Author: mariasjostrand

Author of Saving Hell, a comedic fantasy about optimism, the afterlife, and a surprisingly pleasant Hell. Enjoy my many free short stories and poems, and check out my novel at amazon.co.uk!

Pride and Prejudice: A Feminist Criticism

~ mariasjostrand ~ 24 Comments

A/N: This week’s post is an academic essay on Pride and Prejudice with a focus on feminism. 

The iconic story of Pride and Prejudice was published in 1813, but even though it was written by Jane Austen it was not published under her name. This was because that during the beginning of the nineteenth century, it was still considered shocking and scandalous for a woman to write for money.

This meant that when a book was published under an anonymous name it was often because it was in fact written by a woman. This also held true for the rest of Austen’s published work such as Sense and Sensibility, which was also published anonymously.

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The Eyes

~ mariasjostrand ~ 2 Comments

One of those short poems that are so powerful despite (and because of) their length – personally I imagine it’s about parents… what about you guys? 🙂

pawan35's avatarWandering soul yogi becoming

These eyes saw you coming and saw you going. The only difference, they smiled when you came and were filled with tears when you left.

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The Anniversary Game

~ mariasjostrand ~ 36 Comments

A/N: A quick flash fiction. 

Every year Eleanor Perry divorced her husband.

It was always around the middle of May, at the stroke of noon. It was true that midnight would have been more dramatic, but she honestly didn’t feel like having to stay up.

Eleanor loved her husband almost as much as she hated him. He was infuriating in every sense of the word. It was one thing that he was always mocking her, always embarrassing her and always making her feel like a little child – all of this she could forgive.

What she couldn’t forgive was how much he loved her.

He never tried to hide it. He was as brutally honest about his love for her as he was about everything else. He seemed to think it the greatest joke of his life.

“I want a divorce,” she said as she barged into the living room, and Roger looked up with his familiar sardonic smile. He was sitting alone, smoking one of those hated Cuban cigars that made the entire living room smell for days. He had been expecting her.

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Dear Santa…

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A/N: A poem consisting of an eight-year-old boy’s letter to Santa. 

Dear Santa, I’ve been real good this year, so please send me what I wish for as a gift,

Please dear Santa, don’t send me coal, for I’m not on the Naughty List!

I’ve been brushing my teeth twice a day, and eaten no stolen sweets.

And I’ve been a brave boy, Santa, for it is only twice that I this year have wetted my sheets.

I asked mom to turn the night lamp off, and so I lie there alone in the dark.

But I’m a brave boy now, so worry not, last week I even stood up for Mark!

He’s been teased, and he’s been pushed, and this time I said no more!

And Mark and I are best friends now, of this we together swore.

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Sun & Moon

~ mariasjostrand ~ 3 Comments

A cute little story, very much like a fairy tale. Written by writer Mie Kjerulff.

miekjerulff's avatarMie Kjerulff

In the beginning of time, when the earth was still young, the Great Mother had chosen the round Sun and the crescent Moon to rule the skies together as one. It was agreed that the Sun would soar the sky during the day parading his strong golden light, and when Night came to spread his blanket of darkness on earth, the fair Moon would follow sharing her subtle, soft white glow. Everything was harmony.

After centuries of being close to each other, Night and the Moon fell in love and as their love grew stronger it fostered children. Their children arose to the heavens as Stars; for every new child, was a new Star.
The Moon’s never ending love for the Night and the Stars made her grow and become bigger, until she, too was round like the Sun, and with her sudden immensity her once soft glow was becoming…

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Loved By Death; Chapter 24

~ mariasjostrand ~ 10 Comments

A/N: Last chapter! 

It would have been nice to say that everything after that just worked itself out. But though Persephone had realised that her mother brought her far more misery than joy she found herself unable to truly cut her out of her life. Demeter was, after all, still her mother.

Still, she visited her mother less than ever, and found herself actually looking forward to returning to the Underworld. Primarily because it would mean several months away from Demeter, and partly because of the time she would get to spend with Hades.

Persephone wished that she could say that her and Hermes were friends again, but they weren’t – or perhaps they were, but not in the way they’d been before. She suspected that it would take quite a while to trust him completely once again, but none of the other gods were talking about them, so he had at least held his promise to only pretend in front of Demeter.

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