Navida by Lisa

Navida stood at the edge of the Santa Monica pier, looking down. It was her last visit, her very last gift.

The first thing she’d done was make a list of everything she hadn’t had a chance to do in her other six visits—she’d parasailed and climbed a mountain and ridden a Vespa and egged a house. She’d done almost everything she’d wanted to. She’d even fallen in love.

His name was Shane and he was an artist. He’d even painted her picture—number 47 on her list. She’d spent a thrilling four months with him. She’d tried to tell him what she was, how she didn’t have much time to be with him, but he’d never really listened to her. In the end it was a blessing—he’d left her for an exotic dancer near Marseilles, said she was too young for him, too young for this life.

The things he didn’t know.

She leaned far over the metal railing of the pier. There were warning signs all over as to what you could or could not do, but she climbed up a few bars of the fencing. Down below, the ocean roiled with the high tide, and three salt tears fell silently into the Pacific.

She breathed in the familiar smell of brine, and the wind touched her face, carrying with it a whisper of the world she was returning to. She shivered slightly, even as something deep within her core yearned for home.

The sun was still resting its full weight on the horizon, though, and she had until the last ray sank underneath the waves.

A New Year, A New Us

So, loyal readers, as you can see, Hollow Tree has undergone some changes — just as we promised.

Lisa and I put some thought into it and we realized that though we loved our original purpose for Hollow Tree, real life can often put a damper on the best laid plans.

But fear not! We are nowhere near done with this place. Instead, we’ve decided to tweak its purpose, just enough to keep it interesting, but not too much to make it something altogether new.

Check out our new mission statement and join us on a new, exciting journey as we take on something we’ve never done before…

Lisa and Isabelle have been writing partners for years, playing sounding board and cheerleader for each other.  Their tastes are similar while their styles are unquestionably different.  One thing they’re both passionate about, though, is YA Fantasy and paranormal.

This blog is a writing challenge for us, and a treasure of free reads for you.  Sometimes book reviews and interviews will be thrown in as well, but the main focus will be on sharing one short story per week, either by Lisa or Isabelle.

Our intent is to find and share new worlds, just a step beyond our own.  To follow Alice down the rabbit hole, take the second star to the right and step through that dresser drawer… only we’ve been all those places before.  And there are many, many more waiting to be found if we know where to look.  It’s those little entrances that we seek out here, a glassy pond, a locked door, a hollow tree…