outbriefcandle54

This collection of stream of consciousness prose was written during a very special time in my life. I left the city following a massive burnout, and lived in the country for months. I began a garden, cut most of my ties to the outside world, and wrote this as a way to keep me going through most of my days. When I wrote, I felt like this magical sense was taking over me and the words were just flowing out. I have not edited them, because I wanted to keep them as true to the feelings I had then as possible. It was truly a beautiful, transformative time of realizations for me. Thanks for reading this piece of my heart!…

outbriefcandle54

A collection of great poetry and literary quotes, chosen in no particular order or reason except that it spoke to me. I hope it speaks to you too. *Disclaimer: these works are not my own.*For specifically LOVE poetry, please see my other collection.…

outbriefcandle54

A collection of great love poetry, chosen in no particular order or reason except that it spoke to me. I hope it speaks to you too. *Disclaimer: these works are not my own.*…

outbriefcandle54

"They say the war freezes and thaws. I wish I never met you when it was frozen. Because you'll hate me someday, and I won't bear it. Is it crueler for the prisoner to have once known pastures?"In this fictionalized setting, childhood best friends Anya and Ahmed grow up with bright horizons sloped towards modernity and hope, believing the scars of their parents' war are far behind them. Amidst shifting political tides, they are only 15 when they are torn apart by a resurgence of the centuries-long ethnic conflict, their families splitting once again along the two sides of a thin ethnoreligious border. Anya is sent to a village in the East, an increasingly radicalized rural pocket formed around a monastery; and Ahmed joins the army in the West, promising to die for his country when the war comes. When their paths cross again, Anya has been married off to a military official, and Ahmed is deployed as an undercover spy in his regiment. The war has taken everything from them; but there might still be flickers of who they once were deep inside.Throughout this story that spans a decade, Anya and Ahmed lose every piece of home they ever had, except the one they found in each other. Can the gulf between them, that seeping blood stain of generations, ever be bridged? Can they reattach the scorched roots of their soil to one-another - to find a home in their own veins?…

outbriefcandle54

Leah thinks she's found the perfect escape from a stressful life in the city: Eden, a hippie commune where everything is connected to the land and community - people work together, eat together, garden together and... have their marriages arranged between members? Aren't allowed books? The longer Leah stays, the more the shining veneer of this paradise peels off. What's revealed is the fundamentalist Christian ideals which underlie Eden. Stranded, Leah has to find a way to escape. One thing holds her back: a bond formed with someone she shouldn't have, deep in Eden's clutches.…

outbriefcandle54

A time-traveling god. A mortal stuck in Ancient Greece. They have always been able to hear each other's thoughts, across time and space; the only problem is, they were never supposed to meet.Until they did.And it unravelled the balance of everything. ₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪The immortal Greek god Evgenis' only job is to travel through time, making sure humanity stays on its course. This is what he was born to do. He was meant to be machine-like, cold, and detached from humanity - ready to invoke bloodshed as needed. His ability to follow through with his duty, however, is disrupted when he forms a mysterious internal bond with a mortal. You see, the Goddess of Love had a different idea for her son's future. Seeing the cruelty of the gods around her, she formed the unborn Evgenis with a secret gift: an eternal inner bond with a mortal. She chose Tharos - named for the strength of his heart - an Ancient Greek villager living an unassuming, simple life. This connection, she prayed, would keep Evgenis' moral compass and conscience strong. He would not end up like the others.No one could anticipate, though, just how powerful and disruptive this bond would grow to be. ------------------------------------------"Set me as a seal upon your heart... for love is as strong as death."- Song of Solomon, 6:8------------------------------------------…

outbriefcandle54

A history student is tasked with sorting through an abandoned asylum's archives. The asylum is rumored to be haunted, but Lena dismisses this as merely town folklore. When her research brings her to venture inside the asylum's walls, however, the fragments of stories she has been learning about now come to life. Surrounded by the ghosts of the asylum's 200-year history, she comes to learn of its cruel hidden truths - and it now falls on her to give voice to the abuse, maltreatment, and indignities suffered by those whose voices would have otherwise been lost to time.This story will span the history of America's mental health system, as shown through the different eras of the asylum. Against the backdrop of this dark and isolated prison, Lena forges new friendships across time, and sets the souls of these ghosts free by bringing their stories to light.*Dedicated to the many lives that were lived out in mistreatment behind the silence of asylum walls.*…

outbriefcandle54

The last thing Adrien expected to receive in the mail was a painting. And not just any painting: a painting of the world just two hundred years before. When it comes to life before his very eyes, a boy on the other side offers to bring Adrien into his world.* * *This takes place in the near future, where the rich live in a gated community and on the backs of those outside its walls. The earth has been depleted of it resources and the only ones who can still access necessities are those who can afford them. Adrien, whose father is the CEO of a leading healthcare company, discovers its sinister secrets at the same time as he's jumping back and forth between eras. When he gets a glimpse of how life on earth could have been, and a glimpse into the fulfillment love can bring beyond material riches, he has a lot to reconsider about his future path.…

outbriefcandle54

One-shots of fascinating, tragic, beautiful and little-known true love stories. Most are from history. Some are from legends and myths. All of them have touched my heart in some way, and I hope they touch yours too.Oh, and I've also made a graphic to go with each of them, inspired by the time in which they take place.…

outbriefcandle54

A re-telling of the true 12th century love story of Heloise and Abelard. Abelard is a great philosopher and theologian who has taken, like many academics of the time, a vow of celibacy. When he is hired as a tutor for the brilliant and beautiful Heloise, whose mind he finds is his only true equal, a series of tragic events will spiral. ━━━━━━━┓ ✠ ┏━━━━━━━━Taking place in the cloisters of Paris, the affair has grave consequences. They are forced into monastic life - Abelard becoming a monk and Heloise becoming a nun - but their relationship continues in secret. It continues mostly from afar, through a collection of the most beautiful love letters the world has known. They reunite only at the very ends of their lives and, eventually, are buried together in the Père Lachaise Cemetery of Paris. The trials this couple face through the relationship that spans their entire lives, and their unending commitment to love in the face of all obstacles, continue to inspire us today.…