Gabriel Huizenga
Bio
Twas for love of words that I first joined this site:
Poetry, especially, and dear short stories too;
For to live one's best is to read, and to write!
So find me in words here, and I'll find you 💙
Thanks for stopping by! :)
Achievements (17)
Stories (118)
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Beginning-Endings Unofficial Challenge WINNERS
Well, this is embarrassing. I promised to announce the winners for this unofficial challenge nearly two full weeks ago - and here we are, winners unnanounced, zero updates from me, and a near total absence from the writing, reading, challenge-submitting, and commenting scenes on Vocal. OUCH.
By Gabriel Huizenga7 months ago in Fiction
Broken Bastions. Runner-Up in Tomorrow’s Utopia Challenge.
A shimmering tongue of green light danced atop the wood grain, refracting off of Emma Brewster's emerald ring. With a dextrous thumb, she twisted the piece of jewelry around the middle finger on which it always resided. A tiny, glowing monitor on the underside of the ring read "42% BTRY." Enough to last out the week. Good.
By Gabriel Huizenga8 months ago in Futurism
"Beginning-Endings" Unofficial Writing Challenge. Top Story - April 2025.
Welp, it's all in title: I am very excited to announce the kicking off of another unofficial challenge! I will be blathering on about the inspiration for this and such for a few paragraphs- so if you just want to get straight to the details of the challenge itself, feel free to skip down to the section in bold. No hard feelings, life can get busy. :)
By Gabriel Huizenga9 months ago in Fiction
An Improvised Instrumental Moment
Once again, I've allowed it to get down to the wire before sharing a musical endeavor for my New Year's resolution on Vocal (which was to create and share one song per month for the duration of 2025; I'm including the link to the original piece which describes this resolution below).
By Gabriel Huizenga9 months ago in Beat
beginning-endings. Runner-Up in Self-Editing Epiphany Challenge. Top Story - March 2025.
The following is an excerpt of a draft of the opening of a novel which I hope to someday write. This piece is being submitted for Vocal's "Self-Editing Epiphany" Challenge, and will therefore include my analysis and reflections following the conclusion of the excerpt. Cheers, friends!
By Gabriel Huizenga10 months ago in Critique
23 Line - an Original Song. Top Story - March 2025.
This piece is for my New Year's resolution to share one original song, however imperfect/unfinished it may be, per month! I'll put the link to the article in which I wrote about this resolution at the end of this piece. I am just getting this submission in in time - drat February for having a quicker deadline than other months! I definitely would like to make some lyrical and melodic changes to this piece, and would very much like to do a few more takes in the hopes of a better-sounding version than this draft. But I'm tired and have a sore throat today - and I intend to keep my promise of sharing one song each month! So here is my early version of "23 Line." The title and chorus refer to the number 23 bus line in the city, which I often find myself taking to get here and there. One day, I was sitting at a bus stop for the 23 line and enjoying a particularly lovely sky - while a song began to play through my battered headphones, whose central theme also pertained to enjoying the 'big sky.' Feeling inspired in that moment, I jotted down a few lines about feeling like a rich man with 'the whole sky' being mine. Over the next little while, it developed into more of what you'll hear below. More themes, moments, and reflections gradually fed into it, adding some other layers - but I'd love to hear what you think of it, if you have the time to listen and comment! I understand the words and scenes might be a little ambiguous (especially the ending) but I would love to know what it makes you lovely folks feel and think about. I know what it means to ME...but that's not necessarily the most important thing when sharing a creative endeavor. But anyhow, that's just about enough blathering from me for today (though I do need to meet a 600 word minimum word count). Thank you kindly for stopping by! It means more to me than I can say whenever folks take just a few moments to take in a creative endeavor of mine. It's a true gift- so cheers, all. :)
By Gabriel Huizenga11 months ago in Beat
