Clara Elizabeth Hamilton Orr Burns
Bio
"I was always an unusual girl
My mother told me that I had a chameleon soul
No moral compass pointing due north
No fixed personality...
...With a fire for every experience and an obsession for freedom"
-Lana Del Ray
Ride
Achievements (1)
Stories (47)
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Vocal+ Goals
I've always believed that setting goals is important. In January 2021, I set myself 3 goals for my written work on Vocal+ and in the last week, I've completed all of them much to my astonishment and delight. The emotions that I felt at having completed these goals before we're even halfway through the year lead me to the decision that I wanted to set myself a few more. I don't believe that there is anything wrong with a little bit of healthy ambition as long as one knows how to stave off complete disappointment when things don't quite go as planned.
By Clara Elizabeth Hamilton Orr Burns5 years ago in Journal
Co-Parenting: Not For The Faint of Heart
Let's get one thing straight right off the bat. Breakups suck. It is a fact universally acknowledged by anyone that has ever been in a relationship that no breakup is a good breakup. Some breakups may be better than others but in 99% of relationships that end, it's safe to say they breakups just suck.
By Clara Elizabeth Hamilton Orr Burns5 years ago in Families
It's Not The Winning. It's The Taking Part.. Top Story - March 2021.
We all grew up with those phrases: Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. You're rubber and I'm glue, what you say bounces off me and sticks to you. And of course my personal favourite, it's not the winning, it's the taking part that counts.
By Clara Elizabeth Hamilton Orr Burns5 years ago in Motivation
Writers Should Be Using Vocal+. Top Story - March 2021.
I very much doubt that I am the only writer this side of the universe or any other side for that matter that struggles to stay focused. A creative mind is a wonderful and beautiful thing but it has a tendency to buzz and run from one creative project to another. For the longest time I struggled to stay focused on any one writing project and even harder to stay motivated when I did. Writing like any other craft takes practise.
By Clara Elizabeth Hamilton Orr Burns5 years ago in Journal
The Fault in My Star Signs
I've never really been massively interested in astronomy. My Dad believes in it and often tries to guess people's star signs after brief meetings. He's always very excited when he gets it right. My Dad would have said to me well you do that because you're a Libra or you feel that way because you're a Libra and when I was old enough to find out for myself what the particular traits pertaining to the Libra Zodiac sign were, I had to agree with my Dad that I did seem to fit the general profile.
By Clara Elizabeth Hamilton Orr Burns5 years ago in Futurism
Prophecy Girl
How much time has to pass for a crime to become less significant? A decade? More? How to you decide when murder, rape, assault, theft, is no longer worth investigating? Some people seem to be able to leave the past where they have buried it. I was never someone who could do that. The past is what makes us who we are both the good of it and the bad. Is it not the responsibility of those of us here on this earth now, to weed out the crimes of the past and hold those who committed them accountable, even if they too are gone? Of course, I suppose it could be argued that it's harder for a person like me to let go, when they are surrounded by the noise of other people’s pasts and by their secrets.
By Clara Elizabeth Hamilton Orr Burns5 years ago in Criminal
Postcard Revenge
"It just isn't fun anymore Doreen," I sighed, absently stirring my coffee. "When we first met, we had so much fun, he always made me laugh, I never wanted him to go anywhere and now..." I trailed off and stared at my friend, trying not to take too much offense at the disappointment in her eyes.
By Clara Elizabeth Hamilton Orr Burns5 years ago in Humans
Hairbrush Heartache
As Valentine's Day 2021 approaches, most of us whether we're currently romantically entangled or not, find ourselves looking back to the ghosts of Valentines past. The lovers, not the actual days. If we're honest with ourselves most of the actual celebrations don't make it into the long term memory banks. Then men and women we shared them with however are harder to forget and the songs we blasted in our headphones to drown out the pain of those breakups, well, they stick with us too and when we hear them later in our lives, we're transported to a different time.
By Clara Elizabeth Hamilton Orr Burns5 years ago in Beat
The Banshee of Ballymore
There is a rocking chair in a house in the seaside town of Ballymore. As the walls decay, the chair remains, vacant and yet moving. Sometimes just for a moment, a flash and then it is over, leaving anyone who saw it to wonder if it even happened at all. There are times, when the wind coming from the sea howls and seems to settle on that house and then perhaps, you might see her. The owner of the empty chair. She sits, in her white gown, rocking back and forth, combing long, thin and wet black hair with bony fingers and fixing dead eyes on a fireplace that no longer burns, moving the chair back and forth, back and forth with dirty feet. There are times, when the wind coming from the sea howls and then perhaps, you might hear her. As she rocks, as she combs, as the wind howls, she wails and the wails become the howling and the howling wind carries a name to the people of Ballymore and they know, that death is coming.
By Clara Elizabeth Hamilton Orr Burns5 years ago in Horror
Giving up on Shaving Doesn't Mean You're Giving up on Yourself
Why Do We Shave? Ever since I started growing hair anywhere other than my head, I've been shaving it off, or waxing it off, creaming it off, threading it off, basically trying anything that would keep those nasty hairs away. I bloomed early so my razor journey started when I was around eleven. I didn't understand why I felt this need to get rid of the hair, it was instinctual. Of course now I understand that it mostly had to do with the fact that I had access to a television. Every Saturday when I sat down to my cartoons on Milkshake, Channel 5, the advert breaks would bring with them countless beautiful women gliding pink razors up their legs and then stroking their perfect, blemish and cellulite free legs, ohing and ahing at the silky smoothness. So, it was obvious that female hair, unless growing luxuriously atop your head and flowing down ones back in a seductive manner, just wasn't meant to be there.
By Clara Elizabeth Hamilton Orr Burns5 years ago in Viva
Why Biden's Win is About More Than the American Presidency
For many of us, watching the actions of Trump over the last four years has brought on a wide variety of emotions; fear, confusion, amusement, incredulity and sometimes just downright anger.
By Clara Elizabeth Hamilton Orr Burns5 years ago in The Swamp
