• [Novel Draft] The Abandonment of Hope — Chapter 3

    I cautiously approached what I genuinely believed at the time to be an angel; the ethereal glow of moonlight on this figure made them seem like something from another world. And it is a testament to my mental state at the time that I believed that this ‘angel’ was here to slay me rather than…

  • [Novel Draft] The Abandonment of Hope — Chapter 2

    Aside from the constant anxiety which beset me from all sides, the ride to boot camp was rather unremarkable. And I could recount in excruciating detail how the first couple days went, but to be honest nothing of worth happened in that period. Here is the synopsis: I was a whiny bitch who struggled to…

  • [Novel Draft] The Abandonment of Hope — Chapter 1

    I am a weak, cowardly person, and in many ways I am not the hero of this story–although the events do concern me in large part. If I am to be entirely honest, the heroes of this story are those who rose over and above myself to demonstrate courage in the face of despair. But…

  • Bedtime Stories for Unhappy Children: The Abandonment of Hope

    This is a story I wrote back in 2021. … “Daddy, can you tell me a bedtime story?” The father chuckled. “Of course! There’s one I’ve been waiting to share with you, and I think you’re just about big enough.” The father needed nothing more than the night light to see his son’s lips curling…

  • Bedtime Stories for Unhappy Children: You Must Believe in Spring

    My name is Illuryk and it has been winter on Earth for 72 years. Everything changed when the bombs fell. Dark, ominous clouds enveloped our planet, and the temperatures rapidly plummeted until the average temperature around the equator was -22 degrees Celsius. Now our world is always dark, and storms rage across the surface of…

  • Bedtime Stories for Unhappy Children: The Eagle and the Elk

    On a distant world not quite unlike our own– albeit quite a bit colder– a population of mildly intelligent elk roamed a vast boreal forest that stretched from pole to pole. Or so the legend goes at least. These elk reportedly had a relatively functional nomadic society, although the extent to which we would consider…

  • Prelude: What Does It Mean to Have a Home?

    For the past few weeks now I have been planning and packing for my yearlong volunteering trip around the world, and one question has been flittering in and out of my mind: what does it mean to have a home? Is home a physical place? A group of people? A sense of belonging? Or some…