Curst Be He

On the left, John Donne, 17th-century poet and priest, painted by an unknown artist circa 1595. On the right, William Shakespeare,17th-century poet, playwright, and wearer of a stylish earring, attributed to John Taylor circa 1610.

Good friends, 'tis the four-hundredth anniversary of William Shakespeare's death (and possibly his birth as well). As avid members of the Shakespeare fandom celebrate the Bard's legacy across the Internet (and Anti-Stratfordians raise a clamor of unnecessary consternation on behalf of the real author of Shakespeare's plays, who is undoubtedly Francis Bacon/Edward de Vere/Christopher Marlowe/a time-travelling Lin-Manuel Miranda), I asked the characters of an ongoing project of mine what Shakespeare means to them.

"Why don't you ask him yourself?" said one necromancer, Miss Siona Donne. She promptly proceeded to throw open a curtain, revealing not only the zombie of her ancestor John Donne, but a Zombie William Shakespeare as well. (Zombies, in this universe, are well-possessed of their minds and do not require a diet of brains, barring the results of any fits of nostalgia they may have for Tudor-era chicken-brain blancmange.)

This brought many, many questions to my mind. Is this the reason Shakespeare's skull is missing from Holy Trinity Church? Didn't Shakespeare put a curse on his grave, and if so, what would it do to our gutsy necromancer? What's the relationship between Zombie Shakespeare and Zombie Donne? And why would someone want to raise Shakespeare from the dead in the first place?

Of course, the only acceptable answer comes in the form of a short story.

Good frend for Iesvs sake forebeare,
To digg the dvst encloased heare.
Bleste be the man that spares thes stones,
And cvrst be he that moves my bones.

—epitaph of William Shakespeare, inscribed on his grave at Holy Trinity Church

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

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

Fanfiction Honors!

Banner made by the wonderful Kate of Carlay, one of the moderators over at Starvation Forum. Thanks so much, Kate!

The Clever, Crazy, Completely Non-Canon Challenge was a competition run during the fall and winter by the Hunger Games fan forum Starvation. The basic concept was to write either an AU story (a story with events that deviate from the source material) or a story with a non-canon pairing (a romantic relationship contradicted by/not mentioned in the source material); the winner of each category would be determined by votes. I am honored to announce that my short story "Dark Days" won in the AU category!


Speaking of honors, several stories of mine have also been nominated for the 2011/2012 Winter Hunger Games Awards: multi-chapter story Survival for "Best SYOT" and "Burning Bright" and "Smoke and Mirrors" for "Best Prompt-Inspired" (the only stories even nominated for that category, another honor!) These awards have not been judged yet, so stay tuned for further updates!

A complete list of fanfiction honors awarded to me can be found here.