Paint the wonderful World
that you would like to see;
as beautiful as you can.
So, I painted love
all over your heart
and watched you transform.
♥
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
Month: August 2016
Getting to know the beautiful, delightful, smart and prolific writer; Amanda Eifert.
It’s an honour for Mandi to accept to do such a personal interview with me. Ever since I started blogging Mandi has been a staunch and heartwarming friendly support. Mandi, I wish you all the best in your endeavours and appreciate your hand of fellowship.
- Introduce yourself, a bit about your background, your likes, dislikes and general outlook towards life.
Hi, my name is Amanda or Mandi as some of you know me. I am from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and have lived here all my life. I live by two gorgeous parks and off-leash trails for dogs. I enjoy walking the off leash trails. I miss my old dog and enjoy the other dogs on the trail. I also love how peaceful it is on those paths.
I have been on disability for over eight years now. I used to be an admin assistant in construction for a commercial development company. I became ill, not realizing what was happening to me because I had never experienced mental illness before December 2008. I left work my last day emotionally distraught, embarrassed, and not realizing I was hearing echoes after certain people talked. I would hear what someone usually said, then hear an echo of their voice which would comment and say something mean.
On December 24, 2008, I waited in the emergency with my Dad. We discovered I was experiencing a psychotic episode. I went into the hospital in January. Once I started a certain antipsychotic, I stopped hearing things. For some reason my now doctor told me when you hear things, it’s always the worst things you can think of. After, the psychosis I had a mini depression.
I have never had another psychotic episode since 2008 but now experience depression and severe fatigue. Severe fatigue meaning, I cannot mentally or physically do things for a long enough period to work or do many activities in life.
After trying countless medications and developing insomnia along with my depression, I went into the hospital to overhaul my cocktail of medications in July 2015. I’m finally, on a helpful and tolerable med called Clozapine.
It acts as an antidepressant, antipsychotic, and causes me to sleep through the night. Before Clozapine, not being able to sleep and becoming so used to sleep medications that they stopped working was miserable. Now, I have more freedom in everyday life as well and can do some exercise and concentrate better.
I’m a determined writer and I’ve been working on improving my writing for years. I have a BA in English Literature, a certificate in Residential Design, and am pursuing an online MFA at UBC for May 2017. I love being creative and imaginative in my writing; I enjoy drawing and acrylic painting at times; and I adore dogs, hanging with my friends, Netflix, scrapbooking, and yoga. I’m told I’m intuitive and thoughtful.
I don’t like it when people push me into a corner and force me to decide something, I need time to weigh matters for significant decisions. Because of my illness, I need a bit more control over my life than some people realize. I have to plan down-time to relax and can’t do activities out of the house every day. I hate it when people are discriminative of people with mental illness or disabilities of any kind. I regret that because of my disabilities, I missed a lot of time with my best friends and are not as close to them as I would like. But maybe that’s life and it happens as a person grows older.
I’m extremely close to my family and I’m drawn to people who are close to their family too, including pets. I’m a proud Christian and would not have made it through what I have, if not for God’s grace and the love of my family and friends.
- Tell us about your blog and your purpose for starting it. Did you have any set goals in mind when you were setting up your blog? What do you think about the blogging phenomenon itself? What has your blogging experience being? Here, you can share some links of your top posts or blog posts that you particularly like with us.
I mentioned earlier, I have been working on my writing for years now. After my mini depressive episode, I couldn’t read books such as Harry Potter and it was hard for me to even write. Daily, I increased my ability reading, starting with easier books such as the Twilight books and other Young Adult books, eventually, moving into more difficult reads such as the books I read in university English classes.
My goal with writing was to bring my writing to the point it was at in university, but I hope I’ve surpassed that goal. I had read some of my friends blogs and had a friend who blogged on WordPress. I signed up and started blogging.
In the beginning, my blog was a place to share about my mental illness and my daily life, the disappointment I felt at not being able to live and be like a normal girl of my age back then, and the classes I was taking. I also started writing for a young woman’s magazine and I enjoyed writing about these current events twenty-somethings would be interested in.
I also started taking some editing course through Simon Fraser University online. Quickly, I discovered I would never be perfectionist enough to be an editor, but I loved to write so I focused on creatively explore writing. It has always been my passion and I’ve been writing poems since I was eleven or so as stress relief and because it always felt right to me.
The editing courses were useful and I did learn when editing others work, to leave it as their own work and not completely change it as my editor for the young women’s magazine had done to my articles often. But I did need to work on my spelling and grammar and my blog and the editing courses aided me there.
At the same time, I was working on a Residential Design certificate. It was good knowledge to know had I been able to return to work, but it wasn’t my passion. I signed up for a few creative writing courses, and participated in many versions of the WordPress online courses. I started writing posts for my blog everyday. Gradually, I fell head over heals in love with writing fiction and especially, poetry.
I have made it my goal to visit www.shadowpoetry.com and learn to write using as many poetry types as I can master. Poetry always comes out the easiest for me, usually in free verse. Fiction requires more thought. Through Flashfiction challenges, through writing my own novel, and learning the whole process behind developing a novel, my writing has improved substantially, since I began blogging nearly five-years ago.
As a writer, I realize a blog is a necessary part of sharing your work with the public, by commenting, participating in prompt challenges with other bloggers, and sharing your work over social media. I never realized even a few years ago, how all these social media accounts add to a writer’s audience.
Twitter is a big one. I have many followers on there and quite a few new ones every day. I write some poetry only on Twitter and have found places to publish my poetry through Twitter. Mainly, www.spillwords.com. I also love the WordPress community. It’s so supportive and I love brightening someone’s day by telling them how wonderful their writing piece is or what it makes me think about. Critiquing is so helpful as long as it is done in a helpful and kind manner and I try to do this when I comment. I would rather in my own work, have someone be honest with me if it doesn’t sound right (etc.) than tell me it’s fantastic and lie. But not everybody likes such honesty.
- Take us with you on a typical day spent with you. Show us a bit of your World and yes we love photos of your pets if you’ve got any.
Honestly, my average day is not interesting. I set out with a list of tasks to accomplish and try my best. Sometimes, it’s a bad day, and I end up staying mostly in bed and sleeping. Other days, I do chores I need to around the house, make healthy meals, do twenty to thirty minutes yoga or walking, clean, comment on other blogs and read blog posts, catch up on writing for different prompts, read books or magazines, or work on editing my novel in second draft. I research a lot online, try to stay up on current events, and watch Netflix or TV at times.
A day out, I plan ahead. I go to a festival in Edmonton in the summer; go to the mall for necessities and sometimes clothes shopping; I go for coffee and meet a friend or sometimes on my own for a change of environment; I go for a longer walk in the river valley; go to a farmer’s market on a Saturday; get my hair or nails done; attend an appointment or go to a movie; and whatever else I want to do or need to do. I can only go out every couple of days usually, but sometimes I manage two-days out at a time. I’m limited to about four-hours out at a time, unless I’m simply sitting, such as for a movie. After a while, an extremely noisy or loud place is difficult to remain in on certain days.
On weekends, I often do something with my Mom in the day. I’m pretty constantly texting friends or messaging them and connected to the online world throughout my week, but sometimes even I need a break.
- What’s the next pit-stop for your blog’s outreach and publishing? Any plans in the offing? You can also share some of your published works here.
Well, like you, I’ve started doing interviews of other poets and Bloggers. It’s fascinating to learn about other writers, their writing processes, how they publish their work, and to find their unique take on life and writing in general. It’s been a success for me on my blog. I was extremely pleased to have you as my first interview. Now, I’ve got a whole list of interviewees until October at least. The interviews are informative for readers such as blog followers, as well as myself.
I’ve had poetry published in www.spillwords.com and www.sicklitmagazine.com since June 2016. I continue to send out my poetry to literary magazines and journals, as well as websites which publish poetry and fiction. My goal is to have a short story in fiction published.
Fiction is harder for me as I said, but I love it. Rejection makes me all the hungrier to have it published. Even when I receive rejection emails, I’m happy a publisher/magazine took the time to reject me and often tell me what I need to work on.
I want to eventually publish my novel which is a paranormal romance. I’m working on rearranging and polishing the second draft of my manuscript. Then, I need to look at editors because as it is my first novel, I need an editor to read through the whole piece and tell me what works and what doesn’t. I think I’m going to try querying for an agent after, but I will see. There are advantages to self-publishing, but given my health, it may be better for me to have a publisher take care of editing the manuscript, doing the cover, the marketing etc.
Thanks for interviewing me, Jacqueline. I appreciate your generosity.
Here are some current links to some of my work and some photographs:
1. Dream World – Fiction – https://mandibelle16.wordpress.com/2016/07/27/photo-challenge-prompt-dream-world-flashfiction-amwriting/
2. “Living the Story” – Poem – https://mandibelle16.wordpress.com/2016/07/26/poem-lauranelle-living-the-story/
3. Nineteen-Years Later: Part 3 – Fiction –https://mandibelle16.wordpress.com/2016/07/24/sunday-photo-fiction-part-3-nineteen-years-later/
4. “Frailty Flailing” – Poem – https://mandibelle16.wordpress.com/2016/07/19/poem-free-verse-fraility-flailing-amwriting-poetry/
5. Interview With Marquessa Matthews – Nonfiction –https://mandibelle16.wordpress.com/2016/07/18/interview-with-marquessa-matthews/
6. “In Eyes Perceive” – Poetry https://mandibelle16.wordpress.com/2016/07/14/poem-free-verse-in-eyes-perceive-wordhighjuly-poetry-balintataw/
This is Nikki. My long-passed on pet, but as I said I miss her 🙂
All the excuses – Stream of Consciousness Saturday.
Excellent excuses have become expedient to cook up these days in my mind more than anything else. I’ve used the great excuse of Summer vacation as an escapade to slack on my writing project and building my second blog. 
Excuses of being busier than my 24 hours have been quite easy to conjure that each day I defer another exercise session for the next day and the next day and the next day while eating all the sugary, buttery popcorns as well as hot-dogs. Yeesh!! No more excuses!
I won’t lie that I haven’t enjoyed all the exceptional extra-curricular timeouts with the children, but at the same time, I have a little voice nagging in my head and pointing indicting fingers at me. My muses are mad and I won’t be surprised if they choose to pack their bags and go on a long vacation as well to teach me a lesson.
I am trying to examine and extricate my mind from the sluggish bind that it’s been in for a while and make some sensible plan on how to approach my personal projects before the children resume school in a couple of weeks and the mad exhausting rush of a busy life catches on.
Do have an excellent weekend and thank you Linda, for the ‘ex’ prompt. It’s made me say what’s been dancing around on my mind on how to exterminate all the excuses that I’ve latched on to.
Jacqueline
Jacqueline writes from her heart on passion, pain, suffering, loss and LIFE. I have been incredibly moved by her poetry and I know I will return to “Out of the Silent Breath” again and again.
Easy Mornings…
I am a morning person, though there are some morning’s that have found me crawling out of my bed on the wrong side, all grumpy and Debby downer, but I always try to get a grip on my day before I sink into a miry bog of feeling down, ‘cos it’s so easy to spiral down faster than rising up.
I literally wake up with prayer on my mind and force of habit makes me peek out of the window first thing in the morning to see what the day looks like, then head to the bathroom to do the needful – blasting the bones awake under the shower has a way of perking up the spirit and I do this even when I know that I’m just going to take a brisk walk or lounge.
In easy steps, I enjoy music anytime of the day, but early in the mornings has a way of putting a bounce in my steps.
Morning – The Daily Post Photo Challenge
Featured Posts – Share your posts.
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‘PLEASE KEEP SENDING IN THE LINKS.’
Today’s featured blogs posts are:
Narrow: We can find beauty behind the prickly as well.
How much is too much? All those beautiful moments that passes in the blink of an eye. How do you hold on to them?
Domestic Diva: have you been to domestic diva’s abode yet? Why not peek in and say hello 🙂
Make the choice: What’s your choice going to be?
Peaceful Journey: Join Yvonne on an endless, peaceful journey to self-realization.
Do step in and show some love.
‘Do you want more eyes on your words?’
Well then, add your LINK INTO THIS LOOP.
Comments are disabled here to keep the loop tidy. Any comments or link you want to send can be added through the link in the post.
Thank you for your understanding and regards.
‘We create a cohesive community when we come together.
I hear the reverberations of the magic that’s hidden within.
Behind The Hijab…
Halima is a good Muslim woman, but in her husband’s eyes, she’s too beautiful to a fault.
When she joined the bank as an intern, she met the gentlemanly Rashidi; a legal adviser at the bank.
A quick courtship ensued; they fell in love, their marriage Nikah was conducted and baby Hakeem arrived, with a darling baby girl Salama all within two years of nuptials.
With respect to Rashidi’s wishes, she became a stay-at-home mom and agreed to always wear the full covered Hijab because he wanted no one ogling his wife when they went out.
In no time, her hijab became a veil to mask the pain in her eye’s and the bruises around her throat. She kept struggling harder to be a better wife, to speak more softly in the face of the new brute who has invaded their home.
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
P.S. I don’t care what religious denomination you believe in, but I care about humanity and domestic violence. Say no to domestic violence. This story came after watching an annoying video of a Pakistani man viciously striking his wife consistently on a train. I wondered why no one tried to stop him.
Jacqueline writes from her heart on passion, pain, suffering, loss and LIFE. I have been incredibly moved by her poetry and I know I will return to “Out of the Silent Breath” again and again.
My week’s walkabout – Echoes of my neighbourhood 30.
On Thursday’s, I share pictures about ‘Echos of my Neighbourhood.
I would like to invite you to participate. The challenge is quite simple and you can find out more about it through this link.
After a busy last week, I took things to the slow lane this week though I still took lots of photos of ‘this and that’ in the course of the week.
Kirst shows us the singing, ringing tree and I must say it’s spectacular. I’ve never seen anything like that before and would love to hear it. Lady Lee loads of ripples of thankfulness and smiles are delightful 🙂 Take a peek, please.
So, when are you inviting us over to your neighbourhood?
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
I hear the reverberations of the magic that’s hidden within.
We Never Know…
On Wednesday an Emirates plane crash-landed at DXB tarmac and burst into flames. Thankfully, all 300 passengers made it out alive but it was all so surreal to me.
It felt surreal because less than half-an-hour before the incident occurred, I had just picked up my husband from a long haul 19hrs flight from the US where he went for an Award ceremony – he’s also an award recipient. As we watched the plane blaze on television, I couldn’t even imagine the horror the passengers must have felt when they knew that their plane was going to crash-land.
It dawned on me that though a minute might seem so small, a minute can change everything. Things that we take for granted like a loved one saying, “see you soon,” just the way my husband did before he boarded his flight in NewYork, might very well be the last words exchanged forever.
It drew it close home to my mind that not only should we live fully in the moments that we are given – not just existing, but love living and never fail to let those who are dear to us know how we feel about them. I am not trying to sound like a prophetess of doom but to face the reality of the life that we live.
I am grateful that the crashed plane’s situation was contained and well managed. I am grateful for my husband’s safe return even as I watch him reschedule his travel plans to Lisbon since all flights from Dubai have been suspended in the interim. I hold onto hope that as Grace kept him and brought him home safely, journey mercies will also proceed to Portugal with him.
Let us never forget that a thankful and grateful state of mind is to have a great attitude and a whispered prayer that keeps our earnest hope bright in our hearts.
© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
P.S: There are several gratitude/thankful platforms in the blogosphere that you can tune into and get your ithankful going on. I can’t express in words the enormity of Joy and fulfillment that comes from having a heart of gratitude. Please check out Maria’s blog, Colline’s blog and Bernadette’s for thankful/gratitude challenges.
I hear the reverberations of the magic that’s hidden within.
Featured Posts 108 – Share Your Posts.
‘PLEASE KEEP SENDING IN THE LINKS.’
Today’s featured blogs posts are:
Law of the jungle: social issues succinctly addressed in this short poem.
A job and why I couldn’t keep it – Stupid things I did when I was young: I never know what Pamela will come up with in her real life series of the silly things she got up to when she was young 🙂
Shopaholics Mumbai: I honestly believe that Indians are distant relatives of Nigerians and reading this shopping article leaves more conviction in my mind.
Order Curse Breaker Enchanted: Mel’s intriguing and suspense-filled book is now available on Amazon. Please check it out.
Do step in and show some love.
‘Do you want more eyes on your words?’
Well then, add your LINK INTO THIS LOOP.
Comments are disabled here to keep the loop tidy. Any comments or link you want to send can be added through the link in the post.
Thank you for your understanding and regards.
‘We create a cohesive community when we come together.
Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.
When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.
Jacqueline writes from her heart on passion, pain, suffering, loss and LIFE. I have been incredibly moved by her poetry and I know I will return to “Out of the Silent Breath” again and again.
![Hanging_umbrellas[1]](https://acookingpotandtwistedtales.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/hanging_umbrellas1.jpg?w=736&h=989)
a cooking pot and twisted tales 