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Homecoming

I stare out the window, watching, waiting. Mom says to be patient, but I can’t help getting excited. I’ve been waiting months for this day! Every passing car makes my heart skip a beat, until finally one pulls up in front of the house. I run to the door and throw it open. I’m outside before Mom and my brother can catch up. A man in a uniform steps out of the jeep. He kneels on the sidewalk and I throw myself into his arms. His hug is even stronger than I remember. I catch a glimpse of the neighbor’s flag over his shoulder, and without even thinking, I say “Thank you!” This is always the best part of the year. Dad’s home!

This coming weekend
Take the time to thank someone
Who’s served your country
Remember they risk their lives
So we can live in freedom!


Dedicated to all the veterans out there. Thank you for your service to our country! Have a blessed Veterans Day weekend!

Terrors in the Dark (Colleen’s Weekly #Poetry Challenge – #Tanka)

October twilight

Monsters rule the witching hour

Terrors in the dark

Hear their cries of “Trick or Treat!”

On this festive Halloween!


My response to the first of Colleen Chesebro‘s Weekly Poetry Challenges for November: Fright & Night. The twist for this month is to only use synonyms for the prompt words! For this challenge, I chose to write a Halloween-themed tanka. I hope you enjoy the poem! Thanks for the prompt, Colleen!

A Sonnet for Halloween

The sunset on the last October day
Will usher in the year’s most haunted night.
Throughout the streets, the monsters start to stray
To fill the evening air with screams and fright.

The autumn moon shines brightly in the sky.
The sound of howling werewolves gives you chills.
While vampire bats and witches’ broomsticks fly,
The ghosts and zombies fill the night with thrills.

Dressed up like all the monsters they adore,
Young children start their quest for something sweet.
They plan to knock on every neighbor’s door
And earn free candy shouting “Trick or treat!”

Enjoy the year’s most frightfully fun scene!
I wish you all a Happy Halloween!

Darkened Heart

I didn’t believe it when they said what I’d become.

But deep down, I knew it must be true.

I no longer felt any warmth inside me.

The taste of blood had become delectable.

And the sunlight burned like fire.

Embrace the darkness, they said.

Accept what you are.

No longer human.

Cursed soul.

Vampire.


This piece is based on What If? Exercise 93: “Ten to One”. The exercise is to write a 55-word story in which the first sentence has ten words, the second has nine, etc., until the last sentence has only one word. The objective is to show that precision and thrift in writing can produce surprisingly powerful results. I hope you enjoy what I’ve written. Thanks for reading!

Stronger Than You

You think you’re so tough, don’t you?

You think you have limitless power. Every time you strike, it gives you such a high. You revel in the chaos and devastation you create. It’s never enough; no matter how much pain you cause, you always want more.

I know because I’ve been watching you from the start.

I know why you do what you do. You think you can tear down their spirits. You think if you hit them hard enough, you can break them. You think if you destroy them from the inside, you can win.

But I also know that you’re wrong. You will never win. You can hit them as hard as you want, and you may even break a few, but you will never destroy them all. Because on the other side, there will always be someone to catch them, to heal them, to mend their spirits and send them right back out to fight you and everything you stand for.

That someone is me.

Every time you threaten them, I tell them not to be afraid. Every time you hurt them, I defy the impossible to heal them. Every time you break them, I embrace them and remind them that they will recover, that the pain will make them stronger, that it’s not the end.

You want everyone to know they should fear you. But I want you to know that you should be afraid too, because no matter how many hearts you break, how many souls you claim, or how many lives you take, you will never defeat me.

You forget that for every one spirit you break, many more rise up against you. For every one soul you claim, countless others flock to me. For every one person you push over the edge, hundreds find solace in my love and choose to believe in the better life I promise. We outnumber you, and we always will.

So be very afraid, Despair.

Because my name is Hope.

And I will always be stronger than you.

For the Love of Writing

Writing is my life, my love, my greatest passion.
Writing is who I am.
Writing is who I was always meant to be.

Books were my first gateway to this world, the magical world of fiction.
I read them every day as a child, devoured their words like chocolate.
Every day, they welcomed me with open pages and promises of wonderful and imaginative stories.
And they never disappointed me.

I knew I wanted to join them, those great authors who had invited me into their minds, into their homes, into their worlds.
I aspired to share in their magic.
And I knew from that young age that I had found the only path on which I would always belong.
I had taken my first step on the greatest journey of my life.

I penned short stories as frequently as ideas came to me.
I started several books (though I never finished most).
I scribbled words anywhere and everywhere I felt the spark of creativity.
My magical world was open and growing every day.

Fiction was my whole world, but there came a time when my own writing fell behind.
I stopped creating so many stories.
Before I knew it, the ideas stopped flowing.
And my magical world grew dark.

For years, I felt lost without my words.
My stories hid in the corners of my mind, never to come to light.
I only ever wrote for school anymore, a tedious task with none of the magic I had once known.

And then, one day, the spark came back.
An idea peeked out of the darkness and whispered for me to create again.
So I typed a few words into my laptop.
Those words became a sentence.
That sentence became a paragraph.
That paragraph became pages.
And those pages became the beginning of a story.
At last, my passion had returned.

Once forgotten in the darkness, my dream reemerged in my heart.
I began to pursue my passion again, to reach for that star I had longed for as a child.
This time, I dared to share my stories with the world.
Readers gave positive feedback and encouraged me to keep going.
My stories even brought me real-life love.
As my courage grew, so did my creative skills.
And then the time came to seriously start chasing my dream.

Starting a blog is one of the scariest yet greatest things I’ve ever done.
It opened my creativity to a whole new world.
I’ve met other writers, made new friends, and shared my stories with likeminded creatives.
Never have I felt closer to that star.

Now I’ve taken one more step forward on my writing journey.
A hundred thousand words have freed themselves from my mind, growing from my imagination into my first major work of art.
My first novel, the fantasy story I’ve long wanted to tell.
And as I shape these words into order, I feel more excited than ever.
No longer will I be just a writer; I will be an author.

I reflect on all the joys writing has given me—freedom, creativity, courage, magic—and I know I wouldn’t change a thing.
From my childhood days of devouring books to my adult years of creating stories and poetry, writing has given me everything I could ever want or need.
Writing has made me the person I’ve always hoped to be.
And though I still have much to learn, I’m always ready to take the next step.

For the love of writing, I know I can never stop creating.
I will never stop being who I am, who I was always meant to be.
I am a writer!

My Biggest Fan

She’s always been there from the start
And loved me every day.
Whenever I was feeling lost,
She helped me find my way.

She gave me almost every book
That I read as a kid,
And nothing made me dream as big
As reading always did.

I started writing short stories
Around the age of nine,
Thanks to the books she shared with me
That sparked this love of mine.

I wouldn’t be a writer now
Had she not held my hand
And guided me from childhood on
Through books’ enchanted land.

And every single piece I write,
She always seems to love.
Her feedback never finds a flaw,
All “five stars” and above.

My whole life, I have felt so blessed
She played the biggest part
In pushing me to reach my dream
Of making works of art.

No matter where I go from here,
I know she’ll always be
The person I can count on most
To always cheer for me.

So have a Happy Birthday, Mom,
In every way you can!
I love you to the moon and back,
My all-time biggest fan!


Happy Birthday to my amazing mother! Thank you for always supporting my dream to be a writer! I love you!

The Gift of Song (Colleen’s Weekly #Poetry Challenge #51 – #Haibun)

They call it a gift, yet to me it’s a mystery. They envy me for it, they want it for themselves. Yet as I wait behind the curtain, I wonder why. Is it still a gift if you don’t want it? I take a deep breath, exhale slowly. The fear overtakes me, I begin to tremble. But as the curtain rises, anxiety fades into excitement. I understand now. I stand alone on the stage, heart racing, dazed in the light. Silence fills the hall. Lips part, one voice echoes out, a small bird soaring through the air.

Strange beautiful gift

Music touches every heart

Poetry in song


My response to Colleen Chesebro‘s Weekly Poetry Challenge #51: Gift & Song. I know this is the third week in a row that I’ve participated, but I couldn’t resist trying my hand at a haibun with this prompt! I hope you enjoy the poem! Thanks for the prompt, Colleen!

About J.C. Wolfe

J.C. Wolfe is a fiction writer, biologist, and aspiring novelist of science fantasy and romance. A natural-born American and graduate in Marine Ecology from a university in Brazil, J.C. now writes for a living in California while spending free time blogging and penning stories and poetry.

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