Vignettes
Examples:
- Yellow - inspired by a news briefing from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, woven into the lyrics of "Yellow" by Coldplay
- And They Lived Happily Ever After - fate is two lives never meant to intersect or intertwine
- The Countdown - the distance between here and there
- έρωτα και τον θάνατο - the five stages of grief -- in love and in death
- Sublimation - the chemistry of a decaying romance
Satire
Examples:
- You Belong With Me - inspired by the ubiquitous Taylor Swift song
- The Case Against Snow White - why Disney's Snow White is flat-out ridiculous
- Sophelia and the Curious Case of the Heretical Imposter - written after watching a K-pop video featuring someone who looks blasphemously similar to muse and royal badass T.O.P.
- Letter from an Upset Swine - written for the school newspaper in light of the 2009 swine flu pandemic
- What I Ended Up Sending to Yale - my supplemental essay for the Yale application after being driven insane by the 500 word count. (No surprise that I wasn't accepted, ha-ha)
Short Stories
Examples:
- Sea, Land, Sky - A retelling of Andersen's The Little Mermaid and the Scottish myth of the Water Horse.
- Pygmalion - The first time I heard your song, I thought your voice was the only thing on this Earth that could nurse a broken heart back to life. The worship of an idol.
- A Very Real Story - Someday, your prince will come. But probably not today.
Novel
The Ecstasian Phantom, abbreviated as EP on this blog, was first published on Fictionpress during my sophomore year of high school (2007). This YA story has been my primary work in progress for the last 7 years. While college became my top priority from 2009-2013 and severely limited the amount of writing I was able to produce, EP stewed in my head during those four years and emerged as a more complex and three-dimensional story as a result.
A retelling of The Phantom of the Opera infused with Cinderella, EP pinpoints the intersection in the lives of two strangers. Two years ago, Aurora Maciel was the girl idolized by everyone at Rosecrans High. Brilliant, beautiful, and tough-as-nails, the charismatic singer of the band Her Highness died under mysterious circumstances. Two years later, Charlotte DeClouette, a musical genius cursed with crippling stage fright, is harassed into writing an article for the school newspaper on the disbanded group. When Charlotte gets her revenge on a tormenting classmate, she inadvertently ignites speculation that Aurora's ghost has been haunting the concert hall of Ecstasia. As Charlotte begins to piece together the story of Her Highness' demise, she resolves to take care of Aurora's unfinished business by masquerading as the Ecstasian Phantom. In donning the mask of the Phantom, Charlotte slowly learns to find her own voice, but at the cost of reopening the wounds of those left behind in the aftermath of Aurora's death--including Aurora's enigmatic ex-boyfriend and guitarist, Rhys, whose entrance into Charlotte's life begins to stir up memories she has long tried to forget.
