Books
In Search of Beira’s Hammer
Novella | fantasy | humorous | folklore | fiction
An adventure filled with silliness, folklore, grumpiness, and absurdity. In Search of Beira’s Hammer follows Scarlet and Amhlaidh on their adventures along the West Highland Way in Scotland. Scarlet travels from Berlin to look for a legendary hammer that will allow her to perfect her city. On the way, she meets Amhlaidh, a grumpy troll, who is willing to help her at a cost. Join them in their search, discovering Beira, kelpies, and other legendary creatures along their way, and find out how their adventure unfolds.
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Stories
Namibian Oasis
memoir | short story | humorous
Woken by the smell of coffee, all five of us begin to shuffle out of our respective beds in preparation of the starting day. I’ve never liked coffee myself, but I have always found its fragrance energising. Its correlation to the morning shuffle simply strengthened by its habitual morning presence.
An orchestra of teeth being brushed and showers being started is accompanied by backpack zippers in search of a clean outfit for the day. It’s still close to the beginning of our trip, so we haven’t reduced ourselves yet to sniffing the clothing that successfully makes it out of the bag; in the hope that it may not poison our companions or any wildlife that is unlucky enough to bump into us. The orchestra begins to settle, and we start making our way down the stairs following a trail of bacon aroma.
Lionkota
fiction | sci-fi | distopian
The promise of a new world is a common theme in literature and conversation. It preys on that belief every person reaches at some point in time, that the problems in one’s current world are beyond fixing; that there is no hope for humanity to carry on the way that it has for so many centuries. It’s like a vulture waiting for the last glimmer of positivity to leave one’s body and feast on the remains. And so, our world had come to that through global warming, the rise of nationalism, new wars, extremism and the extinction of many species thanks to us. We were on a planet claiming equity, but failing to practice what it preached.
West Highland Way
memoir | short story | humorous
It was 6:30 in the morning and the streets of Glasgow were silent. An empty crisp packet rolled in front of us, like an urban tumbleweed enhancing the soundless city. We crossed the intersection and walked into the train station, just in time for our 20 minute train to Milngavie.
We were ready for our adventure. The kind of ready that comes from the heart, rather than proper planning. It had to be, as we had realised only a week before our trip that the recommended amount of training for the trail is 3 months of daily walking up and down steep hills. With our hiking shoes on, backpacks packed, and a new understanding of the Glaswegian english, we confidently walked out of the train at the Milngavie station.
Poems
No life without palm trees
A missing smile at the passing of a palm tree
like a gust of winter wind – cold, yet unseen.
The setting of the clutching branches free
abruptly calm and unexpectedly serene.
A missing smile at the passing of an ice cream
travelling through the void of a mariachi’s guitar
merging into an eternal musical stream
on a journey to becoming the dust of a star
A missing smile at the passing of a beach
silenced by the laughter of a small wave.
Your absence there, yet out of reach
leaving a small but timeless breach
Grains of opportunity
Dysphoria is buried slowly beneath the sand
as silence effaces the remnants of memories
The desert seizes all it surrounds
creating a coarse new canvas for the patient
It sees no past and has no conviction
as the sun seals what is forgotten beneath the grains
And that which was once unsettled
remains but a skeleton in a timeless illusory cage
Opportunity
The ashes of the past
dance upon your solar wings
in glittering lament
The trail of discovery
is devoured by the tempest
through a deafening howl
Your words echo within the waves
“My battery is low
and it’s getting dark”