Update (10/20/21): Focusing on other life priorities at the moment! Miss it here dearly. Contact me if you need anything! :) Thank you!

12.20.2017

Poem: "Holy Wintertide"

Image by MjZ Photography via Flickr (CC)

Holy Wintertide
By: Eve Estelle

12.07.2017

Poetry & Prose General Reader Showcase #2 (Nov. 15, 2017 -- Dec. 6, 2017)


(Season's) Greetings!

We're now coming to the end of the After Party... How sad!! Well, I mean, there's still the Reader Survey that's up and available for any eager feedback sharers, but that isn't very exciting (however, it is super, super helpful, so please, feel free to take it! 😉).

For the last three weeks, you all had the chance to send me your poetry and stories to be shown off in a special, dedicated post as part of my second Poetry & Prose General Reader Showcase (please note that the first had a different title). This event lasted from November 15th, 2017 until December 6th.

As this was a general showcase (no theme), you will find a variety of styles, themes, and voices below. Each has been penned by a different author, each with their own levels of skill and experience. Thank you to these wonderful participants for sending their writings in -- you've all done beautiful work.

The below items are listed in the order they were received. If you didn't get a chance to submit yours, have no fear! While I don't have a date set yet, there will be more opportunities like this in the future!

11.29.2017

One-Liner Poem Collaboration: "Wailing World, Fallen Crimson" (Nov. 15, 2017 -- Nov. 29, 2017)

Well hello yet again! Two weeks sure went by like nothing, wow.

Today, November 29th, marks the end of the One-Liner Poem Collaboration that began on the 15th. I've now gathered up the contributions and have put them all together into a completed poem below. You'll notice we have a title, too, and I'll explain how "Wailing World, Fallen Crimson" came to be.

Let's get started. I'd like to note, also, that there weren't many lines to collect, but the few we do have here are surprisingly coherent -- well done, my fellow poets! None of you saw beforehand what the others submitted, so it really could have been anything.

11.20.2017

Poem: "Shuttered Dichotomy"


Shuttered Dichotomy
By: Eve Estelle

11.15.2017

Post-Blogiversary Events: Poetry & Prose Reader Showcase + Poem Collab + Reader Survey


Howdy! Happy November to you.

October 8, 2017 marked Edge of Night's third anniversary, or blogiversary (if you missed it, check out that post here!). I gave a few general updates, including one on Nightfall, offered to send you all a little thank-you card, and then I left it open to suggestions on how else to celebrate. That's where this post comes in: Welcome to The After Party!

Scheduled events include a new poetry and story reader collaboration, as well as a second kind of little poetry collab, and a fall Reader Survey that will help me see how your experience has been here lately, and if there's anything I can do to make it better. More details on each of these below!

10.29.2017

Poem: "A Gift of Lilacs"


A Gift of Lilacs
By: Eve Estelle

10.19.2017

Poem: "Faeries of the Orchard" (Part 2 / 2, "October Orchards")

Image by Eric Roy via Flickr (CC); edited

Faeries of the Orchard
October Orchards Part II
By: Eve Estelle

10.08.2017

Third Time's a Charm -- 3 Years In the Blogosphere!


Well hello there!

Three years. Can you believe it? Today marks three wonderful years that Edge of Night and I have had the pleasure of calling the blogosphere home. That is simultaneously a very long time and no time at all. As I've said many times before, I can't thank you enough for all the support and encouragement you've given me over the years -- I most certainly would have burned myself out by now, had it not been for you!

I don't believe I have any super-duper or overly-exciting updates or announcements for you this time around, but I do have a few fun things to go over. Here's a quick breakdown of what you'll find in this post:

  • General updates
  • Nightfall Poetry Collection update
  • Blogiversary gifts, stats
  • Opportunity to suggest ideas on how to celebrate this occasion (other than this post)

9.25.2017

Poem: "Rising Guard" (Part 1 / 2, "October Orchards")


Rising Guard
October Orchards Part I
By: Eve Estelle

9.09.2017

Short Story: "A Shadow Over Hocking"


Blurb: Preston Moore and Eileen Farrow are spending a week away from their busy lives in the city, and they've chosen Hocking Hills, Ohio, as the place to go. The forest they enter into is a rather tame one compared to many of the world's wild places, but plenty of dangers still lurk in the shadows -- and on a moonless night, shadows may be all these two will find.


8.22.2017

8.11.2017

Early Writings Tag

Tagged by Lisa

Good morning!

I have a question for you: How do you feel when reading your past works?

Doesn't matter if you consider yourself a writer or not, you've written something, be it an academic essay or a dozen novels. So, as you distance yourself from those things via the passage of time, how does your view of them change? Does it become embarrassing to go through them, and you'd rather rip the page out or delete the file than let it continue to exist?

Maybe you get this gut-wrenching feeling whenever someone goes to read them...

Writers have a tendency to hate their old works, and some prefer to pretend that such works never reached paper (or screen, in many of our cases). Thing is, though, that we all have those crappy first stories, and as time passes and our skills improve, it doesn't even have to be an "early" writing to suck. It just has to be old.

That's a good thing, though! Means you've gotten better, and now you can recognize what you did wrong before. Or at least that it wasn't as perfect as it felt when you first wrote it.

(But don't be like me and actually delete them all. You'll almost certainly regret it, I promise.)

Just thought I'd throw that out there, 'cause I've got a fun little tag to go through and it's on this very subject.

A big thank you to Lisa at Inkwell for tagging me for the Early Writings Tag, started by Abbiee!

8.06.2017

Poem: "White Dove In Mourning"

Vio WallpaperCave; edited

White Dove In Mourning
By: Eve Estelle

7.27.2017

From Words to Music, Writer to Musician: Resources for Learning How to Play & Compose


Well, that's got to be the longest post title I've ever used. 

Not always, but a lot of the time when we work creatively with the written word, writing poetry and putting our hearts into our beloved stories, we start to develop a desire to express ourselves in another way -- with music.

I've never met anybody who didn't want to play an instrument of some kind, and many of us would've loved to be musicians, or at least capable of playing something, long before discovering this ink-and-paper world of plots and characters, where we, as authors, are allowed and even encouraged to pull the strangest, most wonderful things straight out of our asses. Some even manage to learn the musical ropes early on in life!

But, if you were like me, then you were never quite that ambitious. I've always thought it would be amazing to play an instrument, and I've tried a couple times with piano, very briefly with guitar, flute, etc. Never stuck with it for long. I still wanted to learn, but I just didn't have the motivation for it.

Over my last few years of writing, however, I've felt myself drawn back to the lovely sounds of music, often writing to the beat or mood of certain tracks, and to the rhythm of instrumental melodies. I've even found myself singing a couple of my own poems -- whoops. And then I hit upon an artist, a style, that renewed my craving to learn to play: Lindsey Stirling, violinist.

7.24.2017

7.19.2017

Poem: "Northern Dawn"

Image by Hideyuki KAMON via Flickr (CC)

Northern Dawn
By: Eve Estelle

7.04.2017

Poem: "Dark Tide"


Dark Tide
By: Eve Estelle

6.29.2017

Confessions of a Reader: A Collaboration With Aneesa (Book Lover)


Good morning, good evening, or good night - although please don't head on off to bed just yet, if it's that time for you (but I suppose if you have to, this post will still be here tomorrow)!

Fellow blogger Aneesa (also known to her readers as Book Lover) and I got together to do a little collaboration, and though life tried to get in the way several times during this process, we're excited to finally have these finished up and ready to go!

There are two parts to this collaboration:
  • Confessions of a Reader: My post here, containing Aneesa's responses.

Be sure to check out both! And of course, please let us know what you thought of them!

I'll hand things over to Aneesa - she'll briefly introduce herself to you, and then we'll dive into the main course. Bon appétit! ðŸ˜‰

6.26.2017

Poem: "Jay in Winter" (Haiku)

Image by Dawn Huczek via Flickr (CC)

Jay in Winter
By: Eve Estelle

6.15.2017

Poem: "The Blooming Hour"

Image by domwlive via Flickr (CC)

The Blooming Hour
By: Eve Estelle

5.31.2017

Poem: "Sterling to Sterling"


Sterling to Sterling
By: Eve Estelle

5.27.2017

Poem: "The High Road"


The High Road
By: Eve Estelle

5.25.2017

Posting Resumes May 27! + Response to Reader Survey


Well hello! It's fantastic to be back.

It's been a while - just about three days shy of two months, plus all that time before my break where I couldn't get much of anything out. I just want to say thank you again for being patient with me during this time. I'm quite excited to get back into the swing of things, which I'm happy to confirm will be starting back up in a mere couple of days.

These are also the last two days to get your response in for my Reader Survey, also, if you've not done so yet but wish to answer a few brief questions to let me know how things are going. This will close when I officially return on the 27th. I've gotten several wonderful responses, and I thank those of you who have taken the time to send me your feedback!

3.30.2017

No New Posts Until Late May/June

-------------------------------
Update (5/27/17): Reader Survey is now closed!

Update (4/5/17): Please consider taking my brief Reader Survey, available for you to fill out at any time during my post hiatus! Just a few basic "How are things?" questions that will help me to keep your experience here a positive one. Anyone is welcome to take it! Thank you!
(Closes when I return from break.)
-------------------------------

Spring greetings to all of you!

It has been a ridiculously long time since my last post that contained any real content. On February 23rd, I put out my General Updates & A Few Snippets post, but one has to go all the way back into January to find "Truce," my last (relatively) finished work.

As I've said before, I don't like just disappearing. I try my best to keep you all updated without cluttering your feeds and inboxes with update post after update post (this is where Twitter comes in handy - I was never a fan of tweeting, until I realized how useful it was for those little updates), and I've tried to get something out whenever possible. But, obviously, that hasn't been much, and I don't see that improving for at least a couple of months.

So, with that in mind, I thought I'd just go ahead and pause all blog postings until late May, early/mid June, when I'll be graduated from school and able to return to a decent schedule.

Some things I'd like to note:

  •  I'll have a small stash of poems and a short story or two ready to post within the weeks following my May/June return. They're already written, I just can't post them until I'm out of the class they were written for, and until then I'll be doing some revision. This at least assures a steady stream of new content for a little while after!
  • During this time, you can still reach me through blog comments, email, and my social media. I'll still be around, just not posting! Feel free to contact me if you have any need.

Best wishes to thee and thine,

See you in May or June!

    2.23.2017

    General Updates & A Few Snippets


    Hello there! Ay, it's been too long since I've been able to say that!

    How are you? How's life treating you? Go on and tell me something exciting that's happened in your life since we last spoke! Or perhaps something not so exciting. The not-so-exciting moments are as much a part of us as the great and the good.

    Back in October I posted a small little update to explain my absence and to provide some idea of what to expect in the near future, and I thought I'd put out another one since it's been more than a month now without a new post. This one, however, includes a bit more information that I hope will take the edge off the long wait.. Or maybe I'll just make it worse, who knows.

    This new information, however, includes general updates relating to the blog, as well as a few snippets from some of my current works-in-progress. All of which, I should note, are very early in the process and subject to change. Still - you can see what's been going on, what you can likely expect from me, and all that! Who doesn't enjoy a quick peak behind the curtains, hm?


    1.20.2017

    Poem: "Truce"

    Image by Diego Sideburns via Flickr (CC)

    Truce
    By: Eve Estelle

    1.14.2017

    Poem: "Nightsong Serenade"


    Nightsong Serenade
    By: Eve Estelle

    1.01.2017

    A New Year's Thank You #3



    ¡Bienvenido, 2017!

    Sorry, Spanish on the brain. How is the new year treating you so far? Do you see good things to come? Let's hope so!

    With the dropping of balls, the lighting of fireworks, and neighbors firing off weapons that are most certainly illegal, we say farewell to another year, and one many either simply won't miss at all or have mixed feelings towards (I'm in this group). 2016 was an interesting year, no doubt about it - personally, it was overall uneventful, but so many things went on around us.