Diary of a Madwoman

Lovecraft: "The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents" …but maybe writing can help us make sense of this mess!

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Evelyn Mazurek, March 21st 1925 - October 9th 2020

Evelyn Mazurek, March 21st 1925 – October 9th 2020

My grandmother, Evelyn Mazurek, passed away yesterday. This poem is an elegy to her. Grandma, you will always be loved, missed, and remembered.

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#happyfarmer 😂 (at Xichang) https://www.instagram.com/p/CF3yUQjlcXw/?igshid=1hrcbvh89d95h

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#autumn🍁 is beautiful here #daliangshan #sichuan (at Xichang) https://www.instagram.com/p/CF3x_x8locP/?igshid=1duqx6rtf4sjg

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Omnomnom #koreanbbq (at Chengdu, Sichuan) https://www.instagram.com/p/CFWzjfcF9qn/?igshid=6aolaqzxdsrh

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#成都理工大学 #autumnsunset https://www.instagram.com/p/CE9BwxFl6u-/?igshid=1jto4c7ht17wa

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If it harms none

If it harms none

This is my 100th post on this blog! Amazing. This piece is something between a “Diary”, a “Pondering” and a “Rant”, but I’ll tag it “Pondering”… Feel free to comment and continue the discussion!

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“If it harms none, do as you will.” That’s what I believe. I believe it’s the one and only tenet you’ll ever need to exist in this world. So why is it so hard for me to embody?

I have a…

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Flash Fiction: Spiral (June 2020)

Flash Fiction: Spiral (June 2020)

I conclude my 15-day catch up with something I wrote this year. I’ve been going to the writing group a lot less for various reasons. A lot of what I wrote in 2020 has been posted on my Instagram (my poetry), and I’ve also been working on longer projects.

Thank you for reading and following my blog. I will move to posting weekly now as I find my way as a writer on the great, wide interwebs 🙂

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Flash Fiction: Paper Tiger, A Chengdu Story (September 2018)

Flash Fiction: Paper Tiger, A Chengdu Story (September 2018)

Oops, posting a little late today! Tomorrow will be the last catch up day 🙂

In this piece, names have been changed to protect our privacy, but it is a fictionalisation of something that actually happened to my husband as we moved out of our last apartment. I’ve included the original Sichuanhua (Sichuanese) phrases, presented phonetically, with footnote explanations. Enjoy!

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Paper…

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Flash Fiction: Be Careful With That! (July 2019)

Flash Fiction: Be Careful With That! (July 2019)

This is it, lovelies, the final three pieces in my 15-day catch up! Today, a piece from last year, another writing group prompt. Since getting married, I have begun occasionally drifting away from young adult/fantasy/sci-fi. Don’t get me wrong, that’s still my favourite genre to write, but now I will come out with pieces like this one. Please enjoy!

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Be Careful With That!

The…

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Flash Fiction: Fairy Tale Ending (August 2018)

Flash Fiction: Fairy Tale Ending (August 2018)

This piece is another from the writing group, more of a prelimary idea than a sleek, finished piece. It’s a little rough around the edges but hopefully you enjoy the whimsy 🙂

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Fairy Tale Ending

From glitter and mist the scene resolved around Huihui: a castle kitchen, complete with ash-heaped hearth, a twiggy broom propped up in the corner, and the whip-tailed flash of mice ducking…

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Fiction: Extended Longevity (March 2018)

Fiction: Extended Longevity (March 2018)

We’re two thirds through my 15-day catch-up. I have five more stories for you, then I’ll move to posting weekly updates, stories and poems. Thanks for following along thus far!

Today’s piece is from a writing group prompt based on one of our writer’s original characters who had lived to be 200 years old. Again, this short story leaves us with many questions, and the seed for a larger story!…

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Flash Fiction: Self-portrait (April 2018)

Flash Fiction: Self-portrait (April 2018)

Ugh, Monday again… Well, here’s a little something about me, written for a writing group prompt.

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Self-portrait

I hate the ocean. It frightens me, with its chill depths and undertow. I hate the sand getting into all those little places; I feel my body will never be clean again. Cleanliness, next to godliness, though I wouldn’t ever lay claim to that. Who wants to be placed on a…

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Flash Fiction: Assimilation (July 2018)

Flash Fiction: Assimilation (July 2018)

This is a little sci-fi piece I did for the writing group. I only ever imagined it as this little flash piece, but there’s definitely potential for it to grow into a bigger story! For example, we only get one side of the epistolary exchange here…

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Subject: Made it to Earth!Date:2435-09-29 23:41From:Xenia Charles <[email protected] >To:Andromeda Baktri

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Flash Fiction: Rubi & the Darkness (June 2018)

Flash Fiction: Rubi & the Darkness (June 2018)

One of the novels I’m working on, titled “Kiri’s Calling,” tells of a young girl named Kiri who is chosen to fight the Reign of Darkness that threatens the magical Seven Realms. I’d like to share a little side story from this world.

The Darkness came to the north first, to Atalaska, the Realm of Ice and Snow. It was a time of struggle, but people never lost hope or faith that one day they…

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Poem: Remember This Year (December 2019)

Poem: Remember This Year (December 2019)

I think a lot of us had a rough 2019. We thought it couldn’t get any worse… Anyway, for my last poem this week, I present “Remember This Year”, a poem for 2019.

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Remember This Year

Tonight I am a vapor of memories

whispering through this city

with the wind at my back.

Tonight is the end

of one hell

of a year.

Remember:

the teeth of his lying smile,

the words…

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Poem: Flying (December 2019)

Poem: Flying (December 2019)

In November/December 2019, Spittoon Literary Collective put on an event called “Megacity”. I composed this poem at the height of it in an attempt to capture who I was in that moment.

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Flying

You don’t need wings to fly. I do it on two wheels. She did it with a broomstick. He does it with a little pill. “Everybody had to be drunk on something.”

You don’t need wings to fly. They…

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Poem: Untitled [curves] (March 2019)

Poem: Untitled [curves] (March 2019)

No intro needed! Please enjoy.

Please let me know what you thought by liking or commenting~ Sending love ❤

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