Video: Control

What if the two most dangerous villains Amanda has ever created fought each other?

When Siona Donne breaks through the barrier between universes in search of information on a ritual to make her a goddess, Roderigo must learn how to access all the power of his formidable brain in order to protect himself and his family from the necromancer. // Higher-resolution video here. Siona played by Lara Pulver, Roderigo by Anthony Stewart Head. Shout-out to Katrina S. and Jay B., both of whom helped me forge these characters and their universes. I own none of these video clips.

Black Sand

An animated GIF banner made by me, with the help of Adobe Photoshop, for the Danse Macabre universe.

Happy Halloween, All Saint's Eve, Samhain, and all the other holidays and celebrations going on this October 31! I bring you a spooky story from an ongoing project called Danse Macabre, a roleplay universe written in collaboration with the fantastic Jay B. I'm not entirely sure how well the story stands on its own, as it was written as a prequel to the main roleplay, but we'll see how it goes.

Black Sand

Sinnerman

An illustration of this story, drawn my myself circa 2013. You can probably guess what natural disaster is about to occur to our poor family of protagonists.

This is very much a spiritual successor to Barton Hollow, as I started writing it shortly after finishing that story. It was first conceived during the 2013 Juniper Institute for Young Writers and, like To Avis Ladongale, this story is one I've retired. I have a wealth of excellent critiques, but after a few years of hiatus, I feel I have outgrown it. Perhaps it would succeed in a different form, but changing the form would involve shifting the focus of the story--and I wanted to stay focused on the development of the narrator's voice and how her language reflects the colonization of her culture.

Yeah, I'm a linguistics nerd.

SINNERMAN

To Avis Ladongale, On the Subject of Fixing Time

A banner made by myself, featuring the beautiful actress Jenna Coleman as the titular character in this upcoming piece. Why Jenna Coleman? Let's just say it has something to do with time...

I'm just gonna come out and say it: this is one of the stories that I consider dead. I've taken the concept as far as it can go and submitted it to several publications, all rejected. I suspect it has something to do with the universe being very highly-developed in my own head but underdeveloped on the page. But "To Avis Ladongale" is in essence a bare-bones piece, more of a prose poem than a story, and to flesh out the text would take it in an entirely different direction than I feel it was meant to go. Perhaps I'll write that other story someday.

To give credit where credit is due, my brilliant friend Katrina S. is the creator of Avis Ladongale herself and my partner, along with Jay B., in creating this strangest of universes in which the piece takes place.

To Avis Ladongale, On the Subject of Fixing Time

Fugue State

Me, reading this story at a Barnes and Noble while at the Alpha Workshop. Photo credit to my friend and fellow Alphan Yvonne.

I actually haven't posted anything significant since June, so this is far overdue. But I have just this August been to the 2014 Alpha Young Writers' Workshop, nine days of workshop with four professional authors, ten up-and-coming author staff members, and twenty fabulous students from all around the globe! Alphans, assemble!

It is at that workshop that I penned (and publicly read) this story. Facebook followers, prepare yourselves.

Warning: adult language.

Fugue State

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

Magnetic Poetry

From http://normalteens.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/magnetic-poetry1.jpg.

 As a poet, sometimes it is hard to find the words to express an idea you barely have forming in the back of your head. But sometimes, the words are already given to you, and from there on you can create meaning through arrangement, often yielding unexpectedly beautiful results.

Summary of the above: Poetry magnets are fun.

Magnetic Poetry

"This young electric instrument," created with my Art teacher's poetry magnets.

"His Lordship Drunkard," created with my own Shakespearean poetry magnets. 

Barton Hollow

Oh, look! It's me! You finally get to see my face, dear readers! And what is that blurry orange rectangle that I'm holding? It's a bird! It's a plane! It's...

...asdf'lksdjfas'dflkjads'fkja'sldkfj'!

Ahem. Let me try that again. I'm quite excited, you see. You would think that an author would have a more coherent way to express excitement than that, but apparently I don't. That's not really important, though. What's important is...

I GOT PUBLISHED!

In the Winter 2013 edition of The Marble Collection: Massachusetts High School Magazine of the Arts, there is a short story on page 14 entitled "Barton Hollow," one of five short stories in the issue. And it is mine.

There are very few words to describe how elated I am at this moment.

Barton Hollow

Sonnet & Villanelle

Picture is taken from http://totheshore.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/quillpeninkwell1.jpg, courtesy of The Internet. (I seriously hope I don't get sued for that phrase sometime in the future.) It depicts a quill pen and ink, evoking Shakespearean sonnets. These poems are not quite the same as those.

Neither of the two poems I'm sharing with you today are exactly what their titles imply.

The first, a "sonnet," happens to be not of love, but of anger and even hate. Also, it is (somewhat mercifully) not directed towards a specific person, as many sonnets—be they romantic or accusatory—are. The second, a "villanelle," is written not in villanelle format, but in sonnet format. It too has a dark tone, though it is the lack of emotional articulation ability, rather than the presence, that lends it this. (It was written to be spoken in a play by an android incapable of feeling.) Grouping the two poems together is thus natural—both are melancholy sonnets that do not quite fit the connotations of their forms.

I seriously hope these poems do not upset you all.

Sonnet & Villanelle

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)

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

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

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

Archer

In the interest of actually posting some writing...

Photo stolen from http://cdn.screenrant.com/wp-content/uploads/The-Hunger-Games-Katniss-Shooting-Bow.jpg, courtesy of the Internet. The image depicts Jennifer Lawrence playing Katniss Everdeen in the upcoming movie The Hunger Games, which I am eagerly anticipating.

"Archer" is a short story that was written in September of this year for my creative writing class. Very loosely based on a reimagining of an unfinished novel that I co-authored in fourth grade, it features sibling dynamics brought up to eleven in a fantasy world. Many a sibling will claim, "I'm going to kill my brother/sister!", but would they really be able to follow through? And what would happen if you were forced to do it?