by Colette

Here Where The Sea Stands

Written by Arwa

sea_waves

The crash of sea waves at La Jolla Cove in California.
Image Courtesy of dreamlajolla.com

Here where the sea stands,
alone,
calmly.
I wish there was a wind,
a heated wind,
to crash the silence.

This wind,
a life savior,
will turn this sea to a raging monster
to defeat every living
with its infinite might.
It will change the course of being,
the seasons of love,
and the roles of passion.

This sea,
when it moves
It will demolish the islands,
and bring a new millennium,
a new society,
and a new age.

Yet,
the sea is still calm
and alone.

‘Here Where The Sea Stands’ is Arwa’s first poem published in Inkblots. As the English language is not Arwa’s mother-tongue, she was inspired to write poetry as a way of understanding our language, and also feels more comfortable expressing herself with it. We love the simplicity depicted throughout the poem, and hope to see many more poems from Arwa in the future.

by Colette

Heartbreak

Written by Fantasy Girl 

the_yellow_wallpaper

A woman’s descent into madness reflected in Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper.
Image Courtesy of thedailyshift.com

You know how it feels, don’t you, to be living life but it’s like a dream. A simple, serene picture can turn into the waking nightmare. Well, that’s what it’s like for me anyway, I don’t know about you.

The vines – woven through the complex trellis designs – no longer create an escape from reality, but a barrier, stopping me from running. And when I finally get through, the roots claw at my feet, the vines grip my throat and I struggle to breathe. I begin to panic, I’m alone and no one will rescue me.

But then I’m back in my living room and I still can’t breathe. The raging fire in the hearth on the same wall doesn’t thaw the ice that’s lodged itself in my soul. And the constant cheery chirp of the red-breasted robin, as it sits on the frosted branch, no longer makes me smile.

I’m lost, trapped in a sea of twisted vines.

No one will save me.

No one cares.

I will stay here, forever wishing the drooping branches of the willows would brush my cheeks again, like the kiss of an angel, but they only tangle themselves in my hair and refuse to let go. They wrap themselves around my wrists and stop me from moving – are they trying to calm me down, maybe? Trying to make me think rational thoughts? I scream.

But then I’m back in my living room, still screaming. The fire in the hearth doesn’t warm the chills that run down my spine. And the constant cheery chirp of the red-breasted robin, as it sits on the frosted branch, just makes me angry.

I’m lost, trapped in a world of fear.

I don’t want to be saved.

I don’t want anyone to care.

Heartbreak was written on behalf of a challenge set by Fantasy Girl’s college English tutor. The challenge was to write about heartbreak through language, structure, and form, without alerting the reader to the reasons for a character’s broken heart. Fantasy Girl chose to focus on one simple image of vines twisting in on itself in wallpaper – presumably, this challenge was set in response to The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Like Fantasy Girl’s writing? Make sure you check out Commune and Black Mirror.

by Colette

A Boy Who Fell In Love

Written by Rivers of Tarmac

the_boy_and_the_moon

Debuting at the Giffoni Film Festival in Italy two years ago, The Boy and the Moon is a short animation describing his love for the moon.
Image Courtesy of the giffonifilmfestival.it/en/ Film Archives

This is a story about a boy who fell in love. An ordinary boy, at first glance, and he lived an ordinary life. But he was entrusted with a great secret: there is only so much happiness in the world. This boy was the only child who knew this – and at first, that was fine, because with the secret came a responsibility; he could hand out this happiness as he chose. He tried with all his might to keep the happiness fair for everyone. Sometimes, however, he neglected somebody. When this happened, he had to give them something special. Something wonderful. But to hand out something wonderful would mean a big change in the happiness levels somebody would have to lose (edit). And when this happened, whatever it was they lost – if it was their lover, their money, or their pride – he would take it and cast it into the sky, where it would shine brilliantly to remind us that we all must pay the price, but that life can still be beautiful. And while they where there, they could be company for the moon.

The moon had been lonely; lonely for years. Each night, when the boy was finished his tiring work, he would go and watch her. Her dazzling beauty, her kindly generosity, her contained splendour. And as he watched, he felt his heart grow and swell; when he cast friends into the sky for her, however, he felt a cold burn in his chest that he had never known: jealousy. For the boy had come to love the moon as he watched her shining defiantly in the murky, cloudy sky. This innocent young boy with a terrible gift had never felt jealousy – how could you be jealous of anyone when you knew their happiness was another’s pain? And so, as he watched the moon’s stars, the boy felt for the first time in his short life, the stomach twisting envy of another. Continue reading →

by Colette

It’s the Magic Number

chemistry_meme

Classic chem lab chat.
Image Courtesy of sciencememes.tumblr.com

Written by Doishy

If not believing you will see,
We reached 100% efficiency.
Impossible by science but not by me,
Read on and take notes carefully.

In goes thing one; a smelly old gas,
It reacts with thing two
and they have a good laugh.
This makes three things,
of which but one we need,
What we do we the others here you shall see.

Thing three we need, four and five we don’t,
So we send them away to add to something that floats.
They get quite hot and with this heat we burn,
The reaction that causes crank one to turn.

Crank one turns the bowl that holds things three and seven,
Together they merge to form thing eleven.
‘But what about things six to ten?’ you may ask,
They party together in a rather large flask.

This flask forms some heat and some pressure,
Which helps boil some water and make tea for my pleasure.
The product formed from this flask full of stuff,
Is used to make something rather rough.

This rough stuff is placed in the bowl,
After seven has gone eleven taken its toll.
So stuff and eleven finally make,
The reason for this reactions sake.

So what have we made no one quite cares,
Some would say we are mad as march hares.
But the thing we achieved barring making some tea,
Is to reach the impossible 100% efficiency.

Doishy’s piece was inspired by the work he does as a student of science. Mixing chemicals with rhythm and rhyme, Doishy has created a playful, light-hearted poem about the laws of thermodynamics, and how it is completely impossible to reach 100% efficiency. There are lots of elements at play here for sure, period. Hey, don’t blame us for that charming pun! Want to read more of Doishy’s work? Check out Skies and Avolet. 

by Colette

Inkblots New Year Special: Festive Fiction (Part 2)

Image Courtesy of fimfiction-static.net

The sun rises on a new year, and we’ve got some spectacular HHC entries to kick it off in style!
Image Courtesy of fimfiction-static.net

Welcome to our New Year Special – the second and final part of our festive fiction bonanza. Both entries published below have been picked for their startling creativity given the half hour time limit. Doishy’s piece is of particular interest, having taken inspiration from the ingenious and innovative HHC entries we’ve had over the year. The second HHC from Dice – featured after the read more tag – we just couldn’t resist in posting up! It’s another of his Alexander shorts, so we hope you enjoy! 

– Silver, Inkblots Editor

tinkerbell_fairy_wings

We believe in fairies, we do, we do!
Screen taken from Disney’s Secret of the Wings

Door 7 – Fairies

This is Jeremy:
(o.o)

How are you feeling today, J?
(o.o)b

Pretty good then?
d(o.o)b

And why is that?
(O.o)- <3_______________________(*o.o*)

You’ve met a nice girl? That’s wonderful! What’s her name?
-(o.o)-

You don’t know? Why not talk to her?
(@.@)

Ah, nerves. Tell you what… why don’t I talk to her for you?
(o.o)b

Awesome. Excuse me….miss?
(*o.o*) ?

Hi, my name’s Narrator and I was wondering if you would like to go talk to my friend over there, Jeremy.
(<.<) ___________________________(*o.O*)

He is a pretty cool guy, if sometimes a little out of it.
(*o.o*)b

You will talk to him! Awesome. I will let you be then.
(o.o) _____________________________(*o.o*)

(o.o) _________________(*o.o*)

(o.o)_________(*o.o*)

(O.o)_____(*o.O*)

(O.o) <3__(*o.O*)

(O.o) <3__(*o.o*)

(O.o) <3__(*O.o*)

(O.o) <\3_____________(*O.o*)

Well that didn’t go so well did it, J?
(O.O) <\3_______________________________________ (*O.o*)

Faeries aye, am I right?
(¬.¬)

Ah well. Shall we go get drunk instead?
(¬.¬)b

Good lad!
*A few hours later*

f(=.o)- u(o.O) <Riiight……
< And I’m telling you, there was this voice talking to me and a magic girl and it’…it wa’s assuM!

Continue reading →

by Colette

Monthly Editorial: Happy New Year!

NYE_fireworks

Did you bring in the new year in style?
Image Courtesy of telegraph.co.uk

Hey Inkblotters,

Welcome to 2014! And what I term as the year for hope, happiness, life and love. If you had a great 2013, fabulous! But if you didn’t – maybe just like myself – then let’s all look towards a brighter one for 2014; it’s an even number after all. We’ve got a bunch of new content to share with you to kick off the new year in style, so let’s make haste and get on with the show!

First up, we’ve got a brand new contributor under the name of Arwa. She’s written us a delightful poem called “Here Where the Sea Stands”, so look out for it on January 20th. What’s more we’ve got an underlying theme this month (as we usually do) on our written content. I’m not going to lie, this one’s really easy to spot and it will be a dead give-away by the end of the month. Other than three poems for January, we’ve also got lined up some fabulous short fiction starting with our New Year Special. Much like our Christmas Festive Fiction Special, this is part two of our specially selected winter HHCs, so we hope you enjoy it on January 5th. And, of course, there’s much more content for you to read over this month.

In other news, we’ve got a brand new Half Hour Challenge theme for January which is: Inkwell. It’s the word that our forum was born from and what better way to celebrate a new year than looking back to our roots. I’m quite sure there will be many entries of actual inkwells – I’d love to be able to try one out for myself one day! If you’d like to send an entry to us, simply label the header as ‘HHC Entry’ and email to creativewritinginkwell@hotmail.com.

Thanks to all our readers and followers, and we hope to see many more new as well as old readers in the days, weeks and months to come!

– Silver, Inkblots Editor

by Colette

Inkblots Christmas Special – Festive Fiction (Part 1)

holly_bannerHey Inkblotters,

Welcome to our Christmas Special post for all our wonderful readers and followers. This year we’re posting a few festive tales to get you into a sparkling mood from our 24 Door Advent Calendar – exclusive to members of our forum. Below are the first two short stories and more are on the way! So put your feet up, grab a mince pie, mulled wine (or a glass of sherry) and read on…

– Silver, Inkblots Editor

mince_pies

Let’s kick off with a short story with our favourite sweet pastry treat.
Image Courtesy of Splenda at reveal.co.uk

Door 23 – Mince Pies

Written by Rob

Thwak Ng jerked from his reverie, and picked up the ringing phone on his desk.

“Tok Long Viet Kong Education Centre, Major Ng speaking,” he said.

“Ah Ng, good morning, Colonel Bhadi here. Did you get my little gift OK yesterday?”

“Good morning colonel. Yes, the problem has been dealt with in the usual way.”

Colonel Bhadi is puzzled: “Problem? What problem?”

Ng is puzzled by Bhadi’s puzzlement: “We carried out the executions at dawn.”

Colonel Bhadi shouts “who on earth have you executed?”

Ng is worried. “The two men you sent.”

“You’ve shot two innocent batmen?”

“I thought that was what you wanted.”

“Why? In God’s name why? They were just bringing you mince pies.”

“That’s right: we always shoot Minh Spies.”

Continue reading →

by marleylilith

Rewound

Written by Lost in a Dream

A beautiful new world, full of colour and vibrance…

Finally, I emerge from my cocoon
To find the flowers back in bloom.

Their petals burn deep orange and red,
From tears and ashes they were fed.

A new chapter has begun:
Even the cruellest winters
Must yield to rain and sun.

With eyes fixed on an endless sky,
I spread my wings.
Now, I am ready to fly.

Ever ready to see the beauty in life, Lost in a Dream is fast becoming famous over on the Inkwell for her elegant yet impassioned descriptions of the natural world. Here’s another of her gorgeous poems: Parnassus Park.

by marleylilith

Rosebed

Written by Miss Smiley

Beautiful scarlet roses for Mrs Hawthorne…

I only found the book this morning. Not much I can do about it now. It was weird – I found it in my roses, just outside my bedroom window. That should have triggered me off straight-up, but no. No, sensible Mrs Hawthorn Bridge doesn’t spot anything wrong with this.

Naturally, I opened it up. I’m the person who opens up other peoples’ medicine cabinets, after all. Like I wouldn’t open up a weird book outside my house, my room. Puh-lease.

That wasn’t even my first mistake.

It was all in a weird code. I couldn’t make head or tail of it at first. That was exciting. I love a good puzzle. But I was late for work and what was I going to do, leave it there, right outside my bedroom window? I think not.

So I took it to work with me. Thinking about it, it probably wasn’t my best move, but hey – can’t do anything about it now, can I?

I took another glance at the book at lunch time. I really wish I hadn’t. It wasn’t about the code – that was easy, once I’d started. Just a typical picture code – squiggle means A, small cat means C, that kind of thing. That really wasn’t the problem. The problem was the content.

Continue reading →

by Colette

Commune

Written by Fantasy Girl

family_domestic_abuse

Don’t suffer in silence. For more information on Domestic Abuse please see http://www.nationaldomesticviolencehelpline.org.uk/
Image Courtesy of elaph.com

“I can’t deal with this anymore. You’ve sat by and watched this happen for years and you’ve never done a thing about it! How can you live with yourself?” 
“I tell him not to, I swear! I can’t stop him though!”
“It’s not good enough anymore! I hate it here! I hate you for letting him do it! I hate him for everything he’s done! I hate my life!”

She woke with tears in her eyes, quickly wiping them away. “Ouch,” she mumbled, feeling the tightness in her joints as she walked to the mirror to inspect herself. The bruises that mottled her skin had almost disappeared, but the ache was still there.

Just a few pale yellow patches left.

She shook her head in disgust. She pulled on some leggings, a vest and a light cardigan to cover them up, ran a comb through her hair and quietly left her room.

She could hear her mother and father talking in the kitchen as she stood at the top of the staircase. Continue reading →