i know who i am. and i know who i do not want to be. i am easy in my own skin even while i struggle. i am anything but perfect, but that is okay. and i love the ocean. many of these have something to do with that. i also love people who live there. the rest of these have something to do with them. some have nothing to do with either.

•COMPLETE• Everyone tells Leslie she's one of the guys, so she sets out to prove that there are no rules to being a girl. --- watty award winner 'hq love award' 2014

i am a disappointment and that is not okay. [ © thronos two-thousand-&-thirteen ]

This is just an assortment of my thoughts. The cover was produced by @etherealinsanity, who has her own collection of thoughts in a book called 'set free', which will literally leave you speechless. She was one of my many inspirations to write myself and has supported me along the way.

Wayward: Fetching Tales from a Year on the Road is a hilarious and heartfelt ride around the world, wherein the author eats dog, obsesses about chewing gum, gets stranded on an island, does dirty things, reveres rock n roll and muses about everything from death to Star Trek to the President Obama to jail time. Now available on Wattpad, Wayward has been a surprise hit at both iTunes and Amazon, reaching #1 on both retailers' travel charts. It chronicles a year in the life of the author, who lived in 12 countries over 12 months, one month at a time. It's kind of funny, kind of sad and kind of weird. Forbes describes the book: "Wayward isn’t strictly a travelogue or a guide by any means. The book reads like a diary, with chapters dedicated to everything from watching Obama’s inauguration in an Argentinian bar, to viewing a dubbed version of the newest Star Trek film in France and trying to understand the plot despite not speaking French, to remembering the ecstasy and pain of his first love just before breaking up with his then-boyfriend in Berlin, to eating dog in Vietnam, to his experience working with Patti Smith in New York. Gates’ lively, conversational writing style bring all the disparate pieces together for an engaging, enjoyable read."

Chester Davies wasn't normal. At the age of seven, his mother sent him to a mental hospital. Her reason? He killed things. It started out with a little bird he owned, then a cat, then a dog. His mother put an end to it, before he got anywhere near humans. Twelve years later, Chet was back to living a normal life. He went to school, had straight A's, had a group of friends he relied on. His life wasn't so perfect, but he was grateful. Until his childhood monsters come back for a little visit. And Chet, once again, began going to his therapist, who had grown tired of him. His only advice was to ignore them and continue living with the hope of ever having a happy life again. But Chet cannot simply 'ignore' them. They leave him awake at night, crawling underneath his bed, wrapping their thin fingers around his throat. They tear at his skin, their laughter ringing through his head. The only way to stop this is to do what they ask him to do. But a group of four mysterious guys have other plans for him. No matter which path Chester decides to take, nothing will be the same again. ---------------- Copyright © 2013-2014 Layla S.

"Not just a flavour, but a way of life." When seventeen-year-old Flo Kennedy is forced to up sticks and trade her life in London for a sleepy seaside town on the south coast, she's anything but excited. Walden-on-Sea could win awards for being Britain's dullest town, and with a population consisting almost entirely of over sixties, teenagers are an endangered species. Silently struggling with her parents' death and separation from her sister, Flo's convinced she's in for the worst summer of her life. But when she meets the guy in the ice cream shop, things start to change. It's not long before she lands herself a job, a new set of friends and maybe even the beginnings of first romance. For the first time in several years, she's happy. But Flo knows all too well that things can't stay perfect forever, and after all, being on top of the world only gives you further to fall.

In which a red-headed basket case and a teenage runaway join forces to conquer the road. (Or that time Astrid stole Patrick's coffee and won't get the hell out of his car.)

"Anna dislikes being stuck three-quarters of the way down a chimney. She really does. Not to mention, she's still going round North America, and there's, like, three continents still to get through in about as many hours."