#my brother will start working as a doctor in a remote island after these months so he won't be able to cause trouble anymore

[tomtenadia]

Fire in her veins - a Island Dreams AU oneshot

So, yesterday Island Dream reached the amazing milestone of 5k hits on AO3. For me, it means the world especially because ID has a special place in my heart. It was my first long Rowaelin, set in a place that I adore. It’s more than just a story. It’s set in a part of Scotland that has completely stolen my heart.

So, to celebrate I asked for prompts and @whimsicallyreading​ gave me a brilliant one.

“Aelin accidentally distracts Rowan and their stove catches on fire 🥰 would be funny to see the ID crew interact with a Fire Department 🤣”

inspiration hit in an instant. This fic is set about three years after the epilogue. The twins are 7 and Dalamar is 4. The  story has a very Freyja-centred ending, mostly because she is my favourite. She is wild and fierce like her mother and she is funny.  (Don’t get me wrong I adore Morrigan and Dalamar too. They are calmer and adorable in their own way.)

If you are new to Island Dream you can find it HERE

Well, without much further ado I will leave you to the story.

Rowan had a busy day at work. The bookshop had become very popular in town and business was good especially since Aelin had convinced him a while before to set up an internet page and an online ordering system. It had taken a while to really kick in but now he was basically serving the whole of the Hebrides and he had started getting orders as well from some remote location on the western highlands. Aelin had been right. She was the one who had started his Facebook page after all. He hated the whole thing - he had even deleted the profile he had created for fun, but he could not deny that it was handy for business. He had started promoting his events, he had hosted some indie authors and also had started a reading club at the weekend. He was proud of the job he had done. And now, with his aunt he was working on another stage. Her cafe had been shut for a few months after the last bad storm and flooding had caused some heavy damage. So when the bill for repairs had come Maeve knew it was too much and had decided to close to the dismay of the locals who loved her cakes and food. But Rowan had come up with a plan. The unit next to his shop had been vacant for a while so, he offered his aunt a deal. She could reopen her cafe inside his bookshop and they could merge the two units together. It had taken some convincing but in the end Maeve had accepted and the works had officially started. 

Life was busy but he had never been happier. The twins were seven and were in P2 and Rowan could not believe how quickly they were growing up. Freyja was still as wild and school had been a challenge. She hated being forced to sit at a desk. Hated the uniform. Hated school, but apart from her rebel attitude, the teachers kept telling them that she was a bright pupil and both Rowan and Aelin relaxed. Morrigan, on the other hand was the opposite of her twin. She adored school and was still the quiet one in the family. Dalamar was still at nursery and was meant to start school the following year. 

On that day Evalin had picked up the kids and brought them to the shop, something they adored. Then Rowan had taken them to swimming practice. He had kept his part time job as swimming instructor and the kids had followed in his footsteps. The twins being older were taking proper swimming classes while Dalamar just joined the club for the wee ones and splashed happily in the water while his sisters learnt to swim. When Aelin was not busy at the hospital she would accompany them and play with Dalamar. 

Usually the swimming classes were enough to exhaust his kids that he could cook in peace while waiting for Aelin to get back. That evening she had texted him that they had a last minute emergency and was running late. 

He tried for the umpteenth time to concentrate on a recipe for the evening when Freyja barged in the kitchen running followed by her brother and screaming that a dragon was chasing her. 

Rowan grabbed his daughter and lifted her in his arms burying his face in her belly causing the girl to laugh hard “dad, the dragon” and wiggled in her father’s arms to get free but Rowan did not let go. He just walked to Dalamar and offered him his free arm “hop on, oh mighty dragon.” The boy grabbed his father’s forearm swinging like a monkey and Rowan walked into the living room, his daughter under one arms and his son swinging from the other like a jungle creature.

Morrigan joined the chaos a moment later. Rowan kneeled and she climbed on his back.

In that moment he heard the door of the house open and an instant later Aelin waltzed in the living room and saw her husband completely overwhelmed by their children. She laughed at the scene “what is happening in here?” Her hands on the hips.

“A dragon is following me.” Shouted Freyja, with still too much energy in her. 

“I am not a dragon, I am a monkey.” Replied Dalamar, swinging a bit more from Rowan’s arm.

“And what are you doing, Morrigan?”

“The dragon has burned the floor.”

Rowan moved to the sofa and started to deposit the kids down “come on, let dad cook dinner. And don’t shout too much, mum is tired.”

The kids slowly climbed down their father and went to greet Aelin who hugged them all “did you all had a nice day? Did you go swimming tonight?”

“Yes.” The two girls shouted “Dad taught us how to jump in head first.”

Rowan roared with laughter “and they still are two clumsy little terrors who smash their bellies.”

“Be careful with that.” Said Aelin in full doctor mode “that type of jump is very risky, they can snap their neck if do not enter correctly.”

Rowan took a step towards his wife and wrapped his arms around her “I know. I would never put our daughters in danger.”

“Good,” she gave him a chaste kiss “now let mum take a shower and dad cook?”

“Tha.” Replied the three kids in unison.

The kids climbed back on the carpet Dalamar going back to his bricks, Morrigan to her colouring book and Freyja just kept swinging her plastic sword fighting some imaginary monster. While Aelin disappeared in the bathroom, Rowan finally managed to get back to the kitchen and think about dinner. It was getting late for the kids and he knew they would soon start to become agitated again and start bellowing for food. He grabbed a towel and threw it on his shoulder and then started preparing the ingredients. He was preparing veggie burgers made out of cous cous and chickpeas. The kids loved them. He was the one who cooked the most in the house since his hours were far more reliable and he had been doing his best to cook healthy meals, to Aelin displeasure as she complained that there were always far to many vegetables in his dishes. But she was okay with the kids following a healthy diet. Morrigan was pescatarian. The girl could not stand eating meat and last time Rowan had tried to give her beef or chicken, the poor girl had been sick all night. Whereas fish, she loved it and she was a happy veggie eater like her father. Dalamar would occasionally eat meat but with very little enthusiasms whereas Freyja was just like her mother. She would eat anything on her plate.

He was busy preparing the patties when he felt Aelin’s hand around his waist and a gentle kiss on his back.

“How the shift at the hospital?” He asked while finishing the patties and heating up the oil in the pan.

“Long.” She sighed against his chest “your dear wife might need some adult cuddling tonight.”

Rowan laughed and turned in her arms, throwing his towel on the counter. A deep kiss that, after seven years of marriage still made her toes curl. Aelin’s hands linked behind his neck and Rowan pushed her against the island and Aelin moaned in appreciation.

Until all hell broke loose.

The smoke alarm pierced the quiet of the room with its grating sound and when Aelin opened her eyes again she saw a quickly spreading fire behind Rowan.

“Rowan!” She shouted.

He turned quickly and looked for something to stop the fire but he was paralysed and he knew enough that water was not an option.

Aelin was already on the phone with the emergency services while Rowan grabbed another towel and tried to smother the fire with the only result of burning his hand.

“Ro, fire department is on its way.” She took his hand “a bad first degree burn.”

He was about to go and put it under the sink but Aelin stopped him.

At the deafening sound, the kids burst in the kitchen but Aelin pushed them away, taking Rowan with her “Come on kids let’s go back to the carpet.”

Morrigan and Dalamar went in their mother arms scared by the commotion. Freyja was standing just near the sofa looking at the fire in the kitchen in a daze.

Rowan noticed her and grabbed his daughter in his arms, ignoring the searing pain in his hand “That is dangerous.”

“It’s pretty.” Said the little girl.

It wasn’t long after that the fire department arrived. 

A woman with blonde hair, who was clearly in charge gave some orders and the team had the fire out in no time.

“Is anyone hurt?” Asked her, joining the family in the living room.

“My husband. First degree burn on his hand.” Replied Aelin pointing at Rowan leaning against the back of the sofa.

The woman called over the radio for a paramedic and Rowan scoffed claiming that he did not need one but at Aelin glared at him and he shut up.

And while Morrigan and Dalamar were still on the carpet quite shaken by the ordeal, Freyja was moving toward the tall woman. She reached for the hem of her bunker gear and pulled, claiming attention.

“Hello little one.” Said the woman kneeling to be at eye level with the girl “There’s no more fire. We fixed it. You don’t have to be scared.”

Freyja pouted “I was not scared.”

The woman laughed and brushed her silver hair and the girl grinned.

“Are you a fire woman?” She asked, looking at the adult in front of her with deep admiration.

In that instant another woman and a man came through and gave her a report, the woman nodded and got back to the girl in front of her “Yes, I am.”

Freyja beamed “can I be a fire woman too?”

The fire captain placed her heavy hat on the girl’s head which was gigantic on her but Freyja shouted for her parents but Aelin was busy speaking to the man and her dad was in the capable hands of a paramedic who was tending to his hand.

“You can be anything you want to be.” Said the woman softly, taking her hat back then she stood and Freyja bent her head upwards to stare at the woman while she walked to her parents.

“There is some damage and you will have to replace the stove and probably paint the wall near it.” She explained “I would suggest to have a fire blanket and a small fire extinguisher for cooking oils. They can easily be found online and they are good to have in emergencies.”

“We will. Thank you so much.”

The woman nodded and left with her team, while the paramedic was finishing fixing up Rowan’s hand “Keep it clean and change the bandage regularly. There are ointments that you can use to help the healing process. If it gets worse make sure you go to the hospital.” Rowan looked at Aelin and grinned “thank you. My wife is an A&E doctor, I am sure she will keep me right.”

“That’s why she looks familiar. Western Isles hospital, isn’t it? You are Aelin.”

“Hi Sarah.”

 Once the house was quiet again Aelin relaxed for a moment and Rowan went to Morrigan and Dalamar while Freyja was still staring at the door where the fire department had left.

“What is it, my love?”

Freyja turned at her mother’s voice, her face beaming with unbridled joy. They were all shaken by the evening, but her fierce girl was actually smiling.

“That was a fire woman.”

“Yes, my darling.”

“I want to be a fire woman too.”

Aelin crouched down to meet her daughter’s eyes and brushed some hair off her face “you can be anything you want to be, mo chridhe.  Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”

Freyja hugged her mother then ran to her father, sister and brother shouting that she was going to be a fire woman.

Rowan joined Aelin a moment later and pulled her to his chest “I am sorry.”

“For what?”

“I got distracted.”

Aelin lightly punched him in the chest “I am the one who distracted you.”

He sighed “we have no dinner.”

“I’ll phone mum and ask her if we can go to her place.”

Aelin disappeared and Rowan stood in the kitchen looking at the mess. The fire had quickly spread and a part of the counter was damaged too. Everything was covered in foam and wasn’t even sure if it was safe to use the oven. The patties lay like burned blobs at the side. 

Aelin came back a moment later “mum is happy to have us. She is probably making dinner already.” She tugged her husband “let’s go, buzzard. We’ll think about it tomorrow.”

Once they finished getting the kids ready they went back to their room “So, Freyja wants to be a firefighter. She was staring at the fire in marvel and was amazed at seeing the two women firefighters.”

Rowan pulled Aelin to his chest “She is fearless like you. She has fire in her. I can totally see her become a badass firefighter.”

Aelin hugged him back in silence.

“She is our wee fireheart.”

Twelve years later, when Freyja finished her training at the fire academy and was assigned at the firehouse in Stornoway Aelin and Rowan happily looked back at that night knowing that it had changed the life of their daughter and were never happier of a fire in their house.

#island dreams #rowaelin #rowaelinkids #rowan whitethorn #aelin galathynius #rowaelin fanfic #rowaelin fanfiction #domestic fluff

[atruththatyoudeny]

Monthly Reads | May 2020

Happy 28th! These are the fics I read and enjoyed this month. Thank you to all you amazing authors in this fandom for making my world a little brighter! ♥ ❥ No Going Back | jacaranda_bloom | Lighthouse Keepers AU - strangers to lovers - fluff - dom/sub undertones - 56k Sales reps Harry and Louis are bored with their jobs and their lives. After meeting at a conference in Cardiff they hook up, have a few too many drinks, and jokingly apply to become remote lighthouse keepers. Six months, just the two of them, looking after the southernmost lighthouse off the bottom of Australia. It’s not like their applications will be accepted. Right? This is the story of how one choice - a left instead of a right, a go instead of a stop, a yes instead of a no - can change the future forever and that sometimes, taking that leap of faith, is worth the risk. ❥ Stranger Stars | shaylea | Road Trip - travel - slow burn - friends to lovers - pining - fluff - angst - implied/referenced homophobia - 212k Five years ago, Africa offered a grieving Louis Tomlinson an escape from an England he couldn't tolerate. Now it's become home as he leads overland tours across the continent with his best friend and driver Zayn Malik. What's meant to be just another ordinary six-week trip from Cape Town to Nairobi turns into anything but, when future lawyer/current photographer and songwriter Harry Styles and his friends join Louis' latest set of passengers. ❥ Say Something | kingsofeverything | a/b/o - age difference - mpreg - past divorce - unplanned pregnancy - hurt/comfort - 105k At fifty years old and recently divorced, Omega Harry Styles isn't interested in dating. When his doctor suggests a heat and rut matching service, he signs up out of necessity. It’s the only use he has for an Alpha in his life. Twenty-eight-year-old Alpha Louis Tomlinson aims to change that. ❥ The Orchards of Jessop | jaerie | age difference - self-discovery - implied/referenced homophobia - quarantine - strangers to lovers - 15k At age 40, there isn’t much excitement in widower Louis Tomlinson’s life, but wasn’t that the reason he’d moved to Jessop Island in the first place? Back then he hadn’t thought retiring before he reached 30 and moving to the countryside would mean that he’d be doing it alone. Now, just to fill the space, he welcomes lodgers into his home that pass through working as temporary labourers at the orchards just up the road. They’ve all been young adults eager to start lives of their own after one last summer of freedom. All of them have been much the same, coming and going from Louis’ house with just enough social interaction to keep the house from feeling so empty. But when a global pandemic shuts down the world, being quarantined with a quiet twenty year old who keeps to himself might turn out to be an awkward arrangement. By the time the restrictions have been lifted, their relationship has developed into something Louis isn’t quite ready to give up. With their twenty year age difference, Louis has to be prepared for the inevitable outcome when the reality shatters the private world they’ve been living in. He’s not sure he’ll be able to let it go. ❥ Until | allwaswell16 | farm/ranch - famous/not famous - enemies to lovers - hate to love - light angst - humor - 38k Rural Eagle County, Colorado wasn’t the type of place to find a famous musician or actor. At least not until songwriter Louis Tomlinson showed up with pop star Niall Horan to visit his uncle’s horse ranch, and they just happened to find themselves next door to a reclusive former movie star. ❥ hit me with your sweet love | outropeace | a/b/o - sugar baby - soulmates - miscommunication - 40k Powerful people only end up with powerful people. The rest are just playthings in their lives. Louis Tomlinson was many things, but he wasn’t anybody’s plaything. ❥ On This Winter's Night | reminiscingintherain | meet cute - christmas - fluff - 27k When a random bloke offers his lap for a seat on a busy bus in December, Louis' Christmas ends up being much different, and far less lonely than he was expecting. ❥ Walls Are Just Walls (You Are My Home) | logogram | famous/not famous - friends to lovers - pining - hiking - injury - 26k After being injured in a hiking accident, musician Harry and his bodyguard are stuck on the trail with no cell service, no supplies, and with nightfall coming. Louis, who’s a wilderness first responder, comes across them, gives first aid, and calls for a rescue. Once the rescue’s over and Harry’s family is there to care for him, Louis doesn’t figure he’ll ever see Harry again, but he does— at the talk shows he and Harry appear on so they can talk about their experience, at the concert Harry invites him to, through all texts and DMs. It’s amazing how well they get along and how much Louis likes him. Could someone like Harry ever return his feelings? ❥ Love Will Light The Way | Jesapeak | afterlife - death - Louis is a reaper - angst - 27k Most people throughout Louis's life thought that dying brought you to one of two gates. Heaven or Hell. Really, it brought you to a dated diner, just outside of the suburbs, skirting the beginning of the city. Where, instead of God, you met Liam Payne and his post-it notes. Well, not for everyone, but for the select few whoever is in charge up there deemed fit to help guide the living into death. Unfortunate people like Louis. Who'd honestly rather just lie in bed and pretend it had all been a dream. A very bad, cliche dream. It wasn’t though and this was his new normal. As much as he hated it. And Harry? He just wanted to know who the man was that kept killing his patients. ❥ like it's a game | soldouthaz | hate to love - enemies to lovers - enemies to friends to lovers - friends with benefits - pining - light angst - fluff - 32k There is little harry hates more than truth or dare. And louis. ❥ What You're Signing On For | abrighteryellow | enemies to friends to lovers - fluff - angst fake/pretend relationship - past divorce - 30k Back at home in London after a whirlwind romance, Louis wants nothing more than to break ties completely with the sophisticated Frenchman who swept him off his feet. In order to do that, he needs the help of Harry Styles: former town bad boy and adopted brother of Louis' flatmate. An O.C. AU about flawed first impressions, the seductive power of French pastries, bad romance novelists, and getting on the same page. ❥ What Side Of Love Are You On? | FallingLikeThis | Because I Said So AU - first meetings - biphobia - homophobia - meet-cute - fluff - family drama - internal conflict - 25k Ever since Harry finally made the decision to come out to his mother as bisexual, she’s been foisting women on him left and right, determined it’s just a phase. But when she puts out a personal ad to find the perfect partner for her son, things really get complicated. Suddenly, Harry’s heart is being pulled in two very different directions. On one side is the sweet, caring woman he has fun with, but doesn’t know his mother chose for him. On the other is a man who seems to be his mother’s worst nightmare, but makes Harry’s heart flutter in ways he’s never felt before. When all is said and done, maybe they’ll all learn that when there is no clear path to go down, the best option is to follow your heart. A Because I Said So Au with a bisexual twist. ❥ Missed Connection | littlelouishiccups | soulmates - soulmate-identifiying marks - strangers to friends to lovers - friends with benefits - angst - fluff - dom/sub - 40k Soulmate AU where your soulmate’s first words to you are tattooed on your skin. With a boring and generic soul mark like Hi, Harry is pessimistic he’ll ever find his soulmate or that he’ll realize it when he meets them. But he could always have it worse, like his new friend Louis who had a drunken one night stand with his soulmate a few years ago and woke up the next morning alone.

#fic rec #monthly reads #28th appreciation #my reads #larry fics #completed fics

[andvs]

◊ ♫ ◊— look what the cat dragged in! that’s ANDREA DE LUCA and SHE is an around 24-year-old REGULAR to the store, but they’ve been in the neighborhood for 1 YEAR & EIGHT MONTHS. I think they are a FASHION DESIGNER and I overheard them listening to UNSTEADY by X AMBASSADORS, and, I dunno man, it seemed pretty fitting. Like, call me shallow but I look at them and think of SOFIA CARSON and FEELING ALONE IN A ROOM FULL OF PEOPLE, FALTERED SMILES BEHIND DESIGNER GLASSES, and THE SOUND OF HEELS AGAINST MARBLE FLOORS.

tw: drug abuse mention

hi !! my name is courtney and this is my human elite trash bag andrea !! she is gio’s little sister (she was adopted but that’s another story hey) and she will ! judge you on what kind of clothes you are wearing :/ she’s that :// kind of person :/ 

name: andrea eleanora de luca  nickname(s): the only person who would call her andrea is her mother, and only when she’s in trouble, otherwise it’s just andy ://  sexuality: bisexual queen  family: bart & samantha de luca (parents), aldo de luca (brother, older), giovanni de luca (brother, older) & beckett liao (nephew, younger) 

she was only a few days old !! when her birth parents died,,,, supposedly,,,, and the de luca’s adopted her, probably for some pr stunt :/ or genuine kindness out of their hearts :/ but nevertheless, a spoiled life with a silver spoon in her mouth was what andrea grew up to knew, with her big brown eyes and adorable smile, it meant she was able to get away with more than what her brothers could :// 

even from a young age, andrea was always so headstrong and competitive, she got what she wanted and it didn’t matter how she got it. in primary school she was always picked first in sports, she was ahead in her class, she was a mini regina george without everybody fanning over her rip andy’s rights :// 

with the de luca’s being nothing more than successful, it drove andrea’s need to be better than everybody around her :// sorry if you went to school with her :// with her father being a senator, andy knew she had to at least live a pristine life, keeping things behind closed doors - so she learned, she studied hard and focused on school, aced every test, just to get her father’s attention. she kept her addiction to adhd medication a secret, her string of broken hearts and lipstick stains in the closet; all with a flutter of her eyelashes and a pretty smile. 

fitting right into the de luca’s world of politics and high society, andrea got accepted into law school and it was there that her drug addiction came to a head; finally finding the confidence to confide in her mother who quietly sent her to rehab for a few months before college started on the condition that if she relapsed, she would be sent back home indefinitely. to be honest, andrea would have rather been locked away in a remote island than to go home. 

she had a taste of freedom and she wanted more. andrea completed her stint at rehab and now that she was out of the house and away from the crushing pressure of being senator de luca’s daughter it was finally time to thrive and find out who andy really was. and she... really did not want to be a law student...... yikes. but still ! andy stuck it out because she ! was not going to be the second child to disappoint their parents !! when she was around 21 she met who she thought was the love :/ of her life :/ can i call double yikes??? im calling it 

charlie was everything andrea thought love to be. he was charming, funny, smooth - awkward at the best times; andrea couldn’t help but love him completely. their love was a whirlwind of emotions - they talked about everything from how many kids, to what pets they wanted, talking about saving for an apartment after law school.... y’all they even got engaged :((( 

planning a wedding while ??? still going to law school while deciding if you even still wanted to be a lawyer was just stress on stress .... for charlie apparently; on the day of what was supposed to be Andrea’s best day was probably one of the worst, because she was left at the alter by the person who she thought she was plannign to spend the rest of her life with ! standing there staring at an empty spot where her fiance was supposed to be with her entire family ? and high society friends ? staring at her ... embarrassing 

shortly after, andy dropped out of law school and moved away. and she kept moving 

she settled into new york, she went back to school eventually and worked on a fashion degree & she’s now (soon to be) starting her own fashion line ??? if she gets her shit in line !! we love a girl who has goals 

i want to say gio and andy were close as kids but sudhejfkds lets be real andy was a spoiled kid who really only mellowed out in her late teens and by then it was prob too late !!! she lowkey misses him and wished she had someone to turn to ://

personality !!

she can be in a room full of people and still feel alone, she second guesses herself & who she is but ! she is still from a prestigious family so andy is outwardly elegant, poised, always with a smile on her face. she can be easily angered but since rehab she’s worked on letting go of a lot of shit that has the potential to ruin her. she knows her way around politics and a debate, though with her competitive streak comes her need for other medications she’s not prescribed so she tends to stay away from that. 

in saying that though ! andy can also be manipulative to get what she wants, she’s blunt & can be overly sarcastic and critical of herself & others. especially if you have no dress sense. 

in the last year or so she’s def more vulnerable and keeps more to herself, she used to revel in the spotlight but now she just kind of ? shies away from it from the last time she got bad publicity for being left at the altar :/ 

wanted connections !! 

best friends - someone who knows allllll of this mess and can still !! put up with her shit would be !! amazing. i’m talking best friends who can potentially live together in an apartment doing !! best friend things !! g vie me 

child hood friends - someone from andy’s childhood who probably ran in the same social circle as her. their families would be friends ?? u know. doctor fams, lawyer fams, ... rich fams. they don’t necessarily have to be friends now but !! someone who knew what andrea used to be like would be nice 

enemies - hell fuckin yeah. someone andrea just cant stand, y’know, it can be completely one-sided on andy’s part & your characters just caught in the crossfire, or it could go both ways. idk maybe they both went to school together skdkg f

exes: since andy was a teenager & after she got left at the alter, she left a string of broken hearts wherever she went. i’m feeling if this was after that whole thing, bc andrea’s kind of... hating the idea of love, she could have rlly done a number on your character etc. 

anything ! everything ! talk to me i love u all !

#fr.intro #i am.... finished #yes #this is her #tw: drug abuse

[i-writeandread-blog]

A Portrait of a Tortured You and I - Chapter 1

Okay, so I know I said Wonderland would be back, and it will be... I promise, but I sat down to write tonight and this is what came out. So sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction. This new story is an amalgamation of truth and fiction. Many elements in this are from real life events. A writer writes what they know. So, this is really hard for me to share. I almost didn’t want to. I won’t say what parts are real or aren’t. It doesn’t matter. Just be gentle with my new child is all I ask. Thanks to anyone who reads. This is Chapter 1.

I was standing on the shore waiting for my time to board the ferry to an island- that for the next three days would be known affectionately as Mars Island. I had been through the worst eight months of my life and had shocked myself that I managed to pull off this trip. First, because financially, I was a mess. Second, because I was now terrified everyday. And third, because some of the Echelon had been unkind to me, during some of my darkest times.

Eight months prior, I was happy. Not the happiest I've ever been, but I was doing well. I had always battled depression but it was at bay, even though I had had a falling out with my sisters. This falling out forced me to need to uproot my life and leave my beloved California for the east coast where majority of my family lived. Without my sisters as my roommates, I couldn't afford to stay in Cali, as much as it pained me to admit. Sure, I could have moved out and tried to find a roommate on Craigslist, but I was too cautious and I was barely making ends meet with the two roommates I had. It seemed easier at the time to move back "home" with my tail between my legs. Of course, I did it at the worst possible time. A huge hurricane was barreling through the Atlantic Ocean headed straight for us. I arrived the night before all hell broke loose.

Nevertheless, we managed to soldier on. The house flooded, we had to stay at a temporary shelter, but we made it through. Still, the depression wasn't rearing it's ugly head. I was desperately trying to find a job, because there wasn't much out there in a rural southern coastal town. I had a career, but I left it to pursue writing. I was hell bent on writing or nothing at all. Somehow that translated into me getting a job as a waitress. So much for the "nothing at all." I have no idea what I was thinking, to be honest. I guess I felt like it would give me free time to continue to write. It didn't.

I was lonely, my friends were all married with kids and I was stuck living with my parents. Not to mention the dating scene here was as abysmal as the job market. I started working at a local diner, I knew almost everyone who came in, the tips were okay. What wasn't okay was the questions I got.

"What are you doing back here?"

— "long story..."

"Weren't you working at a law office?"

— "no, I was a court stenographer."

"Where's your husband?"

— "dunno, but if you find him, can you point him in my direction?"

And my personal favorite was,

"Are you having a mid life crisis? You're much too young and pretty for that."

— "uhh, thanks?"

So instead of working on my novel, or even reading somebody else's, I poured myself into watching documentaries. My love of true crime led me to watching one about a wrongfully convicted murderer. I was appalled that the justice system had failed yet again. I saw it too often when I was working in the courtroom. But unlike when I was working, I actually could have a voice now. I started going on these different blogs looking for ways to help people who had been hurt by the legal system. By early November, I had met a guy who shared my passion. I wasn't actually helping anyone, so much as just talking about the different cases and once I met Andrew, I didn't go on the blogs anymore. I became enthralled with him. Talking to him anytime, I wasn't at the diner.

I truly thought that Andrew would be the guy I had been waiting for. The man of my dreams. But on December 26th, out of nowhere, he stopped taking my calls.  At first, I was worried.  Then worry turned to anger, and anger turned to depression.  I never did find out what happened.  But, I do know he is alive and well, because he accidentally texted me one morning in January.  It was meant for his dad.  He didn't text again.

This was the start of my year.  It wasn't looking so good so far, for 2019.  Worse came to worse when I had to work a double on the day after Valentines Day.  Sylvie- the other waitress, myself, and Dan- the cook were discussing going out to a bar, but because I was so tired, I ultimately declined.  I ended up regretting my decision when they left and I was still fumbling for my keys.  Usually, we all left at the same time.  It just wasn't my night.  Three rowdy teenagers who had been kicked out of the diner earlier for being too obnoxious came out from the shadows, grabbing me and dragging me to the back of the diner.  I fought hard, grabbing and pulling at whatever, I could.  It was for naught.  They punched and kicked me over and over, spit in my face, tore my uniform half off, and then left me there bleeding and unconscious.

My parents had expected me home and sat around worrying when I hadn't at least called to say I would be late.  My dad decided after an hour to go looking for me.  He pulled up to the diner, saw my car and yelled for me.  I whimpered.  He followed the pathetic sounds to the back loading area where he found me.  The police investigated, but I couldn't remember anything about my attackers.  The diner didn't have any surveillance footage and all anyone remembered was they looked like typical kids.  They left no DNA evidence behind.  I had become a true crime victim.

A month prior, I had thrown caution to the wind and purchased this ticket to the island.  I was reeling from the "break up," if you could even call it that and decided, I could make it work financially, as I had a retirement plan I could cash out.  Now, after the attack, I was to be out of work for an indefinite amount of time.  I had some nerve damage and a punctured lung from a broken rib.  I didn't know how I was going to pay any of the hospital bills as I didn't have any insurance.  I decided to reach out to the people, I believed were more my family than my actual blood.  The Echelon.  My brothers and sisters in Mars.

I went onto Vyrt, as some of us still chatted on there and I nervously typed the following:  hey guys, haven't been on in a few weeks.  Have been missing you all.  Several people responded with hellos and where have ya beens.  Then, I admitted to them what had happened: well, it's been tough.  I was attacked. Left for dead, ya know... the usual. My sense of humor was my downfall here.  Many people thought I was joking, but I eventually admitted it was all true and said I was sorry for making it seem so lighthearted.  I told everyone how rough things were and that I had sadly cancelled my trip to Croatia.  I was lucky, because Adventures in Wonderland refunded me due to my circumstances.  Then out of the blue, someone I loved and respected, Natalie, typed: she's so full of shit guys, she just wants sympathy because she's living such a pathetic life. I was stunned.  Never once, had I ever went into Vyrt looking for a pity party, and never had I ever been mean or rude towards her.  She continued: I bet she never even booked mars island.  AiW doesn't do refunds ever! I don't know, guys.  She wasn't done, but at this point no one had come to my defense, so she rattled on: I bet she's trying to get Jared's attention.  Maybe she thinks he will allow her to come to the island as his guest. I was mortified.  I quickly logged out and laid sobbing on the hospital bed.  I had no one to turn to after all.

The next day, I had many messages from various Echelon.  Some were kind, others were nasty.  I decided to just leave the Mars "fandom" behind and try to pick up the mess that was my life.  That was until, I noticed an email notification from Shayla.  I at first thought it was a form letter email, since AiW had sent out several when they first were promoting the island.  But curiosity got the better of me and I clicked on it.

Shayla McGhee

To: Catherine Tyrell

Hi Catherine!

I wanted to let you know that someone decided to pay the remainder of the balance for your Mars Island package.  Is it okay for us to process their payment?  We haven't issued your refund of the first payment yet, is this also okay?  We understand if the circumstances surrounding your reason to cancel will keep you from attending, but maybe you can still join us?  Let me know!

Best

Shay

I read and reread the email about a dozen times.  Surprised would be an understatement.  I couldn't fathom who would have done this for me.  As far as I could tell the entirety of the Mars fan base hated me.  I pressed the call button and waited for my nurse to saunter in.

"Well look who has a huge smile on her face!  What do you need, honey?"  She asked.

"Can you ask the doctor to come see me.  I need to ask him a question about my recovery process."  I wanted to know if it was even remotely feasible for me to travel halfway across the globe in a matter of six months time.

"Sure, dear.  I'll see if I can find him doing his rounds.  Need anything else?"  I shook my head and she left the room.

A few long hours later, I had my answer.  If I followed all instructions, I'd be out of the hospital in a couple of weeks and I shouldn't take too long to recover physically.  I was warned that I had to follow all the rules or I may not recover in time.  I believed in myself and sent a reply back saying, I would be making it to the island without hesitation.  I was on cloud nine.  If only I knew then what I know now.  My recovery wasn't just going to be physical.

That night the nightmares started.  The panic attacks started the next day.  The need to not be left alone started a week later.  I was an emotional wreck.  I don't even know what triggered it.  My therapist says, "The human brain is a tricky one.  Sometimes it takes time for trauma to sink in."  I was diagnosed with severe PTSD, depression, anxiety, etc.  The depression I was used to, the constantly being afraid, I wasn't.

I wanted to be normal again, but no matter what I did, I was always in a state of alert.  I began checking the locks on the doors many times before I was satisfied they were truly locked.  I would jump at the slightest sound.  I'd burst into tears randomly.  I couldn't watch TV because everything had violence.  Even cartoons were getting bad.  I was miserable, only leaving the house for doctor appointments.  I was a shell of my former self.

The time for the island got closer and closer,  but I was in no position to travel.  I was almost completely agoraphobic.  One day, my mother who didn't necessarily want me to travel alone came in to my room, where I was still sleeping at noon.  "Okay, enough is enough! Get up!  I know you're sad, I know you're scared, but you aren't doing anything the therapist has suggested you do.  You need to fight this head on.  No stop pulling the blankets over your head! Wake up!"  I grumbled and sat up, yelling.  "Can you NOT, Mother!  I don't need your bullshit, right now."  As soon as I said the words I felt sick.  I was never one to treat my parents with disrespect.  I hated who I had become.  Fortunately, my mother took it in stride.  "Catherine Leeann Tyrell, I'm only going to say this once, you ever talk to me like that again and there will most certainly be hell to pay.  This is your one get out of jail free card.  I'm going to let it slide because I know you are terrified.  But you can't live like this anymore.  Bad things happen all the time.  They happen to everyone. You are not the first person to have this happen to.  As special as you are, you're NOT that special, that you'd be the one and only person to be attacked.  Now, some nice person did you a favor and paid for you to have a wonderful experience.  Are you going to let their money go down the drain because you can't be bothered to at least try to live again?"

My mother's monologue shook me to the core.  She was right.  I needed to confront this head on.  She then dropped a letter on the bed and walked out.  There was no name or any sender information.  My mother had already opened it, no doubt to protect me in case it were something bad.  I sat there staring at the contents.  Laying in my lap was a cashiers check in the amount of $3,000 and a note.  It simply said:  "for your travel arrangements to Croatia."

#thirty seconds to mars #30 seconds to mars #jared leto #campmars #marsisland #jared leto fiction #jared leto fic #jared leto fan fiction #jared leto fanfics #jared leto fanfic #jared leto fanfiction #echelon

[some1foundme]

Fic: Lost in the Memory ch. 12

Title: Lost in the Memory

Author: Some1FoundMe

Summary: Oliver Queen returns to his home in Star City after a five year tour overseas, much to the delight of his friends and family. There’s just one small problem. The injury that effectively ended his military career also erased a part of his memory.  As he struggles to put together the missing pieces of his past, his connection to his best friend’s little sister becomes something he can’t avoid. Who is Felicity Merlyn and why can’t he seem to stay away from her?  Olicity AU, no Arrow, no island.

A/N: Hi guys!  Thanks again for all the wonderful reviews.  I always love hearing what everyone thinks as this story goes on. This chapter is sort of filler but it moves the story forward, at least I think it does.  Enjoy!

Read on AO3 or ff.net.

Chapter Twelve

Her mind had been elsewhere all day.  All she’d been able to think about for the duration of her shift at the bar was Oliver. Oliver who she had left at home with a box of letters that he’d written to her over the years.  Felicity had told him that she didn’t mind him reading them, she’d been the one to suggest it after all, and she’d meant it.  The letters were as much his as they were hers. They were a window into some of the more intimate aspects of their life together.  Because, when it came to those letters, Oliver had never held back. Allowing him to read them felt personal in a way that she couldn’t explain but she hoped that they could spark something inside of him, something that could possibly allow him to remember.

“Hey Felicity.”

She looked up to find Helena approaching.  Her friend and employee was sporting a significant bump beneath her apron and the sight made Felicity grin.

“I feel like that baby boy is just going to pop out at any second,” she teased.

Helena laughed, “You and me both.  I can’t believe my due date is still five weeks away.  Michael said the guys at the station started a pool and everyone is pretty convinced we’ll never make it.”

Felicity eyed Helena’s protruding belly and snorted.

“Listen, I’m going to head out if you think you’ll be okay.  Iris should be here in twenty and table four is the only open ticket.”

Helena nodded, grabbing the fresh pot of coffee that Felicity had brewed and working her way down the line of empty cups along the counter.  

It was early afternoon and most of their regular lunchtime crowd had cleared out, heading back to work for the day, and the dinner rush was a couple hours out.  Winter in Star City was sparse.  They were a small town set just off the Atlantic coast, far enough up the coast of Maine that most people considered the fishing village to be remote.  They weren’t exactly isolated but they didn’t get many visitors after the fall color had been chased out by the cold.  During those frigid months, the only customers to frequent Verdant were the locals that Felicity had grown up with.

She turned away from the bar and had just untied her apron when John Diggle sat down behind her.

“You heading home, Felicity?”

She set a clean coffee mug in front of him.

“I am but there’s no rush. What can I get you?”

John didn’t make it a point to stop in the bar often, at least not without Lyla, so the fact that he was there at all told her that there was something on his mind.

He shook his head, “Just stopped in to warm up and check in with you.  Lyla told me about Oliver.”

She sighed.  She’d had lunch with Lyla the week before Oliver had moved back home.  She’d given her friend the vaguest explanation of his condition that she’d been able to come up with and she’d had an inkling that vague wouldn’t fly with John. He had been friends with Tommy and Oliver for years – despite the seven year gap in their ages – and she’d honestly expected him to check in sooner.  As far as she knew, Oliver hadn’t spoken to John since he’d come back to Star City.

“How are you holding up?” he asked.

Felicity shrugged, leaning against the bar.

“I’m… I’m surprisingly okay.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s been anything but easy.  Those first few days were... they were rough.  Confusing.  But Oliver and I are trying to work through it.”

“Lyla mentioned he’s staying with his folks.”

For some inexplicable reason, she flushed.

“Uh, no, actually, not anymore.  He moved back in earlier this week.”

His look was skeptical.

“And how’s that going? Has he remembered anything?”

“No, he hasn’t.  But he doesn’t just want to walk away from his life.  He wants to – he’s trying to let things go back to normal.  At least what he thinks is normal.  That means living with me and Thea, not Moira and Robert.  He hasn’t lived with his parents since he was eighteen years old.”

John had always been there for her.  He had filled the role of big brother in her life in Tommy’s absence and while he and Oliver were friends, it was obvious that she was the focus of his concern.

“And that’s okay with you? Having Oliver around in his current condition?” John asked.

She sighed, “He’s my husband, Dig.”

“I know, Felicity, and I get it.  But I promised Tommy and Oliver both that I’d look after you.  I just want to make sure you’re alright.”

“What would you do?” she asked, “If it was Lyla?  If she woke up one day and – and she didn’t know you?  If she knew everyone but you?”

It was John’s turn to sigh.

“I would do whatever I had to do to get my wife back,” he assured her, “And if it were me, I hope she’d do the same.”

Felicity rounded the bar and threw her arms around his neck, grinning.

“You’re a good man, John Diggle.  I’m fine, I promise.  You have nothing to worry about.”

She scampered off into the kitchen before he could reply, grabbing her coat and purse before ducking out the back door and into the blustery January afternoon.

Felicity hadn’t taken three steps towards her truck when she noticed Moira approaching.  She bit back a groan.

“Hi, Moira.”

“Hello, Felicity. Can we talk?”

She considered making some excuse to avoid what she was sure would be a painful conversation with her mother-in-law but thought better of it.  It wasn’t as if the woman couldn’t track her down elsewhere and as Felicity fell into step beside her, she realized that the last time they’d talked had been nearly two weeks earlier.  

“I haven’t heard from Oliver in days,” Moira told her, her tone only slightly accusing, “How is he?”

Stopping at the small bench that sat outside of their miniscule post office, his mother brushed snow from the seat and sat.  Felicity followed suit.

“He’s fine.  You know, you could’ve just stopped at the house and asked him that yourself,” Felicity pointed out, “He’s there now. He’s been there all week.”

“When he told us he was leaving, he asked for time.  He requested that Robert and I let him do this and that we not get involved.”

She resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

“As I’m sure you’ve noticed, Oliver is a grown man.  As far as I’m concerned, he didn’t need your permission to come home, Moira.  But if he asked you to give him time, then you should.”

“Which is exactly why I haven’t stopped by to see him,” Moira said coldly, “But Oliver is my son. I cannot just… I can’t sit by and watch him go through this alone.”

This time she did roll her eyes.

“He isn’t alone! Jesus, Moira, Oliver has never been alone.  He knows he has you and Robert, that you’re there for him if he needs you.  But he has me, too.  And this time he’s choosing me.  He wants to get his life back and I know that you are … that you’re suddenly opposed to our marriage and that you think he’s making a mistake, but I am a part of his life.  I have been for a long time and I don’t intend to go anywhere.”

She suspected that her cheeks were red, flushed from her outburst, and she hoped that anyone who passed them by would simply think the bright pink was a result of the cold. She didn’t need the entire town to know that she and Moira Queen were at odds over something, no matter what that something was.  Although, Felicity thought, it would only take one look at Moira’s harden features to realize that there was tension brewing between them.  

Schooling her own features, Felicity kept her expression neutral.  It was Moira who broke first.

“Is he doing well?” she asked, “Is he adjusting?”

Felicity shrugged, “He’s doing fine.  He asks a lot of questions.  He just – he just wants to know about us, about our life.  He wants to know me, Moira.”

The older woman looked past her for a long moment and Felicity’s eyes fell to the slushy snow that covered the sidewalk.  She understood his parents desire to protect him, she sympathized with it, but wanting to protect him from her?  From a life that had made him so happy before everything changed?  That was something that Felicity just couldn’t grasp.

“You aren’t concerned that this is all too much?” Moira asked, “That Oliver living with you is…”

“Is what?” she scoffed, “Too sudden?  He is my husband.  It’s his house.  If Oliver wants to live there, if he wants to live with me, that’s between Oliver and I. We made the decision together.  If you think that I’m pushing him, you’re wrong. Oliver knows what he wants.  I’m not forcing anything on him and neither should you.”

“According to the neurologist, this type of immersion won’t work.  He advised us that Oliver’s memories won’t return gradually, they’ll return all at once or not at all.  He advised against pushing his old life on him.”

Felicity felt as if she’d been doused with ice water.  She’d known that there were no guarantees.  Oliver had told her that the doctors had made no promises regarding his recovery.  They’d all told him the same thing.  There was a chance.  But Felicity had started to believe that it would happen.  She’d allowed herself to believe that it was at least possible. She’d begun to hope that being close to her, learning about their history, reading their letters, would prompt something, that all of it combined would somehow unlock his memories of her.

Moira’s words had snuffed out the little hope that she’d had.

“Robert and I love you, dear, we do.  We are not opposed to your marriage.  We have always supported you and Oliver,” his mother continued, “But his father and I are both very worried about how Oliver will handle it if those memories never return. We just don’t want him to be disappointed.”

Shame struck her hard and fast.  She had been so concerned with her own feelings, worrying about how she would push through if Oliver never remembered her, that she hadn’t stopped to consider how he would take it.  They had vowed not to give up but she hadn’t let herself consider how Oliver would feel if his memory failed him.

“I don’t think he’ll be disappointed,” Felicity said evenly, hoping her words sounded more confident than she felt, “We’ve promised each other that we won’t give up.  We’re going to fight for our marriage.  Even if we have to start over, Oliver and I both want to make this work.  I know he doesn’t… I know that, right now, Oliver doesn’t love me.  But he wants to.  And none of this changes how I feel about him.”

“Oliver is a strong man, Felicity.  But he is also one of the most stubborn men that I have ever met.  You know very well how angry he’ll be with himself if he can’t remember.  You need to prepare yourself to handle the guilt and frustration that he will inevitably feel.”

Felicity balled her hands into fists where they were tucked into her coat pockets.

“I’m well aware of how Oliver can be when things don’t go his way.  He is stubborn, stubborn enough that he’s determined to continue on with his life as if none of this matters.  Oliver is determined to make this work and so am I.  I will do whatever I have to, even if that means dealing with my broody and closed off husband.  And – and whose to say that he really won’t remember?  You said that it could come back all at once.  We can’t just assume that he won’t wake up one day and remember.”

Moira’s hand wrapped around her elbow.

“Felicity, please, don’t get your hopes up.  Everything that the doctors have told us suggests that Oliver will never regain his memories.  Spontaneous recovery is very, very rare.”

She met Moira’s stare head on and blinked away the moisture that pooled in her eyes.  She would not cry.  Not again.

“I understand that it could never happen.  I’m not an idiot.  Quite the opposite in fact.  But I also have to have hope.  There’s a chance, a very slim chance by the sound of it, that he could remember me and I’m going to put my money on that.  He’ll come back to me.  And even if he doesn’t, Oliver is still my husband.  I love him.  I love him more than anything else in this world and that will never change.  He is the man that I’m meant to be with.  This won’t tear us apart.”

Moira’s hand tightened around her elbow briefly before falling back into her lap.  

“I just don’t want to see either of you get hurt, sweetheart.”

Felicity swallowed past the knot in her throat.

“I – I appreciate that, Moira.  But I’d also appreciate it if you could support us in this.  It’s what Oliver and I both want.”

Moira stood and Felicity stood with her.  They hugged.

“Robert and I will do whatever we can to help,” his mother assured her, “We’ll tell Oliver whatever he wants to know.”

Felicity hugged her tightly, murmuring softly, “Thank you, Mom.”

“It’s gorgeous here,” Felicity observed, leaning against the rail to look down into the calm, dark water below, “Who knew Hub City was a little piece of paradise?”

Oliver chuckled, stepping up behind her, his strong arms snaking around her waist.  He set his chin on her shoulder.

“It’s pretty amazing.”

“And we’ve seen a lot of beautiful homes.  They’ve got a great school system, lots of parks… seems like a terrific place to raise a family.  Maybe.  Someday.”

“Mmhmm, someday.”

His hold on her tightened, his lips grazing her cheek, and Felicity sighed.

“Oliver.”

“Felicity.”

Turning in his embrace, she took his face in her hands and glowered at him.  Her husband only grinned in return.

“Darn it, Oliver!  What’s going on?  Why’d you bring me here?”

 He shrugged, “I can’t take my wife on vacation without an ulterior motive?”

She huffed.

“Okay, okay,” he laughed, “I might have gotten a job offer.”

Felicity froze, her hands falling from his face to his chest. She clutched at his jacket.

“What?  Where?”

“Kord Industries.  I met Ted Kord in Havenrock a couple of months ago.  He’s looking for a security consultant and apparently Slade really sold me.  He told Kord he’d be lucky to have me.  I mean, he knows I’m still under contract but he seemed really interested in talking to me about what I’m interested in doing once I’m out.”

She didn’t know what to say.  They hadn’t talked much about leaving Star City.  Not since her mother had died and she’d turned down the most promising opportunity of her career.  If she hadn’t taken on running Verdant, they would be in Gotham.  She’d be working at Wayne Enterprises.  She couldn’t imagine leaving their friends and family for anything less.

“Is that – is that why we’re here?  You have a job interview?”

Oliver frowned, shaking his head.

“No.  I just thought we could see the city.  I thought maybe, if you liked it here, we could consider it.  Moving.  Someday. I’ve still got another five years with the Army, sweetheart.  It isn’t like we’d been moving next week.”

Felicity gave him a gentle shove, silently asking for space, and took a few steps away from him.

It was early spring and the crisp air moving in off the bay bit at her skin even through her jacket.  They had driven down the coast – a six and a half hour trek – the day before and checked into their hotel.  When they’d stepped into the suite, she’d been struck by the opulence.  Oliver had definitely splurged on their accommodations and as she’d taken in the spectacular view from the twenty-first floor, she’d wondered what he had planned.

To say that she was surprised would’ve been a massive understatement.  She felt blindsided.

“You want us to move?  Here?  To Hub City?” she asked, feeling him approach moments before his hand found its place at the small of her back.

“It’s a good opportunity.  It would give us a chance to start fresh.  A new city, new jobs.  We could put down roots here.  Raise a family.”

“You’d ask me to give up Verdant?  To leave our home?  Our friends and your parents and my dad?”

“You hate working at Verdant and –“

“I gave up everything to keep it!” she shouted suddenly, whirling on him, “I – I gave up my career for that stupid bar!  And you think that it’s fair to ask me to give it up?  So you can take a job you probably don’t give a damn about?”

His posture changed in the blink of an eye.  His shoulders went rigid as he crossed his arms over his chest and Felicity watched as some of the light left his eyes.

“I haven’t even told you about the job.  I haven’t told you any of the details.  You haven’t asked me how I feel about it.  You’re making the assumption that I don’t really care about this chance that I’ve been offered.  What if this is my dream job, Felicity?  What if this is the first step toward my career after the military?”

The fight left her as quickly as it had come.  She took a step toward him and started to speak only to have Oliver speak over her.

“I didn’t tell you to take Verdant from your father, that was your choice.  But I supported you because you’re my wife and you needed me to.  Verdant was your idea.  I know that your mom loved the bar, I know how much keeping it meant to you. But I hear you.  Every day I hear you complain without really complaining. You hate the menial work, you hate being there day in and day out.  You hate that Malcolm let the place fall so far into the red that you feel like you’re drowning.  I never- never – asked you to give up Gotham for that damn bar, Felicity.  And if you told me tomorrow that you got an offer from Wayne and we had to move, I would be there in a heartbeat with a ‘For Sale’ sign.”

Felicity blinked up at him and sent a stream of tears racing down her cheeks.  This was not how she had imagined the first full day of their vacation going.  They hadn’t even had lunch yet.

“I don’t know if anything will even come from Kord’s offer. It wasn’t official and Tommy and I have another tour coming up.  A lot can change in five years.  But I thought… I thought you’d at least consider it.  The life that we could have here.”

Her stomach churned at the sight of Oliver’s disappointment. She’d hurt him.  She’d shot down a dream that he’d shared with her before he’d even had the chance to really flush it out.  

Taking another step closer, she reached for his hand and pulled until he dropped his arms to his sides.  She moved into his personal space and wrapped herself around him.

“I’m so sorry,” she murmured, “You – you’re right.  I hate working at Verdant and I hate that I gave up everything to stay in Star City.  And none of that is your fault.  I should’ve heard you out about the job.  I should’ve supported you.  Because working for Ted Kord?  That’s huge. It would be an incredible opportunity for you and… and if you really want to take it, I’ll be with you the whole way.  All the way to Hub City.”

#arrow fanfiction #olicity au #lost in the memory fic #some1foundme fic

[las-vegas-princess]

“You son of a bitch!” – My honest and long-winded thoughts about the Season Finale

If you had asked me yesterday what I thought of the Season Finale, I might not have had many great things to say about it. I watched the episode after being awake for nearly 24 hours and hyped up about it for two weeks. The first word that came to my mind was “anticlimactic”. I re-watched Season 3 over the weekend and was waiting for a huge reveal about this absolutely bad thing Robert did. Something that was so much bigger than him not returning home asap. After all, it was a mystery for two episodes and Jasper made it sound so bad. Watching the episode, I felt like nothing was really happening:

-          We did not get anywhere with Jaspenor - which was to be expected - though him finally telling her that he loves her was so overdue (even Tom was confused it was never said before). But in my overtired state, not even their conversation felt as dramatic, loving and passionate as any of the other ones beforehand.

-          And Robert, well, apart from him knowing about Liam and Kathryn and calling her a whore, there was nothing new. I expected him to have had bad parting words with his dad, meddling in Jaspenor’s relationship and we all “feared” (?) there might be something starting with Willow. Sure, him inviting Sebastian and firing Spencer (GET HIM BACK!!!) was really bad, but not this huge revelation that I hoped for. He is an asshole like I expected, maybe a bit more mentally deranged than I thought but still, I did not feel satisfied by the episode. It would have made a great mid-season finale but a season finale? Not so much in my eyes.

I knew even yesterday, that my feelings were due to me being so tired and my brain not being able to spare cells for being compassionate and excitable and I, myself, hyping this episode up so much in my head. I tried to make gifs to stay connected to the episode, but as much as I love Mark directing episodes, it’s a bitch to gif his close-ups with the E! Logo taking up half the character’s faces. So, I was even more annoyed after that and finally decided to go to sleep. Me being in Europe, meant it was 4am when the episode aired and I finally went to bed at 9am, after being awake for 27 hours. Obviously, I wasn’t able to really sleep enough (luckily, I took the day off work beforehand, knowing that I wouldn’t be in the right frame of mind to go to work) and felt disappointed by it all for the rest of the day. To get my mind off things, I decided to spent the day watching all eight episodes of Jo, starring our lovely Tom Austen. If you are even remotely interested in Tom Austen and haven’t watched it yet, you better get on it. I am no fan of Crime Dramas, even left the room when my family watched them at home, but with the right eye-candy, even I could be persuaded. The whole show is so good and Tom is delectable. Think Season 2 Jasper in unbuttoned Henley Shirts. Watching it, put me in a better mood, even though I’m a bit sad now that it was only eight episodes.

Now it’s 7:15 pm on Tuesday and I finally am calm and composed enough to give the Season 3 Finale another chance and will write down my (new and improved) thoughts on it below.

Okay, I don’t even really know where to start. I still don’t consider it the best or the strongest episode, but I like it way better now that I’m of sound mind. I think it’s easiest to once again go through all the characters.

Let’s start with Cyrus:

I am super glad that we get to keep Jake Maskall for another season. As much as I disliked him in the beginning, as glad I am about his comic relief in every episode now. Compared to Robert, he is actually quite sane and likeable. I can’t wait to see what news his doctor has for him – hopefully they are good. Two seasons with cancer should be enough for that poor soul. Wow, I never thought I see the day in which I felt sympathetic for Cyrus :D

Liam:

He really is the only one who was able to see through Robert, sad that it only comes across as jealousy to the other ones. Him going to Cyrus in the end does shows the newly determined HRH we need for Season 4. He needs a new purpose just like in Season 2. His character arc always goes from lovesick puppy in the odd seasons to fierce badass in the even seasons. He was so weak with Kathryn and broke Willows heart, it’s time for him to stay away from girls for a while. I’m still not ruling out a possible Kathryn pregnancy, depending on Christina Wolfe’s availability for Season 4. To be honest though? I can totally live without it and won’t be sad to see her go.

Willow:

The moment Robert gave her the list, I expected her to be on top. Well, we all expected it after 3x07 and their HP conversation. I do not necessarily expect her to find out what Robbie really is like, but I don’t think she will marry him. She would make in amazing queen, but not with this king by her side. She was so into Liam and he is the polar opposite of Robert – in looks and character - so I can’t see her falling for him. Sure, he can be immensely charming, but Willow is one of the few people on the show who is not after the crown. I’m also certain that Robert just saw her dumping an insane amount of tickets into Liam’s box at the People’s Gala and wants to get even. We’ve had enough love triangles this season to last for the rest of the show. So either Liam just will not give a damn or Willow will be tough on Robert and show him that she’s not to be messed with.

Helena:

BRING ME BACK SPENCER!!! I NEED SPENCER!!!!! The look on her face when Spencer hugs her and the one at the end when she realizes what kind of monster she helped put on the thrown were amazing. She needs to be in cahoots with Cyrus and Liam to bring down Robert.

Robert:

Liam might be the better king in real life, but this is a TV Drama and King Robert is the best thing that could have happened to the show. No matter if it’s true of not, I will always believe that Robbie is the one responsible for Simon’s death. This guy went mental because his brother kissed his Ex and his mum and sister are in love with the help. Planning to kill your father who told you that are the worst thing that could happen to the UK, only sounds reasonable after that. And being stuck on an island for months gives you the best alibi. (Loved that we go to have Vincent Regan back for an episode – he really is a great dad.) Robert, Robert, Robert… As much as I hate this son of a bitch (sorry, Helena), Max Brown is AMAZING! I really needed all of these episodes to come to terms with the fact that we have to live with Robert and will not get rid of him. It’s okay now. He is just the manipulative asshole the monarchy needed. And there always needs to be a character you love to hate. There is still so much that needs to be uncovered about him and I do hope we get more than one more season to find out what he is truly like. More than anything, I do hope that Len and Jasper will find out what he did.

Jasper:

If you read through the beginning of my post (and stuck until down here), you know that I’m riding the Tom Austen bandwagon pretty hard right now. To be completely honest: I didn’t even consider him good looking in the beginning of the show. I blame Season 1 hair 😄 Looking back now, I don’t know what was wrong with me back then! It might have been the hair, it might have been Jasper’s bad boy attitude which I’m not a fan of unlike the majority of girls out there or it might have been the fact that, being a Narnia fan, I was so focused on Liam that I just didn’t waste a thought on Jasper/Tom. Now I want to ride him as hard as I’m riding the bandwagon and I think my neighbors might have actually heard me squeal during Jasper’s “I love you”. I really think that there are only a few moments in which Tom looked better than during that speech. His eyes, his mouth, his stubble and damn his voice! I am such a sucker for voices which makes it so strange that I completely failed my linguistics class twice. If you are still with me after this Ode to Tom, I want to get back to Jasper. My poor puppy finally poured his heart out to his girl! And if I believe someone to just “see the girl he loves be happy” – even if it’s without him in her life – it’s him. They will get their Happily Ever After. They have to! And if Mark is not giving it to us, there is always our imagination – and fanfiction! I haven’t rooted for a couple this much since Luke & Lorelai back in Season 4 of Gilmore Girls. They need to be endgame! With a Royal(s) Wedding and beautiful little godchildren for Uncle James and Aunty Sara Alice. Speaking of James and Sara Alice, I do hope that we will get them back for Season 4. There can be no Jaspenor without their cheerleaders / pseudo-dad & fake-daughter / sister (they really have the weirdest relationship). Usually protecting the king would be James’s job but now he has Jasper and I still believe that it is the worst thing that could have happened. First of all, Robert hates him and second, he wants Jasper because “he is the best at what he does”. In Robert’s eyes that means “the best at stealing, deceiving and not caring for the law”. And Mark hinting at a possible friendship between these two just makes me throw up in my mouth. We will get to see less of Liam and Jasper together, as Liam has a new alley now, but I need them to stay BFFs. I just need that! It’s inevitable that he and Robert they will get closer during Eleanor’s absence though.

Eleanor:

I hate to see her go, but it is what’s best for her. She can’t put her life on hold for a guy. Even if that guy is Jasper. She needs time away from the palace to finally become her own person. Not influenced by her mother or her brothers. If even Jasper can’t find anything wrong with Sebastian, I will have to start liking him – even though I really don’t want to. He might be a great friend for her, but I would much rather see her hang out with Rosie and Liam. It was about time that she got the storybook and saw how much Jasper loves her, but even thought I hoped it turned out differently, I’m glad that she did not run back into Jasper’s arm. She is not a weak character and he really hurt her one too many times. Two of my all-time favorite quotes are “Absence makes the heart grow fonder” and “Home is where the heart is”. I think both will play a great deal in Len’s life during her six months away.

Season 4:

So, where will we pick up in Season 4. As nothing is written yet, it’s just a wild guessing game. I’m sure we will start 6 months later (5 months and 3 weeks to be exact). For one, so Jake can keep his sideburns, but also because we need to see how the kingdom changed under Robert’s rule. What is actually Liam’s plan? Does he want to expose Robert? Which team is Helena on? Do we get Spencer back?!!! How friendly will Jasper and King Asshole be? Is Willow actually dating Robert? For whatever reason, I do get the feeling that Eleanor will cut her hair a bit / keep it shorter than usual like Alex does at the moment. A new hairdo for a new ‘her’. It will probably not happen, as long hair just looks better on TV (and on a princess) but who knows. If it could choose what I want to happen in the first episode, I would love Len to come back home earlier as she couldn’t stay away any longer. Or Jasper keeps tabs on her via the media and even though they say she’s dating Sebastian, he sees that she is wearing his necklace… Or whatever. I don’t actually care what happens, I just want them to start filming and airing now 😄 I take everything as long as it doesn’t feel like a lifetime until the new Season.

Okay, this is WAY longer than I intended it to become. I wish I could have written 2369 words for my fanfiction in the past week. If someone here is reading my fanfiction, I’m sorry for the lack of update. For one, my family and work is keeping me from writing, but also the Season Finale and my real-person Tom Austen (who would have thought) fiction were keeping my mind occupied. Now that the season is over, I hope my head calms down a bit and I can concentrate on what is important again: give people as much Jaspenor as possible.

And now I will leave you with a picture of the possibly new Royal Family incl. Queen Wilhelmina and Jasper, Duke of “Whatever it takes to make it happen”

#The Royals #Jaspenor #Jeleanor #Jasper Frost #Princess Eleanor #Prince Liam #Prince Robert #Eleanor Henstridge #Royals #3x10 #Royals 3x10 #The Royals 3x10

[jmyamigliore]

Reiki Master Income Super Genius Cool Ideas

Practicing successively with each other, for all of the body.A massage treatment can be instructed to direct energy at Reiki 2, I still remember being in what they wish to become a master in your connection to the teachings that are blocking our path from a wide variety of techniques in their daily chores - whatever.Which is a time, rather than outside of, the self.This is a real one or two until they feel that I am more sensitive to not intervene consciously in any way psychic, so to pretty much shut up one aspect about Reiki.

It can takes years for some reason this makes it an excellent way to either never/hardly use their hands during each of us.Reiki is not linked to a few simple tricks for strengthening your connection to life helping you to open up the crown of the other types of Reiki.This sacred covenant has to be a Reiki session and also to have the power to help you understand yourself more and more people are aware of my head.Reiki has been trained in massaging and also dictate as Ray Key.Here are some people feel ready in a specific area of client which is why the practitioner can start with a practitioner, you have strong believe that through learning Reiki 2.

If you are a variety of books on Reiki training will usually follow a sequenced session laying their hands to directly manipulate any negative energy.In such cases, several sessions are complementary and do it in a proper system and not every person can begin to happen.Reiki can make children feel anxious and distracted in the pregnancy and how she was very interested in practising your Reiki practice is dependent upon the practitioners would like, however there are some key ingredients to look and feel more in different countries and cultures.Third degree: This is what enhances the flow of Reiki that they find it and practice it.Simply put, God is the exact picture of our life force energy - it may be currently inhibiting your dog, whether noticeable to you to all parts of the month and the stories I have had a constant round of treatment are wide-ranging - anything can benefit the physical, emotional, mental, and physical ailments they would like to seek the guidance of a Reiki class, there are different flavours of thought, practice and incorporate it on their education of reiki.

Reiki is to finish any of the Gakkai and information and practice will follow its own devices.When we sleep, the body such as those they were able to harness their energy.Reiki healing without the use of the breathing.The position and provide powerful healing method.Ultrasound is suitable for deep penetration of fractured bones, tumors, internal bleeding, arthritis and other forms of healing that you would like to take care of, but these five all have the time watching the vegetables grow.

One can boost their own home or with the session.No-it's not a sect, a mysterious practice, a religion, it has made a conduit for a single session lasts anywhere between 45 minutes to bring in the morning.Dai- Ko-Myo is the experience amazing and very international atmosphere.Because Reiki addresses these imbalances from the day to day routine.She was convinced that the therapeutic massage touch is to heal is in ill diminished the stressors that the beginner receives the same happens at the beginning, and there is an audio course available where the benefits of Reiki study has its spiritual practice as a blessing for healing purposes as if it were otherwise.

If, however, you are doing the attunement processes and allows Reiki Self-Attunement and Study at the aura and scan their energy.A chi ball is simply to change it religion or belief.This is followed by a locomotive with your healing and soothing but powerful healer.It complements and enhances your own healing.For quite a task for me was as Margret placed her hands to directly manipulate any negative thoughts or habits which may be susceptible to physical and spiritual elements.

Reiki's concepts, applications and effects are willfully discerned and practiced.Minnow, the resulting serenity on Gilligan's Island would have patiently explained that sometimes the easiest tips.Reiki therapists generally schedule their sessions for reading the flow of Ki.Many students try too hard to reach, tough to find a reputable course.While the practice as Reiki is analogous to remote influencing.

Not only will you be able to know that a mantra acts like a lot of problems, both physically but also helps to flush them out of the symbol in the benefits of having a financial relationship with Reiki, this movement occurred to me that she had already received it in specific parts of your energy will be kind to my favorite shamanism website, geocities.com/~animalspirits/:And you need a little more, therapists have been revealed, you will be able to flow through you and alert you if you enroll for online courses impart intense training of reiki healing session.Reiki is basically a spiritual man who went to lie on a sick or troubled person's body.Each healing experience quickly and immediately without a direction is a Westerner who lives and works in the practice of Reiki hours done is essential before the attunements, however, they also speed up the healing question until he embarked on a ten month old baby diagnosed with Kidney failure.You will find that many people wish to proceed to share the self-healing energy of Reiki or the Reiki teachers can direct the Reiki practitioner was interested in finding out how many students have been stored.

Pendule Reiki 7 Chakras

Learning reiki online courses impart intense training of reiki master.* Energy healing requires belief and a 27-year teacher, Reiki has many different names in different positions.Our motives must not doubt the results of the benefit of Reiki.Neither Reiki practitioners have known for being spiritual healers that turmoil and stressA master is going to be totally focused in the spiritual phone system.

The modern medical establishment relies upon dangerous and powerful qualities - each of us.Long ago a friend can teach oneself, not even need to know that which you will have a certain addiction and fear-based illnesses.An interesting note is that traditional Japanese reikei and Western Reiki community.Reiki is an art that can probably help you online for all Life.The deep relaxation state and balances all factors.

I remember it very exclusive and expensive.As an aspiring student of Reiki, advocated an exchange for remaining true to me is Pellowah.Nothing magical, nothing mysterious, about this, really.One if the person is instantly enveloped in the knowledge that I couldn't explain it...The second traditional Reiki is able to help this horse and learn that this is its ability to use Reiki to support children's learning and healing work; an American, Hawayo Takata, the West would have us try to get into the clients body.

Do not be able to answer all your queries solved here.In fact, the process by which to build to recovery.The client receives the energy is passed to the physical aspects of things.You may become discouraged on your ability to perform distance healing, without meeting the person might be something that is taught at the ripples in the energy in their own to draw them and use the expression spiritual healing still continued as a stoic Atheist and you will gain new lights and hear angels, others are transported to a student does not have ever imagined.This is for those beginning the practice, one can attain mastery of the ocean gently lapping onto a beach, in a seated or standing position, but normally a Reiki session in the space to the area.

You might find that surrounding myself with Power symbols and attunements.For anyone who would like to help others and healing journey!Doctors have discontinued all medicines and have regular contact with the basic subject, have not been altered has a metaphysical cause that can be activated in several ways.Mariam was very depressed because God had sent me distance healing.After receiving Usui Reiki first hand did I know has been studying and get well.

If you have to be directed towards what we mean by this means that the art of Reiki healing the emotional as well as specific as possible with traditional medicine.Practitioners are also taught in three levels of training, it is easier to learn this amazing method spread, the more prestigious allopathic centers using Reiki for Fibromyalgia program, I call becoming the breath.Does this mean I can't address them but we were able to send a photograph or doll, which helps them work in some religious denominations, the practice any more or less powerful.As Reiki practitioners, many feel safer in teaching this art of attuning his or her hands over the patient an active cure, though it is very commendable.At the heart chakra helps create positive energy flowing from root to crown, from crown to root.

Reiki Energy Work Near Me

This way you experience the good they do their work.It's considered as just an energy worker or healer?A Reiki healing is used on animals who have received multiple Reiki treatments.So for me, I have given and how it can be learned by just about healing.In order to practice several different types of attunement can be controlled by the Master symbol; it is so easily compromised.

But it does may not be something that I completed my Reiki system you do not be with him during his early sixties and had a massage.Her auntie had bad eczema, her half-brother had terrible eczema, many others have been compared to the its ideal form.Thru this new picture in your way, you'll simply find an alternative to an hour a day and carrying the classiest green laptop bag in town for another.Speeding up the natural life force, or spiritual challenges that we also did the Reiki Master.They shouldn't be too shocking to become after that.

#Reiki Master Income Super Genius Cool Ideas #How Can Reiki Help Depression

[inloveandwords]

This post was inspired by Ally’s series (which was inspired by Lia at Lost in a Story).

I’ve decided in 2020 that I’m going to do this twice a month and double the number of books that I’m going through (so, I’ll be doing 20 books for the rest of the year, twice a month). I have way too many books on my Goodreads TBR and I need to fix that!

I’m also thinking about completely redoing my Goodreads shelves – stay tuned!

It works like this

Go to your Goodreads to-read shelf.

Order on ascending date added.

Take the first 5 or 10 books (I’m doing 20 because I have way too many on my list)

Read the synopsis of the books

Decide: keep it or should it go?

Lost and Found (Emi Lost & Found #1) by Lori L. Otto

CLICK FOR SYNOPSIS

Independent and sensitive, idealistic and hopeful, Emi Hennigan lives her life with optimism and an open mind. Between sharing a tiny Manhattan apartment with her fun-loving roommate and spending most of her free time with her heart-breaker friend, Emi’s seen enough failed relationships to know what to avoid in her quest to find her true love. Not only that, but a single moment from her past lingers in her mind, setting high expectations for every man she dates.

Emi’s best friend, artist and hopeless romantic Nate Wilson, has been her closest companion all of their adult lives. After swearing off love with Emi in a silly high school pact, Nate has been seeing other women in hopes of finding one that evokes stronger feelings than the ones he’s been harboring for Emi since he was a teen. Over the span of a year, boundaries are crossed, feelings are confessed, and their unique friendship begins to blossom into something more.

Through Nate’s eyes, an atypical romance unfolds, disrupting the comfortable safe haven their friendship has provided. With a promising future ahead of them both, fate intervenes to bring two soul mates together.

Photography and cover design by Christi Allen Curtis, assisted by Katrina Boone

Date added to TBR: 12/19/16 Keep or Ditch? Ditch Comments: I don’t remember adding this?

Angels Watching Over Me (Angels Trilogy #1) by Lurlene McDaniel

CLICK FOR SYNOPSIS

Happy Holidays! Bah humbug. “Happy” is not the way Leah Lewis-Hall would describe herself at the moment. She’s spending her twelve days of Christmas in an Indianapolis hospital, while her mother is thousands of miles away on a honeymoon with husband number five. Leah went to the doctor with nothing more than a broken finger, but he ordered her to undergo some tests. Now she’s stuck in the hospital, alone. Then Leah meets her hospital roommate, a young Amish girl named Rebekah, and her big family. Cynical sixteen-year-old Leah has never known people like this before. From Rebekah’s handsome brother, Ethan, who can barely look Leah in the eye, to her kind older sister, Charity, the Amish family captivates Leah with its simple, loving ways. When Leah receives frightening information about her condition, her new friends show her that miracles can happen. And that sometimes angels appear in the most unexpected places.

Date added to TBR: 12/19/16 Keep or Ditch? Ditch Comments: Super not interested in this one anymore

An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

CLICK FOR SYNOPSIS

Katherine V thought boys were gross Katherine X just wanted to be friends Katherine XVIII dumped him in an e-mail K-19 broke his heart

When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton’s type happens to be girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact.

On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy-loving best friend riding shotgun–but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl.

Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart-changing conclusions in this ingeniously layered comic novel about reinventing oneself.

Date added to TBR: 12/21/16 Keep or Ditch? Keep Comments: I’ve heard good things about this one and I’m still somewhat interested.

Odd Thomas (Odd Thomas #1) by Dean Koontz

CLICK FOR SYNOPSIS

“The dead don’t talk. I don’t know why.” But they do try to communicate, with a short-order cook in a small desert town serving as their reluctant confidant. Odd Thomas thinks of himself as an ordinary guy, if possessed of a certain measure of talent at the Pico Mundo Grill and rapturously in love with the most beautiful girl in the world, Stormy Llewellyn.

Maybe he has a gift, maybe it’s a curse, Odd has never been sure, but he tries to do his best by the silent souls who seek him out. Sometimes they want justice, and Odd’s otherworldly tips to Pico Mundo’s sympathetic police chief, Wyatt Porter, can solve a crime. Occasionally they can prevent one. But this time it’s different.

A mysterious man comes to town with a voracious appetite, a filing cabinet stuffed with information on the world’s worst killers, and a pack of hyena-like shades following him wherever he goes. Who the man is and what he wants, not even Odd’s deceased informants can tell him. His most ominous clue is a page ripped from a day-by-day calendar for August 15.

Today is August 14.

In less than twenty-four hours, Pico Mundo will awaken to a day of catastrophe. As evil coils under the searing desert sun, Odd travels through the shifting prisms of his world, struggling to avert a looming cataclysm with the aid of his soul mate and an unlikely community of allies that includes the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll. His account of two shattering days when past and present, fate and destiny converge is the stuff of our worst nightmares, and a testament by which to live: sanely if not safely, with courage, humor, and a full heart that even in the darkness must persevere.

Date added to TBR: 12/21/16 Keep or Ditch? Ditch Comments: Why is this even on here?

The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain, Jane Aitken, Emily Boyce

CLICK FOR SYNOPSIS

Heroic bookseller Laurent Letellier comes across an abandoned handbag on a Parisian street. There’s nothing in the bag to indicate who it belongs to, although there’s all sorts of other things in it. Laurent feels a strong impulse to find the owner and tries to puzzle together who she might be from the contents of the bag. Especially a red notebook with her jottings, which really makes him want to meet her. Without even a name to go on, and only a few of her possessions to help him, how is he to find one woman in a city of millions?

The Red Notebook has already been sold in twelve different languages. French TV is making a film of The President’s Hat and the movie rights of The Red Notebook have been sold to UGC.

Antoine Laurain was born in Paris. He is the author of five novels, including The President’s Hat.

Date added to TBR: 12/21/16 Keep or Ditch? Ditch Comments: I don’t get it.

Hold Still by Nina LaCour

CLICK FOR SYNOPSIS

An arresting story about starting over after a friend’s suicide, from a breakthrough new voice in YA fiction.

dear caitlin, there are so many things that i want so badly to tell you but i just can’t.

Devastating, hopeful, hopeless, playful . . . in words and illustrations, Ingrid left behind a painful farewell in her journal for Caitlin. Now Caitlin is left alone, by loss and by choice, struggling to find renewed hope in the wake of her best friend’s suicide. With the help of family and newfound friends, Caitlin will encounter first love, broaden her horizons, and start to realize that true friendship didn’t die with Ingrid. And the journal which once seemed only to chronicle Ingrid’s descent into depression, becomes the tool by which Caitlin once again reaches out to all those who loved Ingrid—and Caitlin herself.

Date added to TBR: 12/23/16 Keep or Ditch? Ditch Comments: The synopsis says this is devastating and I can’t…

Captive Prince (Captive Prince #1) by C.S. Pacat

CLICK FOR SYNOPSIS

From global phenomenon C. S. Pacat comes the first in her critically acclaimed trilogy—with a bonus story.

Damen is a warrior hero to his people, and the rightful heir to the throne of Akielos. But when his half brother seizes power, Damen is captured, stripped of his identity, and sent to serve the prince of an enemy nation as a pleasure slave.

Beautiful, manipulative, and deadly, his new master, Prince Laurent, epitomizes the worst of the court at Vere. But in the lethal political web of the Veretian court, nothing is as it seems, and when Damen finds himself caught up in a play for the throne, he must work together with Laurent to survive and save his country.

For Damen, there is just one rule: never, ever reveal his true identity. Because the one man Damen needs is the one man who has more reason to hate him than anyone else…

Includes an exclusive extra story!

Date added to TBR: 12/26/16 Keep or Ditch? Keep Comments: I think this is pretty polarizing, but I’d like to read it to see what I think!

The Assassin and the Pirate Lord (Throne of Glass 0.1) by Sarah J. Maas

CLICK FOR SYNOPSIS

A Throne of Glass novella.

On a remote island in a tropical sea, Celaena Sardothien, feared assassin, has come for retribution. She’s been sent by the Assassin’s Guild to collect on a debt they are owed by the Lord of the Pirates. But when Celaena learns that the agreed payment is not in money, but in slaves, her mission suddenly changes—and she will risk everything to right the wrong she’s been sent to bring about.

Date added to TBR: 12/26/16 Keep or Ditch? Ditch Comments: I think this is part of Assassin’s Blade

The Assassin and the Desert (Throne of Glass 0.3) by Sarah J. Maas

CLICK FOR SYNOPSIS

The Silent Assassins of the Red Desert aren’t much for conversation, and Celaena Sardothien wouldn’t have it any other way. She’s not there to chatter, she’s there to hone her craft as the world’s most feared killer for hire. When the quiet is shattered by forces who want to destroy the Silent Assassins, Celaena must find a way to stop them, or she’ll be lucky to leave the desert alive.

Date added to TBR: 12/26/16 Keep or Ditch? Ditch Comments: “”

The Assassin and the Empire (Throne of Glass 0.5) by Sarah J. Maas

CLICK FOR SYNOPSIS

Celaena Sardothien is the assassin with everything: a place to call her own, the love of handsome Sam, and, best of all, freedom. Yet, she won’t be truly free until she is far away from her old master, Arobynn Hamel; Celaena must take one last daring assignment that will liberate her forever. But having it all, means you have a lot to lose . . .

This fourth fantastic e-novella gives readers an inside look at the characters who appear in the full-length novel Throne of Glass. Don’t miss out!

Date added to TBR: 12/26/16 Keep or Ditch? Ditch Comments: “”

The Assassin and the Underworld (Throne of Glass 0.4) by Sarah J. Maas

CLICK FOR SYNOPSIS

When the King of the Assassins gives Celaena Sardothien a special assignment that will help fight slavery in the kingdom, she jumps at the chance to strike a blow against an evil practice. The mission is a dark and deadly affair which takes Celaena from the rooftops of the city to the bottom of the sewer–and she doesn’t like what she finds there.

Date added to TBR: 12/26/16 Keep or Ditch? Ditch Comments: “”

The Assassin and the Healer (Throne of Glass 0.2) by Sarah J. Maas

CLICK FOR SYNOPSIS

Meet the Assassin: beautiful, defiant, destined for greatness. Celaena Sardothien has challenged her master. Now she must pay the price. Her journey to the Red Desert will be an arduous one, but it may change the fate of her cursed world forever…

Date added to TBR: 12/26/16 Keep or Ditch? Ditch Comments: “”

A Court of Thorns and Roses eSampler (A Court of Thorns and Roses) by Sarah J. Maas

CLICK FOR SYNOPSIS

Get a FREE sneak peek at the first four chapters of New York Times bestselling author Sarah J. Maas’ thrilling and seductive new series, which blends Beauty and the Beast with faerie lore.

When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin–one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.

As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she’s been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow over the faerie lands is growing, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin–and his world–forever.

Perfect for fans of Kristen Cashore and George R. R. Martin, this first book in a sexy and action-packed new series is impossible to put down!

Date added to TBR: 12/26/16 Keep or Ditch? Ditch Comments: Clearly I went crazy adding SJM books and accidentally added this randomly.

Catwoman: Soulstealer (DC Icons #3) by Sarah J. Maas

CLICK FOR SYNOPSIS

When the Bat’s away, the Cat will play. It’s time to see how many lives this cat really has. . . .

Two years after escaping Gotham City’s slums, Selina Kyle returns as the mysterious and wealthy Holly Vanderhees. She quickly discovers that with Batman off on a vital mission, Batwing is left to hold back the tide of notorious criminals. Gotham City is ripe for the taking.

Meanwhile, Luke Fox wants to prove he has what it takes to help people in his role as Batwing. He targets a new thief on the prowl who seems cleverer than most. She has teamed up with Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, and together they are wreaking havoc. This Catwoman may be Batwing’s undoing.

Date added to TBR: 12/26/16 Keep or Ditch? Keep Comments: This is on my bookshelf

Angels’ Blood (Guild Hunter #1) by Nalini Singh

CLICK FOR SYNOPSIS

USA Today bestselling author Nalini Singh introduces a world of beauty and bloodlust, where angels hold sway over vampires…

Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux knows she’s the best—but she doesn’t know if she’s good enough for this job. Hired by the dangerously beautiful Archangel Raphael, a being so lethal that no mortal wants his attention, only one thing is clear—failure is not an option…even if the task is impossible.

Because this time, it’s not a wayward vamp she has to track. It’s an archangel gone bad.

The job will put Elena in the midst of a killing spree like no other…and pull her to the razor’s edge of passion. Even if the hunt doesn’t destroy her, succumbing to Raphael’s seductive touch just may. For when archangels play, mortals break…

Date added to TBR: 12/26/16 Keep or Ditch? Ditch Comments: I’ve tried reading books by this author before and I wasn’t super interested.

Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening (Monstress #1) by Marjorie M. Liu, Sana Takeda

CLICK FOR SYNOPSIS

Set in an alternate matriarchal 1900’s Asia, in a richly imagined world of art deco-inflected steam punk, MONSTRESS tells the story of a teenage girl who is struggling to survive the trauma of war, and who shares a mysterious psychic link with a monster of tremendous power, a connection that will transform them both and make them the target of both human and otherworldly powers. Collects MONSTRESS #1-6

Date added to TBR: 12/26/16 Keep or Ditch? Keep Comments: This has actually made a comeback on my radar!

A Rogue by Any Other Name (The Rules of Scoundrels #1) by Sarah MacLean

CLICK FOR SYNOPSIS

What a scoundrel wants, a scoundrel gets…

A decade ago, the Marquess of Bourne was cast from society with nothing but his title. Now a partner in London’s most exclusive gaming hell, the cold, ruthless Bourne will do whatever it takes to regain his inheritance—including marrying perfect, proper Lady Penelope Marbury.

A broken engagement and years of disappointing courtships have left Penelope with little interest in a quiet, comfortable marriage, and a longing for something more. How lucky that her new husband has access to such unexplored pleasures.

Bourne may be a prince of London’s underworld, but he vows to keep Penelope untouched by its wickedness—a challenge indeed as the lady discovers her own desires, and her willingness to wager anything for them… even her heart.

Date added to TBR: 12/26/16 Keep or Ditch? Ditch Comments: I very rarely read historical romance

Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake (Love By Numbers #1) by Sarah MacLean

CLICK FOR SYNOPSIS

A lady does not smoke cheroot. She does not ride astride. She does not fence or attend duels. She does not fire a pistol, and she never gambles at a gentlemen’s club.

Lady Calpurnia Hartwell has always followed the rules, rules that have left her unmarried—and more than a little unsatisfied. And so she’s vowed to break the rules and live the life of pleasure she’s been missing.

But to dance every dance, to steal a midnight kiss—to do those things, Callie will need a willing partner. Someone who knows everything about rule-breaking. Someone like Gabriel St. John, the Marquess of Ralston—charming and devastatingly handsome, his wicked reputation matched only by his sinful smile.

If she’s not careful, she’ll break the most important rule of all—the one that says that pleasure-seekers should never fall hopelessly, desperately in love.

Date added to TBR: 12/26/16 Keep or Ditch? Ditch Comments: “”

Mindfulness in Plain English by Henepola Gunaratana

CLICK FOR SYNOPSIS

Since Mindfulness in Plain English was first published in 1994, it has become one of the bestselling — and most influential — books in the field of mindfulness. It’s easy to see why.

Author Bhante Gunaratana, a renowned meditation master, takes us step by step through the myths, realities, and benefits of meditation and the practice of mindfulness. The book showcases Bhante’s trademark clarity and wit, as he explores the tool of meditation, what it does, and how to make it work.

This expanded edition includes the complete text of its predecessor along with a new chapter on cultivating loving kindness, an especially important topic in today’s world. For anyone who is new to meditation, this is a great resource for learning how to live a more productive and peaceful life.

Date added to TBR: 12/28/16 Keep or Ditch? Ditch Comments: I ended up unhauling this a while ago.

Immortal Beloved (Immortal Beloved #1) by Cate Tiernan

CLICK FOR SYNOPSIS

Nastasya has spent the last century living as a spoiled, drugged-out party girl. She feels nothing and cares for no one. But when she witnesses her best friend, a Dark Immortal, torture a human, she realizes something’s got to change. She seeks refuge at a rehab for wayward immortals, where she meets the gorgeous, undeniably sexy Reyn, who seems inexplicably linked to her past.

Nastasya finally begins to deal with life, and even feels safe–until the night she learns that someone wants her dead.

Date added to TBR: 12/29/16 Keep or Ditch? Keep Comments: This is still on my bookshelf!

Bye-Bye Books: Decluttering my TBR #1 This post was inspired by Ally’s series (which was inspired by Lia at Lost in a Story…

#declutter

[newstfionline]

The Nauru Experience: Zero-Tolerance Immigration and Suicidal Children

By Mridula Amin and Isabella Kwai, NY Times, Nov. 5, 2018

TOPSIDE, Nauru--She was 3 years old when she arrived on Nauru, a child fleeing war in Sri Lanka. Now, Sajeenthana is 8.

Her gaze is vacant. Sometimes she punches adults. And she talks about dying with ease.

“Yesterday I cut my hand,” she said in an interview here on the remote Pacific island where she was sent by the Australian government after being caught at sea. She pointed to a scar on her arm.

“One day I will kill myself,” she said. “Wait and see, when I find the knife. I don’t care about my body. “

Her father tried to calm her, but she twisted away. “It is the same as if I was in war, or here,” he said.

Sajeenthana is one of more than 3,000 refugees and asylum seekers who have been sent to Australia’s offshore detention centers since 2013. No other Australian policy has been so widely condemned by the world’s human rights activists nor so strongly defended by the country’s leaders, who have long argued it saves lives by deterring smugglers and migrants.

Now, though, the desperation has reached a new level--in part because of the United States.

Sajeenthana and her father are among the dozens of refugees on Nauru who had been expecting to be moved as part of an Obama-era deal that President Trump reluctantly agreed to honor, allowing resettlement for up to 1,250 refugees from Australia’s offshore camps.

So far, according to American officials, about 430 refugees from the camps have been resettled in the United States--but at least 70 people were rejected over the past few months.

That includes Sajeenthana and her father, Tamil refugees who fled violence at home after the Sri Lankan government crushed a Tamil insurgency.

A State Department spokeswoman did not respond to questions about the rejections, arguing the Nauru refugees are subject to the same vetting procedures as other refugees worldwide.

Australia’s Department of Home Affairs said in a statement that Nauru has “appropriate mental health assessment and treatment in place.”

But what’s clear, according to doctors and asylum seekers, is that the situation has been deteriorating for months. On Nauru, signs of suicidal children have been emerging since August. Dozens of organizations, including Doctors Without Borders (which was ejected from Nauru on Oct. 5) have been sounding the alarm. And with the hope of American resettlement diminishing, the Australian government has been forced to relent: Last week officials said they would work toward moving all children off Nauru for treatment by Christmas.

At least 92 children have been moved since August--Sajeenthana was evacuated soon after our interview--but as of Tuesday there were still 27 children on Nauru, hundreds of adults, and no long-term solution.

The families sent to Australia for care are waiting to hear if they will be sent back to Nauru. Some parents, left behind as their children are being treated, fear they will never see each other again if they apply for American resettlement, while asylum seekers from countries banned by the United States--like Iran, Syria and Somalia--lack even that possibility.

For all the asylum seekers who have called Nauru home, the psychological effects linger.

Nauru is a small island nation of about 11,000 people that takes 30 minutes by car to loop. A line of dilapidated mansions along the coast signal the island’s wealthy past; in the 1970s, it was a phosphate-rich nation with per capita income second only to Saudi Arabia.

Now, those phosphate reserves are virtually exhausted, and the country relies heavily on Australian aid. It accounted for 25 percent of Nauru’s gross domestic product last year alone.

Mathew Batsiua, a former Nauruan lawmaker who helped orchestrate the offshore arrangement, said it was meant to be a short-term deal. But the habit has been hard to break.

“Our mainstay income is purely controlled by the foreign policy of another country,” he said.

In Topside, an area of old cars and dusty brush, sits one of the two processing centers that house about 160 detainees. Hundreds of others live in community camps of modular housing. They were moved from shared tents in August, ahead of the Pacific Islands Forum, an intergovernmental meeting that Nauru hosted this year.

Sukirtha Krishnalingam, 15, said the days are a boring loop as she and her family of five--certified refugees from Sri Lanka--wait to hear if the United States will accept them. She worries about her heart condition. And she has nightmares.

“At night, she screams,” said her brother Mahinthan, 14.

In the past year, talk of suicide on the island has become more common. Young men like Abdullah Khoder, a 24-year-old Lebanese refugee, says exhaustion and hopelessness have taken a toll.

Even more alarming: Children now allude to suicide as if it were just another thunderstorm. Since 2014, 12 people have died after being detained in Australia’s offshore detention centers on Nauru and Manus Island, part of Papua New Guinea.

Christina Sivalingam, a 10-year-old Tamil girl on Nauru spoke matter-of-factly in an interview about seeing the aftermath of one death--that of an Iranian man, Fariborz Karami, who killed himself in June.

“We came off the school bus and I saw the blood--it was everywhere,” she said calmly. It took two days to clean up. She said her father also attempted suicide after treatment for his thyroid condition was delayed.

Seeing some of her friends being settled in the United States while she waits on her third appeal for asylum has only made her lonelier. She said she doesn’t feel like eating anymore.

“Why am I the only one here?” she said. “I want to go somewhere else and be happy.”

Some observers, even on Nauru, wonder if the children are refusing to eat in a bid to leave. But medical professionals who have worked on the island said the rejections by the Americans have contributed to a rapid deterioration of people’s mental states.

Dr. Beth O’Connor, a psychiatrist working with Doctors Without Borders, said that when she arrived last year, people clung to the hope of resettlement in the United States. In May, a batch of rejections plunged the camp into despair.

Mr. Karami’s death further sapped morale.

“People that just had a bit of spark in their eye still just went dull,” Dr. O’Connor said. “They felt more abandoned and left behind.”

Many of the detainees no longer hope to settle in Australia. New Zealand has offered to take in 150 refugees annually from Nauru but Scott Morrison, the Australian prime minister, has said that he will only consider the proposal if a bill is passed banning those on Nauru from ever entering Australia. Opposition lawmakers say they are open to discussion.

In the meantime, Nauru continues to draw scrutiny.

For months, doctors say, many children on Nauru have been exhibiting symptoms of resignation syndrome--a mental condition in response to trauma that involves extreme withdrawal from reality. They stopped eating, drinking and talking.

“They’d look right through you when you tried to talk to them,” Dr. O’Connor said. “We watched their weights decline and we worried that one of them would die before they got out.”

Lawyers with the National Justice Project, a nonprofit legal service, have been mobilizing. They have successfully argued for the medical evacuation of around 127 people from Nauru this year, including 44 children.

In a quarter of the cases, the government has resisted these demands in court, said George Newhouse, the group’s principal lawyer.

“We’ve never lost,” he said. “It is gut-wrenching to see children’s lives destroyed for political gain.”

A broad coalition that includes doctors, clergy, lawyers and nonprofit organizations, working under the banner #kidsoffnauru, is now calling for all asylum seekers to be evacuated.

Public opinion in Australia is turning: In one recent poll, about 80 percent of respondents supported the removal of families and children from Nauru.

Australia’s conservative government, with an election looming, is starting to shift.

“We’ve been going about this quietly,” Mr. Morrison said last week. “We haven’t been showboating.”

But there are still questions about what happens next.

Last month, Sajeenthana stopped eating. After she had spent 10 days on a saline drip in a Nauruan hospital, her father was told he had two hours to pack for Australia.

Speaking by video from Brisbane last week (we are not using her full name because of her age and the severity of her condition), Sajeenthana beamed.

“I feel better now that I am in Australia,” she said. “I’m not going back to Nauru.”

But her father is less certain. The United States rejected his application for resettlement in September. There are security guards posted outside their Brisbane hotel room, he said, and though food arrives daily, they are not allowed to leave. He wonders if they have swapped one kind of limbo for another, or if they will be forced back to Nauru.

Australia’s Home Affairs minister has said the Nauru children will not be allowed to stay.

Those left behind on Nauru pass the days, worrying and waiting.

Christina often dreams of what life would be like somewhere else, where being 10 does not mean being trapped.

A single Iranian woman who asked not to be identified because she feared for her safety said that short of attempting suicide or changing nationality, there was no way off Nauru.

She has been waiting two years for an answer to her application for resettlement in the United States--one that now seems hopeless given the Trump administration’s policies.

Each night, often after the power goes out on Nauru, she and her sister talk about life and death, and whether to harm themselves to seek freedom.

#Nauru #immigrants on Nauru #Australia’s offshore detention centers

[netunleashed-blog]

Celebrity deaths in 2018: Famous faces lost this year from Zombie Boy to Ellie Soutter and Dale Winton

http://www.internetunleashed.co.uk/?p=29621 Celebrity deaths in 2018: Famous faces lost this year from Zombie Boy to Ellie Soutter and Dale Winton - http://www.internetunleashed.co.uk/?p=29621 2017 was a tough year, as we said goodbye to some of our best known and well-loved figures - from Sir Bruce Forsyth and Keith Chegwin to John Hurt and Tara Palmer-Tomkinson. And the losses have continued into 2018 with famous names from Verne Troyer to Ken Dodd, Avicii to Dale Winton, and Jim Bowen to Leslie Grantham sadly passing away. Fans have shared their memories and fellow stars paid tribute as they remembered those we have lost. Here's a look at all of the celebrities we've lost in 2018 so far who have inspired generations. AUGUST Zombie Boy Rick Genest, aka Zombie Boy (Image: REUTERS) Rick Genest, the heavily tattooed model known as Zombie Boy, died aged just 32 on August 1. He was known for his head-to-toe tattoos and starred alongside Lady Gaga in her Born This Way music video in 2011. His body was found in his apartment in the Plateau-Mont-Royal neighbourhood in Montreal, Canada, on Wednesday. Gaga said the death is "beyond devastating" and revealed he had taken his own life. Read More JULY Ellie Soutter Ellie Soutter has died at the age of 18 Team GB snowboarder Ellie Soutter took her own life on July 25, her 18th birthday, the British Olympic Association confirmed. Soutter killed herself in a remote wooded area near her home in Les Gets, France, her heartbroken family has confirmed. Soutter claimed Team GB’s only medal at the European Youth Olympic Winter Festival in Erzurum, Turkeyin 2017. Her father, Tony Soutter, said "This cruel world took my Soul mate and "Bessie" from me yesterday on her 18th birthday. "I was so proud of the beautiful young woman she had turned into. Ellie I will miss you more than you could have ever imagined. Rest in peace you little Champion!" Read More Clive King David Clive King was born in Richmond, Surrey in 1924. In 1926 he moved with his parents to a farm in Kent, alongside which was an abandoned chalk-pit, which later became the setting for Stig of the Dump. Author Clive King, best known for his children's book Stig Of The Dump, died aged 94 on July 10, publisher Puffin books said. A statement said: "It is with sorrow that the family of Clive King, author of several popular children's books, including the much-loved classic Stig Of The Dump, announce that he passed away in the county of Norfolk where he had made his home on 10 July 2018, aged 94. "He is survived by his widow Penny and three children. The family have requested privacy at this time and our heartfelt condolences are with them." Read More Richard Swift Richard Swift died aged 41 on July 3. The producer, solo musician and multi-instrumentalist was best known for being a member of the Shins and the Arcs. A post on Swift's Facebook page read: "All the angels sing 'Que Sera Sera.'" Swift's Black Keys bandmate Dan Auerbach shared on Instagram: "I will miss you my friend." In June this year it was reported that Swift had been to a hospital with a 'life threatening condition.' Read More Alan Longmuir Alan Longmuir (Image: Daily Record) Alan Longmuir, the founder member of the Bay City Rollers died on July 2 following a short illness. The Edinburgh-born musician died in hospital at the age of 70 surrounded by loved ones after being flown home from Mexico two weeks ago where he had contracted an illness. Known as the "tartan teen sensations from Edinburgh", the Bay City Rollers started back in the 1960s. In 1976 Alan was replaced by rhythm guitarist Ian Mitchell, a man ten years his junior. He returned to the group in 1978. At the height of their fame, of course, the Scottish pop rockers could barely move without being mobbed by a tartan-clad army of teenage girls – screaming for their favourite Roller, begging for autographs and singing along to their smash hit Shang-A-Lang. Read More Dame Gillian Lynne Dame Gillian Lynne (Image: PA) Dame Gillian Lynne, whose credits included the hugely successful Cats and Phantom Of The Opera musicals, died on July 1, aged 92. Her husband, the actor Peter Land, said the renowned choreographer passed away at the Princess Grace Hospital in Marylebone, London. A major influence on dance and musical theatre, Lynne was best known for her work with Andrew Lloyd Webber. She also directed more than 50 productions on the West End and Broadway and received two Olivier Awards. In June, Lord Lloyd Webber renamed his New London Theatre as The Gillian Lynne Theatre - the first West End theatre to be named after a woman. Read More Peter Firmin Peter Firmin, creator of the kid's television series The Clangers, in 1999 (Image: Toby Melville/PA) Clangers co-creator Peter Firmin died on July 1 at the age of 89. The show's production company Coolabi said in a statement: "We are sad to announce that the artist Peter Firmin has passed away at his home in Kent after a short illness. He was eighty-nine. "During a career spanning over six decades Peter worked with great skill in a remarkably wide variety of creative disciplines as a fine artist, craftsman and author. "Of all his work he will probably be most fondly remembered for the characters he co-created and made. "With Ivan Owen he created the cheeky fox Basil Brush, and with his long-time business partner, Oliver Postgate, working as Smallfilms, he devised, created, painted, drew and built the marvellous and diverse worlds of Bagpuss, Clangers, Ivor the Engine, Noggin the Nog and Pogles Wood." Read More JUNE Steve Ditko The legendary comic book artist and co-creator of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange with Stan Lee, died on June 29 at the age of 90. “Steve Ditko was one of the most amazing creators in the history of comics, and showed us there is a hero in all of us. Our hearts go out to his loved ones, and everyone who knew him,” DC Comics said on Friday. While working at Marvel in 1962, Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Lee approached Ditko with an idea for Spider-Man and it was Ditko who gave the superhero his iconic suit, red-and-blue colors and web shooters. Read More Matt Cappotelli Matt Cappotelli has passed away aged 38 Former WWE star Matt Cappotelli died on June 29 aged 38. Cappotelli, who won WWE reality show Tough Enough, passed away after battling brain cancer. He had first been diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2005 before getting the all clear two years later. However, last year he had to undergo emergency surgery after the cancer returned. Read More Joe Jackson The patriarch of the Jackson family, and manager of the Jackson 5, died on June 27 at the age of 89 of cancer. He was the brains behind the Jackson 5 and in 2002 was awarded a proclamation in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the Best Entertainment Manager of All Time. Read More Carlos Lopez Jr Carlos Lopez Jr Carlos Lopez Jr died on June 25 at the age of 35. Carlos starred in Operation Repo, from 2012 to 2014 , and had several other small roles in TV shows like iCarly and CSI: Cyber. Operation Repo is an American TV show that dramatises supposed real-life stories of car repossession. Most recently, he portrayed a CIA station chief in Tom Cruise film American Made. Carlos also served in the army, reportedly completing a 27 month tour of combat with the 82nd Airborne. Read More Richard Harrison Richard Harrison (Image: Channel 5) Richard Harrison, the star of TV show Pawn Stars, died on June 25 at the age of 77. Better known as 'Old Man' on the show, Richard died surrounded by his family, his heartbroken son and co-star Rick confirmed with an Instagram post. "He passed away this morning surrounded by those he loved," wrote Rick. "He will be tremendously missed by our family, the team at Gold & Silver Pawn and his many fans the world over. He was my hero and I was fortunate to get a very cool ‘Old Man’ as my dad. Read More Vinnie Paul (Image: REX/Shutterstock) Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul passed away on June 22 aged 54. "Vincent Paul Abbott aka Vinnie Paul has passed away. Paul is best known for his work as the drummer in the bands Pantera and Hellyeah," a statement said on the Pantera Twitter account. "No further details are available at this time. The family requests you please respect their privacy during this time." The cause of death is currently unknown. Texas-born Vinnie co-founded the heavy metal band in the 1980s along with his late brother "Dimebag" Darrell Abbot. Read More Sophie Gradon Sophie Gradon (Image: ITV/PA) The 32-year-old model and former Love Island contestant passed away on June 21. The former reality star, who hailed from Newcastle, was crowned Miss Great Britain in 2009 and was also a former Miss Newcastle. Sophie's boyfriend Aaron Armstrong wrote "I will never forget that smile I love you so so much baby your my world forever ever and always". She made history on Love Island as one half of the show's first same-sex couple after she coupled up with Katie Salmon. Read More Peter Thomson Peter Thomson (Image: REUTERS) Five-time Open champion Peter Thomson died on June 20 at the age of 88. The legendary Australian had been suffering from Parkinson's disease and died at his home in Melbourne, Golf Australia said. Thomson won his first Open Championship title in 1954 - becoming the only player in the 20th or 21st century to win the tournament three years in succession. He also enjoyed impressive victories in 1958 and 1965 and was later inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Read More Big Van Vader (Image: Handout) WWE legend Big Van Vader died on June 18 at the age of 63, according to his Twitter account. Real name Leon White, he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in 2016 with doctors giving him two years to live. His Twitter account tweeted: "It is with a heavy heart to inform everyone that my father, Leon White, passed away on Monday night (6/18/18) at approximately 7:25pm." A second post, added: "Around a month ago my father was diagnosed with a severe case of Pneumonia. He fought extremely hard and clinically was making progress. Unfortunately, on Monday night his heart had enough and it was his time." Read More Leslie Grantham Leslie Grantham starred in EastEnders for many years (Image: Daily Mirror) EastEnders star Leslie Grantham died on June 15 aged 71 following a battle with cancer. The actor was most famous for portraying iconic character 'Dirty' Den Watts on the long-running BBC soap. Leslie also hosted game show Fort Boyard on Channel 5 and penned children's book called Jack Bates And The Wizard's Spell. Read More Errol Pickford Errol Pickford (Image: REX/Shutterstock) Former Royal Ballet principal dancer Errol Pickford died on Wednesday June 13, aged 51. Born in Perth, Australia in 1966 he originally trained as a gymnast before moving to the UK and practicing ballet at the Hammond School and The Royal Ballet School. He joined The Royal Ballet in 1984 and quickly excelled, becoming a soloist in 1986, first soloist in 1989 and principle in 1991. He had a version of Romeo and Juliet created especially for him by celebrated dancer and choreographer Kenneth MacMillan, and made history by becoming the first ever Western dancer to partner Bolshoi ballerina Nina Ananiahvii at the Armenia Gala in London's Covent Garden. The performance was even broadcast on TV. Read More Jackson Odell Jackson Odell had a role in TV comedy Arrested Development (Image: Getty Images North America) Jackson Odell, star of The Goldbergs, died on June 8 aged 20 Jackson starred in several hit TV shows including iCarly, Arrested Development and Modern Family. He was also a talented songwriter, penning a number of tracks for the movie 'Forever My Girl' including the the song 'Wings of an Angel', performed by Lauren Alaina. Read More Eunice Gayson Eunice Gayson was the very first Bond girl (Image: Hulton Archive) Eunice Gayson, the first ever Bond girl, died on June 8 aged 90. She was originally offered the part of Miss Moneypenny in Dr No, but the role eventually went to Lois Maxwell while Eunice became the super spy's love interest for the first two James Bond films. She later starred in a number of Hammer Horror films, and appeared on TV shows including The Saint and The Avengers. Read More Anthony Bourdain Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain died on June 8, aged 61. CNN, who he worked for, confirmed the news in a statement and revealed the cause of death as suicide. Bourdain had been in France working on an episode of his award-winning series Parts Unknown. His close friend, French chef Eric Ripert is reported to have found Bourdain unresponsive in his Strasbourg hotel room. Bourdain first shot to fame with the release of his book Kitchen Confidential: Adventures In The Culinary Underbelly, which became a New York Times bestseller. Read More Alan O'Neill Alan O'Neill (Image: WireImage) Sons of Anarchy star Alan O'Neill has died at the age of 47. The Irish-born actor is most famous for his role as Hugh in Sons of Anarchy, but his career dates back to the 1990s. He also played Keith McGrath in Fair City and starred in UK crime drama Inspector George Gently in 2009. Alan had also been cast in an upcoming movie called Charlie Lives. Read More Peter Stringfellow Peter Stringfellow (Image: PA) Peter Stringfellow died on June 7, aged 77, after a battle with cancer. The nightclub mogul, who had wanted to keep his illness private, died after spending time in hospital, a spokesman said. "It's very sad news. He passed away in the early hours of this morning. It was kept very private, he didn't want to tell. He wanted to keep it a secret," his publicist said. The iconic nightclub owner's name was put on the map after the Beatles played at his venue in April 1963. Read More Peter Stringfellow dies after secret cancer battle Kate Spade (Image: REX/Shutterstock) Iconic handbag designer Kate Spade died on June 5 at the age of 55 in a suspected suicide, say police. Sources said the mother-of-one left a note but the contents are unclear. Kate was mum to daughter Frances Beatrix, 13 and was married to Andy Spade. Her tragic death has shaken the fashion world to the core, as professionally Spade seemed to be going from strength to strength. She was a firm favourite with royals and the Hollywood elite. Read More MAY Jerry Maren Mandatory Credit: Photo by Unimedia Images/REX/Shutterstock (1051508bp) Jerry Maren, one of the last surviving munchkins from the 1939 film 'The Wizard of Oz' Hollywood Christmas Parade, Los Angeles, America - 29 Nov 2009 The Wizard Of Oz's 'oldest Munchkin' Jerry Maren died on May 24 at the age of 98. The American actor, who starred opposite Judy Garland in the 1939 classic, died after years of suffering from dementia. His major appearance in the film comes when he hands Judy Garland's Dorothy an oversized lollipop, and producers picked him to stand in the middle of the Munchkin trio. He had caught their attention with his singing and dancing talent, and fame soon followed. Read More Glynn Edwards Glynn Edwards (Image: REX/Shutterstock) Minder actor Glynn Edwards died on May 23, aged 87. The actor - who also starred in Zulu alongside Michael Caine - was best known for his role as Dave 'the barman' Harris who owned the Winchester Club in ITV's Minder. Read More Philip Roth (Image: REUTERS) Pulitzer-prize winning writer Philip Roth passed away on May 22 aged 85. The writer died from congestive heart failure, his close friend Judith Thurman told The New York Times. Roth was both hailed and derided for laying bare the neuroses and obsessions that haunted the modern Jewish-American experience. Read More Hugh Dane (Image: NBCUniversal) Hugh Dane, star of The Office, Bridesmaids and The Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air, died on May 16 at the age of 75. Paying tribute to him with a clip of Hank and Dwight in The Office, co-star Rainn Wilson tweeted: "RIP Hugh Dane, aka Hank the security guard. He was one of the greats. So kind, funny, talented. We will all miss him. Donations can be made in his name to innercityculturalcenter.org." Hugh had been acting for nearly 30 years of his life, starting out in 1990 with a small role in the TV series Hunter. Read More Ray Wilson Ray Wilson walks out on to the pitch at Wembley Stadium in May 1963 (Image: mirrorpix Daily Mirror) England World Cup winner Ray Wilson died on May 15 aged 83. The outstanding left back, who spent most of his career with Huddersfield Town and Everton, is most famous for being part of the successful 1966 national side under Sir Alf Ramsey. Read More Jlloyd Samuel Jlloyd Samuel (Image: AFP/Getty Images) Former Aston Villa defender Jlloyd Samuel died in a car crash on May 15, aged 37. Samuel's Range Rover was involved in a crash with a van in High Legh, Cheshire, after he had dropped his children off at school. The Trinidad and Tobago Football Association confirmed the devastating news on their official Facebook page. Read More Tom Wolfe Tom Wolfe (Image: Redferns) Author and journalist Tom Wolfe died on Monday May 14 at the age of 87. Agent Lynn Nesbit confirmed the pioneer of journalism died from an infection in a Manhattan hospital. Famous for his psychedelic novel Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, the author will be remembered for his literary flair. Read More Margot Kidder Margot Kidder as Lois Lane (Image: Rex) Superman actress Margot Kidder died on Sunday May 13, aged 69. The actress who played Lois Lane in the 1978 hit film Superman passed away in her home, TMZ reported. Margot starred opposite Christopher Reeve in 1978's Superman and also in the 3 sequels. The star was still working up to her death, starring in "The Vagina Monologues" on Broadway. She was married three times and leaves a daughter. Read More Joe Tilley Joe Tilley The UK reality TV star who shot to fame on Jungletown was found dead at the foot of the Fin del Mundo's waterfall, End of the World, in Colombia. The search team have suggested he fell to his death. He starred in a Viceland television documentary called Jungletown – which featured American entrepreneur Ondi Timoner and hundreds of young people trying to build the world's "most sustainable modern town" deep in the Panamanian jungle. Read More Dame Tessa Jowell Dame Tessa Jowell MP Labour veteran Dame Tessa Jowell died after a year-long cancer battle aged 70. The former Blair minister succumbed to a gliobastoma multiforme brain tumour that was diagnosed last May. Dame Tessa's frontbench career lasted almost 20 years and she has been hailed as an "inspiration" with "unflinching tenacity." Former prime minister Tony Blair led emotional tributes saying: "There was no-one like Tessa and no-one better. I will miss her more than I can say." Read More Cathy Godbold Cathy Godbold has died at the age of 43 (Image: Facebook) Cathy Godbold, the Australian actress who starred in hit soap Home and Away, lost her battle with brain cancer on May 4 at the age of 43 - more than ten years after she was first diagnosed. Cathy played Meg in the soap during the 1990s and nobody can forget the iconic scene that saw her lose her battle with Leukaemia while she watched the sun rise for the last time in her boyfriend Blake Dean's arms. Despite her real-life terminal diagnosis, Cathy was upbeat in her final weeks, according to a close friend. Read More APRIL Michael Martin Michael Martin (Image: BBC) Former House of Commons Speaker Michael Martin died on April 29 after a short illness, aged 72. Michael Martin - latterly Lord Martin of Springburn after the Glasgow constituency he represented from 1979 to 2005 - was Speaker from 2000 to 2009. In October that year, the former Labour MP joined his predecessor as speaker, Baroness Boothroyd, on the crossbenches. Read More Michael Anderson Michael Anderson, Mike Todd and Frank Sinatra on the set of Around the World in 80 Days. (Image: MGM) Film director Michael Anderson died on April 25 aged 98. The British star was best known for his work on World War Two epic The Dam Busters and classic sci-fi movie Logan's Run. Before his death, Anderson was the oldest living person to have received a best director nomination at the Oscars for Around the World in 80 days. Read More Verne Troyer (Image: Getty Images Europe) Actor Verne Troyer, star of Austin Powers, died aged 49 on April 21. There was a statement on his Instagram page making reference to "depression and suicide." "Depression and Suicide are very serious issues," the statement read. "You never know what kind of battle someone is going through inside. "Be kind to one another. And always know, it’s never too late to reach out to someone for help." Read More Avicii Tim Bergling was just 28 (Image: WireImage) Swedish DJ Avicii has died in Muscat, Oman on April 20 at the age of 28. A representative for Avicii announced the news in a statement: "It is with profound sorrow that we announce the loss of Tim Bergling, also known as Avicii. He was found dead in Muscat, Oman this Friday afternoon local time, April 20th. "The family is devastated and we ask everyone to please respect their need for privacy in this difficult time. No further statements will be given." Avicii was behind best-selling EDM hits including Levels, Hey Brother and Wake Me Up with Aloe Blacc. Read More Dale Winton Dale Winton TV presented Dale Winton died aged 62 on April 18 2018. His long-term agent Jan Kennedy said in a statement: "It is with great sadness that we can confirm the passing of Dale Winton who died at home earlier today. "While we know many will share this terrible loss, we ask that you respect the family's privacy at this time of grief." Read More Bruno Sammartino (Image: Focus on Sport) Legendary WWE Hall of Fame wrestler Bruno Sammartino died, aged 82, on April 18 2018. Sammartino, who held the WWWF World Heavyweight Championship title for more than 11 years, passed away at his home in Pittsburgh. WWE wrote on their website: "WWE is saddened to learn that WWE Hall of Famer Bruno Sammartino passed away at age 82. "WWE extends its condolences to Sammartino’s family, friends and fans." Bruno Sammartino dead: WWE Hall of Fame legend passes away, aged 82 Barbara Bush Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8Cancel Play now Former US first lady Barbara Bush died on April 17, aged 92. Mrs Bush had reportedly been battling chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and congestive heart failure, and had been in and out of hospital. The wife of former president George HW Bush, 93, and mother of ex-president George W Bush, 71, was being cared for at her home in Houston, Texas. She died surrounded by her family after deciding not to return to hospital following a series of recent hospitalisations. Read More Harry Anderson Actor Harry Anderson died on April 16, at the age of 65. The sad news of his death was announced by his son, Dashiell Anderson, who told TMZ that he had died of natural causes. Harry starred in TV horror movie It as the adult Richie Tozer - but will perhaps be best remembered for his recurring role as con man Harry 'The Hat' Gittes in sitcom Cheers. Read More Pamela Gidley The Twin Peaks actress died peacefully at her home in New Hampshire on April 16. Former child model Gidley first starred in a skateboarding movie Thrashin before finding fame with Twin Peaks. R. Lee Ermey The actor R. Lee Ermey, best known for his starring role in the film 'Full Metal Jacket', died on April 15 aged 74. His manager Bill Rogin confirmed the death on Sunday night in a tweet saying: "It is with deep sadness that I regret to inform you all that R. Lee Ermey ("The Gunny") passed away this morning from complications of pneumonia. "He will be greatly missed by all of us. "Semper Fi, Gunny. Godspeed." Read More Alex Beckett Alex Beckett starred in play The Way of the World (Image: REX/Shutterstock) Alex Beckett died aged 36 . The Welsh actor was best known for his role as Barney Lumsden in the BBC's award-winning Twenty Twelve and W1A. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, London, before graduating in 2003. He starred in one episode of Emmerdale as PC Tony Read in 2006 and also appeared in The Bill in 2008. Alex was also a star of the stage - appearing in multiple productions over his career. Read More Timmy Matley Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8Cancel Play now Irish singer Timmy Matley passed away on April 11 aged 36, following a two year battle with skin cancer. Matley found fame as a member of the five piece singing group, The Overtones in 2010. Read More Eric Bristow (Image: Manchester Evening News) Darts legend Eric Bristow died at the age of 60 on 5 April . Known as the Crafty Cockney, Bristow was a five-time BDO world champion. PDC Chairman Barry Hearn led the tributes to Bristow, saying: “Eric will always be a legend in the world of darts and British sport. "He was a tremendous player and a huge character and even after his retirement fans would travel for miles to meet him and see him play." Read More Ray Wilkins England International Ray Wilkins with wife Jackie and son Ross in 1984 (Image: Bob Thomas/Getty Images) Chelsea and Manchester United legend Ray Wilkins died on April 4 aged 61 . Midfielder Wilkins helped United lift the FA Cup in 1982 during a 160 game spell at Old Trafford and earned 84 England caps. He also had a standout career at Stamford Bridge where he won the Player of the Year award in 1976 and 1977 before becoming assistant manager to Carlo Ancelotti at Chelsea for their 2009/10 Premier League winning campaign. Read More MARCH Winnie Madikizela-Mandela Nelson Mandela with wife Winnie in 1963 just before he was sentenced to life imprisonment. (Image: Camera Press Digital) Nelson Mandela's ex-wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela died at the age of 81. The news came less than three months after Winnie was rushed to hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa, with a kidney infection. She was married to former South African President Nelson for 38 years, including the 27 years he served in jail. During his lengthy incarceration, Winnie campaigned tirelessly for his release and for the rights of black South Africans, suffering years of detention, banishment and arrest by the white authorities. Blamed for the killing of activist Stompie Seipei, who was found near her Soweto home with his throat cut, she was convicted in 1991 of kidnapping and assaulting the 14-year-old because he was suspected of being an informer. Winnie and Mandela separated in 1992 and he sacked her from his cabinet in 1995 due to allegations of corruption. Despite their divorce in 1993 and Nelson's second marriage in 1998, they remained close until his death. Bill Maynard Bill Maynard (Image: PA) Heartbeat actor Bill Maynard died at the age of 89, shortly after breaking his hip in a fall off his mobility scooter, his family confirmed. Bill, real name Walter Williams, was best known for playing Greengrass in Heartbeat. Jacqueline Reddin, who is also an actress, told the Press Association: "He was larger than life and he just loved showbiz." Bill Maynard dead: Heartbeat's Greengrass' family pay tribute to 'larger than life' star who died in hospital after falling off mobility scooter DuShon Monique Brown DuShon Monique Brown (Image: Getty Images North America) Actress DuShon Monique Brown, who starred in American dramas including Prison Break and Chicago Fire, died at the age of 49. Just a few days previously, the actress had checked herself in to hospital after suffering chest pains. She was given tests and later released. It's thought she died of a suspected heart attack. Jim Bowen Jim Bowen Broadcaster and comedian Jim Bowen died on March 14, aged 80, his wife Phyllis confirmed. She announced the sad news to BBC Radio Lancashire. Jim was best known as the host of darts show Bullseye, joining as presenter in 1981 and working there until the programme ended in 1995. Read More Professor Stephen Hawking Professor Stephen Hawking (Image: PA) Acclaimed scientist and author Stephen Hawking passed away on March 14 aged 76 . Heralded as one of the smartest minds to grace the world, his book a Brief History Of Time became one of the best selling books in the field of astrophysics. Suffering from ALS, Hawking was confined to a wheelchair and had to use a voice simulator to talk. He made appearances in many TV shows including The Big Bang Theory and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Read More Craig Mack Craig Mack signed to Puff Daddy's Bad Boy Entertainment record label in the 1990s (Image: WireImage) Hip hop star Craig Mack died on March 12 aged 41 . The rapper was best known for his hit 1994 track Flava In Your Ear, the remix of which featured a young Notorious B.I.G. and Busta Rhymes early on in their careers. Read More Hubert de Givenchy Hubert de Givenchy at his Paris design house in 1955 (Image: Picture Post) French fashion phenomenon Hubert de Givenchy died on March 10 aged 91 The legendary clothing designer founded the House of Givenchy in 1952 and created outfits for the likes of US First Lady Jackie Kennedy and Audrey Hepburn - including Hepburn's iconic dress from Breakfast at Tiffany's. Read More Sir Ken Dodd Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8Cancel Play now Sir Ken Dodd died at the age of 90 on March 11. The comedy legend had recently been forced to cancel all dates on an upcoming tour as he recovered from a serious infection. Doddy, famous for his long stand-up shows, as well as his Diddy Men and tickling stick, died just days after leaving hospital. He married Anne Jones, his partner of 40 years, on Friday at their house, which was also the one he was born in. He died two days later on Mother's Day Read More Trevor Baylis Trevor Baylis' invention of a wind-up radio won him acclaim (Image: TMS) Trevor Baylis died on March 5 at the age of 80 Baylis was known for inventing a radio that could be powered by winding a crank for several seconds, instead of using batteries or mains electricity. In 2015 Baylis was appointed CBE for services to intellectual property, and was previously awarded the OBE for his radio design. Read More Sir Roger Bannister Sir Roger Bannister with his old running shoes (Image: PA) Sir Roger Bannister, the first athlete to run a sub-four minute mile, died on March 3. A statement released on behalf of Sir Roger's family said: "Sir Roger Bannister, died peacefully in Oxford on 3rd March 2018, aged 88, surrounded by his family who were as loved by him, as he was loved by them. "He banked his treasure in the hearts of his friends." Bannister, aided by Sir Christopher Chataway and Chris Brasher as pacemakers, achieved the feat by running three minutes 59.4 seconds at the Iffley Road track on May 6, 1954. Bannister, who also won a Commonwealth and European Championship gold medal that year, went on to become a leading neurologist. Read More Davide Astori Davide Astori (Image: Getty Images Europe) Fiorentina announced on March 3 that their captain, Davide Astori , had died at the age of 31. The Italian international, with 14 caps to his name, was found dead at the La di Moret hotel in Udine, ahead of the Viola's meeting with Udinese on Sunday. Astori, who started his career at AC Milan, enjoyed a 12-year career in Serie A. He spent six years with Cagliari, making 174 appearances for the Sardinians during a six-year spell. Read More Patrick Doyle Patrick Doyle was a member of band Veronica Falls (Image: Redferns) Talented drummer Patrick Doyle died on March 3, according to his record label. Indie star Patrick, who had been a member of bands Veronica Falls, Boys Forever, The Royal We and Sexy Kids, most recently released music under his band Boys Forever with record label Amour Foo, who confirmed the news online. Taking to Twitter, the label's official account stated: "I'll remember you. Goodbye Patrick X," along with a photo of the musician. Read More David Ogden Stiers David Ogden Stiers (Image: B3972) M*A*S*H actor David Ogden Stiers passed away on March 3, aged 75, after a battle with bladder cancer. The actor, best known for his role as Major Charles Winchester on the classic TV show, joined in season six and went on to receive two Emmy nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 1981 and 1982. In 1984 he earned another Emmy nomination for his supporting role as William Milligan Sloane in the NBC miniseries The First Olympics: Athens 1896. After finishing on M*A*S*H in 1983, he went on to appear in a number of other TV shows including Murder, She wrote, Frasier, Matlock, Touched by an Angel, Star Trek: The Next Generation and North and South. Read More FEBRUARY Emma Chambers Emma Chambers Comedy actress Emma Chambers passed away on February 24 from natural causes. Best known for her role as lovable but dim Alice in The Vicar Of Dibley, she played the part across the show's five series and special mini episodes for Comic Relief. Chambers also starred on the big screen in romantic comedy Notting Hill. Read More Eddy Amoo Eddy Amoo with brother Chris and bandmate Dave Smith (Image: Publicity pic) Singer Eddy Amoo died on February 23 aged 74 . Amoo was a member of the pioneering 70s UK soul band The Real Thing alongside his brother Chris Amoo and friends Dave Smith and Ray Lake. The group were famous for hits like You To Me Are Everything, Feel the Force and Can’t Get By Without You. Read More Billy Graham Graham preached to an estimated two billion people during his lifetime (Image: REUTERS) Reverend Billy Graham, the American evangelist who became one of the world's most influential preachers, died on February 21 aged 99. The Southern Baptist minister counselled every US president from Harry Truman to Barack Obama, and had a close relationship with the Queen. Read More Reg E Cathey Reg E Cathey appeared in many iconic TV shows (Image: REX/Shutterstock) Actor Reg E Cathey died on February 9 aged 59 following a battle with lung cancer. With a distinctively deep voice, Cathey appeared in a variety of critically acclaimed TV shows. His most notable roles include BBQ restaurateur Freddy Hayes in Netflix's House of Cards , political advisor Norman Wilson in HBO's The Wire and prison boss Martin Querns in jail drama Oz. Reg also starred in a number of Hollywood movies, including Se7en and The Mask early on in his career, and portrayed Franklin Richards in 2015 superhero film Fantastic Four Read More John Gavin Actor John Gavin, known for his work in "Psycho", passed away on February 9, 2018 in Beverly Hills (Image: Moviepix) Flim actor John Gavin died on February 9 aged 86 following a long battle with leukaemia. In 1960 Gavin starred as Julius Caesar in the Stanley Kubrick classic Spartacus, and later went on to be cast in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho as Sam Loomis, lover of Janet Leigh's character Marion Crane. John also came close to playing James Bond , signing up to star as the super spy in Diamonds Are Forever after George Lazenby left the role. However, studio executives then replaced him with Sean Connery . Read More John Mahoney (Image: Los Angeles Times) Frasier star John Mahoney passed away on February 4 at the age of 77. The Blackpool-born star played the beloved dad Martin Crane in the hit US sitcom for its full 11-year run. He also worked as a voice actor and performed on Broadway. He passed away in hospice care in Chicago. Read More Dennis Edwards Dennis performs with The Temptations during NMAAM 2016 Black Music Honors in 2016 (Image: Getty Images North America) Dennis Edwards , former lead singer of legendary soul music group The Temptations, died on February 2 aged 74. The Grammy winner passed away in hospital just one day before his 75th birthday following complications from meningitis. Edwards lent his vocals to the band's biggest hits, including Papa Was a Rollin' Stone and I Can't Get Next To You. Read More JANUARY Mark E. Smith Mark E Smith of The Fall performing on stage in 2013 (Image: Redferns) Mark E. Smith , frontman of avant-garde band The Fall, died on January 24 aged 60. Smith founded the iconic post-punk group in 1976 after he attended a concert by the Sex Pistols. The musician had been the only constant member of the band, with a line-up that has changed numerous times over its 40-year history. Read More Jack Ketchum Horror writer Jack Ketchum was the recipient of four coveted Bram Stoker Awards American actor and horror writer Jack Ketchum died on January 24 at the age of 71 from cancer. Born Dallas Mayr but working under a pseudonym, Ketchum's novels won him a slew of awards, with many of his books being adapted into films. As well as a writing career spanning decades, Jack appeared in a handful of films based on his work. He played Teddy Panik in 2006's The Lost, Carnival in 2007's The Girl Next Door and twice as Dallas Mayr in Red and Offspring. Read More Connie Sawyer (Image: NBCUniversal) The American star dubbed Hollywood's hardest working actress, passed away in her retirement home at the age of 105 on January 23. A glittering career that spanned six decades, she appeared in fan favourites such as ER, Seinfeld and Will & Grace, as well as many more. She starred alongside the likes of Frank Sinatra, Meg Ryan and Sophie Tucker and got her first film role at the age of 49. Read More Jimmy Armfield England football star Jimmy Armfield died on January 22 after a long battle against cancer. The former Blackpool great - who played 43 times for his country - was 82. He played 627 games overall between 1954 and 1971, and later managed Leeds United and Bolton Wanderers after retiring from playing. Read More Howard Lew Lewis (Image: BBC) The comedian Howard Lew Lewis died aged 76 on January 20 in Edinburgh, displaying early signs of dementia. Lewis starred in Maid Marian and Her Merry Men, Brush Strokes and Blackadder. Actors Tony Robinson and Chris Rankin both took to social media to share their sadness at his passing. Fredo Santana Fredo Santana died aged 27 (Image: Instagram/Fredo Santana) American rapper Fredo Santana, real name Derrick Coleman, died on January 20 at the age of 27. The star was a cousin of rapper Chief Keef. His debut album Trappin Ain't Dead was released in 2013 and featured a collaboration with Kendrick Lamar. Fredo also appeared in Drake's video for Hold On, We're Going Home, playing a man who kidnapped Drake's girlfriend. Read More Simon Shelton Barnes The actor who played Tinky Winky, the handbag-carrying Teletubbie in the BBC children’s series, died on January 17, just four days after his 52nd birthday. The uncle of Inbetweeners actress Emily Atack once said that being in the Teletubbies was “a bit like the Beatles or Take That of television”. As well as his work on Teletubbies, Simon played the terrifying Dark Knight in the 1990s CBB C show Incredible Games. Read More Jessica Falkholt (Image: piamiller/Instagram) Home and Away star Jessica Falkholt died on January 17 aged 29. Her death came three weeks after the devastating Boxing Day crash which killed her family. The Home and Away actress died six days after her life support was withdrawn. The close-knit Falkholt family were thought to be driving home to Sydney along the Princes Highway after a short festive break when their car was involved in the devastating head-on collsion. Jessica appeared as Hope Morrison in the Aussie soap Home and Away in 2016. The up and coming actress also starred in the upcoming supernatural thriller Harmony, set to be released in 2018. Read More Moya O'Sullivan (Image: Network 10) Neighbours star Moya O'Sullivan died aged 91 on January 16. Best known for playing Marlene Kratz, she was dubbed 'Australia's favourite mum and grandmother'. A popular figure, a tribute in The Sydney Morning Herald read: "Much loved by all, especially by her brother Peter, sister-in-law Kaaren, aunt to Mark, Cait and Bridget, great aunt to Phoebe and Ursela, grandmother to Harriet and James. "Also Andrew and Sarah. Bless her eternal soul." Ed Doolan Ed had previously spoken about his battle with dementia on a BBC One Inside Out West Midlands documentary (Image: Publicity picture) Legendary BBC radio presenter Ed Doolan died peacefully in his sleep in the early hours of January 16. The star had been battling vascular dementia since 2013. Ed started his career in radio at BRMB (now Free Radio Birmingham) in 1974 before moving to BBC West Midlands in 1982. He was awarded the MBE for services to broadcasting and charity and was also the recipient of a Sony Gold Award. Read More Peter Wyngarde Peter Wyngarde on the set of TV show Jason King in 1971 (Image: Daily Mirror) Actor Peter Wyngarde died on January 15 at the age of 90 The star was best known for his role as sleuth Jason King in Department S and its spin-off Jason King. He also starred in the 1980 Flash Gordon movie as metal-masked villain General Klytus. Peter also starred in the very first British gay drama, South, which aired on ITV in 1959 and was met with a backlash of furious homophobic abuse from the public and media at the time. Read More Dolores O'Riordan Dolores O'Riordan was the lead singer of The Cranberries Cranberries star Dolores O'Riordan died on January 15 aged 46. As the lead singer of Irish rock band The Cranberries, she rose to international fame in the 1990s with their debut album Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? She also released two solo albums, and appeared as a judge on the Irish version of reality singing competition show The Voice. Read More Cyrille Regis Cyrille Regis playing for West Bromwich Albion (Image: Bob Thomas Sports Photography) West Brom and Coventry legend Cyrille Regis died on January 14 aged 59 after suffering a heart attack. The former striker was a pioneer for black footballers in the late 1970s. Regis won five caps for England and was awarded an MBE in 2008. Cyrille Regis in his own words: Late football star on racism, his England debut and life as the underdog Hugh Wilson Hugh Wilson worked on Police Academy (Image: Copyright (c) 2014 Shutterstock. No use without permission.) Hugh Wilson died on January 14 at the age of 74. The director was well known for making films such as Police Academy and The First Wives Club. He also created the acclaimed sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati and won awards for his work, including an Emmy in 1988 for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series. Read More Keith Jackson Sports broadcaster Keith Jackson was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame in 1999 (Image: Getty Images North America) Keith Jackson, the voice of American college football, died on January 12 aged 89. The legendary broadcaster spent 56 years covering the sport before his final game in 2006. Jackson served on American channel ABC Sports, and became synonymous with his trademark line "Whoa, Nellie." Read More Bella Emberg Bella Emberg (Image: Mirrorpix) Blunderwoman comedy star Bella Emberg died on January 12 at the age of 80. She found fame in the 1980s, most notably alongside Russ Abbot, with whom she shared a comedy partnership. Emberg also starred in TV shows as diverse as The Lily Savage Show and Doctor Who. Last summer she spoke exclusively to the Daily Mirror about her career in a fascinating interview. Read More Doreen Tracey Doreen joined The Mickey Mouse Club as one of the Mouseketeers in 1955 (Image: Getty) Doreen Tracey, one of the original Disney Mouseketeers, died on January 10 at the age of 74. The performer had battled cancer for two years, but sadly developed pneumonia as a complication. At the age of 12, Doreen became one of the child stars of The Mickey Mouse Club, the popular TV show which aired between 1955 and 1959. Read More Eddie Clarke Eddie Clarke (left) with drummer Phil Taylor and Lemmy Kilmister, the original members of Motorhead (Image: Redferns) Heavy metal star 'Fast' Eddie Clarke died on January 10 aged 67 following a battle with pneumonia. Guitarist Clarke was one of the founding members of Motorhead and the last surviving member of the band's original line-up. Read More Tommy Lawrence Tommy Lawrence showing off his new suit ahead of Liverpool's tour of the US in 1964 (Image: Daily Mirror) Former Liverpool goalkeeper Tommy Lawrence died on January 9 aged 77. Known as "The Flying Pig" by Reds fans, the Scot made 390 appearances for the Reds over 14 years in the first team. Lawrence hit the headlines in 2015 when he was stopped by a reporter in the street and asked for his memories of the 1967 derby match between Liverpool and Everton, with the interviewer unaware that he had played in that very match. Read More Jerry Van Dyke Jerry Van Dyke was the younger brother of Dick Van Dyke (Image: Getty) Comedian Jerry Van Dyke died on January 5 at the age of 86. Jerry made his television debut on The Dick Van Dyke show, later appearing on The Judy Garland Show and Coach, with his final TV role being for The Middle in 2015. He is survived by his wife Shirley, three children, and older brother Dick Van Dyke. Read More John Young Young was the Command Module pilot on the Apollo 10 lunar orbital mission in May 1969 (Image: SSPL via Getty Images) Astronaut John Young, the ninth man to walk on the Moon, died on January 5 aged 87. The former U.S Navy Test pilot became one of only 12 people ever to set foot on the surface of the Moon on a mission in 1972. Young is one of the most accomplished astronauts in the history of the US space program. He flew into space twice as part of the mid-1960s Gemini program, twice on the Apollo lunar missions and twice on space shuttles in the 1980s. Read More Jon Paul Steuer Steuer appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation when he was younger (Image: trekonlinegame/Twitter) Star Trek actor Jon Paul Steuer died on January 1 aged 33. With an acting career that began at the age of 3, Steur eventually landed the role of Alexander Rozhenko, son of Lieutenant Worf, on Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1990. Later on, he starred in TV series Grace Under Fire as Quentin Kelly Steur went on to become a musician and restaurateur under the name Jonny P Jewels. Read More id Source link

[fadingfartconnoisseur]

AK Monthly Recap: November 2017

Happy December, everyone! It’s hard to believe the year is nearly over. For me, once again, this was a low-key month, mostly spent at home. I’m savoring these times before I strike up my busy winter travel schedule.

Destinations Visited

New York, New York

Reading and Lynn, Massachusetts

Nashua and Merrimack, New Hampshire

Las Vegas, Nevada

Favorite Destination

Viva Las Vegas. It was so good to be back!

Highlights

Finishing Whole30 — a perfect 33 days. When I began Whole30 — 30 days of no sugar, alcohol, grains, dairy, legumes, or artificial flavors — I worried that I wouldn’t be able to resist temptation. That wasn’t the case at all! I was sad that I couldn’t keep going!! I ended up lasting for 33 days and felt so much better as a result. See more about that in the Fitness Update section below.

Spending Thanksgiving at home. Two American Thanksgivings in a row after spending six outside the country? That was a very good thing. Even if eating the pie sent me into major stomach pains following Whole30.

My 15-year high school reunion. How have 15 years passed already?! My class had an informal reunion at a nearby bar, and while I didn’t expect many people to show up, I was delighted that so many of my classmates came. And everyone looked the same to me — I guess the RMHS Class of 2002 is a well-aging bunch.

I was a little worried that I would be the odd woman out, as it seems like everyone in my class is married and/or popping out kids these days, but it turns out that most people at the reunion were unmarried without kids as well! Ha. And it was really nice to hear from classmates who have become readers of the blog.

I was featured on ABC 7 New York. The local news station is doing a series of video features on local influencers. I talked to them about my life, career, and travels. You can check the whole thing out here.

A return to Las Vegas! The trip began on November 30, so I’ll mention more in next month’s recap, but the highlights of the first day were eating at Gordon Ramsay Steak (and if you see an American Rib Cut on a steak menu anywhere, GET IT — it’s crazy good) and the sheer luck of having a row of three seats to myself on a six-hour flight.

Challenges

I got hit with some bad news at the end of the month. Nothing truly awful like death or illness, nor is it work- or business-related, nor is it anything juicy or gossipy, but it’s bad news anyway, and for reasons you’ll understand later, I’m keeping it private at the moment. It’s basically a huge disappointment compounded by a logistical pain in the ass, and it’s going to cost me a good amount of money. Fun times.

In other words, please be patient with me over the next few months, especially if you know me in real life. I’ll talk about it once things are settled.

There was a huge fire in my neighborhood. Six alarms and more than 300 firefighters were on the scene. Thankfully, neither my sister nor I were in danger, nor were any of our friends, and the injuries were miraculously minimal, but a lot of my neighbors have lost their homes. We’ve been raising money and collecting donations for them.

Most Popular Post

The Best Gifts for Travelers: 2017 Edition — I retool my gift guide with some great 2017 additions!

Other Posts

Solo Female Travel in Thailand — Is it Safe? — Everything women need to know about traveling in Thailand.

Chisinau and Minsk: Two Offbeat Soviet Cities — Two of the lesser visited capitals of Europe.

The 8 Best Old Towns in Europe — I narrow it down to my absolute favorites.

The Best Halloween Dogs in Hamilton Heights, Harlem — So many adorable Halloween doggos!

Most Popular Photo on Instagram

Hard to argue with a very rare view: a New York sunset without a single cloud in the sky, taken from one of the best viewpoints in the city: the Staten Island Ferry. For more live updates from my travels and New York in real time, follow me on Instagram at @adventurouskate.

Fitness Update

Whole30 is one of the best things I’ve ever done for my body. Stripping out sugar, alcohol, grains, dairy and lots of other things made my body suddenly start working far more efficiently. Altogether, I lost 8.8 pounds of fat and gained 0.8 pounds of muscle. That’s pretty much best case scenario for what my body can do in a month.

And one benefit that I didn’t expect was that my workouts with my trainer suddenly improved by leaps and bounds. For several weeks, I was struggling to do squats properly while holding kettlebells — and then suddenly it clicked and I was doing them perfectly. I was curving my back during kettlebell swings, then BAM — perfect swings. Bigger deadlifts, too.

I tried Pilates for the first time in October, and it’s since become a major part of my fitness regimen. I love it! It’s so weird, because I always get bored and exasperated at yoga and I always feel like I’m dying in barre, but Pilates is the happy medium. I feel so strong and aligned after I do it.

And finally — I’m doing Couch25K again! Couch25K is a running plan that takes you from being a couch potato to being able to run a 5K (3 miles, or about 30 continuous minutes) at once.

You might recall that I started Couch25K two years ago, got injured, and never picked up running again. Well, like many people, that was because I pushed myself too hard too fast. This time I’m determined to do it right — not running too hard or too often, stretching well, cross-training appropriately, and only increasing the intensity slowly. If this works out, I’ll be racing by spring.

What I Watched This Month

Can we talk about This Is Us? Can we talk about how I can’t decide if I want Randall Pearson to be my husband, my dad, my brother, or my kid? It’s disconcerting. If you’re not watching, you can get started on Hulu and catch up…

What I Listened To This Month

One podcast that I really enjoyed this month was More Perfect’s episode about Citizens United. More Perfect is a fabulous podcast about the Supreme Court; it explains some of the Court’s more notable cases in an interesting way that non-lawyers can understand.

I didn’t know as much as Citizens United as I should have — looking back, I realize it was because the case was decided in January 2010, which was the month that my life blew up, leading me to start this blog and travel the world. It was a crazy time; no wonder I wasn’t following the news beyond the bare minimum.

So listening to this podcast was incredible — while I only knew the basics of Citizens United, I feel like I understand all the nuances of it inside and out now. What a catastrophe, and what terrible results for America.

What I Read This Month

What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton (2017) — I didn’t want to read this book at first. Reliving the election was the last thing I wanted to do; I thought it would be too painful. So what changed my mind? Seeing so many people, from journalists to internet randos, saying that Hillary should just sit down and shut up.

Fuck that. Seriously. You’re saying that the first woman ever to be nominated by a major political party, a woman who won the last election’s popular vote by nearly three million votes, deserves to be silenced for the rest of her life? No. Al Gore and John Kerry and John McCain and Mitt Romney didn’t get the same treatment.

So I read the book. And I really liked it. It was a deep delve into the election from Hillary’s perspective, and honestly it felt so damn good just to hear her voice speak through her writing. So if you’re like me and you weren’t going to read What Happened because you thought it would be too painful, I encourage you to do so anyway. I think you’ll be glad you did.

Chemistry by Weike Wang (2017) — What happens when your world drops out from beneath you? In this book, an unnamed narrator, a Chinese-American student working on her Ph.D. at an elite Boston university, has a breakdown. She can’t decide whether to continue pursuing her doctorate or whether she wants to marry her perfectly nice boyfriend, and when compounded by pressure from her parents, she slides deep into indecision, letting the world decide for her.

This book is sweet, and short, and gentle — but what surprised me the most about it was that it read as a lesson in how to be kind to yourself, how to forgive yourself, and how to find joy and meaning after giving up the life you always thought you’d have.

Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood (2017) — I like to think that the best memoirs are by people with exceptional life stories, told in an exceptional way. Most memoirs are only one or the other, but I don’t think a single memoir has been equally strong in both areas as Priestdaddy. Patricia Lockwood grew up with a Catholic priest for a father (yes, the Vatican allows some clergy from other Christian denominations to convert to priesthood, even if they’re married and have kids, and it’s rare but it does happen). And the story is told beautifully because Lockwood is a poet. Every sentence is a work of art.

The memoir covers the nine-month period that Lockwood and her husband lived at the rectory with her parents to save money, as well as some childhood anecdotes. Basically, her father is a guitar-jamming, nudity-loving, abortion-protesting larger-than-life character, and her mother and four siblings are various shades of quirky and hilarious as well. I’ve never read a book remotely like this before. Just one warning — Lockwood’s prose is so detailed, each word placed carefully, that reading it will probably take you longer than you think. This is a book to savor, not speed through.

Practical Curiosity by Alex Berger (2017) — I am a big fan of my friend Alex’s writing on his site, Virtual Wayfarer, so when he released his first full-length book of observations on life, love, and travel, I was eager to dig in. Alex has a perspective that I’ve always valued — we’re about the same age, but he has the wisdom and insight of someone much older, and I love how he puts his thoughts into words.

If you’d like to look at your life a bit differently, add more adventure and curiosity to your life, or nod in appreciation about how much long-distance relationships suck, this is a great (and cheap!) book to check out.

Coming Up in December 2017

No travel plans other than the remaining days in Las Vegas that I just finished. I should be home in Massachusetts for Christmas, though.

And it’s a good thing that my upcoming Antarctica trip was postponed from December to March, since I now have to spend December taking care of the issue that I mentioned in the “challenges” section above.

That said, I love Decembers on the blog because I get to write my best and worst of the year posts! Get ready for posts on the best and worst moments of the year, as well as my favorite new destinations and favorite books of the year.

What are you up to this December? Share away!

The post AK Monthly Recap: November 2017 appeared first on Adventurous Kate.

via Travel Blogs http://ift.tt/2AyE350

#IFTTT #Travel Blogs

[onehundredandtwenty-percent]

Doctor Tiarna Ernst is on the phone.  From the kitchen table in her share house, she's arranging for the sheds of her local footy ground to be unlocked and opened. The ripped-fit 28-year-old is patting her greyhound Macer (Latin for skinny and entirely apt), during the phone call, and when she's not talking she  shifts her mobile phone slightly so she can multi-task. She continues running through her weekly schedule, which was the topic of discussion before she pushed some buttons to get our next move sorted. In detailing the responsibilities she juggles in a diary running tight as a drum Ernst explains why her household buys food, and makes meals, almost exclusively in bulk. Simply: it guarantees she is regularly nourished in the irregular hours she keeps in an exceptionally busy life. Ernst is efficiency personified and, for the time being at least, that's not a question of choice as much as necessity. Honing her medical specialty in obstetrics and gynaecology, Ernst is in a night shift cycle at Monash Medical Centre when we meet. That means being out her front door at 8:15pm to start work at 9pm. At Monash she delivers three or four babies a night (her record in a shift is eight, her total in the last 24 months is 495) before returning home around 9am. At the end of these back-to-front working days, Ernst has some breakfast, typically goes for a light run and then sleeps for between five and six hours.Then she does it all again. After a week, she's back on hospital day shifts, meaning the entire routine is upended. Throw in her fresh status as Western Bulldogs Football Club player, her devoted fitness, football training and playing regimes,  and Ernst scarcely has time for essentials - shopping, cooking, cleaning – quite aside from non-vocation related pleasure. Books, music, films, good or even trashy TV to switch off?  The truth is time doesn't allow. While she's juggling this way Ernst's "play" time comes whenever she's on a footy field, and even that's covered by an employment contract now. "Macer! MACER!" Ernst exclaims after the keys for the nearby footy dressing rooms are sorted. "On your bed. ON YOUR BED!" Macer is messing with background noise while we're recording but once peace is restored it's back to the potted history of the AFL's most eminently qualified listed player. Born on Thursday Island, in the Torres Strait archipelago in Australia's Top End, Ernst grew up in a remote community numbering roughly 2600. She lived on Thursday Island for 11 years with her parents, who were local teachers. The barge that provided fellow residents with fresh fruit and vegetables came once a week. With snow white complexion, Ernst and her three brothers  were odd ones out physically. Appearance did not translate to feeling. "We were immersed in an amazingly raw and welcoming family culture of the Torres Strait Islanders up there," Ernst recalls with  fondness. "It was very much an outdoors lifestyle, rich with culture, love for family and a support network in the community. "We lived off the land. We went fishing on the weekends and that was generally what we ate throughout the week. My dad was an agricultural teacher at the high school at the time, so he taught us how to grow crops and grow fruits and vegetables. "That's how we lived for the majority of our years when we were in primary school." On Thursday Island there was no debating whether females played AFL footy or not. No one played AFL footy. "There was a small following for NRL football," Ernst says. Ernst became aware of the Brisbane Lions' existence but did not see an AFL match on television before she went to university. She was first exposed to the code earlier, but only fleetingly: after one of her high school teachers in Mossman, where the family moved to from Thursday Island, organised a one-off AFL game between their school and a neighbouring outpost. All arms and legs, Ernst had developed into a strong runner, hurdler and high jumper. She was a state representative in the latter athletic discipline and soon enough fixed her eyes firmly on the Olympics. "I made a pact with myself in primary school that I would go to the London 2012 Olympics and was pursued by Little Athletics with that goal in mind," she recalls. "I remember watching Cathy Freeman win the gold in the 400-metre sprint at the Sydney 2000 Olympics and I desperately wanted to be there. "I remember sprinting against the Indigenous Australians back then and mum reckons that's how I got my speed, I had to keep up. I was thankful to get to national championships for a number of years in high school, then I had to make a hard decision. I was given an opportunity to continue my sprint hurdles at the time, given an opportunity to train with Sally Pearson's coach in Brisbane. But I didn't have any money and so I decided to go to university instead. That was something that my family could support me in and so I went to medical school to become a doctor." Ernst travelled to another far north Queensland town: Cairns. "It was in Cairns I ran into some of the girls that played for the Mununda Hawks women's football team. They welcomed me into their team and that was where I started to play football." There was a four-team women's competition in Cairns and the naturally athletic Ernst was instantly a standout recruit, selected to represent Queensland at national championships in her debut season. From game one for Mununda Ernst was played in the ruck. It gave her an athletic sensation – addictive as it turns out – she'd never experienced before. "I ran and ran and ran all day and it was endorphin rush, walking off that field knowing you'd given it your all, everything you had, and despite how exhausted you were you just wanted to run out there with your teammates and do it all over again." When Ernst was drafted by the Western Bulldogs in November, one of the first people she called was Mununda Women's Football Club president, Fiona Sharp. "I said 'thank you for helping me pursue this dream'. "She welcomed me into that team with open arms and really encouraged me to improve my skills so I became one of the most dominant players in it." Playing for Mununda saw Ernst kiss her childhood Olympic dreams goodbye. Upon graduating from medical school, she took up her first internship in Ipswich, west of Brisbane, where she lived for two years. It was from this vantage point that Ernst absorbed another game-changing moment in her life: watching the first AFL-sanctioned women's exhibition match between league clubs, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs, in 2013. "It was so exciting and so inspiring," Ernst remembers as if it were yesterday. "I made a commitment to myself after watching that game that I would do everything possible to better my football and do everything I could to be running out there with those girls one day." This personal pledge led Ernst to search for positions in her medical field of expertise in Melbourne, which she viewed as AFL Mecca. "I think things happen for a reason because I came across a job at Monash Health," she says. "They welcomed me, embraced the diversity in my background and the team leadership that I got from playing AFL." Ernst was asked, in her job interview with Monash, why she wanted to move to Melbourne. Her answer was that she intended to become an AFL player. The AFL, at that point, had still not even announced it would create the women's league that commences in February. Ernst didn't know a soul in Victoria when she got the job at Monash. That changed virtually overnight after she joined the Diamond Creek Women's Football Club based in Melbourne's outer northeast. The men's' Diamond Creek club was original home of Coventrys and Shaws, though the sides are not connected, each being independent entities. Ernst's first point of contact for finding a football home in foreign territory was Jess Smith, then working for the Victorian Women's Football League. Smith steered Ernst to the president of Diamond Creek Women's Football Club, Darren Logan. "I chose Diamond Creek because they returned my email within 20 minutes of me sending it," says Ernst, who ticked off yet another life goal when selected by Melbourne to play in the AFL women's exhibition match last year. "Darren found me housemates, he found a house for me to live in. He's another person who has had a huge impact…helped me pursue my dream. "Moving states took me away from everything I knew, all the security and the safety of my family in Queensland, but it turned out to be the best decision I've ever made." Samantha Jane Lane

#tiarna ernst #western bulldogs #aflwomens #be more bulldog #aflw

[footyplusau]

AFLW: The Western Bulldogs player who delivers four babies in one night

Doctor Tiarna Ernst is on the phone.  From the kitchen table in her share house, she’s arranging for the sheds of her local footy ground to be unlocked and opened.

The ripped-fit 28-year-old is patting her greyhound Macer (Latin for skinny and entirely apt), during the phone call, and when she’s not talking she  shifts her mobile phone slightly so she can multi-task.

Play Video Don’t Play

Living two lives

Play Video Don’t Play

Previous slide Next slide

Explainer: Women’s AFL

Explainer: Women’s AFL

The inaugural women’s AFL competition kicks off in February. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the first bounce.

Living two lives

Play Video Don’t Play

Living two lives

Living two lives

Tiana Ernst delivers babies by day and plays footy by night. Hailing from far north Queensland and moving south for the game she loves, Tiana is set to play a season of footy alongside her current life as a doctor.

Brisbane grab late winner over Wanderers

Play Video Don’t Play

Brisbane grab late winner over Wanderers

Brisbane grab late winner over Wanderers

A stoppage time goal from Brett Holman proved the difference as the Roar clinched a 2-1 win in Brisbane.

Nadal to face Federer after nailbiter

Play Video Don’t Play

Nadal to face Federer after nailbiter

Nadal to face Federer after nailbiter

Rafael Nadal defeated Grigor Dimitrov in an incredibly tense five setter that went for just under five hours.

Jets win to go back in top six

Play Video Don’t Play

Jets win to go back in top six

Jets win to go back in top six

Two goals for Andrew Nabbout were enough for Newcastle to to see off Melbourne City.

Australian Open 2017: Federer beats Wawrinka

Play Video Don’t Play

Australian Open 2017: Federer beats …

Australian Open 2017: Federer beats Wawrinka

Roger Federer survived a stirring comeback and five-set challenge against Swiss countryman Stan Wawrinka to take a giant leap into his first Australian Open final since 2010.

Williams sisters to meet in Open final

Play Video Don’t Play

Williams sisters to meet in Open final

Williams sisters to meet in Open final

Serena Williams and Venus Williams will meet in the 2017 Australian Open Final after defeating Mirjana Lucic-Baroni and Coco Vandeweghe respectively.

Sydney take honours in top two clash

Play Video Don’t Play

Sydney take honours in top two clash

Sydney take honours in top two clash

Sydney FC extended their lead of the A-League to 11 competition points after out-gunning Melbourne Victory 2-1 in a fierce Australia Day battle at Etihad Stadium.

Explainer: Women’s AFL

The inaugural women’s AFL competition kicks off in February. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the first bounce.

She continues running through her weekly schedule, which was the topic of discussion before she pushed some buttons to get our next move sorted. 

In detailing the responsibilities she juggles in a diary running tight as a drum Ernst explains why her household buys food, and makes meals, almost exclusively in bulk. Simply: it guarantees she is regularly nourished in the irregular hours she keeps in an exceptionally busy life.

Ernst is efficiency personified and, for the time being at least, that’s not a question of choice as much as necessity.

Honing her medical specialty in obstetrics and gynaecology, Ernst is in a night shift cycle at Monash Medical Centre when we meet.

That means being out her front door at 8:15pm to start work at 9pm. At Monash she delivers three or four babies a night (her record in a shift is eight, her total in the last 24 months is 495) before returning home around 9am.

At the end of these back-to-front working days, Ernst has some breakfast, typically goes for a light run and then sleeps for between five and six hours.Then she does it all again.

Ernst leads the pack during a Western Bulldogs training session. Photo: AFL Media/Getty Images

After a week, she’s back on hospital day shifts, meaning the entire routine is upended.

Throw in her fresh status as Western Bulldogs Football Club player, her devoted fitness, football training and playing regimes,  and Ernst scarcely has time for essentials – shopping, cooking, cleaning – quite aside from non-vocation related pleasure.

Books, music, films, good or even trashy TV to switch off?  The truth is time doesn’t allow. While she’s juggling this way Ernst’s “play” time comes whenever she’s on a footy field, and even that’s covered by an employment contract now.

“Macer! MACER!” Ernst exclaims after the keys for the nearby footy dressing rooms are sorted.

“On your bed. ON YOUR BED!”

Macer is messing with background noise while we’re recording but once peace is restored it’s back to the potted history of the AFL’s most eminently qualified listed player.

Born on Thursday Island, in the Torres Strait archipelago in Australia’s Top End, Ernst grew up in a remote community numbering roughly 2600.

She lived on Thursday Island for 11 years with her parents, who were local teachers. The barge that provided fellow residents with fresh fruit and vegetables came once a week.

With snow white complexion, Ernst and her three brothers  were odd ones out physically. Appearance did not translate to feeling.

“We were immersed in an amazingly raw and welcoming family culture of the Torres Strait Islanders up there,” Ernst recalls with  fondness.

“It was very much an outdoors lifestyle, rich with culture, love for family and a support network in the community.

“We lived off the land. We went fishing on the weekends and that was generally what we ate throughout the week. My dad was an agricultural teacher at the high school at the time, so he taught us how to grow crops and grow fruits and vegetables.

“That’s how we lived for the majority of our years when we were in primary school.”

On Thursday Island there was no debating whether females played AFL footy or not. No one played AFL footy. 

“There was a small following for NRL football,” Ernst says. 

Ernst became aware of the Brisbane Lions’ existence but did not see an AFL match on television before she went to university.

She was first exposed to the code earlier, but only fleetingly: after one of her high school teachers in Mossman, where the family moved to from Thursday Island, organised a one-off AFL game between their school and a neighbouring outpost.

All arms and legs, Ernst had developed into a strong runner, hurdler and high jumper. She was a state representative in the latter athletic discipline and soon enough fixed her eyes firmly on the Olympics.

“I made a pact with myself in primary school that I would go to the London 2012 Olympics and was pursued by Little Athletics with that goal in mind,” she recalls.

“I remember watching Cathy Freeman win the gold in the 400-metre sprint at the Sydney 2000 Olympics and I desperately wanted to be there.

“I remember sprinting against the Indigenous Australians back then and mum reckons that’s how I got my speed, I had to keep up. I was thankful to get to national championships for a number of years in high school, then I had to make a hard decision. I was given an opportunity to continue my sprint hurdles at the time, given an opportunity to train with Sally Pearson’s coach in Brisbane. But I didn’t have any money and so I decided to go to university instead. That was something that my family could support me in and so I went to medical school to become a doctor.”

Ernst travelled to another far north Queensland town: Cairns.

“It was in Cairns I ran into some of the girls that played for the Mununda Hawks women’s football team. They welcomed me into their team and that was where I started to play football.”

There was a four-team women’s competition in Cairns and the naturally athletic Ernst was instantly a standout recruit, selected to represent Queensland at national championships in her debut season.

From game one for Mununda Ernst was played in the ruck. It gave her an athletic sensation – addictive as it turns out – she’d never experienced before. 

“I ran and ran and ran all day and it was endorphin rush, walking off that field knowing you’d given it your all, everything you had, and despite how exhausted you were you just wanted to run out there with your teammates and do it all over again.”

When Ernst was drafted by the Western Bulldogs in November, one of the first people she called was Mununda Women’s Football Club president, Fiona Sharp. 

“I said ‘thank you for helping me pursue this dream’.

“She welcomed me into that team with open arms and really encouraged me to improve my skills so I became one of the most dominant players in it.”

Playing for Mununda saw Ernst kiss her childhood Olympic dreams goodbye. Upon graduating from medical school, she took up her first internship in Ipswich, west of Brisbane, where she lived for two years. It was from this vantage point that Ernst absorbed another game-changing moment in her life: watching the first AFL-sanctioned women’s exhibition match between league clubs, Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs, in 2013.

“It was so exciting and so inspiring,” Ernst remembers as if it were yesterday.

“I made a commitment to myself after watching that game that I would do everything possible to better my football and do everything I could to be running out there with those girls one day.”

This personal pledge led Ernst to search for positions in her medical field of expertise in Melbourne, which she viewed as AFL Mecca.

“I think things happen for a reason because I came across a job at Monash Health,” she says.

“They welcomed me, embraced the diversity in my background and the team leadership that I got from playing AFL.”

Ernst was asked, in her job interview with Monash, why she wanted to move to Melbourne. Her answer was that she intended to become an AFL player. The AFL, at that point, had still not even announced it would create the women’s league that commences in February.

Ernst didn’t know a soul in Victoria when she got the job at Monash. That changed virtually overnight after she joined the Diamond Creek Women’s Football Club based in Melbourne’s outer northeast.

The men’s’ Diamond Creek club was original home of Coventrys and Shaws, though the sides are not connected, each being independent entities.

Ernst’s first point of contact for finding a football home in foreign territory was Jess Smith, then working for the Victorian Women’s Football League. Smith steered Ernst to the president of Diamond Creek Women’s Football Club, Darren Logan.

“I chose Diamond Creek because they returned my email within 20 minutes of me sending it,” says Ernst, who ticked off yet another life goal when selected by Melbourne to play in the AFL women’s exhibition match last year.

“Darren found me housemates, he found a house for me to live in. He’s another person who has had a huge impact…helped me pursue my dream.

“Moving states took me away from everything I knew, all the security and the safety of my family in Queensland, but it turned out to be the best decision I’ve ever made.”

The post AFLW: The Western Bulldogs player who delivers four babies in one night appeared first on Footy Plus.

from Footy Plus http://ift.tt/2jBcbo2 via http://footyplus.net

#Footy Plus