Author: Avellina Balestri
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Brother of My Heart: A Lord of the Rings Story
BY ANNE MARIE GAZZOLO “Frodo, this is Samwise, youngest son of Hamfast Gamgee, who you may recall is my gardener.” Read more
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Eponine’s Last: A Les Misérables Poem
BY RACHEL ATTERHOLT The forgotten girl with the bleeding heart watched as Marius touched her blood-soaked shirt, and as he cried, she smiled. Read more
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Hidden Queen
Look into the poorest eyes, and find the hidden queen. This pool of liquid light reveals the depth of the Red Sea, and she will lead us through the waves, the first upon dry ground. Read more
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Broken Things: A Game of Thrones Story
BY AVELLINA BALESTRI “What…what would you…have me do, my lord?” Her voice shakes like the wind beyond the window. “How should I…please you?” Read more
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Hussain at Karbala
I wander the sands, smeared crimson o’er gold; the blood of my house runs red as dusk. The children are crying, their throats parched earth. Read more
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Death Shall Have No Dominion
Deep in a tangled forest, there dwelt four sisters whose mother, a wood-wife, had died by the bite of a werewolf years before. Still they spun her magic through potion and spell, healing and weaving with color and light. Read more
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Mother of Sorrows
I’ve never seen him…dead before, he who was always so full of life, more fully alive than anyone I have ever known, pulsing with youth, agility, vigor. Life…now drained out. Read more
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Sheath and Knife: A Star Wars Fanfiction
“The galaxy will not know light unless you are out of it, Kylo Ren!” Rey’s voice was as furious as it was broken, and she drew her light saber to challenge him. “And if comes down to it, I will be the one to take you out of it!” Kylo Ren supposed he… Read more
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The West Wind Comes Walking: A Lord of the Rings Fanfiction
As the favored son of the Steward of Gondor, he was used to the great and the grand, the adulation of his people who hailed him as their savior, of the West Wind whipping against the standards of the White Tree, of the trumpets blaring, brave and boisterous, across the plains strewn with enemy dead. Read more
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Nativity
Lady, Lady, marvel deep on what has come through thee! Lady, Lady, we will weep for what must pierce through thee! But we cannot turn back… Read more
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Norway
BY BETH FLYNN Log cabins, skyward plumes of silver smoke. Air so frigid, it steals your breath away. Banks of soft glistening white line the roads… Read more
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Tolkien and Shakespeare: Counterparts and Comparisons
BY PHILIP LOWE There are many studies of Tolkien’s characters in relation to Shakespearean counterparts, especially since the movies of the book came out. Read more
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Good People and Paradise: Is There Salvation Outside the Church?
In order to get to heaven, is it only necessary that we be a “good person”? This is a question that has been asked, and slapped down, within Christian rhetorical circles on a regular basis. But perhaps we are too quick to do the slapping and less keen on analyzing what goodness truly means, and… Read more
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Building a Bridge and Drawing a Line: A Way Forward for Traditional Religious and LGBT Communities
Is there any hope of a bridge being build between traditional religious communities on the one hand and the LGBT community on the other? I don’t believe there’s an easy answer to that question posed in Fr. James Martin’s controversial book entitled Building a Bridge. Read more
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Mary and Fatima: Reflections on the Sacred Feminine in Christianity and Islam
Both Mary and Fatima are seen, in their respective traditions, as “queens of paradise.” And what is a queen of paradise? Perhaps it has less to do with crowns and scepters, and more to do with a certain fullness of being, a height of proximity to the divine light. Read more
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Jesus Calendars from the Funeral Home
On the third day, He rises forever and He ascends, as He said He would… Read more
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The Talk of the Three-in-One: Meditations on the Trinity
Trinity Sunday is often joked about in Christian circle as that day anyone can easily fall into heresy via poor analogies for an incomparable mystery. Some insist the topic should not even be broached unless one has a theology degree, and even then it’s a matter that treads thin ice. I, however, take for granted… Read more
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Muffins and Moonflowers: A Harry Potter Fanfiction
“It’s your birthday. Go on, you can eat them. They’re all for you. Next year, you really must tell me what kind you want, as I usually make blueberry, but I can many anything you like, really…” Read more
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Forgive
Fingers clenched about black iron; I grip tight the pain I would inflict. But with one gentle tap at the door… Read more
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Mission Accomplished: A Crossover Story
“There’s a shortage of lovely red curls such as yours, it would be such a waste to cut it.” Read more