Story Embers | Story Embers | Activity https://storyembers.org/members/storyembers/activity/ Activity feed for Story Embers. Tue, 16 Jun 2026 12:34:24 -0400 https://buddypress.org/?v= en 30 hourly 2 58c09bff0988d74b10abccb9166491e2 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=160855 Mon, 01 Dec 2025 15:00:09 -0400 Our Final Chapter Dear Story Embers Community, After much thought and prayer, we’ve decided that Story Embers will be closing its doors. This has been a difficult c […]

]]> 317abcfa49ffa50aef346ed7a75f0162 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=158511 Mon, 23 Oct 2023 22:00:38 -0400 By Laurel Wood
 
I wake to the taste of saltwater on my tongue and throbbing behind my eyes. Heat sears my back as I bob in turquoise waves. Below and around me float crates imprinted with Japanese symbols, […]

]]> 71f6353681431fc6250190062cd30aa8 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=157080 Mon, 27 Mar 2023 21:00:57 -0400 By Victoria Shanks
 
The desert is no place for a guilty conscience. The silence eats at sinners until they’re small enough and broken enough to be swallowed whole.
 
That’s why Erin Flores chose the Mojav […]

]]> 11ad5b1c77928bda807805a94a075ef6 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=157017 Mon, 20 Mar 2023 21:00:44 -0400 By Mackenzie Nicole 
 
Wine in hand, I stepped into the scalding shower without checking the temperature. The sensation offered a brief reprieve from the ache in my heart. I stumbled on a leftover sliver of a s […]

]]> 3cd170cfbe37bc6c2f549b0cae0eb53d Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=151092 Thu, 23 Jun 2022 14:00:51 -0400 By Allie Robyn
 
We stopped at the teashop on Madison Street.
Abstract renditions of flowers hung from the walls.
A case displayed little pastries, perfect and neat.
The worker behind the counter gave us a […]

]]> a173ec28a82a6ead70be03213dacc6fc Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=150824 Thu, 09 Jun 2022 14:00:23 -0400 By Emily Waldorf
 
Recently I had a dream;
Creeping and stealthy, it quietly came.
The pictures I saw were dull and blurred,
But the air about me with voices stirred.
 
Confused at first, but gradually c […]

]]> b1753dc4f52541285becacf9628f9777 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=150563 Thu, 19 May 2022 14:00:20 -0400 By Kathryn Sadakierski
 
I walk the length of another road,
but endless paths branch from it
in every direction.
The journey was arduous
but rewarding
in strengthening me
so I can climb another […]

]]> a29259246ec5e18f5b108f0956f042ab Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=150381 Mon, 02 May 2022 14:00:23 -0400 By Claire Tucker
 
Every moment in every story makes a promise: the conversation, decision, or setting that the author is focusing on holds significance, whether immediately or in a future chapter. As a reader, […]

]]> e87e843c075835a18bb24dcb37d6fa54 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=150261 Thu, 28 Apr 2022 14:00:11 -0400 By Alithea Wrights
 
The phenomenon first happened when I was seven years old.
 
Mud caked my pants and the tip of my nose as I stirred an earthy concoction with a stick. “Leaves!” I commanded, my hand outst […]

]]> dc7020e1e9e509445020e28545f009cb Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=149703 Mon, 11 Apr 2022 14:00:30 -0400 By Zachary Holbrook
When I was nine years old, I became the dictator of a sprawling, shape-shifting land called Fiction, and my political party consisted of myself, a few other students in our homeschool co-op […]

]]> aec8e183044650e44cd12ffd4e8d4b6f Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=149437 Thu, 31 Mar 2022 14:00:32 -0400 By Sarah Wiens
 
Dedicated to the Sidwell family, in memory of Wynn, my childhood playmate.
 
You asked me if I believe. I’m not sure
After all my sister and I have endured.
What made You stay so far awa […]

]]> 694b104aeb8a20fa46a99a060e9d1e96 Story Embers's profile was updated https://storyembers.org/activity/p/100625/ Wed, 30 Mar 2022 18:59:46 -0400 0 d2acde08e582e3a037111e6eef015cd0 Story Embers changed their profile picture https://storyembers.org/activity/p/100624/ Wed, 30 Mar 2022 18:59:27 -0400 0 f9bce47bc134af826ed6a6e3c57aa2ad Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=45034 Thu, 03 Mar 2022 14:00:14 -0400 By Rachel Evans

 

“The hero sobbed piteously over the corpse of her mentor, swearing to avenge him. After an hour of weeping, she wiped her eyes and returned to saving the world, setting her sadness aside un […]

]]> 6db7cc445b520fd6260a7930a547d79d Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=148362 Thu, 24 Feb 2022 14:00:06 -0400 By Emily Waldorf
 
The sunlit world is all aglow
While shafts of golden brightness find
The dust of diamonds on the snow.
But darker seem the lines of shade—
Long lines of shadow on my mind.
 
The pea […]

]]> bc3f5ba047acde9a30aa06c949002c77 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=148000 Thu, 17 Feb 2022 14:00:44 -0400 By Joe Bisicchia

 
Love begins and never ends.
Love is, with justice never distant,
raveled and unraveled, here, everywhere.
No departed utterance,
it endures beyond sounds
of rhyme, time, upon lips, […]

]]> 243a89a03421abcdbe52b3aacbe9c4e6 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=147650 Thu, 03 Feb 2022 14:00:02 -0400 By Al Zapor
 
I never meant to bring you along to this cliff,
But still, here we sit, watching the tide roll in.
The sun sets in the vast emptiness, and I wonder if
You know this isn’t a detour, rather, th […]

]]> 59f6fbe32954ddff78b6b3012e66163d Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=147546 Mon, 31 Jan 2022 14:00:51 -0400 By Jonathan Babcock
 
Your character shivers alone on the shore, her clothes soaked from her boat overturning in the rapids and her backpack drifting somewhere along the river bottom. She spends several minutes […]

]]> 8f8f26e86ea56c2598f212fbdf36937d Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=146801 Mon, 10 Jan 2022 14:00:43 -0400 By Rachel Leitch
 
Mythology influences countless books and movies. At the elementary school where I work, it appears in Rick Riordan’s popular Percy Jackson series, which Christian readers have split op […]

]]> 1af009028380af133811556ee1dfc3d7 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=145020 Thu, 16 Dec 2021 14:00:05 -0400 By Sarah Spradlin
 
Stories from all over the world hold that wayfarers,
especially sailors,
often got tattoos of swallows.
It was, after all, the swooping swallows
against the blue sky
they would see well […]

]]> 4c42a742aa35493d0cf48c1b3c680e2a Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=144771 Thu, 02 Dec 2021 14:00:00 -0400 By Sarah Spradlin
 
After the longest dry season,you pour yourself into the cracks in the clay and your overflowing,lasting long after the clouds have passed us by,is the color green.Hope, after so many days […]

]]> 335f0eee3540fcd6acf2f44dee583b11 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=143059 Thu, 18 Nov 2021 14:00:43 -0400 By Sarah Spradlin
 
Sister, I see your arms are trembling.
Brother, I see your tears,
your stone-set face,
how this fire
rattling in your bones,
shut up no longer,
has burned you in the telling.
 
May I […]

]]> 62ba62c1180020e9330e061b34e543d0 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=142892 Thu, 21 Oct 2021 14:00:58 -0400 By Dani Renee
 
Brown leaves battered Mr. Cotter’s beat-up truck as he pried open its door. He shook his head. How much time had withered since he last drove it? A year. He sighed, remembering the plot he pu […]

]]> dd9255bc3de76c7b747871e3f926f3c9 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=142743 Thu, 14 Oct 2021 14:00:03 -0400 By Rachel Leitch

 

London, 1928

 

Mother’s favorite waltz warbled from the corner of the garage. I must have left the phonograph on a few hours ago, before the party. Behind me, the chipped door clo […]

]]> ab0383c249dcecf760fdbfd86b05d7a0 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=142241 Thu, 23 Sep 2021 14:00:45 -0400 By Anne of Lothlorien
 
Midnight thoughts surround me,
messy and monstrous,
so I tread carefully.
I slip between the forests
built of whispers of words,
searching for possibilities.
 
Mostly I choose t […]

]]> a81c50727e953ec5d46c5105e885dd8e Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=137330 Thu, 02 Sep 2021 14:00:03 -0400 By E. C. Colton
 
I run a race that no one can see,
But too often I lag behind.
I watch the leaves glide on the wind
And wonder what it’s like to bide time.
When I pause to take a breath,
The wind shoves an […]

]]> 80fef4580cdb64f21a48b181629f44da Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=137192 Thu, 26 Aug 2021 14:00:02 -0400 By Abbi Langille

 

Have you ever been tempted to tear pages from your notebooks, toss the crumpled wads into the trash, and vow to never write again because it isn’t worth your time? Some days, the words re […]

]]> adc4926a5f533854f756cc80c10c2cf9 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=137020 Thu, 19 Aug 2021 14:00:13 -0400 By Emily Waldorf
 
Earth, an infant of giant size,
Rocked gently by the ocean’s rise; 
Calm, unpeopled, its surface lies.
Above are spread the lightening skies
With all the joy of the planets rin […]

]]> c0d250d2da68446399bb92d7a82ffd53 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=136005 Thu, 15 Jul 2021 14:00:05 -0400 By Sarah Susanna Rhomberg
 
I know his face,
I know his frown,
The man who lives
A few roads down.
 
His walk didn’t change,
Though he grew older;
His bent back
And hunched shoulders.
 
When we talk […]

]]> c90d25ee5ce8f445247b590f27d0334a Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=135434 Thu, 01 Jul 2021 14:00:20 -0400 By Christopher Babcock
 
As Jesus walked along, he noticed a man named Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me. I mean, if you want to. No pressure. And feel free to wrap up the wo […]

]]> bb4806f5e6ea855ebe7e9a9e4515fae8 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=134741 Mon, 07 Jun 2021 14:00:56 -0400 By Lori Z. Scott & Allison Raymond
 
Editor’s Note: This is the final installment in our three-part series exploring how Christian writers should depict the supernatural. You can read the introductory post h […]

]]> 9453d3cb2ad0e5bb5d57611d51561ec1 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=133879 Thu, 20 May 2021 14:00:03 -0400 By K.M. Small
 
Madiya would do better on this final day of her existence. No wincing, weeping, or hiding. She would be the solemn, dutiful Lifewarden she always should have been. Beginning now.
 
Shadows d […]

]]> 2ca4c9d0ce3c558bbef424e1c8679e9b Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=133803 Thu, 13 May 2021 14:00:31 -0400 By Krista Lynn Weeks
 
If You say I’m Your daughter, why do I
So utterly defenseless seem to be
Against all storms afire in the sky,
Against all hurricanes that stir the sea?
I’m searching for the eye amid […]

]]> 254b1a021e4d1b93323735a98cb074a3 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=129434 Thu, 15 Apr 2021 14:00:49 -0400 By Natalie Davis
 
How like the mountain, confident,
The world around me stands,
Defiant hands upon hips,
Lips issuing demands.
Am I the only shattered soul
Who’s sometimes lost her way?
The only one wi […]

]]> 88874e171f60004cae7e8a5b105d8cf9 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=128099 Thu, 08 Apr 2021 14:00:31 -0400 By Caleb E. King
 
Sometimes I look into my drawer of old sketches,
Take one out, and admire the dark lines and etches.
Memories are recalled, all unique and precious.
 
The deeper I look, the worse the s […]

]]> 743b76a1fab74006cacf1491f8a04630 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=125818 Thu, 11 Mar 2021 14:00:10 -0400 By Libby Powell
 
I took a walk among the forest pines
To be alone, away from all mankind,
To listen to the sound of nothingness,
And leave my doubts and worries far behind.
As I wandered beneath a maple […]

]]> 85bb16730af204fee28e1f8974622e04 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=122667 Thu, 17 Dec 2020 14:00:29 -0400 By Natalie Davis
 
At dusk the old world lives again
As faeries fill the open air.
The Small Folk come, the world reclaim;
They journey from I know not where.
Ancient secrets spice the wind,
Things […]

]]> d8c2a0a6683ada32156966d6844fb172 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=120562 Thu, 15 Oct 2020 14:00:39 -0400 By Darlene N. Böcek
 
Dec. 24. Victim discovered 3 min. off San Pasqual Valley Road/Highway 78. Mile marker 12. Female. Mid 20s. Face down. Homicide suspected. No attempted burial. Thrown and discarded. D […]

]]> 91c4266db6531c2a53ae46844ab3b837 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=120388 Thu, 08 Oct 2020 14:00:03 -0400 By Bethany Fehr
 
Green. Not eaten. Not trampled into the dust. Food, or maybe poison. It didn’t matter which.
 
Prisoner 13358 hadn’t been actively searching for either. If he had, he would have passed over […]

]]> 59fbba2c03281e7e845087b49179d40f Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=120239 Mon, 05 Oct 2020 14:00:43 -0400 By Zachary Holbrook
 
You pick up a new fantasy novel. The cover is beautiful, the blurb intriguing. You’re eager to be immersed in an intricately crafted world—but after turning several pages, you lose your […]

]]> ced9c1dc670a4e66d61ab481f513b4fd Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=117672 Thu, 20 Aug 2020 14:00:17 -0400 By Maegann Stadnick
 
She has a bookshelf for a heart
And a current of ink for veins.
Her skilled insight and works of art
 
Are creativity’s sweet gain.
She’ll write you into her story
With the quick […]

]]> 219acc7d66566683dd4434ea0885e8cf Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=117400 Thu, 13 Aug 2020 14:00:45 -0400 By Dakota
 
From between dark cedars and whiskered pines, spring steps out.
In the blush of redbud tree’s purple blooms,
Wildflowers burst forth from hidden winter tombs. 
 
Against the backdrop of el […]

]]> 0a7ba4ab6aa1cac04fca485acc22b9ed Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=117394 Thu, 06 Aug 2020 14:00:23 -0400 By Emma Starr
 
This is golden day:
a single moment
that lasts for hours.
 
I am standing in this field
of brown, crisp grass and stubborn wildflowers,
where the scent of summer stays.
My feet are r […]

]]> dff0f1767beea2796b3ff87aa9ca8ef4 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=116727 Thu, 30 Jul 2020 14:00:50 -0400 By Sarah Spradlin
 
I feel it,
a certain heaviness in my heart
as I’m making my way home one evening.
Joy and Sorrow are very nearly always together,
are very nearly always mine to hold—
every moun […]

]]> bb1891c6f788f6569fbc8cb1fc32d08b Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=114484 Thu, 18 Jun 2020 14:00:13 -0400 By Brianna Rae
 
The moon burned red in the deep, dark pool.
The stars gazed down in awe
As the maid strode down the ancient path,
Her fate engraved by law.
 
The first to rise in a thousand y […]

]]> 6a96a5201690fd2ed64264c32a73976c Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=114252 Thu, 11 Jun 2020 14:00:35 -0400 By Eliana Duran
 
As the old lady sits in her wooden porch chair,
She sews together a blue teddy bear.
For years she’s sat in the shade of the birch,
Sewing a bear for each baby at church.
There aren’t any […]

]]> 5cd5f8fb9daefd6fcfedde86574363a8 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=110905 Thu, 14 May 2020 14:00:26 -0400 By Clarissa Smith
 
Those long miles down old gray roads,
Roller coasters on the way to roller coasters,
Coast to coast, talking in codes,
The leaking pipes, the broken toasters.
 
Those moments driving b […]

]]> eb7f43804a50700d095c2c7e2686b7d0 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=110898 Thu, 07 May 2020 14:00:53 -0400 By Libby Powell
 
The forlorn girl looks up with a smileEach time the maple leaves sway with the breeze,Dancing like maidens of scarlet and goldFor the girl at the window who watches the trees,Seeking escape […]

]]> f61db93dd61b99baecae8c10c9fd45e1 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=111191 Mon, 04 May 2020 14:00:37 -0400 By Gabrielle Pollack & Brianna Storm Hilvety
 
Editing is easy to overdo. You open your latest draft to restructure a scene, but as you reread your work to get your bearings, you can’t resist tinkering with a cl […]

]]> 5b1030e93985f716978682e10d4f01b0 Story Embers wrote a new post https://storyembers.org/?p=109488 Thu, 16 Apr 2020 14:00:53 -0400 By Katelynn Richardson
 
So it begins,
the smell of freshly spread paint
mixed with sweet-sticky perspiration.
Tireless preparation.
Scrub the stains, pack what remains, stack boxes in bedrooms,
eat lunch […]

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