#alma moore

[here-have-some-stories-2000]

This writing shit's easy

[tobys-characters]

My Characters in Picrews

Alma's Grave:

Alma: for some reason I have the least on her even tho she's the MC

Archie:

Helen:

Jane:

Lucas: why do I have more on him than Alma?!

Space Series (aka: Ryders Gang):

Inigo:

Ryder: I was still figuring out his hair for some of these

Saria: she doesn't loose an eye until later in the series so shhh

Elzbeth:

Hart:

Drenge: This was also while I was figuring out what he looks like, mainly his hairstyle

Al: He's probably the least accurate out of all of them but the second one (middle left) is definetely the closest

Yoyo:

Priscilla:

And the credit for the picrews:

@alienS_UTEU7

@Hunbloom - twitter: https://twitter.com/hunblooms

instagram: https://instagram.com/hunbloom?utm_medium=copy_link

@Maddel_art

@Makowka - twitter: https://twitter.com/makowwka?s=09

instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mischa.makowka/

@Snakeinajar

@Sangled

[here-have-some-stories-2000]

I'VE FINALLY FINISHED EVERY BIT OF PLANNING I NEED TO DO AND I CAN START WRITING THE ACTUAL NOVEL NOW

[here-have-some-stories-2000]

I'm going to show some moodboards I've made for my four main characters in my novel, and I want to see based on the moodboards, who do you think would be you're favourite

Alma Moore (The main character):

Archie Wallace (My favourite):

Helen Miles:

Jane Santos:

Who do you think you're favourite would be?

Alma

Archie

Helen

Jane

I can't decide

Voting ended onFeb 23

[here-have-some-stories-2000]

Alma's Grave Sneakpeak (Chapter one for feedback)

Okay so I don't know if this is a good idea or not, but I put a poll up and most of the 41 people who voted said yes, so I'm gonna do it anyway. This is chapter 1 of the novel I am writing, Alma's Grave (name will probably change).

I'm posting this purely to show you guys a little of it, and to get feedback and whether y'all think it is a good first chapter, and ways I can improve it or things I can/should change later on during editing to make it more interesting.

Please give honest constructive criticism if you have any, but don't be overly mean because you will hurt my feelings and I will cry (joking. Kinda)

Anyway, here it is (under the cut). It is 2269 words long.

WELCOME TO BLEAKLEY’S CEMETERY

A PLACE OF REST.

Open 24 hours to the public.

Alma stood in front of the black plaque on the cemetery’s stone walls. There were tall black metal gates that reached about two metres high, but the “open 24 hours” part of the sign implied they were rarely, if ever, closed. Alma let her gaze drift along the rest of the wall. Smaller plaques with names and dates of lost loved ones lined the stonework. 

Alma didn’t know there was a cemetery here - and in walking distance of her house too. She would have to stop by and check it out at some point, she decided. Hopefully she could remember what way it was. This wasn’t her normal walking route to school, but she was grateful they had gone down this way, or else she wouldn’t have discovered the cemetery.

‘Alma! Hurry up and stop gawking! We got to go!’ Jonathan, her foster dad, called out to her from further up the road. Alma turned and ran to catch up with him, holding onto her brown cap so it wouldn’t fly off in the wind. 

‘Thought you had gone paralysed for a sec there,’ Jonathan was saying as she came level with him. ‘You were staring at that bloody sign for like two minutes.’

She hadn’t been, but Alma didn’t say anything. Talking to Jonathan felt weird to her. She had been living with him and his girlfriend, Courtney, for almost a full year now but it was still rare for him to start up a conversation with her. He would be out doing whatever it was he did during the day, and kept to himself at home most of the time. Though, Alma didn’t mind too much. She also liked to keep to herself.

Alma and Jonathan ended up splitting up, as Jonathan took one road to wherever he went during the day, and Alma took the other to school. Outside the school gates there were the usual friend groups waiting outside for some more of their members to show up, a duo of annoying boys snickering to themselves and showing each other what was probably school-inappropriate photos on their phones, and a few senior students standing at the entrance greeting people as they walked past. They didn’t greet Alma. One of their friends had just shown up and they were too busy hugging each other like they hadn’t just seen each other the day before. 

The different route her and Jonathan had walked took longer than usual, so Alma didn’t have any time to sit around before classes started as she would usually do. Her first class was art, with Ms Blake. Good.

When Alma arrived at the classroom Ms Blake was sitting at her desk typing on her computer, nodding her head up and down to the music she had playing quietly on her speakers. Slowly walking down the hall, faster than a cannonball, Oasis sang. 

Ms Blake was probably the kindest teacher in the school. She was pretty laid back and would let the students get away with things other teachers wouldn’t. Most of these things involved violations of the stupid school rules: No rain jackets in class, no excessive jewellery, no swearing, no phones whatsoever. She was less lenient on the last two, but she didn’t mind if a student was simply using their phone to quickly search something up or text something important to someone, or taking photos. And in terms of swearing as long as you weren't being rude or slurring, she had no problem with it. ‘Just keep it within our class room,’ she would always say. ‘It’s our little secret.’

In addition to not being overly strict, she also was a great teacher. She would explain things in a way that was easy to understand and was patient when students didn’t quite get things the first few times. She would give helpful advice on how to make each student's art piece better without being mean, she cared deeply about each and every one of them and showed it, and - Alma loved this about her- when she said ‘be creative’ she actually meant it. She didn’t mean it in the way some other art teachers meant it, which was usually: ‘Be creative, but in the exact way I tell you to do it.’

Over all, Ms Blake was the best teacher Alma had.

‘Good morning, Alma,’ she greeted as Alma walked in the door. 

‘Morning. I like your dress.’ Ms Blake was wearing a black dress that even though she was sitting, Alma could see it reached down to her ankles. It had a thin gold band around the waist and small white specks flickered all over it. It reminded Alma of the stars and she thought it suited her teacher well. Ms Blake had long wavy black hair, that occasionally she would style back into her natural curls. Her skin was dark along with her eyes, which were a warm and friendly brown. She had a slight but still noticeable Scottish accent, evidence of her years spent growing up in the country. 

‘Why, thank you,’ Ms Blake replied, smiling brightly. ‘I bought it on the weekend. I’m glad to see you like it too. We’re just carrying on with the same work as before. The usual.’

For the past week the class had been working on three pieces of art. Each one was done on an A4 piece of paper and each piece represented a different thing. Something you wanted in the past, something you want in the present, and something you want in the future. Each piece had to be created with a different medium, but other than that, it was full creative choice. Alma was on her second paper now: the present. For her first one, she had drawn in pastels a pencil scribbling on a piece of paper. It was supposed to represent her childhood dream job of being an illustrator. Now, she had moved onto drawing with plain colouring pencils, and couldn’t decide what to do. 

What did she want now? She could think of a few things, but they all seemed too personal to put onto something that would go onto the classroom walls. Alma sat at her seat for almost a full ten minutes, staring at her empty paper trying to come up with some idea.

‘Still thinking?’ 

Alma jumped slightly as Ms Blake’s voice startled her from behind. Ms Blake just laughed.

‘Sorry, didn’t mean to frighten ya.’ She paused for a second. ‘I mean, I did. But not too bad, ya know?’

‘Yeah.’ She couldn’t think of anything else to say.

‘Do you need some help coming up with something? This is all about you and what you want, but I could give you pointers if you need it.’

‘Okay.’ 

Ms Blake pulled a stool over and sat next to Alma. She grabbed the first piece Alma had done and laid it out in front of her. 

‘Right, so you told me this was what you used to want to be, right?’ 

Alma nodded. 

‘So do you know what you want to be now, and you do that.’ 

Alma shrugged. 

‘Haven’t got that figured out yet, have ya?’

Alma shook her head.

‘That’s alright. You’ve got time. For now we can focus on the small things. Remember, this doesn't have to be something deep and meaningful, or even too personal. It can be literally anything you want right now. It could be anything from a trip to Japan to your favourite chocolate bar. So, what do you want right now?”

Alma thought hard. She knew so many things that she wanted in her life, but they all escaped her mind as she tried to focus on one thing. Maybe she was overthinking it. Think simple. She had it.

‘Ghostbusters merch.’ Instantly she felt stupid for saying that. Ms Blake did say she could pick anything, but surely she could do better than that. But her teacher just grinned at her.

'If that’s what you really want then do that,’ she said. ‘Or you can try and think of something else. Whatever you want. And if you’re worried about other people judging you, don’t be. More people than you think express their interests in the same way you do, and less people than you think actually care. So don’t focus on whatever other people think and just focus on you.’

Ms Blake always seemed to know what Alma was thinking. She had been worried about others judging her. And every time, Ms Blake would give her some helpful words of wisdom. 

‘Miss! Can you help me!’ Some kid was calling out across the class. Miss Blake raised her hand in acknowledgement. 

‘I’ll be right there,’ she called back and then lowered her voice back to Alma. ‘You good? You think you can get this sorted?’ Alma nodded, though she wasn’t entirely sure. ‘Cool.’ Ms Blake hopped off of the stool and made her way over to the student in need of help, leaving Alma alone.

She spent the whole rest of the lesson circling ideas around in her head. Some were deep and personal, some were what she considered to be more silly. Good grades, John Legend concert tickets, a friend to talk to,  a pet canary,  mum and dad.

She settled on the canary.

← — →

The rest of Alma’s day went by without much thought. Boring classes with boring topics taught by boring teachers in a room full of probably boring people. Her usual routine was to focus on her work and get things done until she got tired of writing, and then doodle in the margins of the pages until a teacher came round, where she would then go back to doing work. Her pages were now full of rough sketches of birds, some trees and plants here and there, Egon Spengler, and some ghosts, ghouls and cryptids. 

Like most students, interval and lunch were the only parts of the school day she looked forward to. But even then, the peace she had built for herself while sitting under the stairs was constantly being shattered by loud friend groups walking by, teachers walking up to her and asking if she was alright and Josh and Cameron. 

Alma had no idea what about her offended Josh and Cameron so much that they felt the need to pick on her. They were jerks to other classmates, sure, but they were the worst with her. Maybe it was because she stayed quiet and kept to herself. She found that popular kids always hated that for some reason. Maybe it was because she had no friends to sit with, and they saw as an easier target without a squad to back her up and defend her. Or maybe they had just watched one too many American high school set movies and decided the bully characters were their idols. They sure acted like it. 

Alma had noticed that it was usually Josh that made all the decisions. He was a smaller boy and wasn’t that smart. Maybe he was just projecting his insecurities onto her. Cameron was bigger, stronger, and was very smart. He kind of looked like one of those snobby children Alma had seen in cartoons with his clean blonde hair. He had some of the highest grades in the class, and Alma secretly thought that he would go far in life if he stopped hanging around with losers like Josh. 

Their taunts and insults were always the same. They came up to her, would make fun of her for either being a “loner”, call her weird for being so interested in “dumb” things, and judged her for wearing the same outfit everyday: Blue jeans, plain shirt (sometimes she’d switch it up to a graphic one), a brown leather jacket given to her by her uncle, and her brown cap she found on the ground one day and deemed clean enough to keep. 

She was never offended by anything they said. They didn’t know her well enough to really hurt her. And she found it impossible to feel bad when they made fun of her clothes, when they were objectively worse. Josh dressed in a long sleeved striped shirt that made him look even more like a 12 year old boy then he already did, and Cameron willingly chose to wear a blue polo shirt to a school with no uniform, which just solidified Alma’s view of him being a rich kid cartoon. They were still annoying though.

On her way home from school, she went the same way her and Jonathan had used to walk there and passed by the cemetery again. It looked so pretty. The grass looked so cleanly cut, with daisies and dandelions sprouting from the ground. The graves were all in perfect rows, ranging from different sizes and shapes - from rectangular ones to classic looking gravestones, and she even saw one that was in a heart shape. All in all, it was a very beautiful and peaceful looking cemetery. She wanted to go and look around, but right before school had ended she got a text from her foster mum, Courtney. 

Can you come right home after school? I need some help cleaning around the house. 

Another day, Alma decided. She would come by and just walk around, taking in the scenery and calmness of this resting place. Maybe take a seat somewhere in the soft looking grass and sketch the flowers or trees at the back of the cemetery grounds. 

Just not today. 

Please tell me honestly what you think of it, and what you think could use improvement. Again, I am open to, and encouraging and wanting, honest constructive criticism and feedback, because this is more than just writing silly stories for Tumblr. This is the only piece of the book I will post most likely, apart from small little snippets to make jokes.

[here-have-some-stories-2000]

I'm bored and it's pride so here have some quotes from my novel, Alma's Grave, from the chapter where they talk about queer stuff. AKA: Just a straight up excerpt from that chapter

‘When did you and Helen first get together?’ [Alma said.]

Jane pursed her lips, searching her mind for dates. ‘I think I was about twenty, so she would have been around twenty-two. We had liked each other since before that but we didn’t think we could actually do anything about it. People wouldn’t have approved of us dating back then. I know people have become more accepting of it, but I don’t know how much has changed since we died.’

Alma glanced at Helen and Jane’s shared gravestones and read their death years. 2001 and 2002. They wouldn’t know, she thought.

‘It’s legal now,’ she told Jane. 

‘What is?’

‘Gay marriage. Same sex marriage. They legalised it sometime in the 2010s.’

Jane’s eyes lit up with pride and astonishment. She didn’t say anything at first, shocked at how much the world had progressed since she had been alive. A small smile began to form that stretched into a wider one as she celebrated the fact. Alma saw there were tears forming in her eyes.

‘Really?’ she asked in a quiet voice. Alma nodded.  Jane released a breath, her fingers fiddling with the dog tag around her neck. ‘Wow. I mean, that’s amazing. I wish we could have seen it. You know, I call Helen my wife, and she calls me hers, but we could never actually make it official. It would have been nice.’ She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand before moving it to lay on her shoulder. Alma got the sense Archie had his own hand there.  ‘At least other people get to do it now, though.’

‘Would have been nice if it was legal when I was alive,’ Archie said. Alma’s curiosity stirred at that statement. 

‘Did you ever get married, Archie?’ she asked, trying not to sound too personal with the question. ‘Or did you have a partner or something?’ She sensed him shaking his head.

‘Nope,’ he said, then amended his statement. ‘Well, I did. I had a girlfriend. But I never really liked liked her, y’know? I thought I did, but I just liked her as a friend. I think I was kinda pressured into it because all my friends had girlfriends. I’ve never really been interested in dating or marrying or–’

'Just romance in general,’ Jane finished for him. She didn’t say it in a teasing way. Just in a way that said she knew her friend's mind and  they had talked about it before. 

‘Yeah,’ Archie confirmed.

‘Me neither,’ said Alma. ‘I remember feeling weird because my old school friends were getting crushes on the boys in my class and I never did.’

‘That’s exactly what happened with me!’ Archie said, suddenly excited that someone felt the same way. ‘My friends used to make fun of me for being alone. I used to think people were lying about all those feelings and stuff, or exaggerating it. But then my brother told me it was real and I was just weird.’

For a bit of context, at this point in the story Alma cannot see Archie, only Jane (and Helen but she's not here - I might change that later, this feels like a chapter she should be in). She can hear him and has very strong feelings and senses of where he is and what he's doing but she can't actually see him yet.

Archie is aroace, Alma is aromantic, Jane is a lesbian and Helen is bisexual.

[here-have-some-stories-2000]

I'm bored and want to do more book posting before my dinner's ready so here, have five songs from each playlist I've made for my novel, Alma's Grave, so far:

Alma's Grave playlist (main one):

Vienna by Billy Joel

Baby It's Alright by The Cross

Dream A Little Dream Of Me by The Mamas and the Papas

This Old Ghost Town by The Fratellis

A Dustland Fairytale by The Killers

Alma's Playlist:

Everybody's Lonely by Jukebox The Ghost

Kristy, Are You Doing Okay? by The Offspring

Moonage Daydream by David Bowie

Let Down by Radiohead

Romance Is Boring by Los Campesinos!

Archie's Playlist:

No One But You (Only The Good Die Young) by Queen

I'm In Love With My Car by Queen

Henrietta by The Fratellis

Hotel California by The Eagles

Starman by David Bowie

Helen's Playlist:

Kokomo by The Beach Boys

Here Comes The Sun by The Beatles

Dancing Queen by ABBA

You're My Best Friend by Queen

Twist And Shout by The Beatles

Jane's Playlist:

Shot At The Night by The Killers

These Are The Days Of Our Lives by Queen

The Last Songbird by The Fratellis

All Dead, All Dead by Queen

For Reasons Unknown by The Killers

Helen and Jane's Playlist:

Baby Doll by The Fratellis

La Vie en Rose - any version, but the one I put is Con O'Niell

Dreamers Ball by Queen

A Winter's Tale by Queen

Darlin' by The Beach Boys

All of these are pretty much just vibes, and the songs are also all straight from my playlists which is why there's a lot of the same artists (Queen)

[here-have-some-stories-2000]

I think I just wrote the best line in literature

They're talking about gay marriage