Welcome to my April edition of Writer’s Tips. In this post we’ll learn 11 great tips to polish up our blogposts by Hugh Roberts, and another detailed post from Hugh on how to use and interact on the popular Bluesky app, as well as Deborah Jay offers a comprehensive post on the differences in publishing between self-publishing and going traditional, and her Part 2 in the series, Deborah breaks down the various types of Editing, and Diana Peach brushes us up on Hyphens and Dashes.
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Hugh Roberts with 11 Tips to create better Blog Posts
My Sunday Book Review is for a short story, a bit of a bizarro read (which I do enjoy on occasion) – The Asylum Confessions: Patient #1024 by Jack steen. Because I do enjoy solving police procedurals and true crime is why I picked up this book.
They arrive alive. They leave dead. But first, they give me their confessions.
These are the patient files for the deathbed confessions of my patients.
This one you’re about to read is for PATIENT #1024. He’s known on my ward as The Chef and he has an interesting…appetite. His confession is included in The Asylum Confessions: Volume One
Fans of Stephen King, Joe Hill and like to read books like The Bird Box, The Haunting and can’t get enough stories about serial killers are going to enjoy reading the deathbed confessions from The Asylum.
My name is Jack Steen and for those who arrive on my ‘death’ ward at the Asylum, I’m the last face many will see before they die. I am the night nurse at the Asylum for the Criminally Insane.
Most of my patients are serial killers and mass murderers and they know me as the Angel of Death.
When they come onto my floor, I offer a deal: tell me their story, their ‘untold’ story that hasn’t been read about in the news, sensationalized by media or cataloged in a ridiculous number of academic papers. I want the real story – the one they haven’t old anyone. Some of these killers have never confessed to their crimes, some kept certain information to themselves…those are the stories I want.
If they give them to me, I’ll make their death…easier. They’re already dying, that’s why they’re now my patients. If they play nice, I can make their death less painful. But only if they play nice and tell me their confessions.
The majority of these killers are expert manipulators. I realize they could be playing me and messing with my head. It’s a chance I’m willing to take.
And now…they might just be playing with yours too.
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My 4 Star Review:
“When inmates come into my ward, they’re here for only one reason. To die.” But when they come into visit night nurse, Jack, they are offered a deal, a final chance to confess their souls.
Perhaps a bit creepy and sadistic, Jack likes to give these insane criminals a chance to tell their truth and document it, before they die. He says that even if some of it are lies, there’s always some truth mixed in.
It’s Chef’s turn to tell his story. Jack wants this story because Chef has never spoke about his crimes to anyone, including the presses.
Chef begins his story to Jack. He begins with his childhood. His parents owned a mortuary. He used to help out his dad, setting up chairs, etc. His brother Preacher detested the macabre and was uncomfortable helping out unless necessary. Chef admits when he turned 18, only then he was allowed in the crematorium. And that moment changed him.
No spoilers here. Admittedly, horror and diabolical reads are not my go-to. It’s because of my curiosity of human behavior why I watch crime stories and police procedurals. Hence, why I picked up this short read. The Chef stories were what I classify as diabolical. But the stories gave way to just how children become a product of their environments.
Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen the awards passed along, and it was lovely of Milena from the blog, Why I Quit My Job to include me in her nominees for the Sunshine Blogger Award. Below are Milena’s questions she left for us nominees, so here goes!
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What’s your favourite animal?
Dolphins. Self-explanatory. Peaceful, beautiful and a joy to watch.
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What TV show or movie do you wish you can watch for the first time again?
The Thornbirds. One of my favorite miniseries set in Australian outback. And Richard Chamberlain playing Father Ralph. Need I say more?
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What’s one thing you love unironically?
My husband forever, life, and freedom.
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What is your favourite dish to cook?
A good old chicken soup with lots of veggies and a scoop of rice.
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Share the one joke that always makes you laugh no matter how many times you hear it?
I’m a blank. My memory is like a sieve these days. Plus, I’m the worst at delivering jokes.
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What was your favourite cartoon growing up?
The Flintstones.
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You get to bring three items to a desert island. What are they?
Knife, book, sunscreen.
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What’s your go-to karaoke song?
Brandy (You’re a Fine Girl) by Looking Glass comes to mind as a friend and I used to gather when my brother’s friend was house-sitting for karaoke night. That was our duet, breakout song. Lol.
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Are you more of a “stay in and binge-watch” person or “go out and explore” person?
I’m a bit of both. But if nothing’s going on and my work is done, definitely a binge-watcher now.
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What’s your useless superpower?
Remembering too many things that should be forgotten.
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What’s the weirdest compliment you’ve ever received?
You surely do like wearing loud colors. Well, thank you. Yes I do.
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As always, like I used to do when receiving blog awards, I invite anyone who follows this blog to hop on the challenge. If you do, be sure and link to my blog so I can visit. 🙂
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Visit Milena’s blog to see her answers. Milena shares lots of recipes, art and photography – a little something for everyone.
.As always, like I used to do when receiving blog awards, I invite anyone who follows this blog to hop on the challenge. If you do, be sure and link to my blog so I can visit. 🙂
Welcome to my Sunday Book Review. Today I’m sharing an Amazon short read I received as one of my free monthly reads. I’d classify this book as women’s fun fiction with a drop of mystery.
Two good neighbors make the best of a bad Valentine’s Day in a funny and improbably romantic short story by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Just for the Summer.
It’s Valentine’s Day weekend, and Charlotte and Seth are not looking for romance. Armed with emotional-support bear spray, Charlotte is in self-imposed isolation and on guard from men. Having a stalker can do that to a person’s nerves. Just across the hall and giving off woodsy vibes is Seth, a recently divorced arborist. As in today recently. Heights, he’s fine with. Trust? Not so much. But when disaster traps them one flight up and no way down, an outrageously precarious predicament forces a tree-loving guy and a rattled girl next door to embrace their captivity. Soon their defenses are breaking away. Considering how close they both are to the edge, Charlotte and Seth could be in danger of falling—in love.
My 5 Star Review:
Charlotte and Seth are neighbors. By accident, the steps that allow them to walk into their second floor apartment building have been removed. It’s Friday and can’t expect anything to be done until at least Monday. Charlotte is armed with her trusted bear spray and Seth is a very recently divorced arborist. What could go wrong?
As the two are stranded at home for a long weekend, Seth and Charlotte become better friends, spending time together on Charlotte’s balcony. Seth decides to perk up Charlotte’s apartment by painting it, as what else did they have to do? Friends come by to bring treats and paint as Seth lowers down a bucket to grasp the goods.
In their talk time together, Charlotte bares her soul to Seth about why she carries bear spray, and has a baseball bat kept at the ready. She is still being stalked by weirdo from a previous job. As for Seth, he’s now one year divorced and he shares how that weird situation came about.
A flukey situation brings two neighbors together, both very cautious individuals because of their past experiences, adding a bit of mystery. But a fun escape read!
I’m thrilled to be back at Sally Cronin’s Smorgasbord Blog Magazine with my new series – Safety and Awareness. In this first post in the series, I’m discussing methods to stay safe in our everyday world of living.
Welcome back to my new series here at Sally’s Smorgasbord Blog Magazine. In this series I’m going to talk about various scenarios where it’s important to pay attention in our daily lives, and how to deal with these cautionary situations. Awareness.
Often, we do things out of habit and sometimes we miss paying attention to things because we are so used to those habits taken for granted. One thing I notice a lot is the lack of attention many people pay to their surroundings because they’re so engaged in looking at their phones, among other distractions.
The countless times I’m out and about or merely driving, I see people crossing roads with their heads down to their phones. That is putting a lot of trust in other drivers to pay attention to red lights and assuming they will actually stop, when in fact, almost everyone I see on the roads here are burning red lights. I also notice the plentiful amount of people walking aimlessly with earbuds in their ears. Besides the possibility of emergency vehicles whizzing by that can go unheard, not paying attention to surroundings also leaves us looking vulnerable to unsavory characters, leaving us open targets to possibilities like muggings or accidentally bumping into others, hit by passing bikes, or worse, being hit by a car.
Another thing I’ve become more aware of in the ever-changing climate of behaviors, is to be careful and aware of wearing flashy jewelry depending on where we are in our surroundings. I always loved wearing my beautiful baubles my husband has bought me through the years, but I’ve become extremely aware of my surroundings, especially now that I’m on my own. With the cost of living, especially here in my city, crime rates are up, and people are hungry. Sadly, these circumstances have some people committing crimes more-so out of desperation.
The world isn’t what it used to be, and crime is up in many places. My gems are locked away in the bank safe, when out and about by myself I’ve become more hesitant to wear them. Without my husband around and the wonderful social life we’ve always had has cautioned me to be careful what I wear, and where I wear things as to not cause attention wearing anything flashy. I feel better safe than sorry. Even just wearing my diamond wedding band, I always gauge my surroundings, and if walking anywhere questionable, I always turn it around so that only the gold band shows.
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I’d also like to share a tale of caution for the ladies who like to keep everything, including every piece of identification on their person or in their purses:
Approximately twenty years ago, I was grocery shopping at one of our higher-end grocery stores. I had my cart full of groceries directly in front of my car’s trunk unloading, while I stood directly in front of the cart where my purse sat. In a fleeting instant, a car raced right up beside me, the passenger reached out his arm to grab my purse as they fled by, only, I was also holding on to the strap as it was snatched. I ran with the car fighting for my purse until it finally turned on to the main road and I could no longer keep up and let go. Gratefully, I had my car keys and cell phone on my person. I called the police and met them over at the car dealership five minutes away where my husband was working.
The police told me I was quite brazen chasing the thugs and reminded me that I should have just let go as the muggers could have easily pulled a knife or gun on me while I struggled with them. I was petrified for a over a year because every single piece of identification I had was in my purse, along with my wallet and all cards. I was so frightened that they had my address and everything else of mine. Naturally, I cancelled all my cards and alerted the bank about my check book also in the purse. They told me there’d be an alert on my account and not to worry.
For one whole year I was petrified to be in my house alone. The security system was always turned on whether I was home or out. Getting all my government cards reissued was a huge hassle. And for what reason I was carrying my Social Insurance card and birth certificate in my wallet, I’ll never know. And oddly enough, it was almost three years after the incident, I noticed a check for almost $3,000 dollars had gone through our account. My signature was forged, and I took it up with the bank, as they were supposed to catch check shenanigans, looked at the copy of the check and saw plainly, it wasn’t my signature. They had to reimburse us and finally gave us another bank account number.
The whole incident of being mugged, in a nice neighborhood, standing at my own car unloading groceries, traumatized me for a few years, but had left me much more aware and alert of my surroundings. Of course, I also learned not to carry everything in my purse, but I also learned about awareness and being cautious wherever and whenever I went out since that time. Now I automatically put my purse in the car first thing, lock the door and then open the trunk to unload. My eyes are everywhere now whenever I’m walking anywhere, even just to my car.
I will also add that I see too many women shopping who leave their purses wide opened while shopping, as well as too many who leave their purses in a shopping cart idle while running down the aisles to pick up something they forgot. Just don’t! One never knows who is watching for an opportune moment.
Also, a warning to men who persist to keep their wallets in their back pants pockets like my husband used to love to do. It took me a while to train him about that, but he eventually complied. Men, please just don’t…please read the conclusion at Sally’s Smorgasbord.
My Sunday Book Review today is for a fascinating read on women’s empowerment – Give Her Credit by Grace L. Williams. The story of how a few women fought for and gained the rights to do their own banking and investments.
The galvanizing true story of a group of remarkable women in the 1970s male-run world of business, banking, and finance. They didn’t play by the rules. They changed them and made history.
In the 1970s, a new wave of feminism was sweeping America. But in the boys’ club of banking and finance, women were still infantilized—no credit without a male cosigner, and their income was dismissed as unreliable. If bankers weren’t going to accommodate women, then women had to take control of their own futures. In 1978 in Denver, Colorado, the opening of the Women’s Bank changed everything.
It was helmed by bank officer B. LaRae Orullian and the brainchild of whip-smart entrepreneur Carol Green, who forged a groundbreaking path with their headstrong colleagues, among them: Judi Foster, investment research whiz; Edna Mosley, unyielding civil rights advocate with the NAACP; Mary Roebling, renowned financial executive; Betty Freedman, a socialite and fundraiser; and Gail Schoettler, a formidable Denver mover and shaker for social justice. Coming together and facing their own unique road to revolution, they built the most successful female-run bank in the nation. It wasn’t easy.
Give Her Credit follows the challenges, uphill battles, and achievements of some of the enterprising women of Denver who broke boundaries, inspired millions, and afforded opportunities for every marginalized citizen in the country. It’s about time their untold story was told.
My 5 Star Review:
Mary Eckels was desperately looking for a loan of $20,000 in the early 1970s to establish her own business. Without any assets, except her car, she walked into the Women’s Bank. She wasn’t yet able to secure the loan, but the woman she confronted about the loan who admitted to her she couldn’t loan her the money, shared how Mary could go about becoming eligible to receive the loan.
One of the first women’s nationally chartered banks in America was founded in Denver, Colorado – not New York or San Francisco, surprisingly. Because this part of the west had been under Spanish rule during the 1700s, women in this part were granted same rights as in Spain – Spanish law transcended gender. Newer laws applied to the east, but in the west, women enjoyed their right to property and voting. In Colorado, suffrage passed by more than six thousand votes. As east coast women were still fighting for their rights didn’t get to vote until 1917.
This book was an engaging story about one woman’s fight for equality and the group of women who joined for women’s financial rights.
I saw this prompt pop up recently and thought I’d hop on it. When I decided to write this, it was Monday April 7th – four year anniversary of the death of my beloved husband.
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One Hundred
I remember thinking how lonely would it be to live to this age when I’ve already said goodbye to all those that mattered.
That’s what I used to think when I was a few decades younger and my empathy would catch my heart for those wise and wonderful older folk who’d lived long lives, wondering how it must have felt to have had to say goobye to lifetime friends and family.
Now I am the one.
From brazen to cautious as time takes away some of our brevity, especially as we watched the world drastically change right beneath our feet, almost in the blink of an eye. Alone.
I lost the love of my life some forty years ago, and half of me died with him that day.
I honestly thought I wouldn’t survive the year without him, let alone how I managed forty more here without him.
But one thing I do know, he has always been by my side, and that’s the honest truth about how I could continue to survive, knowing and sometimes feeling his presence.
I tried to enjoy life while living with a broken heart. Somehow, I’m now one hundred. I know the weight of sadness I’ve carried within for forty years will finally be lifted when you come to call.
For almost eighteen years, Jewel has known little beyond hopelessness and hunger. Barely existing in a ramshackle cabin, on the edge of a Louisiana swamp with her little sister and their mother, she sees no way to stop the downward spiral. When her mother falls gravely ill, Jewel learns that her life is about to take a drastic turn. But will it lead to joy or more devastation? Take a heart-warming journey with Jewel as she struggles to rise from the clutches of poverty and shame.
My 5 Star Review:
Jewel is almost eighteen years old living with her ailing mother and young sister Sara in a cabin in the swampland of Louisiana. Abandoned by the father, in dire poverty, the mother knows she’s not getting any better and does the best she can to make sure her daughters will survive. Young Sara is sent of to live with a family who can take care of her, and once Jewel turns eighteen, sends her off to live with a friend at her ‘house of ill repute’ she owns back in New Orleans. Once there, Jewel grows up fast when she is dolled up and taught how to ‘entertain’ gentlemen. Jewel is fortunate that her first client, a wealthy businessman, Frank Edwards, takes a shining to her and changes her life forever.
This is a short and hopeful coming of age, rags to riches story. A mother’s love with nothing else to help her daughters, does the best she can to make sure her girls will be looked after, despite what she must do to make that happen.
DGKayewriter.com 