We look up at the stars and find in them a constellation. This is a collection of letters written in the form of poetry. Inspired by the ups and downs of high school.

This collection tells of life, pain, suffering, and sometimes even happiness. I hope you will enjoy. Thanks to @wendythestoryteller , a super talented writer and artist, for making this brilliant cover! Highest rank: #3 IN VIGNETTE! Featured on @flashfic 's The BreakRoom reading list. Part of the Wattpad Block Party 2017. RtL was a Wattpad featured story. My piece, Breaking Up With Anne, was published in the anthology Conversations by Kingston University Press. https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/KUPress/popular © Christine Bottas. All rights reserved 2015-2020.

Do you know anyone with a crippling, morbid fear of flying? Well, you do now. I have a theory: An event one spring day in the town cemetery at the dawn of my existence had everything to do with planting a stark view of life and death which led, eventually, to a profound mistrust of infernal contraptions that carried you up into the sky. Because of that profound mistrust, vast portions of my prime were spent (and misspent) on long journeys aboard trains. A trip that would have been a blip in time by plane was an entirely different deal on the train—days and nights, not hours. Veritable miniature eternities. This led to encounters, adventures, dilemmas and situations that could only happen on a train—and not merely because of the train’s comparative slowness, but because train people are an entirely different breed of human from airplane people (or bus people, for that matter, and that’s another story). Trains are so....well....so existential. This stark view of life and death, which also had plenty to do with me lobbying my mother (in vain) to get busy on building a fallout shelter in our basement, had some stiff opposition. To be an American child in the 50s was to open one’s innocent eyes on the post-WW2 decade, an era jumping with progress,plenitude, dazzling crazed optimism and fun. Nightmare glimpses of atrocities from that big bad war we missed by the skin of our teeth bobbed to the surface occasionally, sobering us and reminding us of our aberrant good luck, and in my case, whispering that innocence was but a thin, thin membrane, that this world I’d been born into was a seething, infinitely complicated place, and I’d better pay attention. But let’s have some fun! Here we go, with Bad Boys. What’s rock ‘n’ roll but the shot heard ‘round the world?

Against the advice of every chef, I never taste my food when I cook. It is a part of the culture I grew up in. See what happens when I try to explain it to a trained French chef..... Read this and other stories! I will be posting a couple of times a week for the next few weeks starting March 24th 2014

A series of short stories written for Wattpad Wednesday (the weekly mini-write-a-thon at the Wattpad Office). I will attempt to write a story every week about a room, with elements of fantasy and mania. Cover created by @BobJan70

"Weeping with an Ancient God" is a novella set in July 1842 in the Marquesas Islands. Melvill, the protagonist, jumps ship from the whaler Acushnet into a wild, savage and exotically beautiful land. Melvill contemplates his dangerous present, sad past and wholly uncertain future on an island teeming with cannibals. The novella, which was named a Best Book of 2015 by Chicago Book Review, is based on the real-life adventures of author Herman Melville ("Moby-Dick") when he was a young seaman. "Weeping with an Ancient God" is also available in print, Kindle and Nook editions from Twelve Winters Press. The print edition includes illustrations by Adam G. Perschbacher and an interview with the author by Beth Gilstrap. Visit tedmorrissey.com and twelvewinters.com for full details, including information about the author's other books of fiction: the novels "Men of Winter" and "An Untimely Frost," and the novelette "Figures in Blue." The cover image for "Weeping" is courtesy photographer Corrie Scott -- visit at corriescott.net. CONTENT WARNING: The story you are about to read is intended for mature readers due to its sexual content and language. It may not be appropriate for all audiences. Read at your own discretion.

"Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There" is the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The themes and settings of Through the Looking-Glass make it a kind of mirror image of Wonderland: the first book begins outdoors, in the warm month of May (4 May), uses frequent changes in size as a plot device, and draws on the imagery of playing cards; the second opens indoors on a snowy, wintry night exactly six months later, on 4 November (the day before Guy Fawkes Night), uses frequent changes in time and spatial directions as a plot device, and draws on the imagery of chess.

Shadow is a mute young girl who knows everything. Written from her point of view, this is a story that pits the forces of Destiny incarnate against the power of Free Will. Who wins will be decided in an epic encounter that will shape the future of the human race.

This is a guide for people who want to make their writing technically correct, or who want to know what to look for while proofreading.