Voices of the Ribbons©.

PR15M: The Price of Freedom By Ice It should have been a relief, the burden of ten years, at last, lifted from my shoulders. It was, instead, a nightmare.  My days were filled with relentless questions alongside the equally relentless probing and examination by the medical staff. Despite the tight security, cameras frequently flashed from unexpected corners and doorways and nothing, nowhere, seemed safe.  Instead of the freedom I'd prayed and fought for, I'd somehow returned to the captivity I'd left behind and I had no idea how to voice my anxiety or my fears, and Taehyun's absence became an ever greater chasm in my heart. If it wasn't enough that my days offered no relief, my nights were little better, a muddled confusion drifting between dream and reality, nightmare and peace. It was in the night that Taehyun would return to me, holding me close, his body pressed reassuringly to mine; his scent, his touch, his warmth, his whisper in my ear.  And then I would wake

 A Day in the Life... Phase One: The Dawn Chorus By Writer Seriously, the West Coast (as in, the wet n wild  West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand) isn't much fun in the winter if you don't handle cold and gloomy very well. I  do not handle cold and gloomy very well AT ALL, ergo, I do not handle the West Coast in the winter very well.       Don't get me wrong, it's nice on those rare days where there's a crisp frost (anywhere down to -15C in winters past) followed by pale blue skies and spectacular views to snow-capped mountains. But when it rains miserably for weeks at a time, or when the fog is so thick you can barely see your hand in front of your face, or the mist lies inside the house equally to the outdoors... winter loses its appeal pretty damn fast.      Add to that; damp and muddy dogs, sad guineapigs in houses we struggle to find windows of opportunity to clean, mud-encrusted ponies waiting for hay, soggy cats, and weeping windows. I ask myself reg

  Five Months Later By The Author This was never meant to happen, this absence, this break. Then again, many things aren't meant to happen and that doesn't stop them from happening anyway.  Still, all things for a reason and the last few months have been vital for both a re-set and a re-invention. We can move on now, to bigger, better, bolder things. First of all, the next novel is in its final stages of preparation for release (to be confirmed for sometime in August) and meanwhile, we're working hard on the one to follow that. We're expanding our horizons, testing our limits, each project more challenging than the one before. We live to learn and, for us, the end goal is to do justice to the stories we're given to tell. And, yes, it's we  now. The Muse will be sharing this forum with me, along with all other platforms, to permit me (as in The Author ) to do more of what I   do best while not leaving you, what few of you there currently are, left unattended. You