una corda—

One string.

Voice of the orchestra rippling deep.

See how the water writes songs for us.

We snare music to fill our books.

We drink stories to fill our lungs.

How long can we keep going before rising for air?

Must we return to three strings?

:lll:

Hello!

I'm Tre Corde, and I'm here because I have stories that get stuck in my head, rather like irritating strands of music that creep into the mind and proceed to play endlessly on loop. It's not always easy coaxing words to paper, but I try my best, and I'd quite like to share the resultant compositions (meager though they may be).

As you may have deduced from the flag icon up there, I'm American. I'm also ethnically Chinese, something I share with about a fifth of the world population. Sadly, my Mandarin is in a state of severe decay, and my self-consciousness about it occludes me from further improvement. There are, nonetheless, scattered parts of Chinese culture to which I hold dear. You may see this reflected in some of my writing.

Speaking of which: gentle visitor, feel free to peruse my feeble archive. If you'd like to chat about writing, or Hetalia, or anything, my PM box is always open and well-frequented. You may also find me hovering about The Helpful Hetalia Corner. It's a cozy place.

I thank you for taking the time to visit this humble profile. May you find whatever it is you are looking for in life, be it a simple story, or faith in humanity, or Waldo.

:lll:

CONSTELLATIONS [complete]

Light character study of a young China on the brink of the Warring States Period. Historical figures. Tongue-in-cheek footnotes.

EAST MEETS WEST [work in progress]

First priority.

Sort-of-but-not-really sequel to Constellations; plotting and research underway. Twenty-ish chapters, maybe? Possible weirdness and bizarre humor. China plus Rome equals comedy of errors.

Click here for character illustrations!

PATCHWORK [work in progress]

Second priority.

A study in flags, nations, and history. Each nation gets a chapter. Each chapter gets ten drabbles. Each drabble is exactly one hundred words, according to the word counter on ffnet (which overshoots, making this project even more difficult).

Will be adding more nations when time presents itself.

NOTES: I understand that some of the references will be extremely obscure, but I've refrained from posting notes since there are just so many, and I'd rather the footnotes not be longer than the chapters themselves. If there's anything that you're curious/confused about, feel free to message me! :)

:lll:

[July 4, 2015] Happy Independence Day, America! Stay bright your burning spirit.

[October 6, 2015] University grad apps extracurriculars = stressing me out like woah. Putting all works on hiatus until I can breathe again. See you all later!

[March 6, 2016] Wow, it's been a while. Spring break is just around the corner, and I'm crossing my fingers to get some writing time in! Hopefully I can kick this hiatus soon. I swear I've been rewriting the opening scene for ch. 12 like a zillion times, bluuuuh. Writer's block really sucks!

—tre corde