Tamara Rivers

Latest Posts

  • Ariadna’s Star: Post 4

    Ariadna’s Star: Post 4

    My eyes snap open as I wake, suddenly. I have no idea why, although somewhere in the back of my mind, I wonder if I had a nightmare. A quick glance around reveals I’m in my cot tucked in the corner of our one-room office and home. Privacy curtains made of bed sheets sewn together are drawn around all the cots, since they were the best extra beds we had in Inizion. The royal messenger and his bodyguards are fast asleep, recovering from the bandit attack. I look over to see Mom on her own cot, not far from mine, a couple of her gray-tinged blonde curls sticking out from underneath her blankets. She snores lightly. She only snores when she’s exhausted. Otherwise, everything is still.

    All was well.

    Despite the peace, I feel uneasy. I must have woken from a nightmare, and I just can’t remember the details. Oh, I’ve had many nightmares, some of which I remember. Most of them involved the small, peaceful town of Inizion burning up in flames. But the faint memories I have of tonight’s nightmare are different in a way I can’t explain.

    (more…)
  • Ariadna’s Star: Post 3

    Ariadna’s Star: Post 3

    Just as the bandit’s stone-headed axe comes down for my head, a shield that glints with the Verlassen coat of arms, a gray howling wolf on the yellow and purple background, swings between me and the axe. The stone axe chips against the polished steel of the shield with a grating metallic ring. One of the royal messenger’s bodyguards steps in front of me, using his shield to knock the bandit off his feet. Then the soldier pulls his right arm back, a sharpened sword in his hand aimed for his opponent, and I avert my eyes. I hear the bandit scream—his mixed wooden and fur armor must have done nothing to stop the soldier’s sword.

    “Estelle!” Cooper exclaims from behind me. “Are you okay?”

    (more…)
  • Ariadna’s Star: Post 2

    Ariadna’s Star: Post 2

    Mom and I are still cleaning up from last night’s baby delivery when Braxton knocks once on the door to our home and office before entering. He toys with one end of his mustache. “A royal messenger just arrived!”

    Mom and I stare at Braxton and then glance at each other, Mom’s dark eyes no doubt as wide as my deep blue ones. With Inizion being one of the most remote villages in Amenyl, for a royal messenger to show up here meant it was an incredibly important message.

    (more…)
  • Ariadna’s Star: Post 1

    Ariadna’s Star: Post 1

    Chapter 1: The Stars Align

    One of my favorite pastimes, besides for helping Mom take care of people, is gazing up at the night sky as I soar through the stars in my mind.

    Don’t get me wrong, I love the daytime too. But laying out on a blanket behind our one-bedroom wooden home on one of the tallest hills in Inizion, watching the sun set and the stars blossom against the deep blue-black background, is a joy that I can’t pass up. Mom has taken to just assuming I’ll be out here every night unless I say something.

    (more…)

  • A Writer

    I’m a writer. Or I was a writer.

    Then…life happened. And I had to stop writing.

    It’s not been all bad. On the contrary, some of the hiatus has been for good things.

    But I had to reprioritize my life, and writing was one of the things that I chose to pause. Now, after a few years, I am reprioritizing it higher again. I still don’t have tons of time for it like I did before. The wellspring of creativity is also a little dry.

    So my writing sessions are short, much shorter than they used to be. And admittedly it’s not fun yet. I’m still trying to get there.

    And yet, experience has taught me that when you fall out of the habit of something you love, you might start to think you no longer love it, when in reality you’ve simply forgotten how to give yourself the time and energy to love it again. You replace that time of “doing something you love” with other things. The other things could be a wide assortment of stuff. It could be important things, like family or friends, career, medical illnesses, anything. It could also be unimportant things (I don’t think I need to list any of these).

    Thus, while this is difficult to do, and right now it doesn’t feel fun, I know the practice will eventually reawaken the skill. And once I’m in the groove of writing again, the enjoyment will return.

    So I’m a writer, once again.

  • A new day.

    Sometimes things don’t go as planned.

    Honestly, things almost never go entirely as planned.

    This is me trying over again.

    Sometimes I think about giving up.

    Oftentimes, I think about never writing again.

    It’s been a long time, with a lot of hurdles.

    But here I am.

    Trying again.

    It’s a new day.