A Utopia in Dystopia
One of the goals of Dystopian literature is to satisfy. Satisfaction is where every “utopia contains a dystopia, and every dystopia contains a utopia”. Ishleen Singh, an author and reviewer on Reedsy Discovery, used the word “satisfy” to describe the dystopian world created in Surrogate Colony. She felt a sense of justice, or reward, for […]
The Little Ones
I used to have these weird experiences as a child. Maybe we have all had them. I haven’t confirmed, but have you? I would be sat in thought, usually in a closet, or gazing into the off-white walls of my room, and my mind would go somewhere; spiral down a mysterious rabbit hole into what […]
Guest Author: Rita Chapman
How a holiday in Egypt led to the Anna Davies Mystery Series! I had always enjoyed writing – in school I wrote long essays and even made up a couple of little books for my youngest brother. Over my working life I started a few chapters – but with no computer at home it was […]
Dystopian Education
The only way to truly be a teacher is to demand that students question. That’s until they ask teachers to stop teaching critical thinking. And that’s the exact moment when teachers all over the world, in classrooms or not, should start creating music, art, novels, poems, whatever. Let creation resist the forces of monopoly in […]
Dystopian Thoughts
Our belly buttons are our first scar. Today I had a small surgery on my belly button. Usually, I am nonchalant about scalpels, needles, and doctors, but this time there was a primordial, nervy fear around having someone carve my original connection to my mother. As I was waiting in the room, I was reading […]
The Sacred Feminine
There is something deeply sustaining about the female spirit. Some call it the sacred feminine. Some call it the Virgin Mary. Some call it Mother Nature. Whatever you call it, it is divine; it is of the tapestry that holds the universe together and births new thoughts, creations, planets. What makes me say this, you […]
Ambiguous Achievements
“It’s funny how all the runners and triathletes who follow me on social media have used the word achievement or a variant of it, to describe their support that I have a forthcoming novel.” I turned toward my partner and commented as we walked outside in the less oppressive heat of Qatar in winter, yesterday. […]
A Writer’s Winter Solstice
It was during what must have been the tenth time playing Uno ( in the middle of another COVID lockdown) with my nine year old daughter, that my mother called. If you are familiar with Persian mothers you’ll know that my first thoughts — even as a 40 year old woman, were: What have I […]
The Giving Tree
“Once there was a tree and she loved a little boy and every day the boy would come and would gather her leaves and make them into crowns and play king of the forest.” Those words were the beginning of my demise today while substituting for a class. I started reading and maybe it was […]
An Offering
Sometimes I think about why we are put in whatever precarious positions we find ourselves in. Why was I put in the body that I’m in? Why was I able to get a COVID vaccine, while others haven’t? Who is the puppet-master behind the scenes this time, offering this drug or that salvation; this muse […]