18 Going On Eighty

"Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare genetic condition, he's been alive for centuries. From Elizabethan England to Jazz-Age Paris, from New York to the South Seas, Tom has seen a lot, and now craves an ordinary life." How to Stop Time is a captivating novel, with a heartwarming (and heart-wrenching) story. It follows love, loss, and so, so much more. It moves at breakneck speed through different times and places, but its quite easy to follow, with a truly brilliant storyline. Unlike Haig's real-llife book, Reasons to Stay Alive (read my thoughts on that one by clicking here ), this is a completely fictional story - but it does draw from the author's real experiences. When speaking about character Tom Hazard's condition, and him being over 400 years old, Haig said that when he was suffering with depression, he felt like he was 400 years old, because the illness had a funny way of making each day s...

By Emma Writing prompt used: Your character looks at Death. Death looks at your character. "You're early," Death finally says. "You're early," Death finally says. "Well, it wasn't my fault I was mowed down by a crazy woman riding a cow," I answer, feeling annoyed how Death could even think this was my fault! I'd like to see him  do my job. "I rather enjoyed it. What shall I do with you now?" sighs Death. "Mate, you've known me a long long time, just, you know.....give me some of that life stuff that you keep in your store room," I ask nicely with a big smile. "That's for emergencies, Travis!" "Come on, just a sprinkle?" "I can't give you Vitae again! I may be Death but it isn't me who makes all the decisions around here." "You were the one who sent me on a mission, to kill that woman. You said she had too much life," I sulk. "Just forget it...

I look at Death. Death is looking right back at me, dead in the eyes (excuse the pun). It feels as though each of us is waiting for the other to make the first move.  "You're early", Death finally says. To this, I don't know what to respond. You see, I thought I was right on time. I made it here, I didn't die in vain. I lived a good life. A short one, yes. But it was good. I did the right thing. Yet, as I think about this, I wonder if I'm wrong; I left behind so many people by giving my life away. I did it to save them but in doing so, did I destroy them? I left my family, my friends, my beautiful daughter... All of them without their son, their brother, their wife, their father, their friend. To think of this causes me the most intense pain and sorrow I've ever experienced. But I have seen horrors, terrible things. I myself have had to do some terrible things in order to ultimately survive... If I hadn't done what I did, I suppose I would never...