#daily writing challenge 2017

[tanoraqui]

Trick or treat!

obviously all disabilities are totally underrepresented in mainstream and non-mainstream fiction, but I’ve been thinking recently that one I’d really like to see, which you could easily write in offhandedly or as a compelling character-building plot point, and have no trouble casting for in live action, is simply: anything that requires continuous, consistently timed medication.

According to CDC surveys circa 2017-19, roughly 1 out of every 7 women in the USA use birth control pills, which usually need to be taken at a very regular daily time in a very regular monthly pattern.

According to my personal experience, it’s extremely possible to live a basically normal life with low but functional vision and also half a dozen other petty ongoing problems, while also having every single day of your life—and, god knows, any travel you want to do—organized around the fact that you need to take multiple eye drops roughly every 12 hours, one of which needs to stay refrigerated at all times.

If you need regular medication, a portal fantasy adventure presents a real problem. An unexpected urban fantasy adventure that prevents you from going home for more than a day is a problem. Excuse me, aliens who have abducted me? If I list the drugs I regularly take, and tell you very roughly what each does, can you synthesize them perfectly? No, I don’t know any of the active ingredients, sorry. Hell, as a romance novel protagonist, an impulsive overnight stay with a hot stranger I met at a bar isn’t an option!

I think this would be a fun challenge for writers to work around while constructing plots, a good source of characterization as they examine how scrupulous a character is about their schedule (or how anxious once off-schedule), and, seriously, so easy to slide into the background if not a focus of the story. Do you know how often I wander into my kitchen half-asleep and take an eye drop? Roughly twice a day! The sitcom au of my life would just have this as background in a wide variety of scenes! AND it’s not something you need to do a lot of research in order to depict—just note “character must take macguffinex every 6-18 hours or they’ll start to get worried about the long-term health of their [insert organ here]” and use that as a background parameter for your story.

[cherry-holmes]

RIVER - Javier Peña x f!Reader

Glimpse of a life with Javier Peña

Chapter —

MASTERLIST

Summary: Javi took you to his favorite place on earth: heaven.

SERIES MASTERLIST

Pairing: Javier Peña x Female Reader

Word count: +3k

Warnings: Angst with happy ending (sad!Javi) Parent loss. | SMUT. Again, there's a lot of plot before the smut😅P in V sex. Unprotected sex. Rough-ish sex. Fingering. Sex in a public place -ish. Breeding kink. Praise kink. Pregnancy talk.

A/N: Hello, Hola! First of all I want to thank all of you for the support you gave me on my first work! Muchas gracias! I been writing for almost ten years now, but I haven't publish anything since my first fanfic on Wattpad in 2017😅

I hope you like this one as much as the first one!

I repeat, I'm not a native English speaker, but I'm a translator student so I hope I'm doing it well!

If you wanna send me a request, my box is open!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Several daily high temperature records were broken Tuesday in Texas, including at Houston Hobby Airport, Corpus Christi, Laredo and Del Rio. Laredo hit 115 degrees, marking its 10th consecutive day of record highs...

Indeed, as the reporter mentioned on the radio, those were incredibly hot summer days. The air was dry and the sun was burner, it drain all your energy.

You tried to be helpful at the Peña's Ranch during your work vacations, but the chores felt like torture. Javier and his father used to spend hours under the unforgiving sun, repairing fences, tending to horses, herding cattle, and dealing with clients looking for meat animals. The life of a ranch owner was undeniably tough but prosperous.

Sunday arrived with the thermometer hitting nearly 115 degrees. When you woke up that morning, you anticipated a challenging day ahead. However, Javier woke up with a plan in mind. He mentioned knowing about a river around 22 kilometers from the ranch were he used to spend all summer with his cousins when he was a child. You hadn't explored much of the city since you'd been living there for five months since your return from Colombia. So, you were excited about the idea of discovering your new home state, and most importantly, having a day off to immerse yourself in nature. He was delighted that you had agreed to the plan and suggested that you wear sportswear for hiking and a swimsuit.

You inquired him if his father would join, but he explained that Don Chucho would attend the morning mass and then spend the rest of the day at his brother's house.

"It's just you and me today, mi vida," he promised, his large hands squeezing your hips as he left soft kisses on your shoulders as you prepared containers with cubes of watermelon and mango seasoned with lemon and chile Tajín.

Javier placed a small cooler in the back of his '94 Dodge Ram and filled it with beers, water, the fruits you had prepared, and some tamales you had bought and had leftover from the night before.

You jumped into the passenger seat, and Javi turned on the radio as the truck roared to life. The sound of cumbias tejanas played softly as you admired the view of Laredo's countryside. The wind blew through your hair, and Javi drummed his fingers on the steering wheel syncing with the rhythm of Bobby Pulido's song. You felt his free hand touch yours, and when you looked at him, he took your knuckles and placed a kiss on them. He briefly took his eyes off the road to gaze into yours and said, "You look so beautiful today."

Your cheeks turned red as you laughed shyly, but you couldn't resist teasing him, "Only today?"

He grinned and replied, "You've always been a beauty, chiquita."

Thirty minutes later, Javier parked the truck in an improvised parking lot used by visitors to the river. You grabbed your backpack, which was packed with clean towels and dry underwear, while Javi carried the cooler and his own backpack. As you followed him through the lush vegetation and the cool water of the river, you welcomed the fresh air and the shade of the trees. Families and groups of young friends, some with dogs and others who appeared to have camped there overnight, were scattered about. But you notice that Javi didn't follow the same path as the rest of the visitors.

Curious, you asked Javi, "Where are we going?"

He grinned and replied, "It's a surprise."

You continued hiking uphill, leaving the main river trail further and further behind. However, you could still hear the gentle rush of the river. The air was filled with the fresh aroma of blooming flowers and damp earth. Butterflies fluttered everywhere, and you spotted squirrels and birds with vibrant-colored feathers.

After thirty minutes of hiking, you began to feel very sweaty and tired, especially in your knees due to the rocky path.

"Javi," you called to him, noticing he was climbing effortlessly. "Javi," you called again, a bit more concerned, "Are we lost?"

"Be patient," he responded, sounding a bit agitated but not as much as you were. "You hear that? We're almost there," he encouraged.

You focused on your surroundings, and you could perceive the sound of a waterfall nearby.

You followed him through the large rock formation, and before you knew it, a lagoon fed by a waterfall appeared in front of you. The sun reflected on the surface of the crystal-clear water, making it shimmer. The breeze from the waterfall caressed your face, a soft wind drying your sweat with a gentle, cooling touch, rustling the leaves around you.

The warmth of the sun on your skin and the cool breeze from the river created the perfect atmosphere. It felt like heaven on earth, like an Eden. And the fact that you were there with the person you loved the most made it all feel ethereal.

"You like it?" Javi asked gently in your ear, sending a shiver down your spine as he wrapped his broad arms around your waist and pulled you closer to him.

"Oh my God, Javi, it's so beautiful," you exclaimed, "I love it."

"Nobody will find us here, mi vida," he promised, "People follow the marked path, not all of them explore the surroundings," he explained. "As I told you, it's just you and me. Wanna take a swim?"

"Oh God, yes!" you exclaimed as you placed your backpack under a tree. You were wearing a black swimsuit under your shorts and oversize sports crop top, so you just had to take them off, and you jumped into the water.

The water was so clear that you could see the rocks at the bottom perfectly, and the shimmer of the sun on your skin. You swam to the center of the lagoon, and you heard the distant splash of another body jumping into the water. By the time you surfaced, Javier was already at your side, hugging your body and placing a peck on your lips as you wrapped his torso with your legs. You combed his hair disheveled by the water, running your fingers through his black hair. Then, you caressed his face, passing your thumbs on his mustache and bottom lip. He closed his eyes, absorbing your gentle petting. Your fingers wandered through the freckles painting his broad chest and shoulders. You cupped his face with your hands and kissed him with the perfect combination of tenderness and passion that you knew drove him completely dumb for you.

When he opened his big brown puppy eyes, he looked at you as if you were everything he had ever known.

"Te amo mucho, flaquita," he expressed tenderly.

"Yo también te amo, mi corazón," you promised.

"Are you hungry?" he asked after a couple of minutes of tender kisses and sweet nothings in the water.

"Very much," you laughed and started swimming to the shore.

Javi placed a towel on a rock near the water, and you both sat down to start eating and drinking what you brought. You even fed a squirrel with a piece of tamal, which made Javi laugh as he watched you melt in cuteness for the little animal.

"So, you used to come here with your cousins?" you asked him, eager to learn about his youth and his family. He nodded.

"We used to climb to the top of the mountain and swim in the river that everyone knows," he explained. But his expression shifted from a normal nostalgic sentiment to almost sadness in his eyes. He fell silent for a moment, and you regretted asking and potentially ruining the great moment you were having. However, he continued, "After my mom passed away, I was very angry with the whole world. I started being rude with my father and I started to smoke and get drunk with my friends." He let out a laugh, but it was empty. You knew little about how he lost his mother, since he didn't like to talk about it. He had told you that she was sick, that he was fifteen at the time, and that his father never married again. "One day I had a big argument with my dad. He was very angry because I failed all my exams, so I ran away and came here to the river. I was so angry and lost in thought that I didn't notice I had taken the wrong trail and got lost. So, I kept walking until I found this place."

He looked at the waterfall and the treetops, and you felt a shiver and a lump in your throat.

"I sat on this very rock and cried my eyes out, thinking about how much I missed my mom and that I was ashamed of my behavior towards my father," he added. "This place became my refuge. I used to come here every time I felt anxious, tired, or sad. I never told or brought anybody to this place, not even my father."

You couldn't help but wonder if he had ever brought Lorraine here. After all, she had been his first fiancée, and you wondered if he had considered sharing this secret place with her. However, you didn't dare to ask him, afraid of his response or of making him lie just to please you.

But he knew you so damn well, almost as if he could hear the unspoken question burning in your mind. He loved your low-key jealousy.

"Not even her," he clarified. His hand took yours and caressed your still-wet fingers, then he placed his big brown eyes on yours, so devoted to you. "The very first moment I saw you, I swear that you reminded me of this place. I don't know if it was the heat of the Colombian summer or the blue dress you wore that day, but seeing you seated at your desk brought me a peace I haven't felt in a long time."

You felt tears of happiness gathering in your eyes, butterflies in your stomach, and your cheeks turning cherry red. Javi moved closer to you, wrapping an arm around your waist, his intense gaze still on your bright eyes.

"In that moment, I told myself that I have to bring you here, as my wife. Today is the first time I came back in seven years since I left for Colombia. And you are the only person I've ever shown my most precious secret."

Your hands reached for his face, making him stay still as you kissed him deeply and passionately. His hands went to your back, pulling you closer and kissing you back. You tasted the saltiness of your tears in between the kiss, but so did Javi, so he wiped them away with his thumb.

"I promised to you to be worthy of you, baby, and I intend to make it last forever," he promised.

"You have my heart, Javi," you promised back. "You're everything I have."

He leaned in to kiss your lips again, and then he stood up, pulling you up too.

"Enough of crying, babygirl. Let's swim," he said as he stepped into the water, but you let go of his hand, making him frown.

"Wait," you said, looking around, "Are you sure nobody knows about this lagoon?"

"I'm damn sure, baby. What's the matter?" he said, a bit confused, until he saw you taking off your swimsuit. His eyes darkened as they roamed your completely naked body, and you noticed his Adam's apple moving up and down.

"Is it okay?" you asked him, a mix of innocence and naughtiness that made his cock throb inside his shorts.

"You're amazing," he said as he started taking off his own swimsuit and then pulled you to him and into the water.

He kissed your lips, your cheeks, your chest, and you felt his cock half-hardened against your lower belly. But he let you go, and instead of diving straight into sexual matters, you both swam all around the lagoon, drank all the beers, bathed under the stream of the waterfall, and explored the depths searching for weird-shaped rocks. Sex was an amazing experience in your relationship. You both enjoyed each other's bodies and could spend hours tangled in your shared bed, on the couch, or in any other intimate place. The two of you also knew that there were many ways to make love, and not all of them were about sex. This was one of the connections that Javier learned from being with you. He adored your naked body, and it turned him on. There were days when he just couldn't keep his hands off you. However, he also learned to appreciate it in a way that went beyond lustful desires, reaching a level of intimacy that felt almost divine. He saw you through your nakedness, connecting with your soul, and vice versa.

But when you do fuck, you mean it.

The sun was starting to dip lower in the sky, casting a warm, golden glow over the lagoon. You felt his bare body behind you, his arms around your torso as he kissed your neck. You began to rub your buttcheeks against his cock, making him hiss.

Javi's hands disappeared under the water, looking for your core. His index and middle finger found your clit and began to traced gentle circles as he squeezed one of your breasts with his free hand.

You let out a couple of soft moans, trying to keep as quiet as possible, but Javi fastened his touch, making it so hard for you.

"Don't worry, nobody will hear us," he assured you, whispering to your ear, "C'mon, bonita, let me hear you begging for my cock."

"Javi...", you whimpered, feeling his dick slipping on your ass and his fingers between your folds.

"You're such a Goddess," he praised. Javier knew every detail about how to make love to you. He was proud of knowing every corner of your body, every angle, every freckle and every beauty mark over your body. He knew how to made you whimper and scream, and how to make you undone. Yet, he never get bored, not even after three years of relationship and the most wonderful four months of marriage. He would never had enough of every aspect of you.

"I... I need to... feel you inside," you whimpered.

He wanted to made you cum with his fingers and his mouth first, as he always do. But the scene was so kinky and erotic, making his cock throb so painfully.

"Fuck," he hiss, as he carried you, making you gasp, and took you back to the towel.

Javi laid down and you jumped on top of him. His cock was lying on his belly, so you started rubbing it between your wet folds, massaging your clit with his head. His hands captured your hips, so tight you think it would let bruises with the shape of his fingers. But you didn't care, it felt so good.

"I don't brought condoms, baby," he confessed.

"Are you telling me that you planned all this so I let you cum inside of me?", you teased, he shrugged playfully. "You're such a bad boy."

"What are you gonna do about it? Don't tell me that you don't want it too, feel your tight pussy filled with my cum," he whispered, making your core throb around his cock. He grinned, feeling you become even wetter. "I was thinking about starting to build that second bedroom I told you about. How does that sound?"

That was the signal. You and Javi lived in a house that he build years ago. It was at three kilometer from his father's ranch, and since he was not planning to get married at that time, the house only had one room. But now that the panorama had changed, the house was about to transform from a bachelor house to a family home. Starting for make a baby's room next to the the main room.

And just like that, Javi was asking you about starting to try. You answered with a nod and a shaking sigh, your body reacting to his words.

"C'mon, cowgirl, let's put a baby on you," he added, as you took his cock to your entrance. You moan hard as you felt his length stretching your walls, clenching around him. "Fuck, I love that pussy," he groaned.

He was also mesmerized by the view of you on top of him: your skin glowing at the sunlight, drops of water over your shoulders, your wet hair waving with soft air, your hands on his chests, your hardened nipples and your drop-shaped breasts. You looked gorgeous as always.

"You feel so deep, Javi," you moan, starting to moving back and forth, up and down with gentle movements. His pubic hair caressing your swollen clit, his hands over your hips and waist. "I want you to fill my pussy with your cum."

His cock felt different without a condom. You were a married couple, but you still had intercourse with protection, given that you didn't have plans to have a baby until now, and Javi wasn't selfish to make you take pills full of hormones and side effects. He always tried to have condoms on hand, and even though he had insisted that you didn't have to take morning-after pills, you both had sex without protection a couple of times. You always let him know how much you loved his bare cock inside of you and you knew how much he loved it too.

Your whimpers mixed with the sound of the waterfall was music for Javi's ears. He began to push his hips up at the same time as you went down, meeting each other halfway. The air was filled with filthy sounds of wet bodies and moans and whimpers. His name escaped your lips like a prayer, as he watch his cock disappeared inside your dripping cunt.

"I'm comin'... I'm... fuck...," you cried, as you felt a knot buildup on your lower belly.

"I know baby, I can feel your pussy clenching for me," he said. Javi took control of the situation, as you let him fuck you nice and deep, one thumb on your clit and his free arm around your waist to make you stay still. You placed your hands at both sides of his head, so he was able to capture your nipple with his mouth, making you cried and soaking wet.

"Don't you fuckin' stop, Javier! Just like that, me gusta cuando me coges así," you pleaded as he fastened his thrusts.

"Quiero verte corriéndote en mi verga," he commanded.

You reached your climax with a silent scream as the waves of pleasure washed over you, squirting over his cock. You pulled your hips up unconsciously, but he pulled you back down again, buried so deep into you. You felt him almost rubbing your cervix as his warm and thick load painted your walls.

He was also growling and letting out soft whimpers as he watched your pussy dripping a mix of his cum and your honey.

Javi pull out and placed your body beside him, kissing your collarbone and caressing the curves of your waist as you came down from your cloud of bliss.

"That was amazing," you murmured after a minute, your cheeks burning. You cupped his cheeks and kiss him on the lips again.

"I wanna swim again," he said, starting to stood up taking your hand to follow him.

But you pulled him closer, pressing his chest against your breasts as you wrapped your arms around his neck and kissed him passionately, your tongues entwining. "You're not going anywhere. I told you that you were a bad boy, and you must be punished for that behavior, mister."

He grinned devilishly as you placed your hands over his shoulders and pushed him down your body.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Why I remain hopeful about 2024

July 11, 2024

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

I remain hopeful about Democratic prospects up and down the ballot in 2024—including retaining the presidency under Joe Biden. I explain my reasons, below.

One of the unexpected blessings of writing this daily newsletter is the opportunity to meet with grassroots groups and Democratic candidates running for office. The meetings are almost always Zoom presentations designed to explain and promote the work of grassroots groups and raise money for candidates. On Wednesday, I hosted a fundraiser for Kari Lerner, who is challenging MAGA extremist Byron Donalds in Florida’s 19th congressional district and co-hosted a fundraiser for Blue CD2 New Mexico, a PAC devoted to re-electing Rep. Gabe Vasquez in New Mexico’s 2nd congressional district.

Like you, I have been weighed down by the relentless media attacks on Joe Biden and the “next-shoe-to-drop” statements by an increasingly long line of Democratic officials, pundits, and celebrities. It has been unsettling and dispiriting, even for me.

But after the two meetings today, I felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I was reminded once again of the Democratic Party's secret weapon: the millions of grassroots volunteers who began as members of “the resistance” in 2017 and have matured into a seasoned, professional, battle-tested citizen army ready to defend democracy.

I meet with grassroots groups a few times a week. There are usually a hundred or so volunteers on each call. Multiply those meetings and attendees by thousands of similar groups, and you will be looking at hundreds of thousands (or millions) of motivated volunteers. None of those volunteers were politically engaged before the 2016 election.

The sophistication and planning of the grassroots groups are impressive. They are data-focused, message-centric, and mission-driven. The grassroots groups are why political pollsters repeatedly missed predictions in the 2022 midterms and special elections in 2023 and 2024. As pollsters and pundits scratched their heads trying to figure out why they were wrong, the answer was staring them in the face: The under-appreciated, under-reported, and frequently disrespected grassroots movement.

Professional consultants and advisors often resent and fear grassroots groups because the groups do for free what the consultants and advisors get paid a fortune to do (often not as well as the grassroots groups).

There is nothing like viewing screenfuls of faces of dedicated volunteers who haven’t given up and aren’t buying the B.S. the media is selling. While I am frequently asked to provide inspirational and motivating remarks to the groups, I take inspiration and motivation from them every time I meet with a group.

What is so gratifying and confidence-inspiring is that the volunteers remain focused on the grinding work of neighborhood-level get-out-the-vote efforts despite the firestorm in the media over Joe Biden. Such efforts are the secret sauce and secret weapon of the unexpected Democratic success since 2022.

There is one more aspect to the grassroots movement that must be acknowledged. It is the 90% Rule. Like other constants in nature—the speed of light (c) and the gravitational constant (g)—the 90% Rule applies across all grassroots organizations. The 90% Rule describes the fact that on every call, in every meeting, in every action, women constitute 90% of the grassroots volunteer movement.

Women have been the backbone of “the resistance” and the pro-democracy movement since the Women’s March unleashed their collective power in 2017. And Black women have been at the center of the women’s resistance movement.

The overwhelming presence of women in the grassroots movement gives me great hope. It gives me hope because they understand and live the pain of being demoted to second-class citizens by the Dobbs decision. They are denied basic healthcare because gynecologists and obstetricians are fleeing hostile jurisdictions or refusing to practice their specialty for fear of prosecution or civil penalties. They feel most acutely the pain and trauma of LGBTQ children struggling to navigate an increasingly anti-LGBTQ world. They are the caregivers for elderly parents reliant on Medicare and Social Security to maintain their health and dignity in retirement.

If grassroots groups are the secret weapon of democracy, women are the not-so-secret weapon of grassroots groups. They feel the suffering and pain of our nation in a way that others do not. An attendee at the Blue CD2 New Mexico meeting today posted this saying by Coretta Scott King:

Women, if the soul of the nation is to be saved, I believe that you must become its soul.

Women in the grassroots movement have become the soul of the nation. While I hope and believe that Democrats will show up in overwhelming numbers in November, women will be motivated more than any other group to protect their liberty, their children, and their parents.

The volunteers on the two calls I attended today aren’t giving up. They continue in their effort to win the 2024 election one voter at a time. They are anxious and worried like the rest of us, but they act while many in the political world dither.

Action is the antidote to anxiety. And action in community is a sacred act that is uplifting and affirming. If you are not a member of a grassroots group, join one ASAP! You will feel more optimistic, and you will increase the chances of Democratic success up and down the ballot in November.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[posttexasstressdisorder]

Trumpland

Listen to Jeffrey Epstein Spill Intel on Donald Trump’s White House

OH LORDY

A new recording captures Epstein dishing on Trump.

Harry Lambert 

Special Correspondent

Updated Nov. 1 2024 3:54AM EDT / Published Oct. 31 2024 6:00PM EDT 

Michael Wolff, the explosive chronicler of Donald Trump’s four years in the White House, has released what he says is a recording of Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019, discussing Trump’s then-White House team in detail.

Wolff released the tape on his podcast, Fire and Fury. He says it was made in a restaurant in 2017, most probably in the SoHo branch of Ladurée, a patisserie in Manhattan. Epstein can be heard speaking over the din of diners.

“His people fight each other,” Epstein tells Wolff on the recording, “and then he [Trump] poisons the well outside.”

“He will tell ten people ‘Bannon’s a scumbag’ and ‘Priebus is not doing a good job’ and ‘Kellyanne has a big mouth’—what do you think? Jamie Dimon [CEO of JPMorgan Chase] says that you’re a problem and I shouldn’t keep you. And I spoke to [financier] Carl Icahn. And Carl thinks I need a new spokesperson.”

He continues: “So Kelly[anne]—even though I hired Kellyanne’s husband—Kellyanne is just too much of a wildcard. And then he tells Bannon, you know I really want to keep you but Kellyanne hates you.”

Epstein Showed Pics of Trump with Topless Young Women: WolffOCTOBER SURPRISE?

Hugh Dougherty

Epstein is referring to former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus and former White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway, whose then-husband, George Conway, was briefly considered for positions in Trump’s Department of Justice.

Wolff—whose journalistic accuracy has previously been challenged by critics—said he had around “100 hours of Epstein talking about the inner workings of the Trump White House and about his long standing, deep relationship with Donald Trump.” Wolff has not provided anything more than this snippet of Epstein speaking in 2017.

Epstein had wanted Wolff to write his biography. (He also wanted the New York Times reporter James B. Stewart, the author of DisneyWar, to do so.)

Karoline Leavitt, the national press secretary for Trump’s 2024 election campaign, responded to Wolff’s claims, and the recording, in a statement to the Daily Beast:

Epstein has not previously been identified by Wolff as a source of his for Fire and Fury, the 2018 book on the Trump presidency, which is estimated to have made him more than $13m.

Wolff followed the book with two more—Siege: Trump under Fire (2019) and Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency (2021)—which proved less successful. The Daily Mail recently signed him up to cover Trump as a columnist, and he launched his podcast in June.

Trump and Epstein were filmed laughing together in a clip captured at Mar-a-Lago in 1992 by NBC. They were also photographed smiling beside each other at Trump’s Palm Beach estate in 1997 and 2000.

“Here are these two guys both driven by a need to do anything they wanted with women: dominance and submission and entertainment,” Wolff says of the duo on his podcast. “And one of them ends up in the darkest prison in the country and the other in the White House.”

A Trump campaign source claimed to the Beast that is it “widely known” that Trump severed ties with Epstein after allegations of sex trafficking were levied against his once-close friend.

Harry Lambert

Special Correspondent

[ya-world-challenge]

Libertad (🇭🇳 Honduras)

[image 1: book cover: a hand holds a Molotov cocktail - a bottle with a cloth on fire sticking out of it. The background is yellow and the title graffiti-like; image 2: a map showing Honduras in Central America below Mexico; image 3: streets of Tegucigalpa - a small shop with a shaded awning and advertisements, source: wikimedia]

Libertad

Author: Bessie Flores Zaldívar

YA World Challenge review for 🇭🇳 Honduras

Review

I'll preface this with that due to life issues I read this in two chunks months apart.

The first thing is - I think the cover sets up the book for the wrong expectations. Libertad never goes out with a Molotov cocktail - she never goes to a protest at all. While her brother is involved, the protests are mostly in the background. So while it is maybe a less exciting book than the cover promises, it is much more realistic.

The book starts with the rigged election of Juan Orlando Hernandez in 2017 and follows high-schooler Libertad (named for being born on Independence Day) through her daily life, her family life, and things like what do about that drunken kiss with her best friend. The theme of a poem she writes - whether to leave Honduras or stay - is a constant nagging in the background as she mulls over scholarship applications to US colleges, and how to be gay in a homophobic country, but at the same time she is rich with family and friends and just a normal teenager.

The book deals with family tragedy and grief, ultimately ending on an open-ended note for most questions raised. I like that it presented the sapphic relationships and teenage uncertainty without going heavy on the relationship drama. While I found it a bit slow at times, this was a compelling, character-driven look at teen's life in Central America among all the political and economic issues. In the afterwords I found out the author is 27 and would have been only a few years older than the protagonist at the time of the book setting.

(If you were in the US when stupid politicians were fear-baiting over "caravans", this is the other side of the story - the shadow of no future, the people who lost relatives, etc.)

Genre: #contemporary #family #romance-ish

Other reps: #lesbian MC #other sapphic characters

★ ★ ★ ★    4 stars

Content warnings:

Death of family member, grief, homophobia, mention of political murders, minors with alcohol

[gretchensinister]

Daily Fic Highlight: Clearing

Since I've been publishing fic on Ao3 for over 10 years, there's a lot of it. And because I'm a person who doesn't want to have what I wrote fade away (hence putting it into an archive), I had the idea to look at my kudos email and talk a little bit about the fic in that email that I found best/most exciting to be there. It would have been nicer to start this on 1/1, but at least it's still January.

So today, luckily enough for me, someone left kudos on:

"Clearing" is a second-person POV short story about a woman who gets lost in the woods during the midsummer solstice and has a transformative erotic encounter with Moder, the monster from the movie The Ritual (2017). 17k, E, F/F or F/Other depending on how you think of it.

The premise was given to me as a challenge by my friend @tejoxys when I asked for something strange to write a readerfic about in celebration of completing my tax return.

I could have been more casual about it, I suppose, but it was fun for me to really dig into why this was happening and, well, get weird with it. It's labelled as readerfic, but I'm not sure if it counts as exactly that, since I gave "you" a number of specific characteristics and memories and did not attempt what I think of as the fool's task of writing a blank vessel.

A sample:

Further in, and yet further. Trees towered around you, subsuming you in the deep green that was Midsummer’s true darkness. To you it felt like the green spread far beyond the leaves, filling the air, filling your lungs, ancient life newly added to your own. You shivered in the heat. You took deeper breaths. Perhaps you thought, I would die for this. Perhaps you thought, I would kill for this. But with every step you grew more alive, and there was no one here to kill.

[mthollowell-writes]

Writeblr Introduction: Hello!

About Me:

Hello! My name is MT (she/her) and this is my writeblr!

I write speculative fiction with a bent towards horror and the strange, though I love experimenting with other genres every so often.

My themes and topics tends towards the fantastical and the existential. Monsters, mysteries, and histories are my bread and butter with dashes of "humor." The quotations are an urge to take that assertion with a grain of salt.

Other things that often crop up in relation to writing is my love of music, science, and nature (especially plants, birds, and mycology)

General Housekeeping

Below the cut you will find information about all my WIPs, past and present. This will be updated periodically!

But first, some quick bullets

To start off, I should state all my writing (esp longer pieces) will be posted on my website: mthollowell.com . Alongside my fiction, you'll also find book reviews and other writing related musings.

All my writing updates will be under #mt writes. This includes snippets, blurbs, tag games, writing challenges, and the like

I read a lot, all over, so all book things can be found under the #mt reads tag

This is my writing sideblog. I follow back with @missaddledmiss

And if you like my stories and are able, you can drop a few pennies into my Kofi account!

Long Term Projects

Festival of Shadows/Supernatural Mystery, Horror, Thriller During the Hollow Grove's infamous Founder Festival, reporter Mariela Hudson seeks to uncover a five year mystery that involves a cult, a mysterious ritual that ended in a deadly fire, and a missing woman whose relationship with both is still shrouded in shadows. All the while, a monster waits. WIP Introduction /// Excepts under #festivalwip

Grim Lore WIP/ Supernatural Mystery, Horror Sebastian Calderon accepts a job in a new town called Hollow Grove that's setting up roots in the wilderness on the promise of land and some cash in his pocket. But not everything is as it seems and the price he pays for his labor may be too steep.

Hollow Grove Stories/Speculative Fiction, Horror, "Humor" A collection of shorts about the various characters in Hollow Grove often set during its contemporary timeline (circa 2016-2017). Mischief and terror abound. Stories under #hollow grove stories

Divided Loyalties WIP/ Fantasy, Adventure, Romance Kalon is a prince of a fallen empire seeking vengence against its conquerer, Satomi Satinos, the bandit king. In order to do that, he infiltrates his kingdom in hope of slaying the source of his power, the great dragon Raylene. But in his quest, he unwittingly falls in love with the bandit king's daughter, Uraya, and uncovers a conspiracy that threatens to break the whole of their world.

Story 1 WIP/ Fantasy, Action Adventure, Coming of Age Haru is a young prisoner of a never-ending war that spans multiple worlds. He makes his living at the forge, but his daily life is interrupted when a guard is found dead and he's accused of the murder. As he awaits his execution, he's offered a chance of escape by a man who brings him to another world. He tries to keep a low profile and his new powers in check, so he doesn't attract the attention of the guards tracking them. When he runs into a group of kids in this strange new world, colloquially known as Earth, he opens their mind to all the worlds hidden around them. (Called Story 1 since its the first comprehensive story I've ever come up with yet I cannot think of a better title)

Shorter Projects (Last Updated October 2024):

31 Days of Horror 2024: A collection of stories I made for a 2024 October horror challenge

Escape from Gallow Lane: A Hollow Grove Story Local Hollow Grove reporters Mariela and Emery find themselves on the wrong side of the law, and things somehow get worse from there.

Hanging on the Telephone: A Hollow Grove After a seance in the basement of the Edelhaus Church goes awry and cuts off the WIFI across the county, Mariela Hudson tries her luck with the old tech of yesteryear with her dad’s old dial-up computer.

[chloesolace]

Book Review: "Tender is the Flesh" by Agustina Bazterrica

Spoiler-free

Genre: dystopian, science fiction, psychological • Word Count: 62k • Triggers: extreme gore, cannibalism, animal cruelty, uncomfortable sexual scenes?? • Year of Publication: 2017

Plot: ★★★★★

Characters: ★★★

Writing Style: ★★★

Re-Readability: ★

all my reviews - blog navigation

General Thoughts

In a world where a virus has made all contact with animals dangerous to humans, cannibalism has been legalized and institutionalized as a means to survive.

This premise sounds extremely promising for a work that aims to criticize not only society but human nature as whole, and offers a unique setting for an interesting novel.

I like to think of myself as someone who is not easily shocked. This book shocked me. Saw is one of my favorite franchises, so is The Silence of the Lambs series. I consume horror and gore on a daily basis, however this book did something to me that made me put it down multiple times. I found myself unable to continue it until I finally finished it a few days ago. I left it on my bookshelf untouched for a few months since I started reading it. But let's get into the detailed ratings.

Plot

I like the plot, a lot. I gave it five stars because it is unique, it is thought-provoking, and it is controversial. I have never read anything like it before and most likely never will, and that alone is interesting and worth quite a few stars to me. It challenges the authority we have given ourselves over animals. I am not vegan, I am not even vegetarian, but that book almost turned me into one. It is not a book that you pick up and read while humming to yourself by the pool with the sun shining above you and birds chirping around you. Let's look at the blurb.

"Working at the local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans—though no one calls them that anymore.

His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the “Transition.” Now, eating human meat—“special meat”—is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing.

Then one day he’s given a gift: a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he’s aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost—and what might still be saved."

Going into it, I knew it would be graphic from what I had already read about the book, but I never would have imagined just how graphic it would get. All the processing that is done is described in greatest detail, and the dehumanizing name - "heads" - used for the people that are being slaughtered makes it all the more uncomfortable. Marcos, our protagonist who works at one of these processing plants, is then gifted a female head, one born in one of the breeding centers. He does not kill her, though. Instead, he begins an affair with her, which is one of the worst crimes one could commit in this society. The narration treats 'Jasmine' - as he later calls her - like an animal, using verbs and adjectives one might not necessarily use to describe human action. It is Marcos who humanizes her, in a way, giving the novel hope for a happy ending despite the fact you can already guess how this story will conclude.

Marcos was married before to a woman named Cecilia, but after their child passed away as a baby they went their own ways. The death of his son weighs heavy on Marcos, and in Jasmine he sees a second chance at being a father; she becomes pregnant.

It is the ending that shocked me. This is a spoiler-free review, so I only aim to give you guys recommendations for books without taking away all the fun, so I won't get into it more. However, it is an ending that leaves the reader sitting in silence, staring at the pages and thinking to themselves "what the hell even happened here?"

Characters

Marcos is written to be quite human and realistic, with many flaws which made him both unlikeable and at times unbearable. Except that one time when he played with some puppies he found, because I would have done the same, to be honest. Dangerous virus be damned.

There is not a single character in this book I would consider good-natured on a moral scale, but perhaps it is exactly what makes it so engaging to read. The characters in the book serve as a substitute for animals not only in the meat industry; an animal's prime aim is to secure the preservation of its own species. Marcos is doing exactly that, both biologically and socially.

One of the most important settings in the novel is an abandoned zoo, yet it almost feels like the characters in the book are the zoo animals themselves, and the reader is observing them destroy each other. I did not like the characters, but I did not have to like them to enjoy the story for what it is.

Writing Style

Now, before I get into this, I would like to say that I acknowledge that every writer has a different writing style and that it is entirely subjective whether I like it or not. Personally, I like descriptive, sometimes even a bit flowery prose with long sentences. But this would have been out of place for this book.

The sentences are direct and straight to the point. There is nothing hidden behind metaphors, it is exactly like the processing farm portrayed: honest, raw, and uncensored.

It is not my favorite style of writing, hence the missing two stars, but for the type of novel this is, it is more than fitting.

Re-Readability

For this point, I simply have to say this is not a novel I will ever re-read. Reading it once has left enough of an impression to let it stay on my bookshelf and never touch it again. For me it is too uncomfortable and too disturbing to do so. Still, it has left a huge mark on me and I will most likely be thinking about this book for quite a while. The one star is by no means intended to be negative.

Conclusion

All in all, I would say if you're a horror fan or a fan of stories that criticize society, this is the book for you. However, do keep the trigger warnings and extreme graphic descriptions in mind when choosing to read it. And perhaps do not have that steak beforehand.

[watchmenanon]

Chris Trujillo On Set Designing the 80’s In ‘Stranger Things’

by Robin Write  July 13, 2017

Awards Daily TV talks to Chris Trujillo about establishing the look and feel of Stranger Things‘ 80’s era interiors and its imaginative Upside Down.

Part of the magic that makes Stranger Things so compelling and popular are the foundations created by a super-talented technical team in designing an 80’s world we all recognize. The production design team integrates some magic touches of fantasy and horror as well as the familiar surroundings of childhood homes.

One key figure in Stranger Things‘ excellence is production designer Chris Trujillo. On the back of some memorable contemporary work on feature films, he brings that infamous decade to life with some outstanding set design. I was privileged to find out more.

What inspired you to work in production design, and how did you break into that field?

To begin with I did a bachelor of fine arts at the University of Florida. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was going to do with myself for a long time. I thought I would go more in the direction of opening a gallery, but when I moved to New York I realized very quickly that without a silver spoon or a legacy in the art world it would be very difficult to make a living, unless you are very wealthy.

Anyway, I was running a screen printing shop and had a friend who knew I had an art background and carpentry background and got me to work on a couple of music videos. I pretty much instantaneously knew where all my interests were creatively. As soon as I got the opportunity, I learned what the art department was all about and changed my focus completely, worked any art department jobs I could find. That got me into the New York indie world, which was a pretty incredible boot camp.

I was learning how the film business works and the art departments. I made the most of every job that came along. I started production designing small stuff, a whole bunch of little kitchen sink stuff, learned the ropes that way. And I got a bit of a name and a resume, that was it. Started to get some bigger jobs, a series of fortunate events and a lot of hard work. Basically it all came from the art background and the kind of carpentry design background, combined with my lifelong love of movies – being the right time and right place.

Do you feel production design has a misconception that is it more about pretty period sets? Do you find that?

You don’t often notice a production designers work as much unless it is a period set. In a weird way most people see the costumes, the hair and make-up, swords and sandals, Victorian outfits, or sci-fi of course – people are like “Oh wow, they have to create that world.” That is why some production designers are overlooked. You put in just as much work creating the space for a very specific character in a present day script.

A lot of your work is contemporary. I have seen a lot of it. Kiss of the Damned, Nerve, Honeymoon, Viral, Tiny Furniture. Those are all very different, even though they are modern day, they must have been different experiences.

Very much so. On every level of these experiences they are different – budgets, time frames, settings, like a New York setting is different to Pittsburgh or New Orleans. There are so many factors with every project that make them totally different experiences and challenge you differently. Obviously, the approach creatively is the same. After meeting the director, reading the script, you try to realize and understand who the characters are and the world they live in. If it is a more stylized picture like Nerve you approach it differently to, say, Tiny Furniture. How it gets created and the relatively small team of people. There is an order of operation. It is the same even if the creative things we are trying to accomplish are different.

So Stranger Things came about through the director of Honeymoon right as Leigh [Janiak] is married to one of the creators [Ross Duffer]?

Yeah, we did Honeymoon. We both had a pretty scary vision for that movie, and we were able to realize it with our resources. We spoke a similar language creatively. When I was in L.A. making Viral, I happened to be living around the corner from Leigh. We were catching up every now and then, having a meal together. And I think Ross came and was kind of pitching a pipe dream idea that I fell in love with, which was then called Montauk and would become Stranger Things.

At that point they were a bunch of thirty-somethings with a dream to make such an outlandish thing with a bunch of kids set in the 80’s. I said if it ever came to fruition it would be a dream for a production designer. Two years later they called me and said it had the green light, and they could get me on the project. It was a struggle to get on as my credits were smaller, but I had just finished Nerve which was a big enough resume bump. And Allison Shearmur, who was the producer on that, had enough clout in the movie world of big budget film-making that she told the line producer it would be in good hands. And it was all go from there.

So you had your own idea of 80’s America, then. What did you bring from your own experience to your work on Stranger Things?

I literally was able to get family photos and get my own case from my actual childhood, photos of the suburban home I grew up in. When I think of running around as a kid, it was very much like the ones we created in the show. And all the movies we referenced kind of made up my childhood. That was like second nature, bringing those childhood experiences to the show. Like walkie talkies, riding with my buddies on bicycles, all that was there, and my heart was in it.

Any other show could have gone overboard with the 80’s stuff, it could have become a bit kitsch. Where did you draw the line?

For us it was like as long as it was believable, in the characters worlds, in their homes, we wanted to squeeze in little winks and nods to things like specific movies, with the big Jaws poster, and all the stuff that inspired us. Otherwise it was a matter of taking a real look and going back to the way I would approach a TV drama set in the present day. It is about bringing these characters out, through the scripts, and conversations with the Duffer brothers like who they are socioeconomically, psychologically, what they have been through. And from there we were thinking what should the house look like, would the furniture be from the 70’s.

There are a lot of really great vintage and set dressing places, estate sales. The set decorator and her team are always really great about going out, going above and beyond in finding mountains of vintage furniture. Going through junk draws at estate sale and buying everything. When it came to me to put a life layer into a set, we literally had like a storeroom full of real, vintage, worn in, lived in, 80’s stuff – or 70’s in a lot of cases. That was our approach, and our philosophy was to really make it super real and not distracting to the audience.

We want people to have a smile and take note of a particular element. It’s the same approach I have with indies, which is creating really real spaces that have gravity and texture. Ultimately the set kind of informs the character as opposed to just showing people what cool 80’s shit you can put on a set.

It’s the little details, like what is in the cupboards, or on the kitchen worktops.

Yeah, all that stuff. We tried not to overlook anything or gloss over things. It’s taking every room seriously. Even if we are not going to see that corner of the set, making sure that corner is integrated into the rest. There is no stone unturned.

Did you have much creative input in other aspects of the production, like where the camera would go, character movement?

The creative triad is usually the director, cinematographer, production designer, knowing the scripts backward and forwards. I spent a lot of time with the directors, and the DP Tim Ives, Tod Campbell, and we all approach it in this very collaborative, creative way. When I go into designing a set it is always with the script in mind, and with the style of shooting, a lot of deliberate camera movement, well thought out shots, going into creating.

I am very conscious of this is what we can expect to take place, and we want to give cinematographers, the Duffers, as much room to move. To give many interesting angles and how one doorway of one room frames another room and how the action can flow from the kitchen through the dining room and into the living room. A lot of what you build is with camera motion, actor blocking in mind, and of course lighting. We try to find as much practical lighting as possible. Feels much more cinematic.

Was there something specifically challenging? What did you learn?

The learning is constant. The pace of TV is a little bit different. Some of the most challenging stuff was more logistical, like the process of the metamorphosis of the Byer House goes through – the Christmas lights, Joyce’s breakdown, the monster – they required quite a lot of logistical pre-planning and a lot of inter-department co-operation. We shot it all on one space and had a fairly tight schedule, so making all that happen was tricky, having a set undergo such a radical change through the course of a season. Also the look and the feel, and the material process of creating the Upside Down, deciding on what that would look like. How we would achieve it. Kind of a broad collaborative thing.

It is easy to talk about, but it is super abstract. And it is not just a matter of putting furniture and a life layer into an otherwise pedestrian world. It was about creating this strange other worldly space. That was creatively probably the most challenging thing as it was a total cooperation between so many different departments. In a lot of cases we were figuring it out as we went. When we were shooting the first block of episodes, we were still testing materials for the third and forth. So that was really challenging.

The success of Stranger Things is that you have taken people back, like myself, and I recognize a lot of it, and that is down to the production design and the team. That is what people have fallen in love with as well as the story. So congratulations on that.

Thanks a lot, I really appreciate you saying that.

Stranger Things Season 1 streams on Netflix. Season 2 drops in October 2017.

[romaine2424]

Daily Blog July 12, 2023

Wish I could wrap up so many of you and bring you to Seattle this weekend. My sis' town in NoCal is supposed to be 112F (44.4C) degrees and my son's town in SoCal 105F (40.5). Not even getting into my cousins in Las Vegas where it's going to push 117F (47.2C). And yes the south has been suffering for weeks on end. Crazy! I lived in an old brick apt in Chicago a long time ago that didn't have A/C. Its where I learned about soaking in a cool bath and then laying on the bed with a fan on to dry off. Rinse and repeat. Be safe!

What I'm reading:

So last time I mentioned I would be reading Temptation on the Warfront by alizarincrims0n (AO3). I'm on chapter 17! However, I quickly realized, I've read it before. It must have been two years ago, I think. Definitely worth a second read. Draco joins the trio on the Horcrux hunt. It's always fun for me when an author is talented enough to manipulate canon with inserts of another character into the scenes and it works! Alizarincrims0n certainly has that talent!

I also read the posting for today's @drarrydisabilityfest, Like Father, Like Son (5.6K) by @ladderofyears. Summary: During Scorpius's autism diagnosis, Harry begins to understand that he might be autistic too.

My thoughts:

I'm always amazed when so much can be packed into a short fic. I adored this slice of life story with Harry and Draco sitting in Madam Rosemary's office with Scorpius off playing in the corner, while getting told his diagnosis. Little bells start going off as the Healer speaks. Draco is lovely as the parent who dives into all research available, which is mainly Muggle. And his reflection back on his family is a Wow! Harry is sitting there in denial because Scorpius is perfect...which he is. @ladderofyears presents the diagnosis and how it was made with examples so beautifully. Never preachy. And last thing I'll say is I just loved the name of Scorpius' preschool: Green Toadstool Nursery. Definitely a Rec!

Like Father, Like Son on AO3

Interesting Tumblr Posts:

So during the AO3 DDOS problem, @lee-bella posted Non AO3 HP Masterlists. Wow! what a treasure load. The fests were hosted on Dreamwidth and/or LiveJournal. What attracted my attention immediately was down at the end were two older Masterlist directories on Livejournal. What was exciting for me was that these were the original postings with comments on these fics. So many have been re-posted on AO3 at a later time, but the originals capture the excitement of the fests. If you dig around, you'll notice that commenting while usually very high, can also contain concrit. I have my share of burns on there. *ouch*. What you can also find is some fics from deleted authors that still exist in the fest community postings. Here's the links. And thank you @lee-bella for this post!!! HP Masterlist from 2002-2017. And my fav! Guns&Handcuffs Drarry Fests and Challenges 2004-2015. Wasn't surprised at all to see @vaysh11 was responsible for this. Dig deep into the fests but also note the other links on the Home Page and the text before the masterlists, which gives other fascinating links.

Other TidBits:

I made an ask on a Discord Server for what the ship name was for Harry/Daphne. I was so uninspired when Haphne came back as the answer. I was hoping for something like DaphPot or HarDaph. GreenPot would have been good but there's Astoria, too. Hmm PotDGreen!!! *snicker*

Oh, Rom is sad, sad, sad. After posting on here last time that I'm in desperate need of a beta for my long arse WIP, I then asked on the two big Discord servers for H/D and for HP Writers. No response. Zero. nadda. Just so you know, I'll continue writing this fic and start begging more. Most of those Scorching comments I mentioned that I received way back then was for lack of a good betaing. I have scars...deep scars. Anyone use Grammarly? it has a 30 day limit for 150K.

Happy Wednesday!

Rom

[natigail]

August 2023 - natigail

It was time for my Posting Every Day In August (PEDIA) challenge, so I posted 31 chapters/one shots/excerpts this month!

I posted all six chapters of my skz ace/sex worker AU - oh, you kissed me just to kiss me

I posted all five chapters of the side piece to my skz wolfpack AU - What if I Told You I'm a Mastermind?

I posted the December chapter of my phan Stardew AU - Broke, Gay and New in Town

I posted four new chapters of my skz wolfpack AU - Rest in the Belly of the Wolf

I posted a one shot prologue of Seungcheol to my svt mafia AU - 돈’t Blink (at least not here) 

I posted a chapter to another svt mafia AU prologue, this time about verkwan - 돈’t Resist (at least not me) 

I posted both chapters of my Legend of Zelda fic focusing on optaining the Master Sword - to become an immortal dragon is to lose oneself (why did you do it?) 

I posted the first chapter to my bts insomniac/baker AU - the donuts are warm for you

I posted my Good Omens one shot focusing on the season 2 finale - contains information in a tuneful way (stop, you’re losing me)

I posted three excerpts from an original novel wip of mine (x, x, x)

I posted a bts one shot focusing on Yoongi getting his 7 tattoo - Future's gonna be okay 

I posted my The Untamed one shot about Lan Wangji’s grief - you can’t talk me through the fall if we don’t know if i can land 

I posted my phan one shot inspired by Taylor Swift’s Timeless - In another life you still would’ve turned my head

I posted my Nimona one shot focusing on a scene from the film - Say that I'm a monster

I posted my phan one shot about not attending pride - so tell me i’m a rainbow (it makes me feel alright)

I posted my Good Omens one shot about Aziraphale doing an apology dance - it ends with a garden (and a cottage in the south downs) 

Bloody hell, that’s one hell of a list. And it’s not likely the last one I’ll do, I think I’m going to do one with their summaries and stuff too but I wanted to have my usual monthly recap, even if PEDIA always messes with everything in the best way. Same can be seen on this pie chart.

I didn’t even attempt to untangle all the small entries that’s about 1-0% in the grand scheme of things. It’s the fics that were done before this month but needed to be edited before posting. I had given myself the goal of 2k a day because I knew I needed write a lot to complete PEDIA but I also needed to spend a lot of time editing, but I still went past the goal and almost hit 75k.

That definitely held true, but man, I’m still so proud of myself for managing to keep up even while feeling burned out and getting sick. Like, look! I did it. Yay. You’ll get my monthly overview of PEDIA as well, because why not?

Over 253k words posted! Not my record for a PEDIA but it’s the third most I’ve ever done during one of these challenges, which I’ve been doing since 2017 (except my thesis year). Like this month is kind of stressful and getting into a bit of grind with it all, but the sense of accomplishment when sitting back is indescribable. And I still try so very hard to keep the quality top notch, because despite how I like to get lost in my stats - it’ll always be the words that matter more than the numbers.

I’m going to take a very chill time in September. I’ll still keep up with my daily writing habit but we’re aiming for 1k a day instead, and for this coming week, I am going to maybe only keep up with the journalling to take a break.

[them2therockshow]

What sets Michael Molthan - M2 The Rock's story apart is the realization that there wasn't just one rock bottom; there were many. And from those challenging moments, he emerged stronger and more determined than ever. Today, he leverages his personal experiences and magnetic, relatable personality to inspire others to embark on their own transformative journeys. Michael Molthan - M2 The Rock is proof that even in the darkest of times, one can find a path to fulfillment and purpose, using rock bottom as a steppingstone rather than an endpoint.

Michael Molthan's mission is to raise the meaning of “Rock Bottom” sharing his relatable stories for everyone by rebuilding the “Spirit, Mind, and Body”. When this is “Out of Order” our life is full of chaos and confusion.

Michael Molthan doesn't shy away from talking about his painful past of trauma, drug, alcohol, and work addiction. On his talk show called The M2 The ROCK Show, he interviews inspiring people with inspiring stories.

For over 2o years, Michael Molthan has been known as one of the most well-known Luxury Homebuilders in Dallas, Texas - The Park Cities and also in the country until 2009.  Michael Molthan finally hit rock bottom. Drugs. Alcohol, and crime. And absolute chaos. He accumulated 27 mugshots in four years and was about to enter a place he swore he would never go: prison. Addiction was Michael’s temporary solution to heal from a dark childhood trauma secret. Little did he know that being imprisoned and reading and writing for inmates that could not read or write. On October 13, 2017, Michael was miraculously released 2 years early from prison before completing his sentence. He traveled 300 Miles back to Dallas, Texas, to see Judge Jennifer Bennett to turn himself in.  For the first time Judge Bennett could see this miraculous change that had taken place in Michael’s life, so she pardoned him and told him to go “pay it forward”.  That’s what Michael Molthan has been doing for the last 7 years.

Michael is the host of The M2 THE ROCK Show, one of the fastest growing shows/podcasts in the country that dives into the topic of self-improvement, spirituality, health, mind, and many more.  Michael Molthan is the author of two books, “300 MILES – Memoir of Michael Molthan” and “Today, I Realize - Daily Devotional 2025” being released in 2025.

Michael’s main passion is simple and profound: “That Everyone Is An Addict”.

FOLLOW M2 THE ROCK BELOW:

WEBSITE: https://m2therock.com/

INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/m2therockshow/

[finishinglinepress]

FLP CHAPBOOK OF THE DAY: Painted Women in the Walls by Jenny Benjamin

On SALE: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/painted-women-in-the-walls-by-jenny-benjamin/

Painted Women in the Walls houses a multitude of #women’s voices, from Sylivia #Plath to Lizzie #Siddel to women etched on Tarot cards. Within the walls, other characters, whose labels and roles shift, speak in lyrical lines about familial and romantic love, loss, mystery, injustice, and discovery. The #poems, infused with internal rhymes, create a mosaic where fantasy, domesticity, and fable meet.

Jenny Benjamin is the owner of her freelance writing and editing business JB Communications, LLC. Over fifty of her poems have appeared in journals, including DIAGRAM, South Carolina Review, Fulcrum, Baltimore Review, Chelsea, and the Crab Orchard Review. Her first novel, This Most Amazing, was published in 2013 by Armida Books in Nicosia, Cyprus. Her poetry chapbook, More Than a Box of Crayons, was published by Finishing Line Press in February 2018. Her poetry chapbook, Midway, earned second place in the 2017 No Chair Press contest and was published in April 2018. Enhanced and Corrupted, the first two books of her young adult, science fiction trilogy were published by Ananke Press (October 2021, July 2022). Redeemed: Book Three of the Terrian Trilogy came out in January 2023. Her novel Heather Finch was published by Running Wild Press (June 2022). She lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

PRAISE FOR Painted Women in the Walls by Jenny Benjamin

Girlhood, womanhood, motherhood. Sylvia Plath & Lizzie Siddel. Moses as a baby. Italy & London. The self as an exfoliating selkie. Jenny Benjamin has me scratching my head: “How did she manage to arrange so much, so exquisitely, in such a small space?” This is a magical, living book that deepens with every careful reading. It invites us at the onset: “Sit down at my table. I’ll flip forever/ like a figure eight. I’ll let you look / at me for as long as it takes.”

–Mauricio Kilwein Guevara, author of Autobiography of So-and-so: Poems in Prose

Painted Women in the Walls is a compelling story of womanhood through fourteen narrative poems. Launched by Magician’sinvitation/challenge/dare/caution to continue reading, an alchemy of explorations and emotions unfolds. Poems of unwavering force delve into identity through voices by and about women. Their complexity and contrasting of roles, relationships, and perspectives are pursued with luscious language, imagery, and simile throughout, but especially so in the poem “Clutched by a Nearly Noon Sun.” In each of its seven sections, a woman is reframed by the “other” in her life, offering a kaleidoscopic view of loves, longings, loneliness, and loses that cascade through sensory, sensuous phrasing that both pleases and taunts the ear. Taken individually these poems merit praise. As a totality, the work welcomes (and deserves) repeated reading, discussion, and study. As Magician says, “This is something/ you won’t forget.”

–Sandy Brehl, Novelist and Contributor to poetry anthologies for youth; What Is a Friend? What Is Family? and What Is Hope? (Pomelo Books)

Benjamin’s thin third volume packs a verbal wallop. There are two ways to read her— first for her narrative, beginning with a vague, medieval whiff of empresses and magicians and swiftly switching gears to the domesticated profundities of daily contemporary life, not without moments of epiphany, like brief, fatalistic fables. The other path is a scavenger hunt— seeking “string music hollow at the wrist” where the subject “wishes for bitter pith” in her “fantasy of praxis.” Rife with sharp interior rhymes and lush language, deftly attuned to powerful particulars, the reader will not hesitate to join the poet as she urges us to “lead our sisters to the shores and step in/and take the water with us as we swim.” However the book is read, it rewards.

–Scott Zieher, author of Virga and 900 RECENT POEMS

Please share/please repost #flpauthor #preorder #AwesomeCoverArt #poetry #chapbook #read #poems #women #history #plath

[khetho-040517]

Healing Minds with Occupational Therapy in Mental Health

Occupational therapy is about more than just recovery; it is about reclaiming people’s lives to be filled with joy and meaning. In the realm of mental health, occupational therapists walk alongside individuals on their journey toward healing, offering guidance, support, and hope (American Occupational Therapy Association [AOTA], 2020). Focusing on the activities and routines that give life purpose, helps clients rebuild confidence, restore a sense of self, and find balance in life's challenges (Brown et al., 2017).

In my view, mental health is one of the less prioritized sectors by the Department of Health in South Africa. Yet, according to research, South Africa has a 12-month prevalence estimate of 16.5% for common mental disorders such as anxiety, mood, and substance use disorders, with almost a third (30.3%) of the population having experienced a common mental disorder in their lifetime (Herman et al., 2009).

Fortunately, occupational therapy can help people cope with these mental disorders by using various techniques listed below :

Cognitive Restructuring Techniques

This technique helps individuals notice, challenge, and change negative thinking patterns that can become limiting and self-defeating (Beck, 2011). It encourages people to change their negative thoughts into positive ones and to speak to someone about their feelings or write them down as a form of expression (Padesky & Mooney, 1990). For example, my client has feelings of inadequacy and feels like a failure thus I tried to manipulate her thinking by encouraging her to be grateful for what she has and focus on the positive side.  

Problem-Solving Techniques

This technique gives patients the tools to identify problems and find ways to solve them. The steps include finding the problem, gathering facts, understanding the problem, thinking of ideas, picking the best idea, putting the idea to work, checking if it worked, and learning from it (Nezu et al., 2013).

Activity Exposure

Occupational therapists help patients build confidence by giving them a safe, controlled way to adjust to the environment and activity they need or want to return to. For example, by creating a social group where patients with schizophrenia practice social skills, such as greeting others, participating in group conversations, or attending a community event (Perlick et al., 2006). Additionally, they can be included in music and movement therapy groups to bring felicity and joy, which results in increased activity participation and eventually reconstructs their behaviour and thinking (Silverman, 2014).

Supportive Structure

Occupational therapists often help patients create daily routines and set specific goals that help them progress toward a desired lifestyle (Baum & Law, 1997). For example, for a client with schizophrenia, the first priority would be for the client to gain intellectual insight to ensure compliance with medication intake and therapy. The second aim would be to minimize hallucinations and delusions by teaching the client psychosocial strategies. The third aim would be to enable the client to be independent in all areas of occupation (Liberman et al., 2008).

Occupational therapy uses the above methods in their everyday practice in Mental health to strive for recovery of patients with mental health problems and I highly recommend it for current and future use.

REFERENCES

American Occupational Therapy Association. (2020). Occupational therapy practice framework: Domain and process (4th ed.). AOTA Press.

Baum, C., & Law, M. (1997). Occupational therapy practice: Focusing on occupational performance. Slack Incorporated.

Beck, A. T. (2011). Cognitive therapy: Basics and beyond. Guilford Press.

Brown, T., Stoffel, V. C., & Munoz, J. P. (2017). Occupational therapy in mental health: A vision for participation. F.A. Davis.

Herman, A. A., Stein, D. J., Seedat, S., Heeringa, S. G., Moomal, H., & Williams, D. R. (2009). The South African Stress and Health (SASH) study: 12-month and lifetime prevalence of common mental disorders. South African Medical Journal, 99(5), 339-344.

Liberman, R. P., Kopelowicz, A., Ventura, J., & Gutkind, D. (2002). Operational criteria and factors related to recovery from schizophrenia. International Review of Psychiatry, 14(4), 256-272.

Nezu, A. M., Nezu, C. M., & D'Zurilla, T. J. (2013). Problem-solving therapy: A treatment manual. Springer Publishing Company.

Padesky, C. A., & Mooney, K. A. (1990). Presenting the cognitive model to clients. International Journal of Cognitive Therapy, 3(2), 191-198.

Perlick, D. A., Rosenheck, R. A., Clarkin, J. F., Sirey, J. A., Salahi, J., Struening, E., & Link, B. G. (1996). Impact of family burden and patient symptom status on the expression of anger in caregivers of patients with schizophrenia. Psychiatric Services, 47(1), 1-10.

Silverman, M. J. (2014). Effects of music therapy on change in coping skills in battered women. Journal of Family Violence, 18(1), 29-40.

[si-book-blog]

Amplify Young Black Voices - (Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds)

“You Coming?” Shawn’s last words to his brother Will, ends the story of Will’s internal turmoil in the ride down the elevator to the ground floor. In Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds, fifteen-year-old Will Holloman witness the murder of his older brother Shawn and is forced to grapple with his death. Will’s community has only three rules when it comes to the daily violence that occurs:

No. 1: Do not cry.

No. 2: Do not snitch.

And No. 3: If someone you love gets killed, get revenge.

In adherence to the rules and way of the community, Will grabs Shawn’s gun from Shawn dresser to begin the walk to the elevator that will take him on his way to kill Shawn’s suspected murderer, Calton Riggs. As the elevator travels down the shaft to the ground floor, a ghost from Will’s past enters the elevator at each level, sharing their story to challenge Will’s understanding of the community’s rules.

When Jason Reynolds sought out to write Long Way Down, he aimed to help amplify the voices of young Black children whose stories often go untold or unacknowledged in comparison to their peers. In a New York Times article written by Concepcion De Leon, Reynolds is quoted in discussion concerning the dual inclusion of guns and violence standing beside joy and happiness: “There’s always a joke in there somewhere…You don’t go through what black and brown people have been through in this country and survive without understanding how to tap into joy” (Leon 2019). Jason Reynolds recognizes the common theme of violent activities within his novels but emphasizes that he does so with a purpose. Reynolds primary goal is to portray the lives of young Black children authentically, including the boys crying to help them understand it is okay to cry and feel strong emotions.

Reynolds sympathizes with the kids in his own right, often referencing the fact it was not until he reached the age of 17, that he finally read a book cover to cover (Krug 2017). When telling young people his story, he notes that idea as “not cool” and made his life “infinitely more difficult” (Krug 2017). The voices in his stories also reflect those around him growing up in the 80s and 90s, in a neighborhood where drugs and violence was prominent. By sharing his own personal struggles, his approach ensures that these stories are not overwhelming or frightening for young readers. Instead, they are infused with a sense of hope and resilience. Despite the harsh environment, Jason Reynolds’ home was filled with love and support from family and close friends. This blend of external chaos and internal warmth deeply influences his storytelling, providing a nuanced perspective that resonates with his readers.

In “Celebrating and Inspiring Young Voices: A Chat with Jason Reynolds” by Cynthia Alaniz and April Whatley Bedford, Jason Reynolds further emphasize this goal of amplifying the voices of Black children. He focuses down on changing the narrative by placing the children in the interviewer seat and placing himself as the interviewee. “Nothing is off limits–– which adults are so terrified of…because the moment you tell a young person they have an inappropriate question, you shut down their curiosity” (Alaniz, Bedford 2020). Reynolds focus on engaging with young people to provide them with a platform to say anything and ask the questions they might have been shunned to ask in the past. By doing so he is able to write the stories he shares, connecting with his current and prospective readers on a deeper level.

Reynolds’ approach involves creating a space for young people to feel heard and validated. He highlights the importance of addressing the concerns and experiences as authentically as he can. Thus, Reynolds is able to foster a sense of empowerment amongst his readers as well. Through his method of flipping the narrative, Jason Reynolds helps dismantle the barriers often silencing young voices. Overall, Reynolds’ work stands as a testament to the power of storytelling in bridging gaps, ultimately helping young Black children to see the value in their experiences and emotions.

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Works Cited

Alaniz, Cynthia, and April Whatley Bedford. "Celebrating and Inspiring Young Voices: A Chat with Jason Reynolds." Journal of Children's Literature 46.2 (2020///Fall): 66-72. ProQuest. Web. 15 July 2024.

Krug, Nora. "Jason Reynolds Spreads the Word." The Washington Post, 2017 Oct 24 2017/10/24/, ProQuest. Web. 15 July 2024.

LEON, CONCEPCION D. "Jason Reynolds is on a Mission: The Writer Wants Black Teenagers and Children to Know that He Sees them." New York Times (1923-), 2019 Nov 08 2019/11/08/, p. 2. ProQuest. Web. 15 July 2024.

Reynolds, Jason. Long Way Down. Faber & Faber, 2018.

[anythingmia-ish]

Journal?

It’s hard to believe I’m back here on Tumblr.

My psychologist recommended that I start writing or journaling whatever is on my mind, and Tumblr seems like a safe place to do that incognito, haha.

Today is July 4th, 2024, and I acknowledge that I am a broken person in need of healing and help.

So much has happened since I last shared on this platform, which I believe was back in 2021.

From 2017 to 2021:

I ended things with Loraine.

I immersed myself in video games and found a community where I connected with friends like Norvin and others.

I began dating Jade—a relationship that started on the wrong foot and ended even worse.

In 2021:

I broke up with Jade after a toxic four-year relationship due to her infidelity.

My eldest brother, Kuya Mike, passed away on February 9th due to heart failure.

In July, I entered into a relationship with a truly wonderful person, Nikka.

I moved in with Nikka, while my parents moved in with my other brother, Kuya Jonjon.

My sister, Ate Maricel, and her children relocated to Bulacan.

From 2022 to early 2023:

I attempted to secure employment with several companies but faced repeated rejections.

I fell into significant debt due to impulsive spending.

I felt disconnected from all my relationships, especially with Nikka and my parents.

From late 2023 to 2024 (present):

I reconnected with someone I had feelings for back in 2016 and ended up cheating on Nikka with them.

Despite several attempts to salvage our relationship, Nikka and I eventually parted ways.

An altercation between my father and Kuya Jonjon led to my parents being evicted from Kuya’s house.

My father passed away on May 2nd, 2024, from a stroke, and I blame myself for not helping sooner.

Ate Maricel and I had a falling out.

Nikka moved back to her parents’ house, leaving me alone in our old apartment with my three cats.

I’ve been plagued by negative thoughts due to overwhelming pain, guilt, and shame.

Immediately after my father’s funeral, I threw myself into work to complete a project, avoiding confronting my emotions until late June when I finally broke down. Since then, I’ve struggled to function, crying daily. My manager granted me an extended leave of absence to seek help. I’ve started seeing a psychologist and psychiatrist, and I’ve been diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder. While I’m becoming more aware of my condition and striving to manage my emotions, financial constraints make extending my leave challenging.

I just want to reach a point where I wake up without the weight of guilt over my father’s death or the pain of failed relationships, the cheating, the lies I’ve told, or the hurt I’ve caused Nikka. The image of my father with a breathing tube haunts me, and I want for these memories to fade. I’m in the process of accepting these painful truths, though the pain persists daily. Despite my thoughts of ending things, I can’t bear to inflict more suffering on my mother. She’s the person I care about most in this world, and I don’t want to break her heart anymore.