Flash Fiction: There was a ring in his teacup…

Connor had never been the type of man who could sit beside a window and marvel at all of the things Mother Nature had to offer. No he was much more likely to be out in nature, chopping wood and shooting things, but after his accident he couldn’t do those things anymore and so he was delegated to spending his days watching the world go by.

With a grunt Connor pushed himself away from the window feeling some disgust at himself and wheeled himself over to the small wrought iron table in the middle of the conservatory.

He had been reading a rather magnificent book when something had caught his eye outside. Reading seemed to be the only thing that kept him sane after the karma he was delivered when he was paralysed. 

“Here you go Mr. Wolfe,” his carer Aly placed the teacup down in front of him and the fragrant scent of coffee wafted into his nose.

“Thank you Aly,” Connor said as he took a sip.

Aly moved herself to the corner of the conservatory and picked up her knitting where she had left off. 

Connor took another sip of his coffee and felt something hit the back of his throat. He coughed and spluttered and Aly, in a panic, tripped over her knitting yarn and broke her nose on the tiled floor.

He couldn’t breathe, had Aly tried to kill him? Finally he coughed up whatever had been blocking his throat and saw a ring… There was a ring in his teacup? 

He examined the ring and saw that it was quite beautiful, a stunning cut of emerald…but he had never seen it before.

Where had it come from? 

Review: Frankenstein

Okay so I finished reading Frankenstein and I thought I’d just let you all know my thoughts. I’ve never actually written a book review before but you always have to start somewhere!  

Okay, so starting off with the basic: Did I like the book?

Yes, I did enjoy reading the book. I did find that it was slow to start and didn’t really have any ‘wow!’ moments (except for one which I’ll get into next). I thought that the book was not as good as it has been hyped up to be and just because it’s a ‘classic’ doesn’t mean that it’s automatically a fantastic book. That being said; I can appreciate the history behind it, Mary Shelley and feminism and all of that. 

So next: Characters.

Victor Frankenstein-I liked him, I thought that he was a very interesting character. He’s a bit douchey, especially towards the creature but he loves his family and was genuinely heartbroken at all the carnage caused because of his desire to create something that no one had ever created.

The Creature – I felt so sorry for this poor thing, all he wanted was love and friendship but everyone judged him on how hideous he was. He was so desperate to have companionship and every time he tried, like with the De Lacy’s, it was just ripped away. 

Clerval – I didn’t really form a great opinion about him as he was more of a secondary character than anything. But his death was the saddest to me, maybe because it was so shocking to me. I literally gasped out loud when I read that. 

Father – he was such a typical dad, always looking out for his kids. I liked the character, I felt that he wanted the best for his son, Victor, and was understanding of his desires.

Elizabeth – didn’t really care for this character, to me she was just kind of there. I thought that she was a little bit vapid and only really cared about getting married (but that was common for the time period that Frankenstein was written in).

The next thing that I want to talk about is the Plot:

I enjoyed the plot, I liked how Mary Shelley used flashbacks to tell the story. The plot was continuous and told in a linear fashion that was easy to understand. 

Overall I enjoyed the book, I probably wouldn’t read it again but it was nice to read such an old classic. 

Ellan xx 

Flash Fiction!: Time Travel, A Bookmark and The Angel Gabriel.

*just a quick note, this is completely unedited and is my first attempt at flash fiction. Constructive criticism is welcome!*

******

The moonlight shone through the open window and illuminated the small room. A man sat alone in a small corner of the dusty room reading and old and rare book by the light of a candle. He took his glasses off of his face and squeezed the bridge of his nose, he ran his hand down his face and over his bearded chin. He had been trying to decode this book for hours and to no avail.

The man looked towards the open window and stared up at the moon as if it held the answers to all of his questions. 

“Please! Please sweet Luna, help me understand!” He shook his head, feeling silly for talking to a white orb in the sky. With a harsh sigh he stood from the old brown cracked leather chair and the movement caused the flame to flicker, the light dancing over the peeling walls. The chair had a smell of old cigar smoke that the old man who used to occupy the small space smoked. 

The wooden floor creaked in the silence as he walked towards the oak table and grabbed the bookmark he had left there earlier in the night. 

The bookmark had been left in one of the pages of the book he had been trying to decode. The old man must’ve put the book down once and never picked it up again before his untimely demise.

The man flipped the cardboard bookmark over and stared into the eyes of the Angel Gabriel. Odd, the old man wasn’t religious in the slightest. Strange that he would use such an iconic religious figure whilst trying to read this particular book.

The man ran the tip of his index finger over the face of Gabriel,something was different and this bookmark. Whilst the actual material was cardboard, the eyes looked like they were two shining gems. He held the bookmark up to the light produced by the moon and the strangest thing occurred. 

Where the moonlight hit the bookmark the eyes of Gabriel seemed to glow, as if from within. The man was intensely confused, he had never come across such a thing!

He unconsciously walked closer to the window, as if trying to get closer to the light. A smile touched his bearded face and he felt the eyes pull him in. Pulling him to something.

He glanced down to the bottom of the bookmark where he noticed some writing. It seemed to be in Latin, finally something he could understand!

“Through Gabriel you travel.” What on earth could that mean? 

He read the inscription out loud in wonder, maybe if the words were outspoken a spark might ignite in his mind and he would understand. A bright light caught the mans attention and he looked up only to realise that the light was coming from the eyes of Gabriel. They were getting brighter as if the moonlight had been poured directly into them.

He raised his other hand to his eyes to shield them and after a few seconds of that blinding light, it disappeared. He moved his hand away from his face and gasped.

It was still nighttime, but he was no longer in the small room that had previously been occupying. He was standing in some kind of desert, his feet were resting in cold sand. He spun around in a circle, the logical part of his mind refusing to comprehend what had just happened. 

There was a small light in the distance, it seemed to be a fire of some kind, it was flickering with the wind. The man took one small step and stopped, he looked down at the picture of Gabriel and squeezed his arm tighter around the book that was tucked under his arm. 

Gabriel seemed to be smiling, as if he held a secret that he wasn’t privy to. But he knew. He didn’t know how but he knew. 

He knew that he was no longer in the twenty-first century, he wasn’t sure how but he knew he wasn’t. It was almost as if Gabriel was speaking directly to his mind. 

The man felt his heart quicken in a panic and looked up towards the sky that was completely blanketed in billions of tiny pin pricks of white stars, he had never seen so many stars! 

There was one bright light that shone brighter than the rest, his sweet Luna. He felt his heart rate return to normal, he knew that he was in some other time, he wasn’t sure where or when but he knew, but no matter where he was his sweet Luna hadn’t changed. 

Now he just had to find out where… Or when… He was. 
*I know that this is very rough, but I would love to know what you think!*

Ellan xx

Franken-update

So just a little current book update.

I’m currently reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley for university (I have to write an easy on it, kill me now) and it’s okay, not fantastic like everyone makes it out to be, but it’s okay.

It’s so funny though because I know that this book, back in 1818 was scary, it was a horror book, but reading it today it’s comical. 

Maybe that’s because I’ve been showered in horror movies since god knows what age and I’ve seen my fair share (that also contributes to my inability to sleep with my leg hanging off the bed, no ghost is dragging me down my hallway). 

Anyway, it’s okay, I’m halfway through it and I have to finish it by next week so I should finish it either tonight or tomorrow and I might do a full review once I’ve finished.

There’s so many Frankenstein reviews is one more really necessary? 

Anyway, go read some classics and giggle at the difference in writing style 🙂

Ellan x

Flash-fiction Prompts!

Hey all you wonderful writers out there in Internet land.

I spent a majority of my day today finishing up this week for Uni, reading Frankenstein and then scouring through Pinterest for some interesting and helpful writing prompts.

I came across this fantastic website:

http://www.eadeverell.com/100-days-flash-fiction-prompts/ 

Which offers a 100 days of flash fiction writing prompts ebook (for free). I’m going to be using these prompts for the next 100 days to keep me motivated 🙂 


I thought that if anyone is out there and is stuck in a writing slump, these little prompts could help you! 🙂 so read along. 

The website also offers a bunch of writing inspiration and tools so check. It. Out.

Like I mentioned in my introductory post I am hoping to post everyday (that’s the plan anyway) with my writings. 

So stay tuned, watch this space, hang around and whatever little saying you can think of that will keep you here 🙂

Have a wonderful day! 

Ellan x

Welcome!

Hello everyone! For those of you who search through the tags and stumble across this post… Welcome! Let’s sit and have a coffee and a chat quickly.

I thought that I would make my first post a welcome post and add a little bit about me into it. So grab your mug and take a sip.

My name is Ellan, I am 21 (turning 22 in September and I think I may have a panic attack about that), I am a writer and an aspiring author. I am currently in university and trying to get my Bachelor’s degree majoring in English. I am also completing Creative Writing courses. I live in Australia and it’s not as great as everyone makes it out to be…also, yes we have winter and yes it gets cold.

I have been writing for as long as I can remember, even when I was a little girl my mum always tells me that whenever we went shopping I would also make a beeline straight for the pens and notebooks (I possibly have the largest collection of half-filled and empty notebooks ever). That brings me to my next point, I love to collect things.

I collect notebooks, pens, DVD’s and TV series, books, candles and most recently I’ve started collecting crystals and gems. I am a little bit of a hoarder, I have a drawer in my bedroom that is called the ‘stash drawer’ it’s filled to the brim with crap I don’t need but I will probably never throw it away ‘just in case I need it’ (even though I haven’t touched anything in there for about five years but that’s beside the point).

I encourage reading. I love reading, I think that the stigma that is held around reading being a ‘nerdy’ thing is something that just needs to eff off. Reading is amazing. It can grab a hold of your soul and just keep it forever. One day I want to be a librarian (on top of being an author) so that I can encourage children to read, so that those children have someone who supports their hobby and lets them know that reading is not nerdy or weird or lame, it’s an escape.

I am getting into cooking more and more. I love to try new things, make new dishes from scratch. My oven is broken though so it’s difficult for me to cook things that I really want to, but I have almost mastered to microwave cake! (gross I know, but it works). I like to light a few candles and shut the kitchen door so that nobody can interrupt me (ahem, annoy me, ahem) and play some music and shut off. It really is quite relaxing.

I love baths, but I don’t have one so I settle for showers. I love history! Both ancient and modern. My favourite part of history is the viking history, the celtic history and the medieval English history. I love love love the Tudors (you know, Henry the 8th, Anne Boleyn and all that jazz). I love reading historical fiction, mysteries, fantasy, Young Adult, New Adult, literary works, classics… blah blah blah the list goes on.

On this blog I will post daily, sometimes twice a day except Sunday because… NO POST ON SUNDAYS! (I’ve never actually read Harry Potter please don’t kill me). Each day I will find a writing prompt on Pinterest and write something from there, I will also include book reviews, currently reading posts, my own novel updates and just random musings about an essay I read, my schoolwork, a TV series I’m watching, the new crystals I get etc etc. So this will be a very active blog and a way for me to improve on my writing and get where I want to be in my career.

I know that this is a long post but we’re just getting to know each other! We’ve gotta get it all out in the first meeting.

I look forward to getting to know many of you in the writing and book communities.

Be kind!

Ellan x