Tag Archives: death

A Handful of Pecans Against the Specter of Death

Posted on August 6, 2025 by Ryn PB

I am a pessimist. Just like being an optimist, being a pessimist has its pros (being prepared, less disappointment) and its cons (being overly stressed, less hopefulness), but the one thing I like most about being a pessimist is when … Continue reading →

Posted in Another New Era, mental health | Tagged anxiety, birds, bluejays, death, hope, LGBT+, life lessons, mental health, nature, pessimism, squirrels | Leave a comment

The Clairvoyant Cashier

Posted on February 15, 2024 by Ryn PB

Ernest Kowalski just wanted to pick up some potatoes for his pierogis, but Ziggy’s market was closed on Sundays. Two of his daughters and their kids were coming for dinner that night, so after Mass he’d ventured out to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Another New Era, Fiction Short Stories | Tagged aging, anxiety, brain, cashier, clairvoyance, class, community, death, elderly, esp, family, family stories, fiancee, grief, groceries, grocery, LGBT, LGBT+, life lessons, marriage, mind, neighborhood, old man, polish, psychic, queer lit, shopping, store, sunday, voodoo, wife, writing | Leave a comment

JJS: An Interactive Story

Posted on January 15, 2024 by Ryn PB

Content Warning: transphobia, misgendering, queerphobic slurs, doxing, bullying *How to read, interactive version: The first article has links to the other “sites.” These are also color-coded. *How to read, static version: Everything is presented in chronological order except for the … Continue reading →

Posted in Another New Era, Fiction Short Stories, LGBT+, original writing | Tagged anxiety, breaking news, bts, color, company, creative writing, death, doxing, fandom, friendship, global, hallyu, hypertext, idol, idols, instagram, interactive, k-pop, korea, korean, kpop, lgbt lit, LGBT+, lyrics, magazine, mental health, mixed media, multimedia, music, music industry, music news, news, online, online bullying, queer lit, red ink, short story, social media, songs, trans, trans experience, trans lit, trans stories, transgender, transmasculine, transphobia, united states, website, worldwide, writing | Leave a comment

Pierre-Auguste Salvatici

Posted on July 16, 2023 by Ryn PB

His parents set him up for failure when they named him Pierre-Auguste Salvatici. Even if he hadn’t grown up with a persistent speech impediment and severe respiratory problems, Pierre-Auguste Salvatici could never live up to the grandiosity of the name. … Continue reading →

Posted in Another New Era, Fiction Short Stories | Tagged adopted, adoption, anxiety, asthma, club, copd, death, driving, drowning, friends, great lakes, high school, lake, lakes, languages, life lessons, lung disease, lungs, names, neglect, neighbors, orphan, parental death, reading, ship, shipwreck, talent, talent show, tea, water, writing | 1 Comment

Hidden Potatoes

Posted on April 15, 2023 by Ryn PB

Lady Southcott’s portrait stares down at anyone who enters the old kitchen. She is healthy, rich and supremely unhappy. On her cheek is a shiny purplish brown spider, translucent legs spread out to cover the side of her face. This … Continue reading →

Posted in Another New Era, Fiction Short Stories | Tagged arachnids, black widow spiders, bugs, creepy, death, eerie, false widow spiders, family tradition, famine, historical fiction, horror, hunger, insects, ireland, irish history, irish potato famine, murder, poison, potato, potato famine, potatoes, revenge, spiders, tenant farming, the great hunger, writing | 1 Comment

Less Than Before

Posted on March 15, 2023 by Ryn PB

The boy appeared on the day Pluto vanished from the sky. He stood in the middle of the town square, transfixed by the fountain. A hand shielded his eyes from the sun’s midday light. His bare feet rested flat on … Continue reading →

Posted in Another New Era, Fiction Short Stories | Tagged astrology, bermuda, bermuda triangle, creative writing, dante, death, fiction, fountain, france, gondoliers, italy, LGBT, mythology, outer space, planets, pluto, queer, science, science fiction, solar system, speculative fiction, statue, town, travel, water, writing | Leave a comment

December 2020: How I’m closing out the year with hope, easy reading, and a Match.com ad

Posted on December 30, 2020 by Ryn PB

What I Got: The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern A Book of One’s Own: People and Their Diaries by Thomas Mallon A Study in Scarlet Women (Lady Sherlock #1) by Sherry Thomas The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes by Adrian Conan … Continue reading →

Posted in new era, polysyllabic spree | Tagged anxiety, books, books about music, charles dickens, christmas, death, depression, erin morgenstern, graphic memoir, graphic novels, grief, holidays, lemony snicket, LGBT, lgbt lit, mental health, mystery books, nick and norah's infinite playlist, phantom of the opera, queer lit, reading, series of unfortunate events, the starless sea, zines | Leave a comment

Stories are the Cure: How I’m embracing and facing my anger

Posted on March 3, 2020 by Ryn PB

There is a sticker on the lefthand corner of my laptop, below the keyboard I am typing this on, that says, “You got this.” It is slowly peeling away, curling up, to leave only the white background the words had … Continue reading →

Posted in LGBT+, mental health, new era | Tagged airplane, airport, anger, anxiety, death, depression, grief, hannah gadsby, honesty, LGBT+, loss, mental health, nanette, queer, relapse, self harm, stories, transphobia, trauma, travel, trigger warning, truth, tsa, tw, writing | Leave a comment

A Hospital, Twenty One Pilots, and a Fish’s Death: How Sadness Has Become Less Negative for Me

Posted on December 17, 2018 by Ryn PB

About halfway through November, I finally visited a friend who had been in the hospital for months. My excuse for not going was that no one invited me and I would figure out my friends had visited her after the … Continue reading →

Posted in mental health, new era | Tagged anxiety, boredom, concert, death, life lessons, live music, mito, music, pet, sadness, sickness, trench, twenty one pilots | Leave a comment