25 Comments
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Oscar Ruto Chemelil's avatar

I like to think I'm a good writer.

Then I read another writer's work and think, "why am I even doing this?"

Sandolore Sykes's avatar

Kinda crinkles my heart into a wad of paper to hear you both say this. Neither of you should be doubting yourself as writers. Just keep writing and shove that self-doubt down the garbage disposal, please!

Brock Eldon's avatar

No way Oscar Ruto!

Black Coffee Creative's avatar

This is a humbling read, M'lud.

Ethereal is an overused word BUT there's really nothing else to describe this piece.

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Feb 10, 2025
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Sandolore Sykes's avatar

Can you say more? Do you mean the way the voice seems to lift out of the main character's body and float? The distance? Explain to me, please.

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Feb 10, 2025
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Sandolore Sykes's avatar

Excellent response. I am seeing what you (guys) are talking about. I love the plastic wrap image... that sort of dulling of senses, but also making the sensations amplified, less localized. This is, indeed a very big subject, and I think you pulled the plastic wrap off!

Black Coffee Creative's avatar

Your new authoress image is giving Winona Ryder vibes btw.

Sandolore Sykes's avatar

I am super interested to hear more about this. I am surprised by the word "ethereal" for this piece. For me it is grit under the finger nail, slivers from floor boards in my toes, knees skinned from kneeling... this piece doesn't float for me, it sinks. So tell me, how does it fly for you? Say things!

Black Coffee Creative's avatar

I'm just an airhead so I can't compute.

hopeonsundays's avatar

i love this, thank you

Nancy Santos's avatar

There’s the murder and mayhem I’ve been wanting! Excellent, Zivah, and that opening—🖤

The pickled beets gave me flashbacks to the time I took a big bite of them as a kid thinking it was cranberry sauce. Not cool.

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Feb 11, 2025
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Nancy Santos's avatar

Manky! I like that word! 😂

Debdutta Pal's avatar

What a mood. I knew you'd give us a killer ending and wow, it blew my mind.

Steve Elliott's avatar

Some great turns of phrase here - a battering ram of a story that hits home.

Jill Eng's avatar

Oh my gooooodness. Remarkable writing, Zivah. You had me on the edge of my seat. I love this piece!

Andrew Robert Colom's avatar

The writing here was stunning and profound and emotional and realistic and devastating.

Andrew Robert Colom's avatar

This does say it's fiction, I just triple checked so I feel like it's okay for me to discuss as artifice which is what I'm going to do. The husband, the abuser, he never becomes specific. He seems like every abuser. Some cool specific details on the abuse but as a character we don't need sympathy for him but we do need to find a way to identify him as specific even if we hop back out to universal. I think absurdity would have been one option. The abuse didn't always have to be realistic and through making a joke of him as an abuser at times, I think we might have found him more specific and his abuse more devastating. Great work though.

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Feb 13, 2025
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Andrew Robert Colom's avatar

I would love to get your attention on BEEF - Volume I!

Sandolore Sykes's avatar

I need to get to BEEF too!

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Feb 13, 2025
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Andrew Robert Colom's avatar

Yeah makes sense. Sometimes though by not making him specific, it gives him more oxygen. making something specific constricts it, too. That would be my only push back there. Yeah, absurd was just something i threw out there. Its more just surprising. Something about his actions at some point could have surprised us more. I love your figurative writing style. Your talent at poetry really shines through in this piece. The spare style is dope, too. Yeah, the other thoughts are form considerations I can't speak to. I enjoyed reading your work and look forward to reading more in the future.

Sandolore Sykes's avatar

Very interesting conversation here. I feel like this piece was happening hovering just below the ceiling and flattened against the floorboards… everything in the middle blurry. The language carries it, I think I would have liked to see him more as well, even if it’s just a closer drawing of the marks and gestures he makes.

Nick Winney's avatar

RIGHTEOUS.

and beautifully written.

i am intrigued by the line about the dead trees still talking to each other. i cant catch the meaning or of this within the story? what was in your head for this?

i love the last line.

excellent stuff!

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Feb 17, 2025
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Nick Winney's avatar

ahhh yes! of course! thank you for explaining! you need to live in an old terraced house to know that!

Sandolore Sykes's avatar

Wouldn't it be cool if her next fiction piece started with that image? Isn't it incredible? It reminds me of a sculpture friend who makes these "witness" creatures out of furniture....

Rosie B's avatar

Read this last night, came back to it again tonight just to let it all seep in. So good.