Gidget Bates
Fear me! For the dreams that whirled within my head,
that fell abandoned beneath your tread,
rise now from ash with phoenix dread!
Week eight of Three Line Thursday and another prompt.
This collection of stories really caught my attention and grabbed my emotions…if you’re looking for a book of poignant short stories, this could be it.
The collective of authors over at Read, Write, Muse got together to write about the theme of ‘portals’ and they created a beautiful book that touches your heartstrings!
Through The Portal by a collective of authors at Read, Write, Muse
Sometimes it’s the most simple of stories that hit you. Rob Holliday’s Hotspots did just that, such poignancy and sadness edged with beautiful description of love and a story that will stay with me. As with The Bridge, by D.M. Kilgore, again something simple, and for a moment I thought too saccharine sweet, but it pulled at my heartstrings and took me to a beautiful place, resonating with me, because my first novel also touches on very similar places.
L.E. Custodio’s poem With Heaven as my Guide …took me to a place of wonder as references made me smile and I was right there lost within those stories.
S.R. Karfelt’s brilliant opening line of Portal Potty grabbed me with such intensity that I couldn’t stop reading and when I did, my heart broke. My heart also wept for the true stories shared, emotions that again resonated as I’ve suffered that demon depression and been touched by the sadness of cancer in my life.
This is a collection, from poetry to flash fiction, short stories and novellas to non-fiction that offers you something of everything. Whatever your favourite genre, you’ll find something here. A teaser for LaDonna Cole’s Torn series has beguiled me and I am looking to discover more from several of these authors.
I’ve only touched on a few of the stories here, you’ll have to buy the anthology to choose your own favourites!
A tender set of pieces coming from pain and suffering, but then its only through the pain and opposition in life that we get to appreciate the best of life! Tales of love, of battle and of a will to triumph…
Find it on Amazon UK, Amazon US in eBook and paperback, and on Goodreads.
And for the first year Read, Write, Muse will donate $1 per book sale to a cancer related charity.
My oldest, Rayn, just returned from their first Comic Con: Cardiff Film and Comic Convention at the Motorpoint Arena. They had an amazing time, and one day they’ll take me with them!
It was the culmination of great desire and months of hard, hard work creating their own costume…to go to a Comic Con and not cosplay? No way!
They finally decided on Thranduil from The Hobbit and got down to it. They needed much, including a sword, crown, elf ears, long blond wig and an elven coat. I saw it in many states of array and watched the whole costume come together. I was wide-eyed at the range of their talent, talent they already had and new ones! The silver coat was miraculously hand sewn from scratch, and is gorgeous!
The money, time and dedication that goes into a cosplay costume is legendary, and a lot…then they got to wear it, and they looked stunning!
They got to take photos with Sylvester McCoy, the Seventh Doctor and Radagast The Brown and also sat upon the Iron Throne! They were stopped, too many times to count, by other fans wanting to take pics with them, and they loved the time to meet so many like-minded cosplayers! The costumes were first rate…and this is where the most amazing guy turned up.
Antti Karppinen, a young Finnish photographer, was there with a small set up and took photos of the fans. Seriously, this young man’s talent is fantastic, but his ethos was even better…he wanted to take pictures of the fans because he realised what the Comic Con was all about – without the fans the celebrities wouldn’t be celebrities – and he wanted to give something back.
Please read his story here, you won’t regret it and take a look at the other stunning photos he took! Assasin’s Creed, The Beast, Constantine,Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle, Super Girl, Spiderman, Loki and more…they all rock! Follow him on Facebook too.
His photo was probably the culminating moment of Comic Con, a permanent photographic record of a costume that took hours and hours of blood, sweat and tears, and lots of determination and love! And a photo of my child that I can treasure…Now take me next time!
* Note – This post has been edited to use Rayn’s pronouns, and their deadname has been removed. This hasn’t been done in the comments, but the comments are very much appreciated! (2026)
I was invited by LaDonna Cole to offer up a Top Ten and the theme really made me think…so pop over to Read Write Muse and discover what lies beneath…
What have you discovered underneath or beneath? Let me know your stories too…
Inspired by my new release ‘Beneath the Old Oak’ available at Amazon…find out what Meg discovers beneath her beloved oak…
This is what LaDonna thought of ‘Beneath the Old Oak’:
‘A lightning bolt of a story that burns from the inside out.
Maneuvering through early teen years is difficult at best. Add a mother with mental illness, a family history riddled with mystery, and an ancient oak eager to share its secrets, and you have a beautifully poignant tale. Meg doesn’t know why her mother seems broken, but increasingly frightening incidents culminate in her sudden disappearance. Left to negotiate through grief and loss and the fear that she is also broken, Meg turns to her only stalwart friend, the ancient oak tree, guardian of the neighborhood’s best and worst moments. Journey with Meg through the sorrow and agony of a parent’s mental illness to discover a hidden path to healing her own bruised heart.
Beneath the Old Oak delves deeply into the helplessness of a family torn apart by depression, leaving hope scattered like fallen leaves.’
LaDonna Cole RN, BS, CAR Therapist and Author of Heartwork Village, Grief Recovery Curriculum.
© Lisa Shambrook
Kate’s eye twitched, and the corner of her pinched mouth began to rise, almost imperceptibly, but it did, curling into a sneer that even Kate wasn’t aware of. Slugs, not butterflies, churned in the pit of her stomach, writhing in the green acid of resentment as Kate sat across from her cheerful sister.
Emma chatted with purposefully casual words, and Kate gazed distractedly at the halo caused by the shaft of sunlight behind her sister’s bouncing ponytail.
Kate ignored the prickles that danced across her own skin and hurriedly retracted her hand as Emma tentatively reached across the table, squinting as both time and the sun moved slowly across the hall. Kate’s chest tightened as the warden called out and she caught Emma’s swallow and barely concealed smile, and her sister left with a spring in her step that her own stiff, burdened pace hadn’t seen in over two long years.
A visceral piece for Lillie McFerrin’s renowned Five Sentence Fiction…have a go yourself, with the prompt word Envy…
The Last Krystallos 