically writing, and both autobiographical. Or at least semi-autobiographical. Oddly enough, both of them also have connections to The Hunger Games (a book series which, as you can probably tell by now, I adore): the title of the first, "Mockingjay," references the third book of the series and the fictional creature that book is named after; the second, a work known only as "A pad of yellow paper," has a poetic style similar to an excellent poem, "Brokens," that is a fanfiction of The Hunger Games. I mimicked the style intentionally, and if that offends the author of the fanfiction in any way, then I humbly apologize.

"A pad of yellow paper" was published in the June issue of my middle school's school newspaper.

"Mockingjay" & "A pad of yellow paper"