Kat Michels
Bio
Kat Michels lives in Los Angeles, CA and is the author of a historical fiction novel, three children’s books and worked as a theater critic for seven years. Kat has received multiple awards for her writing, including two regional Emmys.
Stories (14/0)
The Girl Who Was Born to Be Broken; Chapter 8
The remaining days at the fair, saw the girl much diminished from her exuberant persona on the first day. She was still able to work her way through the customers and procure deals and trades that astonished the tinker, but there was no joy in her work. At first, so busy with his own tasks, the tinker didn’t even notice the difference in the girl. When he finally did notice something was off, he chalked the change up to exhaustion and told the girl that she could go relax with the mother and sister for a spell if she wanted. But this suggestion was met with a renewed vigor of the girl’s work so the tinker shrugged his shoulders and went back to work himself.
By Kat Michels4 months ago in Chapters
The Girl Who Was Born to Be Broken; Chapter 7
Once the girl began abstaining from milk and cheese, she was feeling back to her old self in no time, and even had a rush of energy. The mother lamented that all of her hard work to turn the girl into a lady had been lost. The healers must have bled that out of the girl instead of the illness. The mother would have to start over again. But the mother’s lamenting didn’t dampen the girl’s spirits, because not only was she feeling better, but the tinker had announced that the entire family was in need of a diversion, so he was taking them all to the fair with him at the end of the month.
By Kat Michels8 months ago in Chapters
The Girl Who Was Born to Be Broken; Chapter 6
Not long after the incident at the pond, a nagging stomach pain started to plague her. At first it was slight and intermittent, but soon not a day went by that she didn’t have pains. The mother, preoccupied with her own ailments, told the girl that it was in her head, or that she was just trying to get attention. Not wanting to add to the over-worked tinker’s burdens, the girl didn’t tell him. However, when the girl’s pains became so great that she spent every evening after dinner curled up in a ball crying, the tinker was alerted to the problem, and the mother could no longer deny that there was something wrong.
By Kat Michels9 months ago in Chapters
The Girl Who Was Born to Be Broken; Chapter 5
The wise woman once more proved to be correct, and the mother’s condition remained. Some days were better than others, but there were often more bad days than good. This was fueled by the fact that the mother refused to acknowledge that she had limitations, and would often push herself beyond what she was capable. Slowly her sewing clients who could do their own stitching withdrew their work, and when a village girl came of age, got married and spread word that she was taking on stitching work, the mother lost the last of her clients. The tinker exclaimed this to be a good thing as it would allow the mother more time to rest, however it meant that he was gone more often traveling further to make up the lost income.
By Kat Michels10 months ago in Chapters
The Girl Who Was Born to Be Broken; Chapter 4
With the rains having past, and the girl still showing no signs of injury, the tinker left on an extended trip to sell and deliver his pots. By the time he returned, the thought of consulting the wise woman had passed, and life continued as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. With the girl back at home, the mother was faced once more with the daunting chore of keeping up with the girl’s precociousness while trying to do her sewing. However, now when the girl became too much, the mother would threaten the girl that if she didn’t behave and sit quietly like her sister, the mother would send her back out with her father to be run over by the cart again. Inevitably this would work and the girl would sit frightened, but quiet, and pretend to play with the doll that she had been given but that held no interest to her.
By Kat Michels10 months ago in Chapters
The Girl Who Was Born to Be Broken; Chapter 3
With the exception of the usual bumps, bruises and sniffles of childhood, the girl’s first few years were uneventful. Her mother, on the other hand, did not fare as well. She grew tired, and no amount of sleep, or quantity of tonics could seem to refresh her fully. This was chalked up to being the mother of two small children. Even so, her fatigue seemed to touch her in a way that was different from the other mother’s in the village. The healer surmised that despite the wife’s easy birth of the girl, it had taken a toll on her nevertheless and she simply hadn’t fully recovered. To make matters worse, the girl herself, added to the mother’s fatigue.
By Kat Michels10 months ago in Chapters
The Girl Who Was Born to Be Broken; Chapter 2
As the old woman had foretold, a daughter was born before the day had ended, and both she and the mother were little worse for the wear. As the tinker and his wife had been hoping for a boy, they were disappointed, but she held a special place in the mother’s heart as she had caused her so little pain. She was a quiet, unfussy baby, with the exception that not long after taking from her mother’s breast almost all that she had eaten would be regurgitated back up. The wife was at her wit’s end. What was wrong with her milk that the child did not like it? Not to mention, her laundry lines were forever full with all of the added laundry from the child’s messes.
By Kat Michels10 months ago in Chapters
The Girl Who Was Born to Be Broken; Chapter 1
This is the story of the girl who was born to be broken. This is not a fate that is meted out often, and when she was born there was only one person in the entirety of the village and all the surrounding area who even remembered that such a fate existed, and she had had suspicions of what was coming. She was the wise old woman after all, and she defied the binds of time. As such she kept the living history of the people. Even still, she had never met one born to be broken. It was that rare.
By Kat Michels10 months ago in Chapters
Loving Yourself is Not Enough
It seems like everywhere you look there’s someone touting the importance of self-love. Whether it’s in the arena of self-help, or positivity, or body acceptance, or dating advice, eventually you wind up back at the idea that you have to love yourself. Which is great, I don’t necessarily disagree with that. Although there is something to be said for having people in your life who love you even when you can’t love yourself. But that’s another topic altogether. My problem with the Love Thyself movement, is that there’s this unspoken understanding that as long as you love yourself all of your problems will magically go away.
By Kat Michelsabout a year ago in Motivation
It's Okay to Not Be Okay
They say that with the passage of time death anniversaries become easier … which to some degree is true. For several years now, the anniversary of my mom’s death has come and gone with little disruption to my life. We were not close. In fact, as she was my abuser, I spent most of her final years hating her. She may have been a good person (the people who spoke at her funeral seemed to think so), but she was not a good mother. Which of course added a whole other complicated aspect to my grieving process. At any rate, thanks to large amounts of therapy, her anniversary usually comes and goes with little fanfare now.
By Kat Michelsabout a year ago in Confessions
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