#Mia “Fourteen” Williams

[becachu]

My new baby <3

#becachu art #becachu #dnd #dnd character #Mia “Fourteen” Williams

[rcbf4]

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐇𝐄𝐄𝐓: *interactions MUST be plotted.

𝐁𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐒  ――

Full name. [Redacted]  Dawson  Nicknames. Dawson, D (only by his sister) Sex. Male Size. 6′4″ Age. pt. 1) 34-39 / pt. 2) 39 - 46 (story timeline dependant)

Charlotte and William were young when they met. They thought they were soulmates and felt the same. Their relationship was off and on, the two of them constantly being drawn back to each other after a short split. They had difficult personalities that made it hard for them to mesh with other people; they had an understanding of each other normal people didn't get. During one of their reunions, Charlotte became pregnant and nine months later, the child who would later only allow people to call him by his last name, Dawson, was born.

The family lived a modest life in a two-bedroom ranch house. William worked a construction job, Dawson a little boy able to do as he pleased and Charlotte a stay at home mom with a spending problem.

Charlotte was a woman who always believed herself as being destined for more, which caused the problems to make her and William split as she would always push him to be more, to do better in life. He knew her tastes as Charlotte never hid that about herself. They lived in one of the riches states and she wanted a piece of it. She wanted grand things, riches, importance and power. She thought herself as a woman bred for it. She was a woman who wanted to be materialistically cared for. William on the other hand was content with what he had in life. He had a wonderful woman who was a beauty like no other, a healthy son, a roof over their heads, bills paid and bellies full; that made him happy. Unfortunately a happy husband and a perfect little boy was not enough to keep Charlotte around. Dawson was 10 when Charlotte left them. Her and William were unmarried, making it easy for her to disappear.

Dawson watched as his father's world crumbled. He saw the worst of it. It's ugly when someone loses a soulmate. Dawson hurt just as much as his father did. At first he didn't understand why she left, but being a perceptive child, drawing on the memories of how his parents fought, he got his answers. Dawson never blamed his dad nor his self for his mother leaving; he blamed her. She had a sickness in her that drove her away. He grew up resenting her, hating her for the way she broke his father's heart, hated it even more than his own broken heart. Though with Charlotte gone, Dawson and his father grew close. It was them against the world, until his father met Mia.

Dawson was fourteen when his father met Mia, a few months after moving from California to Montana. They met at a church his father was working construction on. As Dawson saw it, Mia preyed on a broken man and thought William was the perfect specimen to turn into a man of god. God was what his father ended up turning to, to help mend his broken heart, and with God came Mia. Mia was a frail looking woman, who was modest in dress as well as her practiced, false niceness. She wore a large cross that hung from her neck and had a wicked slap. Dawson was fifteen by the time William and Mia were married. Father and Son against the world had come to an end. Dawson hated that too.

He hated how his father often left him with her, as William was busy working his job while also going to school to be an architect. He hated that Mia was rude to him when they were alone, and she told lies when his father was around. He hated that light whacks to the back of the head eventually turned into open palmed slaps across his face whenever she deemed he had crossed her, --- and it didn't take much to rile her. Mia hated that her broken bird came with baggage in the form of a child that wasn't hers, though Dawson was sure that Mia wouldn't have been nice to her own children should she have had any. She was a snake who convinced his father of whatever her whims were, and William wanting to be a better husband didn't question her. God blinded him to Dawson's pleas to get away, to leave and be father and son against the world again. His father's refusal to stand up for him, to pick him, was the worst betrayal he ever knew. The hate in his heart was alive and ticking. It was now Him versus Mia. Dawson of course became rebellious and started to lash out not only at home but outside it too. He fought with kids and adults alike. He goaded his step-mother about her faith, bringing home books on crime and the occult. He turned to loud metal music, ---anything that she would disapprove of just to get under her skin. He was living by his rules, and his rules only. It was a fun time. Dawson thought he was wining a fight, but Mia saw a war. She claimed she saw a darkness brewing in him, a mark of a demon. She thought it to be a trait passed down to him from his harlot mother, never considering her own actions to be the cause. God was love, and she worked in his name. Out of cruelness disguised as wanting to save Dawson from the 'demon' taking root in him, Mia would quietly take him to an institution and have Dawson undergo ETC therapy. His father knew and did nothing. Over the years they spent thousands sending him to doctors and therapists trying to ' save ' him. He once begged privately to his father to be sent away to a boarding school, just so the treatments would stop. Nothing came of it.

By his sophomore year, Dawson knew how to play the game. He withdrew himself from people, finding it hard to trust and like them. He found reliability in only himself. He learned what he could from who he could to better himself. To make himself into someone who didn't need to rely on others. As the years went on, he learned to be secretive to keep his parent's off his back. He learned to be charming to get what he wanted. Dawson learned to be manipulative, and he was good at it. He always had a quiet intensity to him that most found unnerving that became useful to him as well.

Graduation eventually rolls around and Dawson enlists into the military to get away from William and Mia. He severed ties from them both the moment pen hit paper. He never spoke to either of them again. Dawson didn't even tell his father when he graduated from boot camp. He never uttered a word with all his accomplishments he achieved while enlisted. Instead he made himself a good military career. He worked hard to get into Special Forces. He was in for ten years until he took a bullet to the neck and was medically discharged. He always felt it had been an injustice.

Disappointed and angry with having his military career ripped from him, Dawson looked for something similar, something that kept a distance between him and his past. He enlisted in the finest police force in the country: LAPD. And after gaining the required years on the force, Dawson tried out for SWAT and made the team.

𝐏𝐇𝐘𝐒𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐋 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐒 ――

Hair color. Blonde Eye color.   Blue Skin tone.   Fair Body type.  Slim yet muscular Voice.  Calm. Quiet. Intimidating. Smooth. Posture. Strong Scars.   Faint scar on the right side of his neck where a bullet hit him during his time in the military & small miscellaneous amounts of scars acquired throughout his life. Tattoos.  None

𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐋𝐃𝐇𝐎𝐎𝐃 ――

Place of birth.  California Hometown. Missoula, Montana Siblings. None. (later learns he has a half-sister, Samuel) Parents. William &  Charlotte, (step) Mia,

A𝐃𝐔𝐋𝐓 𝐋𝐈𝐅𝐄 ――

Occupation. LAPD SWAT Close friends. His partner, Duff Warner. Relationship status. Spent nearly all of his life single, a commitment-phobe, and then he comes across Adam. After a error in judgement and a unsteady reunion, he is happily taken. Basically married. Criminal record.  He would have one if his father didn’t spend a lot of money keeping him out of trouble as a kid / teen. It is squeaky clean. Vices. Arrogant. Angry. Hostile. Biased. Aggressive.

#dawson ' swat #chara ' headcanon #blog ' content

[bvdsigns]

name : maximilian gilles boucher ferro nicknames : max, maxie, ferret gender & pronouns : cis man, he / him age & date of birth : 33 ( june 26, 1990 ) hometown : portofino, italy nationality : american, italian occupation :  record producer / songwriter / dj / club owner sexuality : bisexual language/s spoken : english, italian, french faceclaim :  richard madden career claims: mark ronson, dan nigro, charli xcx

trigger warnings: mention of a head injury & drug overdose.

FAMILY

mother : camila isabelle boucher ( inès de la fressange fc ). a french socialite, hails from a wealthy family who owns a chain of hotels and restaurants across europe. also a former supermodel in the the late 70s throughout the 80s. has since then ventured into fashion design and perfumery.

father : giovanni lorenzo ferro ( pierce brosnan fc ). an english-italian former formula 1 driver who raced with mclaren, ferrari, and williams. has four world championships under his belt and retired in 2001. currently the team principal of the mclaren f1 team.

stepfather : david gideon langdon ( tbd fc ). an english drummer for the rock band the kicks, which was popular in the 70s and 80s.

siblings : max has three biological older siblings from his father's marriage with his mother and a twin sister, older step siblings from his stepfather's prior marriages, and two younger paternal half-sisters, casey (24, gracie abrams fc ), a singer, and mia ( kaia gerber fc ), a model.

HISTORY

max was born in portofino, italy, to a french mother and an english-italian father. camila boucher is a socialite, businesswoman and one of the world's most in-demand supermodels in the 80s while giovanni ferro is a former four-time formula 1 world champion until his retirement in 2001.

with the twins being the youngest and both parents having been busy with their own careers (mom was always doing business stuff and dad was constantly traveling for his races), max and his twin sister were raised by nannies who max would constantly terrorize, so his mother would keep having to find replacements after they quit.

max's father made him get into karting at age 4, but giovanni was too intense all the time (think jos verstappen but not as successful lmao) and max just wasn't as serious about it as he was. it wasn't until after sustaining a head injury from a huge accident during a tournament when he was eight that his mother made him stop karting.

being such a hyperactive little boy, now he had all that energy and nowhere to put it, which posed a problem for the family, especially after he set the living room carpet on fire one christmas eve, his parents made the decision to ship him off to a boarding school in turin, italy, where his paternal grandfather lived, when he was just 9 years old.

he would stay in boarding school until he was thirteen, and it was only thanks to rather hefty donations from his family that he wasn't expelled almost immediately for the trouble he often caused.

however, boarding school wasn't an entirely futile endeavor — in fact, it was here that he discovered his love for music after curriculum-mandated music lessons had him learning how to play the trumpet and, later on, the drums.

by the time he returned to america, his parents were already divorced and his mother was just about to get remarried to dave langdon, the drummer for the kicks, a popular english rock band in the 70s and 80s.

dave was great, and he was very good to his mother in a way that his father often wasn't. it didn't take long for max to acclimate to dave as a father figure, and it helped that music was something that they got to bond over.

max recorded his first song when he was fourteen. he then burned his first EP in CDs he would submit to music producers and sell to people so he can buy new gear (his family had the means to buy it for him and dave does give him old gear and gifts him some for birthdays and christmases, but he wanted to feel like he was building something for himself, you know?). nobody ever bought anything, so he resorted to just giving the CDs away on the street.

started DJing when he was 17 in clubs in new york city, adapting the stage name BADSIGNS, which he's since then been using for all his musical ventures. still below the legal age of drinking, dave used to pay the club owners not to give max any alcohol, though it was easy to slip past that measure.

got into juilliard where he majored in composition while continuing to spin in clubs. here, he got really into the party scene, started drinking heavily, developed a pill dependence, did a lot of cocaine.

initially gained popularity for the remixes he would play in clubs and later post to this attracted the attention of local artists who wanted to collaborate with him, a lot of whom have actually made it big now.

he dropped out of juilliard on his third year after he got signed on to his first record label.

his sound has evolved from hip hop and jazz and funk to dance and pop throughout the years but claims to take inspiration from a variety of genres and eclectic influences.

started ghostwriting songs for big artists under the moniker g. gagne (his middle name and his mother's maiden name) since he was 21 but it wasn't until he was 25 that he started getting proper credit.

when he was 23, he was involved in a scandal when he entered a relationship with a married actress twenty-five years his senior. after the actress and her husband divorced, she and max lived together in new york city. they were together for an entire year, after which, the actress and her ex-husband got back together. just a few weeks later, max would land himself in the hospital after overdosing on oxy, which he claims to have been an accident.

can be quite a workaholic and always wants to be busy and stimulated. has been putting out record after record since he started his career, producing music for artists big and small, making remixes, and has even gotten into film scoring.

formed his own record label, futz records, in 2016 as an imprint of columbia records where he signed a newcomer (who would later be a frequent and favorite collaborator of his) and several other small artists.

in 2020, he bought a house in los angeles adjoined to his own personal studio where he prefers to work most of the time since everything, from the interior to the equipment, is pretty much customized and personally handpicked.

in 2021, he along with a childhood friend, opened their own nightclub in hollywood called terrazzo (known affectionately as the razz by celebrities and locals) which he says initially came to be because he wanted to give smaller artists a platform to introduce themselves, as there are performances every night. max spins only on the weekends.

HEADCANONS

was the drummer for a small band called the confectioners with two friends from LA when he was 13. it definitely started as a gag and the songs they would write are largely inspired by weird al yankovic but then they realized that they actually sounded good, got to play a couple of gigs in the city, but it wasn't anything they took seriously. the three are still good friends.

still very much into cars, hence why a lot of his records tend to be car-themed. he still enjoys karting in his free time and attends grands prix whenever he can, also to support his father.

the karting accident he had when he was 4 and the head injury he sustained from it had affected his fine motor skills, which makes tasks such as writing with a pen or pencil, doing or undoing his buttons, or tying his shoelaces difficult. it isn't so bad when he's playing musical instruments since he's normally very focused and the actions are continuous, but he does have some bad days.

also related to the head injury are the recurring headaches and migraines he's had since he was around 7 years old, which is how he managed to get prescriptions to painkillers he overdosed on.

max is an avid gamer and has a twitch account ( twitch.tv/mister.ferret ) where he sometimes streams himself and his friends playing games. he especially likes sim racing and sometimes even streams with f1 drivers from the current grid.

TIMELINE

1990 , max is born in portofino, italy.

1990 - 1999 (age 1-9) , lived in monte carlo, monaco.

1994 (age 4) , has a near-fatal karting accident.

1999 (age 9) , studies in a boarding school in turin, italy.

2003 (age 13) , moves back to america. mother got married to dave langdon. lives between new york city and los angeles. starts a small comedy band in his mother and stepfather's garage called the confectioners.

2004 (age 14) , records his first EP from his bedroom.

2007 (age 17) , starts his career as an amateur dj in new york city clubs.

2008 (age 18) , gets into juilliard.

2011 (age 21) , drops out of juilliard. gets signed on to his first record label.

2013 (age 22-23) , puts out his first EP version as a signed artist. also gets involved as the third party in an actress' extramarital affair.

2014 (age 24) , hospitalized for a pill overdose/suspected suicide attempt. releases his first studio album, version.

2015 (age 25) , releases his second studio album, record collection.

2016 (age 26) , forms his own record label, futz records.

2017 (age 27) , releases his third studio album, uptown special.

2019 (age 28) , wins an academy award for best original song for his writing credits in the song 'shallow' for the 2019 remake of the film a star is born.

2020 (age 30) , releases his fourth studio album, late night feelings.

2021 (age 31) , opens his nightclub terrazzo with his best friend.

DISCOGRAPHY

VERSION, 2014

RECORD COLLECTION, 2015

MORTDECAI (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK), 2015

UPTOWN SPECIAL, 2017

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE (ORIGINAL SCORE), 2018

LATE NIGHT FEELINGS, 2020

BODIES BODIES BODIES (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK), 2022

SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE (ORIGINAL SCORE), 2023

BARBIE THE ALBUM, 2023

BARBIE (SCORE FROM THE ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE), 2023

AWARDS

tbd.

#hqglam:intro #head injury tw #drug overdose tw

[alex-rambles]

I TURNED WILLIAM INTO A PEDO OMFG

I PRETENDED TO BE A SEVEN YEAR OLD GIRL AND HE KEPT TRYING TO RIZZ ME UP AND WHEN I TOLD HIM I WAS ACTUALLY FOURTEEN HE SAID I WAS TOO MATURE WTFFFF

#willposting #william afton #fnaf #five nights at freddy's

[americangirlstar]

why each american girl is banned from the aux cord on road trips, contemporary edition

Lindsey Bergman: you know how i said elizabeth cole’s playlist was solely meme songs? lindsey’s is even more extensive with several remixes and ytps added in for flavor

Kailey Hopkins: she literally only plays ocean ambience

Marisol Luna: her music ALWAYS gets the dancers hyped and since there’s like three of them they just end up encouraging each other and the bus gets very chaotic

Jess McConnell: she doesn’t play music, just full-length story-based dnd podcasts

Nicki Fleming: is not prepared to deal with the discourse that divides the bus into a warzone when she puts on dear evan hansen

Mia St. Clair: she’s really into emilie autumn which is great except a lot of her songs can get very Adult™ and gwynn is in the car

Chrissa Maxwell: she plays nothing but the mean girls musical

Gwen Thompson: lindsey stirling (good) gwen pulling out her violin to play along (awkward) when it’s not lindsey stirling it’s full violin concertos that last for like twenty minutes (oh no)

Sonali Matthews: jess plays dnd podcasts. sonali exclusively plays horror podcasts. when forced to put on actual music, she will put on the heathers musical soundtrack which, you guessed it, starts an intense Discourse™

Lanie Holland: she only plays bird calls occasionally interspersed with her infodumps on said birds

Kanani Akina: “kanani the steven universe soundtrack is GREAT and we all love it but can we listen to one (1) other thing? it’s been fourteen hours” “well i have the little mermaid 2 and lilo & stitch soundtracks i guess” “...are those the only things on your phone?”

McKenna Brooks: you remember in the historical post when i said ivy climbed on top of the bus one time after getting too amped up? yeah mckenna does that every time

Saige Copeland: she puts on “michael in the bathroom” and hits the “repeat song” button

Isabelle Palmer: somehow always picks like the WORST disney channel soundtracks

Grace Thomas: they’ve never actually let her on the aux cord cause they know she’ll put on something french and they’ll have to argue about it. little do they know she honestly just really wants to listen to olivia rodrigo for ~some reason~

Lea Clark: she really only listens to like ten songs (max) at a time and puts the playlist on repeat until the music stops giving her emotions

Gabriela McBride: unironically (and unfortunately, canonically) plays glee songs

Tenney Grant: swiftie (derogatory) 

Logan Everett: it’s a LOT of heavy metal angst that tends to blow the speakers out

Z Yang: she has a LOT of illegal songs. not just “illegally downloaded,” like “we’re not sure how the HELL she found this bootleg recording of a musical that’s not out yet” or “how did you get your hands on the beyoncé ‘shadowland’ demo” and it’s starting to worry them

Luciana Vega: somehow she always ends up segueing her song choice into a talk about the endless void of space

Blaire Wilson: the only music she’s into right now are nonsense songs created sometime around 2010 on youtube, consisting only of remixed movie syllables

Joss Kendrick: never turns off the rwby playlist

Kira Bailey: she plays music from those animated movies in the 90s that were clearly only made to rip off disney’s style in an attempt to make a quick buck except she actually likes these soundtracks and the only one that’s actually good is anastasia which is stuck in a mess of other crap

Makena Williams: within a few songs she’ll get bored and turn on kennie jd videos instead

Evette Peeters: her music taste is either eight-minute long ballads that give everyone existential crises or intrumental classical pieces that last an hour

Maritza Ochoa: her playlist is 95% different covers of “holding out for a hero.” good song itza but we need some variety

Corinne Tan: it’s just the frozen soundtrack(s) and nothing else

Gwynn Tan: she will play the matilda musical on repeat. if anyone complains she will immediately change the music to whatever genre they hate the most. they have never expressed this hatred out loud but she always gets it right which is starting to freak them out

#american girl #american girl dolls #american girls #girl of the year #world by us #contemporary squad #mine

[thebiscuiteternal]

People have always been disgusting to child stars, but the one thing i hate about social media is how much easier it makes it for people to be gross to literal children. Mia Talerico, the then FIVE YEAR OLD star of Good Luck, Charlie got death threats for the show having a lesbian couple in one episode. Lexi Rabe, the SEVEN YEAR OLD actress of Morgan Stark is getting bullied online because she didn't want to give an autograph to some asshole who accosted her while she was just doing errands with her parents. Grace VanderWaal was ELEVEN when people began posting obscene comments about her. Millie Bobby Brown is THIRTEEN and has had creepers counting down to her eighteenth birthday since she was TWELVE. Emma Watson went through the same from the time she was ELEVEN. Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams went through internet hell about their weight and their looks at the ages of FIFTEEN and FOURTEEN respectively. Boys can’t escape this either, because Finn Wolfhard has also been subjected to the countdown clock since he was FOURTEEN.  

FUCK THIS. Y’ALL NASTY.

[slow-dancing-with-myself]

Welcome!!

Hello and welcome to my account!!! I am a writer and a minor graphic designer! I do take requests for oneshots, series, playlists and graphics! and my requests are open!! I do not write smut, incest, or mentions of rape, suicide, etc. Below are fandoms you can request for!! I write for male, nonbinary, and female readers! If they don't specifically say male! reader or female! reader than it will be gender neutral or nonbinary!! I also speak a couple languages so tell me if you need your request in a different language! ( i speak french, spanish, german is my native language, english, itallian, and a little bit of dutch! )

the fandoms i will make/write for are:

supernatural (season one to season fourteen, no spoilers!)

characters include: dean winchester, sam winchester, castlel, jack kline, and the actors!

ships include: destiel, sabriel, platonic jack x dean, platonic castle x jack

harry potter

characters include: james potter, sirius black, remus lupin, lily evans, marlene mckinnon, ginny weasley, harry potter, hermione granger, luna lovegood, ron weasley, charlie weasley, bill weasley, george weasley, fred weasley, cho chang, cedric diggory, draco malfoy, pansy parkinson, neville longbottom, blaise zabini, narcissa malfoy, regulus black (male reader only bc that's my head cannon for him)

ships include: lily, wolfstar, drarry, hedric, pansmione, harry x cho x cedric (poly), blairon, bleville, ronmione, linny

percy jackson (I'm only on the fourth book of hoo, no spoilers please!)

characters include: percy jackson, annabeth chase, grover underwood, nico di angelo (male reader only), will solace, jason grace, piper mcclean, leo valdez, frank zhang, hazel levesque, clarisse la rue

ships: percabeth, solangelo, jercy, valdangelo, frazel

skam (ive watched all of the remakes but will only write for original and germany, this might change later)

characters include: nora sætre, jonas vasquez, isak valtersen (male reader only), christoffer schistad, evan næsheim, sana bakkoush (platonic only please), eva mohn, william magnusson

ships: evak, nora x william, eva x chris, eva x nora

skam druck

characters include: mia winter, kiki machwitz, amira mahmood, hanna jung, jonas augustin, matteo florenzi, alexander hardenberg, nora machwitz

ships: david x matteo, mia x alexander

teen wolf

characters: stiles stillinski, derek hale, issac lahey, scott mccall, lydia martin, allison argent, peter hale, theo raeken, liam dunbar

ships: sterek, scissac, lydia x allison, thiam

stranger things

characters: steve harrington, will byers (male reader only for personal headcannon), mike wheeler, eleven/jane hopper, dustin henderson, jonathan byers, nancy wheeler, robyn buckley (female reader only), max mayfield, lucas sinclair, joyce byers

ships: byler, elmax, nancy x robyn, jonathan x steve

IT (2017)

characters include: mike hanlon, ben hanscom, beverly marsh, richie tozier (male reader only), eddie kaspbarak, bill denbrough, stanley uris

ships: reddie, stenbrough, mikeverly, benverly, mike x ben

marvel and x-men

characters include: peter parker, steve rodgers, peggy carters, peter maximoff, pietro maximoff, wanda maximoff, charles xavier (young romantic or older platonic only), wade wilson, tony stark, bucky barnes, thor, loki, natasha romanoff, bruce banner, stephen strange (more that I'm probably forgetting tbh)

ships: stony, parley, ironstrange, stucky, 

dc

characters include: conner kent, clark kent, jonathan kent, damian wayne, tim drake, bruce wayne, jason todd, dick grayson, selina kyle, barbra gordon, helena bertinelli, harley quinn, poison ivy, cassandra cain, kara danvers, mon-el, alex danvers (female reader only), oliver queen, barry allen, bart allen, wally west, miss martian/megan mores (more im not thinking of, just ask)

ships: damjon, lena luthor x kara danvers, superbat, dick x wally

there are probably others I'm not thinking of, just ask please!!!

#malereader #femalereader #strangerthings #teenwolf #druck #skam #percyjackson #heroes of olympus #harry potter #supernatural #nonbinaryreader #graphics #request #love #it #marvel #dc #xmen

[felicitymegan]

the first time felicity is put in charge of the money for her and her mom, she’s seven & her father had just left . her mother doesn’t ask but she balances the checkbook while donna sleeps after getting off of a double shift and that’s where it starts. she cuts coupons for groceries and she plans down the the cent the money they’ll have for the week. every other week like clockwork she walks to the grocery store in shoes that are close to falling apart and every other week she fills the basket with easy to make food so that she doesn’t have to use the stove. ( the trial run of tomato soup did not go as well as either of them had hoped so felicity doesn’t touch another stove until she’s twelve and it’s absolutely necessary because they only have one only box of spaghetti left on their shelves. ) space camp takes a back seat when she’s eight and she tries not let her mom see the hurt on her face when she tells her she can’t go. ( except that donna is her mom & neither of them have amazing poker faces felicity knows it kills her to tell her that she can’t go. )

she’s fourteen & tall for her age when she finally convinces the owner of the coffee shop down the street to hire her under the table, she’s nothing if not annoying, desperate, and persuasive. she’s sixteen and getting ready to graduate when her mom loses her job. her MIT money becomes bill money and when she starts counting cards in different less-than-legal casinos that are more of a backroom than anything with a very convincing fake id she very narrowly avoids getting her ass kicked or worse more times than she can count. she consoles herself with the fact that she is doing what she has to just to get by, to get out of the town that has consumed her mother’s life. she will not let it consume hers. when donna finds out there have never been more books or shoes thrown in felicity’s general direction, and she wonders why she’d never realized how much her mother had cared about her well-being before. she leaves las vegas for the last time, everything she owns loaded into her mom’s ten year old pontiac ( that will break down for good a year and a half into her time at MIT ) ,  but only after she’s cut out coupons for the month, balanced her mother’s checkbook one last time, and gives her the budget she’s gone by for the last nine years ( not that felicity expects that she’s going to follow it but it’s nice that she pretends she’s going to ) .

it’s so ingrained in her by the time she moves to starling city that she saves as much as she can from every pay check from queen consolidated. it's a job that she doesn't love but it's safe & she's needs safe. she saves because living in massachusettes had taken every penny she'd saved & then some. she splurges, she's human, on shoes & dresses & coffee but only once the assistant position with oliver comes with a raise. by the time she's back at tech village, she's not exactly desperate for money but she knows that with the life that they live nothing is set in stone ( if the queen family can't keep their millions, her meager savings are in trouble to say the least ). even when she has money, when she and oliver are travelling the world or living in ivy town, she makes sure they always have enough to fall back on.

it's very important to her , that they teach william & mia how to be responsible with money , especially with the access they ahve to it & especially once smoak technologies is running & worth more money that she ever thought it could be, in addition to the money that oliver has.

#* 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑘𝑒𝑒𝑝 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑠. ›› headcanon. #long post /

[lauchisims]

Time for a gen 6 recap! Lots to talk about here.

1- Anna: Theo, Mia, Arlo & Luke 2- Astrid: Sebastian, Atlas & Archer 3- Adelaide: Maisie, Miles, Jane & Imogen 4 - Thea: Emilia & Zachary 5 - Aria: Caleb & Adeline 6 - Lisann: Charles, Audrey & Benjamin 7 - Aurelia: Evangeline & Eliza 8 - Ivy: Tobias & Roman 9 - Hazel: Arabella & Phoebe 10 - Chloe: Elijah, Emma & Lucas 11 - Nora: William & Hugo 12 - Esme: Alexander & Mae 13 - Elizabeth: August & Lyra 14 - Clara: Anastasia, Claire & Owen

Whew! That’s a lot of births! And so many more than the expected 2-per-person!

Good news is we only lost three branches out of fourteen. Bad news is one of those is Nora. Astrid I really liked too, but Ivy I don’t mind.

Anyway, we started this branch with 14 girls and leave it with 16. Going strong! At this point I’m hoping the neighbourhood survives. We’ll see...

Gen 7 coming soon!

#sims #sims 2 #ts2 #mirren fam #mirrenfamrecap

[preathuswnt]

NWSL has a new team coming spring 2022!!

this team is extra special because of the owners including: abby wambach, glennon doyle, shannon boxx, lauren holiday, mia hamm, natalie portman, eva longoria, and serena williams and her daughter (who is 2)!

#nwsl #womens soccer #angel city #abby wambach #glennon doyle #serena williams #natalie portman #eva longoria #mia hamm #joy fawcett #lauren holiday #woso

[bringmetolife-pwff]

Part One: Chapter Six - A sweet surprise

Its a few weeks later and Evelyn was finally feeling better about everything that had happened.  She knew that everything happened for a reason whatever it may be she wasn't sure yet.  But her head was finally in a good place.  After some reflection and a trip to a small village named Shere, Surrey near London.  She had needed to get away from London and clear her head.  It was a girls trip Evelyn didn't know she needed.

Now she felt refreshed, renewed and rejuvenated ready to get back to work.

She had just come home from work, letting out a sigh as she went through a long day of work.  As busy as it was three weeks ago was as slow as it was today.  Evelyn hated the slow days as it made time drag on.

"Oh my God," Evelyn let out a shriek of excitement as she smiled rushing over to him and hugging him.  "What the bloody hell are you doing here?"

He let out a chuckle as well hugging her back, happy to see her smiling and laughing.

"I told you I would visit you and when I did it would be a surprise."

"Of course," she rolled her eyes playfully and regretfully stop hugging him.  "Well, this is definitely a nice surprise.  Are you doing anything right now?  D'you have time to visit?  I wasn't expecting you and well.... I made plans with friends tonight as well as some of my siblings.  If you wanted to meet them," she told him shyly as she tucked a piece of her blonde hair behind her ear.

He looks down at his Cartier watch to check the time.  He was in his military uniform having come straight from his military base not wanting to waste another minute from being away from her.  They had talked on the mobile every chance he had.  Eric and William had left at the same time but took separate cars.

William had made it to Evelyn's sister apartment thirty minutes ago, startling the blonde student out of her wits as she was on her way to university.  When he told her that he wanted to surprise Evelyn, Vivienne was happy to help and let him in.  Paul was with him at first but later left once the prince told him that he was safe he nodded his head and took the night off.  

"I can do that," he nodded his head happy that she wasn't having him go home.

They had a couple of hours to themselves before the get-together tonight.  William and Evelyn caught up with each other and their lives.  She asked about his military training, his home life and how he's been.  He did the same with her.

"What's your family like?" He asked with curiosity.  He had heard some from Eric but he wanted to know more.

"Well, we're quite close," she said as she was tracing circles on her leg with her finger looking at him.  "I have five other siblings only one sister."

"Five?" The prince's eyes widened in astonishment.

"Five," she clarified nodding her head.  "Jake is the eldest and he has two twin boys with his girlfriend, Mia.  Their sons names are Samuel and David," she smiled at the mention of them.  "Then there's Noah, Eric whom you obviously know, Theo and lastly Vivienne who my younger sister who is in university right now studying to become a midwife at King's College London."

"Wow," William exclaimed.  "I only have the one brother, Harry.  I can hardly keep up with him.  Not sure how you do with five," he said making her laugh.

"Well, they were all except my sister, born before me so it was easier that way."

"What about your parents?  What do they do?"

"My dad is the CEO of his own company called Bennett & Co.  He designs loads of things mostly focusing on now men's cologne, watches, etc.   My mum used to work for his company but now she stays at home.  She would be the one always taking care of us when we were younger.  Him too, but she did the majority of it."

"Bennett & Co. you say?  I actually own a watch by him then.  I didn't realise that was your Pa."

"Bloody hell, you're joking!"

"I'm not," he laughed shaking his head.  "I swear it.  Next time I see you, I'll wear it."

"Alright.  You better.  Tell me about your family."

She was born and raised in London her whole life and yet she never knew anything of the Royal family.  Now she was sitting in front of Prince William as they were discussing their home life and what their families were like.

"Loads of people think they know my family based off of what the tabloids say.  But you know, loads of people can't seem to forget how my Pa was with my mum.  But he's changed and he's happy with Camilla.  So I'm happy for him," he shrugged his shoulders.  "Although, between you and me, I wasn't at first."

"No?" said Evelyn as an eyebrow raised.

"No, Eve," he shook his head.  "There was so much turmoil within that relationship when my mum was alive.  She was the cause of my parents divorcing.  My mum only wanted for their relationship to get better.  There was so much that could have gone better even my Pa admits it now.  It's taken time and things still aren't quite there between Camilla and I, but my Pa's happy so I try to see it from his side."

There was a silence between the pair as she let his words sink in.  The thoughtfulness.  The hurt.  The emotion.  That was all still there and she could see the hurt of the fifteen-year old boy who was walking behind his mum's coffin.  She remembered that day.  She remembered school being called off and the millions of people that were out on the street mourning the death of the late Princess Diana.

She paused before she decided whether or not what she was about to say made any difference at all.  

"You probably wouldn't remember," Eve shook her head.  "I was there."

He furrowed his eyebrows not sure what she was going on about.

"At your mum's funeral," she murmured quietly as a blush rose to her cheeks heatedly.  "I saw how hurt you looked and I remember when my granddad passed away how I felt then.  And so, I walked up to you before you started walking."

"'Course," William looked gobsmacked as realisation dawned on him.  "You were the girl who walked up to me with the forget-me-nots."

"You remember?" said Evelyn just as shocked as William.

"How could I forget?  That was the only part of the day I actually wanted to remember.  The way you just walked up to me gave me a shy smile like you are now.  You were the only one who made me feel better even if it was for a second."

"I just felt so awful for you and your brother Harry.  I could never imagine how it must feel losing your mum at a young age," she shook her head.  "Although I didn't know your mum I know she could make anyone feel better with just a smile on her face."

"She did," William nodded agreeing with her.  "Can I hug you?"

Evelyn scooted closer to William and wrapped her arms around him.  He burrowed his head in her neck and he let a sigh of relief as he closed his eyes.  Evelyn could feel her eyes beginning to water.  The both of them recalling that day they first met.

It was a day that not only the whole country of United Kingdom was in mourning for the late Princess Diana but also the whole world.  She was dressed all in black her blonde hair down in waves as Evelyn held onto her mum's hand.  Natasha and Peter didn't want to lose sight of all five kids in the sea of people.

In the other hand Evelyn was holding a small bouquet of forget-me-nots.

From the distance, she spotted the Royal family as they looked all the more devastating than the rest of the people, especially William and Harry.  She saw what looked to be a letter in Harry's hands as The Queen told them about the formation.

Evelyn let go of her mum's hand hearing her call frantically for her to come back.  

Slightly out of breath as ran up to the young prince, the fourteen-year old did a wobbly curtsy and greeted him.  "Your Royal Highness.  These are for you," she gave him a shy smile as her cerulean blue eyes shown bright on this gloomy day.  She thrust the flowers in front of her.

"T-thank you," he told her with a shy smile taking the bouquet.

"Evelyn," they both heard a frantic shout at the young girl.

He guessed it was her mum as he watched the mum who also had bright blonde hair and blue eyes squat down at Evelyn's level.

"You mustn't walk away like that ever again from me, alright?"

"I'm sorry mummy," she said hurriedly.  "But he looked sad."

The funeral procession had started and the family was off.  He took one last look at the girl as she tried explaining her reasoning as to why she took off like that.  It was never the plan to go up to Prince William and give him the flowers but she had seen how upset he looked that she wanted to make him feel better, even if just for a bit.

"I can't believe that was you," he declared as they now sat up and looked into each other's eyes.  "I thought I would never see you again," William tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

***

It was now time for the get-together as her assistant Sam and husband Hamish were there now along with her model, Alyssa.  They were waiting on a few others as Evelyn was pouring all glasses of alcohol.

The doorbell rang and Evelyn went to open the door revealing her good friend, Ivy.  She was short, dark, and had the most gorgeous set of green eyes.  A real stunner.  Ivy let out a squeal as she hugged her good friend.

"Hello, love," Ivy greeted her as William could hear the strong Scottish accent.

The apartment was full of loads of their friends and some family.  Eric had decided to join after all allowing him and William to have a good chat.  Eric knew that William had been talking and spending more time with his sister and although he was curious about if anything was going on, he was also happy to see her happy; finally.  

Hamish seemed to be in a deep conversation with William about something as Evelyn chatted with Ivy.

"Yer finally lettin' go of that prune and moved onto a prince, aye?" Ivy asked in secret as William was chatting with Hamish.

"No, no," she laughed at her friend.  "We're just friends."

"Well, yer don' seem like 'ust friends to me," she shrugged her shoulders as she took another sip of her drink dancing to music that was playing in the apartment.

"All righ', all righ'," Ivy gave in but gave her a friend a knowing look showing she knew better even if Eve didn't.  "Well, he's certainly good lookin'."

"That he is," Eve had to agree with her.

Evelyn wasn't that blind.  She knew that he was good looking but she just wasn't ready to move on yet.  And who even knew if he was interested in her.  They were enjoying getting to know each other right now as friends and he seemed to fit right in with her friends which was nice.  The night went on and the party started to dwindle down.  

"I had good fun tonight," William said to Evelyn as they along with Vivienne were the only ones left.

"Me too," she agreed.  "I think my friends really like you."

"They're good people.  Much better than Liam and Blair, even though I never met them.  When you find good people like that in your life -- you need to hold onto them."

"I agree.  It's rare to find people who you can trust.  Then, sometimes you think you can trust someone and they turn out to be the exact opposite..."

"That's why you have to unfortunately be very careful who your friends are.  I'm the same way.  I have a very small close group of friends but with the friends I have I know I can count on them for anything and I'm the same way for them," he shrugged his shoulders.  "I have to get going.  Pa's hosting a dinner for me tomorrow with the family.  But I'm hoping we can meet up again soon?"

"Soon," she agreed with a smile.

#bringmetolife-pwff prince William princewilliamfanfic britishroyalfamily prince harry kate middleton romance fanfiction

[feliciityqxeen]

the first time felicity is put in charge of the money for her and her mom, she’s seven. her mother doesn’t ask but she balances the checkbook while donna sleeps after getting off of a double shift and that’s where it starts. she cuts coupons for groceries and she plans down the the cent the money they’ll have for the week. every other week like clockwork she walks to the grocery store in shoes that are close to falling apart and every other week she fills the basket with easy to make food so that she doesn’t have to use the stove. ( the trial run of tomato soup did not go as well as either of them had hoped so felicity doesn’t touch another stove until she’s twelve and it’s absolutely necessary because they only have one only box of spaghetti left on their shelves. ) space camp takes a back seat when she’s eight and she tries not let her mom see the hurt on her face when she tells her she can’t go. ( except that donna is her mom and felicity knows it kills her to tell her that she can’t go. )

she’s fourteen when she finally convinces the owner of the coffee shop down the street to hire her under the table, she’s nothing if not annoying, desperate, and persuasive. she’s sixteen and getting ready to graduate when her mom loses her job. her MIT money becomes bill money and when she starts counting cards in different less-than-legal casinos that are more of a backroom than anything with a very convincing fake id she very narrowly avoids getting her ass kicked or worse more times than she can count. she consoles herself with the fact that she is doing what she has to just to get by, to get out of the town that has consumed her mother’s life. she will not let it consume hers. when donna finds out there have never been more books or shoes thrown in felicity’s general direction, and she wonders why she’d never realized how much her mother had cared about her well-being before. she leaves las vegas for the last time, everything she owns loaded into her mom’s ten year old pontiac ( that will break down for good a year and a half into her time at MIT ),  but only after she’s cut out coupons for the month, balanced her mother’s checkbook one last time, and gives her the budget she’s gone by for the last nine years ( not that felicity expects that she’s going to follow it but it’s nice that she pretends she’s going to ).

it’s so ingrained in her by the time she moves to starling city that she saves as much as she can from every pay check from queen consolidated. it's a job that she doesn't love but it's safe & she's needs safe. she saves because living in massachusettes had taken every penny she'd saved & then some. she splurges, she's human, on shoes & dresses & coffee but only once the assistant position with oliver comes with a raise. by the time she's back at tech village, she's not exactly desperate for money but she knows that with the life that they live nothing is set in stone ( if the queen family can't keep their millions, her meager savings are in trouble to say the least ). even when she has money, when she and oliver are travelling the world or living in ivy town, she makes sure they always have enough to fall back on. it's very important, especially once they are raising william & once mia is old enough that they teach them how important it is to be responsible with money . despite mia & william always having access a lot of it . especially once smoak technologies is running & worth more money that she ever thought it could be, in addition to the money that oliver has.

#no one : #absolutely no one : #me : felicity was POOR & you don't just magic yourself out of being poor or of the mindset #of someone who has physically been afraid of going without since they were a child ! #* ᴘᴇᴏᴘʟᴇ ᴋᴇᴇᴘ sᴇᴄʀᴇᴛs. / headcanon.

[dustedmagazine]

Mia Dyberg Trio – Ticket! (Clean Feed)

The late William S. Burroughs appears among the select names dropped and thanked in the brief notes appending altoist Mia Dyberg’s Ticket! The nihilist poet’s prominent place along with the album title provide direct clues as to the sort of explosive ordinance embodied by her trio. Danish by birth, but Berlin-based, Dyberg’s swiftly made waves in Europe with an active docket and a willingness to forgo career certainties for the dice roll of life as an improvising musician. Bassist Asger Thomsen and drummer Dag Magnus Narvesen appear compatibly committed and the three players gel unusually well across the studio project’s fourteen pieces. Ornette is an obvious antecedent, particularly on the date’s longest venture “The First Track,” but the band evinces vital independence from slavish influence. 

One of the chief aspects in this autonomy is an involving sense of shared dynamics and space. Dyberg and Thomsen repeatedly form a reciprocal glue in the voicing of thematic material. That jointly-generated adhesive proves both elastic and tenacious, ready-made for Narvesen to flesh out with a subtle, supple array of skeletal rhythms that resist rote patterns and resolve instead with rich texture and grain. The ensemble agreement is especially effective on numbers like the somber ballad “Party Ist Vorbei” and the vaporous “Silversmoke” where each instrument is emancipated and enunciated within an enveloping whole. 

Extended techniques also guide the trio’s vocabulary with Dyberg overblowing and blurring registers on barnstormers like “Wil’s Swing” with blasts of skidding, reed-masticating peals. Brevity of concept and application is refreshingly consistent as well. Six of the program’s pieces clock to less than two minutes in length with the players getting in, hatching an idea or several and exiting into silence before any semblance of stasis has a chance to creep in and sully the session. Some of the interstitial transitions are a bit stiff and abrupt as a result, but it’s a fair exchange for a program that propels along at a good clip and keeps Dyberg and her colleagues on their collective toes throughout.  

Master bassist Greg Cohen is another vocal advocate of the trio, likening their output as deserving gustatory accompaniment consisting of a fine French wine “and a fresh box of Cheez-It’s.” That mash-up of figurative highbrow and plebian parts makes for a winsome blend as with “Tropical” where Dyberg and Thomsen once again weave a motivic progression at once airborne and terrestrial while Narvesen stamps a stuttering tumble from behind his kit. The instrumentation is the opposite of uncommon, but the ways in which these three musicians shape it succinctly to their own designs is where the record wins copious points and presumably a strong contingent of converts.

Derek Taylor

#mia dyberg trio #ticket! #clean feed #free jazz #denmark #berlin #dusted magazine #albumreview #derek taylor

[penniesforthestorm]

On Jane, Part 4

The Conclusion

I want to start this one off with a little illustration of who I was the first time I read Jane Eyre. I was fourteen, and the book had been a birthday present, part of a set from Barnes and Noble that included Emma, A Tale of Two Cities, and Tales of Mystery and Imagination. I was a proudly eccentric girl, with braces and awkward bangs that I trimmed myself with kiddie scissors, who wrote bizarre novellas about Russian ballet dancers and tragic poets who bore a suspicious resemblance to Gerard Manley Hopkins. True, I came from a loving, nourishing home, and had plenty of friends, but I was never quite able to escape the feeling of being an outsider, and I was terrified that I was somehow un-lovable-- that I would never find someone tuned to my frequency. In other words, I was a big ol’ nerd, and exactly in the right stage in life for reading this book. (At sixteen, I read D.H. Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers, and when a young man tells a young woman: “You don’t want to love; your eternal and inexorable craving is to be loved”, I cringed in recognition. It’s always startling when books read you.)

Now, let’s return to Jane. At the moment, she is utterly alone. Her hopes of marriage have been dashed, her former refuge poisoned. She has no possessions, no money, and nowhere to go. But she goes, because she cannot stay, and eventually finds shelter at the home of the Rivers family: Diana, Mary, and St. John (rhymes with “engine”), a Protestant minister. While Jane recovers her strength, the sisters take her warmly under their wing, teaching her German and proving a match for her aesthetic and intellectual interests. Once she is well, she becomes the sole teacher at a school for girls in the village, recommended by St. John himself. She has a house of her own, and challenging, but fulfilling work. Her heart still aches for Rochester, but she sincerely tries to leave all that behind her. She becomes absorbed in the drama of St. John’s relationship with the lovely Rosamond Oliver-- he clearly loves her, but rejects her at every turn for initially opaque reasons.

And then Jane receives news that her half-forgotten uncle John, the Madeira wine merchant, has died and left her twenty thousand pounds. Not only that, but she and the Rivers siblings are cousins-- their mother was sister to the two quarreling Eyre brothers (John, and Jane’s father). Jane being who she is, she immediately divides the money between herself and her new family members, but she’s still a very rich gal. So everything’s coming up Jane!

And then St. John Rivers goes poking his haughty nose around and almost ruining everything. It’s been established that he wants to go and be a missionary in India, and he starts teaching Jane Hindi, and eventually asks her to go with him, as his wife. This, it turns out, is more or less all he thinks of her: Good Wife Material. He has essentially zero regard for “ordinary corrupt human love” (I knew I could work Graham Greene into this somehow!); Rosamond Oliver didn’t live up to his standards, but Jane-- plain, quiet, moral Jane-- she will suit his purposes exactly.

But he has no idea who he’s dealing with. Jane would be perfectly happy going to India, she informs him, but not as his wife. We, of course, know that she cannot stand the idea of chaining herself to someone who cannot love her. So she says: “God did not give me my life to throw away; and to do as you wish me would, I begin to think, be almost equivalent to committing suicide.” This is what I mean when I talk about Jane’s spirit. St. John reacts to this very nastily at first (because he’s petty and self-righteous, always a great combo), but gradually the two of them reach an agreement-- he gives her two weeks to think things over.

Turns out there are more spirits at play than we reckoned with, though. At some point in late adolescence, I was given a book called Was Heathcliff a Murderer? which purported to examine some of the greatest ‘mysteries’ in Victorian literature. (It devotes a chapter to the ‘question’ of whether or not Tess, in Tess of the D’Urbervilles, was ‘actually’ raped, which is frankly offensive, and also... made pretty explicit in the text? Hardy doesn’t go into, like, the physical details, but his allusion to pillage and plunder is... not accidental? Then again, I’m not an Oxford professor writing in the late 1980′s, so what do i know...) Among its subjects is the next scene of Jane Eyre: Jane, sitting alone at night, hears Rochester calling her name. Was it a dream? A form of hypnosis? A very oblique reference to the brand-new technology of the telegraph (yes, that is one of the theories)?

The thing is, I don’t need an answer. I just don’t care. I care that Jane, who is now subject to no one, who has proven that she can succeed on her own in the world, goes running back to the man she loves, because his soul cried out and hers answered. She could have ignored it, and happily stayed on with Mary and Diana and run her village-school. But she doesn’t. She goes back, to find Thornfield burned to the ground, Bertha (Mason) Rochester dead, and Edward blind and minus a hand. And Reader, she marries him, because they understand each other, and always did, right from the beginning.

I’ve really enjoyed writing these; I hope you’ve enjoyed reading them. Maybe re-read the book as well? It’s certainly been rewarding for me. Also, the 2006 version is on Hulu, but I’m quite fond of the 2011 feature directed by Cary Fukunaga, with Mia Wasikowska and Michael Fassbender as well-- the photography is particularly striking. The Zeffirelli version with Charlotte Gainsbourg and William Hurt is OK, notable for the beginning, which features a very young Anna Paquin. I have it in my head that I’ve seen the Orson Welles/Joan Fontaine rendition, or parts of it, but I don’t have a clear impression of it. As always, comments and questions are welcomed and encouraged! Here are the links to the other segments: Part 1: http://penniesforthestorm.tumblr.com/post/176721452934 Part 2: http://penniesforthestorm.tumblr.com/post/176757746084 Part 3: http://penniesforthestorm.tumblr.com/post/176790893894

#prose #Long Reads #literature #Jane Eyre #views my own

[politicsprose]

2017 Holiday Newsletter

Welcome to the 2017 Politics and Prose Holiday Newsletter. As always, we’re proud to present a selection of some of the year’s most impressive books. Happy holidays to all!

American Fiction

Jennifer Egan’s Manhattan Beach (@scribnerbooks) captures a time and place on the verge of momentous change. Set in Brooklyn in the 1940s, the novel tells the story of Anna Kerrigan, a young woman who has dropped out of Brooklyn College to contribute what she can to the American war effort. Unsatisfied with her job of inspecting and measuring machine parts, she attempts to enter the male-only world of deep-sea diving. Manhattan Beach is rich and atmospheric, highlighting a period when gangs controlled the waterfront, jazz streamed from the doors of nightclubs, and the future for everyone was far from certain. - Mark L.

Shaker Heights is a perfectly planned town full of people with seemingly perfectly planned lives, but when Mia and her daughter Pearl move in they start a series of little fires, small rebellions, that shake the community to its core. Celeste Ng brilliantly explores the nature of art, family, and identity in her second novel, Little Fires Everywhere (@thepenguinpress). The writing is beautifully elegant and layered, and you’ll find yourself immediately swept up in the lives of the characters. At the heart of the story are four mothers: one whose carefully planned family was nearly derailed by a high-risk pregnancy and who watches her youngest daughter so carefully that she forgets to show her love; one who leaves her child at a firehouse to save her life in a hopeless moment; one who longs for a child and fears her chance will be snatched away before she can experience the wonder of motherhood; and one who made a dangerous choice to raise her child on her terms. Whether you are a mother or a child, the story of these women and their families will stay with you long after you turn the last page. - Tori O.

Larry McMurtry has always been ambivalent about the success of the fiction in which he portrays the cowboy myth and the rugged Texas machismo that comes with it, but as you read the three novels collected in Thalia: A Texas Trilogy  (Liveright) you won’t be of two minds. Actually, upon learning that McMurtry wrote all these books in his twenties and that they were the very first three he wrote, you’ll be burning with envy. In Horseman, Pass By, McMurtry sets Lonnie Bannon with his love of his Granddad’s ranch and way of life against Hud, his step-brother, who is endlessly crude and cruel. At the center of Leaving Cheyenne are Gid, Johnny, and Molly, a rancher, his cowboy hand, and the woman they both love. They each take a turn telling the story of their unconventional lives in small-town Texas. Finally, there’s The Last Picture Show, in which we see Thalia as a dead-end place. Of the three, this is perhaps the most darkly comic, as nearly every character engages in self-deception in order to eke out an existence in a town where every day is the same. Amid the fantastic and perhaps unbelievably melodramatic events, McMurtry finds a bottomless well of compassion for his characters. This is one time capsule was worth re-opening. - Sharat B.

Described as an “illustrated novella,” and looking like a quirky coffee table book, A Field Guide to the North American Family (Knopf), by Garth Risk Hallberg, is neither. This work, which Hallberg wrote before his 2015 New York epic, City on Fire, is an ingenious maze of a narrative based on the concept of the North American Family. Reminiscent of Lydia Davis’ seemingly quotidian pieces of pointed brilliance, Hallberg’s work is multi-layered, surprising, and deft. At one level the book uses a series of flash-fictions to recount the story of two families. At another, it’s an index of terms that readers can reference while reading the main plot—or savor for the wisdom they offer on their own. Then there are the photos. Each episode comes not only with its keywords but with a visual image. These are sometimes directly related to the text, like conventional illustrations, but often their relationship to the narrative is more elusive. Some pages look as if they’ve been torn from one scrapbook and pasted into this one, others look fresh and new. Grab this emotional map of North American family life and get ready to wander – it’s sure to be a warm, nostalgic trip. - Justin S.

In Paul La Farge’s The Night Ocean (@penguinrandomhouse), Marina Willett’s husband, a famous-turned-infamous literary historian, has disappeared, seemingly a suicide case but maybe that’s just what he wants people to think. From this hook, the book’s tentacles spread into a kaleidoscopic series of investigations, as Marina double-checks her spouse’s leads to get to the bottom of a mysterious bit of H. P. Lovecraft apocrypha called “The Erotonomicon.” Cameos extend from Lovecraft to William Burroughs, Isaac Asimov, and more, becoming something like “The Savage Detectives of American weird fiction.” To follow this book’s incredible story, you don’t need to like, or even know, these figures, which are all fictionalized creations anyway, despite the author’s deep knowledge of their histories. La Farge critiques and parodies but does not romanticize these writers. He’s deeply attuned to how our human sympathies toward icons we learn about from afar can morph into blind obsession despite our best intentions. His narrative is a seamless combination of trickster humor and utter heartbreak, plumbing the depths to which people will go to forgive, embody, and take revenge upon their former idols, all while preserving their own reputation. The best writing lives inside you —even possesses you. The Night Ocean does just that. - Jonathan W.

Lily Tuck, whose novel The News from Paraguay won the National Book Award in 2004, is one of our finest writers of novels-in-vignettes, and her latest, Sisters (@theatlantic), takes compression to extremes. Its “chapters” are often over in a page, a paragraph, sometimes a sentence, but they’re such vivid shards that you feel like you’re catching all the other pieces in a mosaic without having to see them spelled out. This is the story of a woman reflecting on her shaky marriage, whose trappings—her husband’s children, passions, and memories—all come courtesy of a prior spouse. Tuck centers on her narrator’s relationship with this other woman, who, though living across town, always seems to be in the air. What could turn spiteful in another writer’s hands comes off as gentle and empathetic in Tuck’s, as her lead character seizes on snatches of imagery (“a messy ponytail,” “did not wear rings”), to think through what her ostensible rival’s life must be like. Is it the narrator and not the man who links the two of them who truly understands this woman, she who sees that the bouillabaisse dinner he fondly remembers from France might have made her pregnant body sick? For such a short novel, Sisters is full of these kinds of insights, simply but inimitably framed. - Jonathan W.

One of the most talked about books this autumn, and my favorite, was My Absolute Darling (@riverheadbooks), by Gabriel Tallent. Shocking and unsettling, at times difficult to read, the novel follows fourteen-year-old Turtle Alveston, who feels more at home in nature than she does with her survivalist and damaged father, as she searches for freedom and fights for her soul. Roaming the woods one night, wondering if her father would be able to find her, she meets two lost teenage boys and guides them safely out. And that is the moment she starts questioning her home life. The way Tallent brings you steadily into Turtle’s mind makes you almost feel her pain. He manages to capture her deepest thoughts, her internal struggle, her will to survive. Obviously suffering from Stockholm syndrome, she debates with herself over whether to stay or leave, doubting her worth every step of the way. But she fights and she survives. She is the kind of girl, brave and determined, with whom readers are almost duty-bound to fall in love. Tallent grew up in Mendocino and spent a lot of time outside. His love for the region is evident in Turtle’s view of the place and Mendocino itself is a strong character in the book. This is Tallent’s debut novel. And what a remarkable debut it is! - Marija D.

Friendships seldom get the sustained literary treatment that romances do, but Claire Messud’s insightful novel The Burning Girl (@wwnorton) shows that these relationships strike as deep, stir as many emotions, and do as much to shape a person, for better or worse. They can have special force when formed early in life, and Messud’s protagonists, Julia and Cassie, are best friends from nursery school to roughly seventh grade. Narrating the friendship and its aftermath, Julia, the one who takes paths already there rather than striking out into untrodden territory—the one who sets limits—insists that she and Cassie are as close as sisters. Their two families never mesh, however, and Julia comes to realize that her notion of “home” is not Cassie’s. Much of Cassie’s home life is guesswork, and while Julia does that work, her version of Cassie is partly made up; at times Cassie seems like one of the characters Julia, an aspiring actress, inhabits on stage. Messud uses the inherently self-dramatizing period of adolescence as a lens to view more difficult questions of how well any two people can know each other, and she brilliantly demonstrates how the typical rites of passage—fantasizing about an alternative family, surviving junior high cliques—can suddenly yield “one of those events that that was little and big at the same time,” bringing about the kind of understanding that a person never forgets. - Laurie G.

#books #Holidays #american fiction #2017

[phff-authentic]

fourteen: sleepy journeys

delayed in true Mac style! woo - oops, i’m sorry. but it’s here now and I hope you enjoy it. let me know what you think - please!!

The drive to the villa was a longer journey than Kimberly had anticipated but Mia had her attention the entire ride. It didn't take long for the young girl to begin avidly having a conversation with her, a smile present on Kimberly face throughout the entire conversation. The two of them had an awful lot in common, such as having never ridden a horse - a secret they had chosen to keep to themselves-, a love for sweet baked treats and an abundance of energy. Playing an assortment of games in the car, Harry watched on pleasantly focusing in and out of the conversations he should have been concentrating on. Zara, Catherine and Kimberly made a point to include the children in all their conversations until they realised the fatigue that had begun to plague them, it didn’t take long for them to fall asleep. Mia’s hand gripped onto Kimberly's thumb as she had been trying to keep her attention the entire trip and head resting on her shoulder. Kimberly had also managed to have been worn out but the interaction, as she napped beside the young girl, a smile etched into her face in sleep. It was only around six o'clock when the car pulled up into the parking bays at the villa, marking the destination as over. The villa was big and spacious, surrounded by nothing but fields. The villa itself was almost identical to the stable but it was larger in size and  gave a more homely atmosphere. Mia was carefully lifted out of the car by Mike, whilst Zara gently nudged Kim back to her senses. Both women let out a soft yawn, giggling at each other before exiting the car. Meeting William, who held George in his arms, and Kate outside, they all made their way inside before being Kim was led off with the girls to her room. Upon arrival in the spacious room. Her bags had been placed by the foot of the bed but all she could focus on was how soft the bed looked through sleep clad mind. She wasn't the only one thinking so because it didn't take long for the three young women to all be fast asleep on the queen sized bed without having gotten changed.

The knocks that sounded at the door went unanswered and when the door opened, the three men's, who were stood behind it, questioned were quickly answered at the sight that greeted them. Mike quickly ushered the other two out of the room as they headed back down to the lounge. An array of drinks greeted them, each helping themselves, as they took a seat and simultaneously released a sigh.

"I suppose we shouldn't have expected anything different," William joked, sipping on his glass as s smile grew on his face, thinking back on the image he had just seem.

"They're almost as bad as the young ones,"

"At least they reached the bedroom first," Mike added, letting out a chuckle.

Kimberly woke with a startle, her eyes scanning around an unfamiliar room before they landed on the bodies that were beside her. Letting out a chuckle as she realised where she was, she reached her arms above her head stretching as she yawned, quickly glancing outside to see that the sun had sunk way below the horizon. Standing up, she quickly checked the time on her phone noting it was out of battering before throwing it back into her bag and grabbing a jacket out her bags and pulling it on before leaving the room as silently as possible. Trying to remember her way to the entrance, Kimberly trekked through the many hallways finding a clock on the wall notifying her of the late hour. Shaking her head at herself, she pushed open the door they had entered through and stepped outside. The cool of the evening hit her warm cheek harshly, but ultimately calmed her down. She couldn’t quite believe where she was and not that she wasn’t grateful for the opportunity wished she was home. She didn’t feel entirely settled here and even though the other ladies had done nothing but ensure that she was comfortable before the day had arrived and earlier that morning. She felt like an outside amongst them all.

The sound of footsteps shook her out of her thoughts, as she tightened the jacket around her and turned slowly to face the other person up at this time of night. The same face she’d become accustomed to seeing in real life, rather than plastered on her television or the morning newspaper, stood by the door. Seemingly dressed in checkered pyjamas and light jacket that wasn’t zipped up all the way.

“Is everything alright?” He questioned softly, not moving from his position as he glanced over at her. Kimberly gave a hesitant nod and a quick smile before turning away from his gaze feeling overwhelmed all of a sudden. Harry said nothing more, just slowly made his way over to her side as they both glanced out at the dark expanse in front of them, lit up ever so slightly with the few stars that weren’t covered by the clouds.

“It’s so amazing, you know?” She muttered, shattering the silence that had built around them. Hearing no response, she turned to see a confused look on his face, smiling gently before going on to explain, “That you can do stuff like this. I know you have responsibilities but when you get to relax...you relax in style.” A chuckle followed her words as Harry crossed his own arms across his body.

“Thank Zara, goodness I’d probably still be in London if it wasn’t for her.”

“You and me both.” She agreed with a smile, turning to look at his ever so slightly.

“Have you ever rode before Miss Kimberly?” Harry asked quickly, turning to face her with a grin on his face.

“Can’t say I have Mr Henry.” She replied, giving him a view of her teeth as she smiled back at him. If possible Harry’s smile grew bigger and before she knew it, her hand was in his grasp as he pulled her towards the back of the house villa they were staying in. The sight of the stables entered her view as her feet were moved closer to the large building. Immediately sensing what was happening, Kim dug her heels into the ground trying to stop their movement, “Harry, stop. I’ve never been on horseback let alone at night.”

Her protests were greeted with silence as the two adults entered the stable. Letting go of her hand, Harry disappeared further into the stable and out of site. Kimberly didn’t move from her spot but rubbed her arms gently as she waited to see harry return.

The sound of movement in front of her drew her attention back to where Harry had gone to see him smiling with a black stallion on a rein. Placing a helmet onto her head, her offered her his hand after bringing the horse over to stand in front of her. Looking at his for a moment, she slowly laid her hand in his as he led his over to sit on the horse’s nose. Harry to a moment to watch as Kimberly slowly rubbed the horse’s nose before wandering down to its side and gently combing her fingers through its mane. Stepping over next to her, he placed his own hand on the horse’s saddled back before whispering,

“This was the easy bit. Now it’s up and over.”

so our royal ladies may seem a little out of character but this is my story and i wanted them to be a certain way - i hope i am not offending someone. them again who knows what our royal ladies are actually like away from the public eye??

let me know what you thought of this chapter. thank you for reading.

Much Love, Mac x

#royalfanficcentral #Prince Harry #prince harry fanfiction #phff #authentic-phff #phff-authentic #prince harry imagine #royalfanficcollection #phffcentral