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Blessings IWSG

#IWSG Jan. 2025- Who did you admire as a kid?

Created and hosted by the Ninja himself, Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writers Support Group posts the 1st Wednesday of every month. Click here to learn more or sign up.

Optional Monthly Question: Describe someone you admired when you were a child. Did your opinion of that person change when you grew up?

My answer is also available as a YouTube Short I’ve shared on social media.

So for me, this was kind of a difficult question. I think I’ve always looked up to the adults in my family, and those throughout my family history. It’s hard for me to pinpoint whether or not there was someone specific, outside of my family that I admired; however, I know there are so many noteworthy historical figures that I’ve learned about throughout my life. They cover many facets, like, science, politics, literature, and entertainment. I’m human, like everyone else, so I have different people that I prefer over others in terms of celebrities and public figures.

I think for me though, what it boils down to is that growing up in Texas meant that I had Texas history. When I was around 11 or 12, I moved to Virginia and I started getting Virginia history. There are a lot of similarities but the most resounding thing that sticks out to me, is how a lot of the figures that I was taught as a child were so great and noble, as an adult I’ve learned that they’re not so great and noble. Some of them I learned about before I was even an adult. So much of history is based upon where you’re getting it who you’re getting it from. So while these people may have done a lot for their communities, what they did was based on greed and oppression and suppression.

So, there’s no one person, but there are a lot of people that I may have admired as a child that I don’t admire anymore, but there are a lot that I do still admire.

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Personal Updates…

1) Here’s a post you may have missed where I give an update about my Mark of Bletsian series.

2) I’ve moved my personal updates over to Patreon. Anyone can access this post because it’s public. And though it requires a one-time login, so does Substack. In any case, my feelings will not be hurt if no one is willing to click through.

I’d love to grow my Patreon community to 100 free subscribers by 2026, but I’d also be happy with one more than I currently have. It is what it is.

My Patreon community was able to watch my Counting My Blessings video three days early, but now its public if you’d like to see it and don’t want to go to Patreon. There’s also a short for it, in case the full video is too long for you.

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Commerce update…

I HEART Books crewneck featured.

If you’re interested in the featured item or other clothing, click to visit Sell My Tees.

I’m happy that people are starting to show interest in my merch. The stickers of this design have been doing well. It also comes in white letters on a black background. It’s the only thing I currently have that’s selling. The stickers and other accessories can be found at Redbubble.

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Do you still admire someone you did as a child?

It may take some time, but I promise, I will eventually stop by your blog.

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After hanging out with Alex, be sure to stop by and visit this month’s co-hosts:
Rebecca Douglass,
Beth Camp,
Liza @ Middle Passages,
and Natalie @ Literary Rambles!

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Click here to visit other IWSG blogs and sites to receive and share more inspiration and support. (This month, I’m #23).

Did you know you can join my community for FREE over at Patreon to receive a monthly update on the creative projects I’m working on? I tell you the truth, it’s better than a newsletter!

Thank you for making it this far down the virtual page. Kudos to you! I’d love to know what you thought of this post in the comments below. Stay safe and be blessed.

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IWSG

#IWSG Dec. 2024- Cliffhangers

Created and hosted by the Ninja himself, Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writers Support Group posts the 1st Wednesday of every month. Click here to learn more or sign up.

Optional Monthly Question: Do you write cliffhangers at the end of your stories? Are they a turn-off to you as a writer and/or a reader?

I do not write cliffhangers because I don’t like them. Since it seems that so many people do like them, I’ve learned to tolerate them, but I won’t write them myself. I have, and probably will again, rated a book lower due to an abrupt or cliffhanger ending in situations where I feel like the author is just dragging their story out to sell more books. If your book is less than 300 pages, do you really need a cliffhanger?

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And now, on to the personal updates…

I have plenty to say, but I’m not yet ready, so nothing to update at the moment.

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How do you feel about cliffhangers?
It may take some time, but I promise, I will eventually stop by your blog.

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After hanging out with Alex, be sure to stop by and visit this month’s co-hosts:
Ronel,
Deniz,
Pat Garcia,
Olga Godim,
and Cathrina Constantine!

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Click here to visit other IWSG blogs and sites to receive and share more inspiration and support. (This month, I’m #25).

Did you know you can join my community for FREE over at Patreon to receive a monthly update on the creative projects I’m working on? I tell you the truth, it’s better than a newsletter!

Thank you for making it this far down the virtual page. Kudos to you! I’d love to know what you thought of this post in the comments below. Stay safe and be blessed.

Categories
IWSG

#IWSG Oct. 2024- Ghost Stories?

Created and hosted by the Ninja himself, Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writers Support Group posts the 1st Wednesday of every month. Click here to learn more or sign up.

**This site has been experiencing outages. If you are able to see this post, thank you bunches for stopping by. I look forward to spending time with you this month.**

This post contains affiliate links. If you click through to make a purchase, I may make a small commission at no additional cost to you. Any amount I make goes towards my dream to host a book fair in Hampton Roads, VA. Please see my About page for more details. Thank you for your support.

Optional Monthly Question: Ghost stories fit right in during this month. What’s your favorite classic ghostly tale? Tell us about it and why it sends chills up your spine.

I’ve read many scary stories in my life, but most of them make me feel either sad or mad. There have been a few that stuck with me long after reading simply because of how scary they were.

When I was much younger, I didn’t think Poe’s Tell-Tale Heart was that scary, yet it stuck with me. The madness of the killer and the depiction of paranoia made me feel sorry for the guy. Still, I would have called the cops on him if someone else hadn’t (Wink Wink). It was later in my early twenties when the story took on a level of terror that I still can’t fully explain. It was then that I learned that ravens can actually mimic human voices and words, even to a greater degree than parrots if they are properly trained. Before I simply imagined the madman hearing the bird say “nevermore”, after learning that, I could envision the scene playing out, where the raven is talking to him from above the door. That’s what got me. To this day, it’s one of the scariest stories I re-read each year.

Update- After writing this post, I realized that I was mashing two stories together- The Raven and The Tell-Tale Heart. I still think the talking raven is spooky but the beating heart from Tell-Tale is what really sticks with me. I always imagine the raven is a call back to the other story letting the reader know, “I know what you’ve been doing.”

On a slightly different note, there is one fairly recent scary book I’ve only read once. It’s so scary that I may never read it again, but if a sequel comes out, I will definitely pick it up. You can click the image to read my Goodreads review and I’ve also included a purchase link in case you are interested.

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And now, on to the personal updates…

I have plenty to say, but I’m not yet ready, so nothing to update at the moment.

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What are your favorite or worst ghost stories?
It may take some time, but I promise, I will eventually stop by your blog.

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After hanging out with Alex, be sure to stop by and visit this month’s co-hosts:
Nancy Gideon,
Jennifer Lane,
Jacqui Murray,
and Natalie Aguirre!

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Click here to visit other IWSG blogs and sites to receive and share more inspiration and support. (This month, I’m #25).

Did you know you can join my community for FREE over at Patreon to receive a monthly update on the creative projects I’m working on? I tell you the truth, it’s better than a newsletter!

Thank you for making it this far down the virtual page. Kudos to you! I’d love to know what you thought of this post in the comments below. Stay safe and be blessed.