Stories

Growing up happens differently for everyone. Finding yourself takes time, and for some of us it's not an easy process. Sometimes it can happen fast, all too fast. Sometimes we let parts of ourselves stray behind. Sometimes things must get worse before they can get better. Sometimes much, much worse. But these are the things that define us. That much, at least, St. John Allerdyce knows. But it's one thing to know something and another to live through it.

An offering of poems for National Poetry Writing Month; April 2022. Some were composed in response to prompts provided to me, others not.

Life is full of twists and turns, both expected and unexpected, wondrous and excruciating. This year’s poems for National Poetry Writing Month will embrace the curveballs life throws at us and also serve as an exploration and raw portrayal of the grieving process. Follow me, and we’ll see what’s around the bend.

My poetry collection for National Poetry Writing Month 2022.

Yes, I'm doing it again.

I'd like to thank Jan Hutchinson for providing daily prompts and @AC Benus for additional prompts and introductions of new poetry forms.

~Aditus

Last but not least: This wouldn't be possible without my friend and editor @Valkyrie.

This is a series of once and future dances, echoes and dreams from the long, discontented solitude enforced by the pandemic. I dedicate it to a man whose friendship and fire have burned constant through this everlasting night.

This is a story I wrote in 2019. However, in the light of present circumstances I felt it was necessary to re-write it, placing the spotlight on an especially vulnerable group in a country and a people that was plunged into vulnerability as a whole by brutal aggression.

It is actually a fast shot from the hip, re-written in the heath of anger and frustration, and it may contain some mistakes, since it is only very scarcely edited. If so, I sincerely apologize for them.

Fellow students of Brathay Stonearm consider him pleasant and harmless. Nobody guesses at his single-minded determination to become the best buildings expert of his generation.

Until Counsellor Brokerman offers him a challenge he feels compelled to accept.

Lord Leonmarkh, youngest of the DuMankin siblings, has a reputation as something of a spoiled wastrel and has been shipped off to Black Ice Bay to assume the role of Watchman of the North. Brathay is tasked with assessing the ancient keep and advising Leonmarkh on how to survive the long winter months.

If only the man would grant him an audience.

Kevin’s been the poor kid, the military brat, the boy without a dad, the neighborhood pot dealer, the study abroad student. Because he’s always known that, when things get tough, you just turn the page and move on.

If only he could get his mind off the three very different men he left behind.

After the death of the New Republic at the hands of the First Order, the galaxy is in shambles, with chaos ensuing everywhere. War can break out any moment between the different factions. How will young Temiri Blagg (broomboy from 'The Last Jedi') navigate his way through this?

Shortly after the end of the Eighth Pass, five of the six Weyrs on Pern are found empty. Zalna, a junior weyrwoman at Benden Weyr, tries to discover what might have caused all the other weyrfolk and dragons to disappear and where they could have gone.