Featured Blogs

Featured posts 69…Let me share your post links.

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‘PLEASE KEEP SENDING IN THE LINKS.’ 

Today’s featured blogs posts are:

Please do step in and show some love.

Into the gray: When I read short stories like this, I make a mental note for self and parenting. A great start of a story that seems to be ticking with details. Let’s see where this goes.

The tempest: An interesting cliff hanger and the face of humanity.

Two Wolves: Which wolf are you going to feed? A chockful of wisdom caught in this short post.

Monday motivation: We all need a shot of motivation each day and sometimes most especially on Mondays.

Unveiled – new cover image: I think it’s very cool and vibrant. Please take a look and let Mel know what you think. Thank you 🙂

‘Do you want more eyes on your words?’

Well then, add your LINK INTO THIS LOOP.

P.S. 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 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.

Out of the silent breath

Uncategorized

Ramadan Kareem

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Wishing our Muslim friends a peaceful and reflective time as they begin their Ramadan fast.

May it be a period of reconciliation, understanding, growth, peace, forgiveness, and harmony.


Below is my first 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.

Out of the silent breath

Everyday People · Life

Sweet Affection…Every day beautiful people 60

“Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.” C.S. Lewis

“Love is strong in its passion; affection is powerful in its gentleness.” Jules Michelet

Feeding_couple[1] Couple_1[1]

Call me inquisitive or curious and you are probably right, but I can’t help loving to watch people. It’s called Social Engineering 😉

While waiting for the train, I sat for a quick coffee and sandwich and enjoyed the warmth exuding from the young couple and their gorgeous baby who were seated near me.

My nosy self couldn’t help engaging the Pakistani couple in a conversation. Seeing a man show his wife some tender affection is not a common sight over here and their quiet joy in each other was simply infectious and heartwarming.

The photos are deliberately blurred at their request. It was a privilege to be around them. I went away smiling 🙂


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.

Out of the silent breath

Discover Challenges · The Daily Post · Travel

It’s all in my mind…

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Each day in my life is an adventure and that’s how I truly see it. I don’t have to climb Everest or Himalayas to experience the exhilaration that I get from a roaming mind.

I find out that one could get to Macchu Picchu and still feel empty when their mind is not in it or open enough to absorb the beauty of the experience. A once in a lifetime travel experience with a cantankerous friend who found fault in everything around her is one that I’m not in a haste to repeat.

Reading a highly stimulating book is the beginning of an adventure for me. Connecting with fantastic bloggers is an enriching adventure. Writing is an adventurous medium for me.

Ditching my car and taking a bus or train ride around town is an adventure that allows me to roam about parts of town that I would probably not pay attention to if I’m driving. I always end up chatting with total strangers and coming away feeling as if I just received a present.

In my younger days, I thought that to have an adventure only meant going away on an exotic trip, but having had the opportunity to travel quite a bit, I must admit that adventure starts with giving one’s mind the freedom to expand in scope, to appreciate the beauty and culture that surrounds you and to let your imagination magnify in multi-dimensions.

I realised that years long before now when I rode the jam-packed, rusty buses in Lagos with passengers practically seated on each other’s laps I was having an adventure and even now at UAE Exchange, as I listen to the conductor announce the various train stops, I watch wide-eyed as people from all walks of life step off the platform into the train and grab the overhead hanging strap before the train trundles along.

Saying hello to the tall lady beside me, I learn that she’s Irish. She’s on vacation and was just coming from Indonesia.

Adventure, Discover challenge

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha


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.

Out of the silent breath

Guest Posts

Meet The admirable, intelligent and beautiful, Dr. Meg Sorick. My girl writer friend with a flair.

Dr. Meg Sorick is a blogger, published writer, and friend that I admire a great deal.

She’s full of motivating drive and a great sense of humour. From her limericks, stories, insights to writing, life, the fascinating series that she’s writing with fictional Kevin and so much more, her intelligence and friendliness shines through.

We’ve interacted almost as long as my blogging time in this space and I’ve totally enjoyed her support and learnt quite a lot from Meg’s writings. She’s on my list of blogger friends I would love to meet and have real face time with 🙂

The questions I asked her are: To tell us a bit more about herself, her working life, her blog and future outlook for blog and writing.

Thank you for letting us into your World Meg. We wish you well in all your writing endeavours.

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I am a chiropractor – thus the “Doctor” Meg Sorick. I wish the doctor referred to Time Lord, traveling all of time and space in a blue box that’s bigger on the inside! But anyway…

I live in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Don’t believe everything you’ve heard about Philly. We’re actually a pretty fun bunch! Despite having the reputation as the worst sports fans in the nation. But honestly, it’s only because we are really passionate about our teams! But that’s not all the city has to offer. With art museums like The Philadelphia Museum of art, The Rodin Museum and The Academy of Fine Art, the Murals Arts Project, theaters, ballet and the Philadelphia Orchestra in the beautiful Kimmel Center for the Performing arts, and the Old City with all its history, there is no shortage of arts and culture in Philadelphia. I feel privileged to have that in my back yard!

I am also a writer. Why? Because I love to read. In fact, I’m a book junkie. I need to read. I want to climb in books and live there. I want to meet the characters, walk in their shoes, fight their battles, fall in love with their heroes… I come by my love of stories and books, naturally.

My dad was a storyteller. It’s only now, looking back, that I appreciate what a vivid imagination he had! He made up a whole series of adventures involving our neighbor’s cat: Mopsy, and another one with a little old man and a cuckoo clock that always saved the day.

One day, I guess about two years ago, I was sitting in the stylist’s chair at the hair salon, touching up the blonde and reading my book to pass the time. My stylist said to me, “You’re always reading. Did you ever want to write a book yourself?”
“Sure,” I laughed. “Doesn’t every reader want to be a writer?”
“You should do it,” she said.
“Hmm,” I thought. “I should do it.” I used to write all the time. As a young girl, I kept a diary. As a teenager, I filled notebooks with poetry. When had I forgotten how much I loved it? I went out and bought myself a notebook, started making notes…

‘Workstation – iMac covered in post-it notes.’

I started blogging because everything I was reading about writing said I needed one! My first blog was on Tumblr but I soon realized that wasn’t going to be the right platform for an author. That’s when I moved to WordPress. My blog is about the process of writing, but I also post my short stories and poems. I am an avid reader, listener of music, and am often inspired by it to create my works of fiction.

I’ve been writing seriously for a couple years and have published 3 novels. In addition to sharing my experience as I write and publish, my blog also lets me test out new styles, new subject matter… All in the hopes of improving my skills.

When you start writing, your blog IS your body of work. You have what, one book you’ve just self-published? Maybe not even that! Your blog introduces you to the world. With the ability to link to all manner of social media, you are connecting to not just your potential readers and book purchasers, but editors, publishers, and agents.

I think this goes without saying, but I use the blog to connect with other writers. No one will understand your feelings and experiences like another writer. When writers share their thoughts on their blogs, it only helps the readers understand the lengths we go to in order to write. Taking that one step further, we as writers should be actively responding to and engaging with our readers.

Answer their questions, ask them for feedback, go to other blogs and leave thoughtful comments there. It’s about being part of the community! And what a wonderful community it is! I’ve made some wonderful friends and formed valuable relationships here in the blog world.

‘Jay Dog’

What is a day in the life of Meg like? I guess it depends on the day! Since 2013, I’ve been exclusively practicing from my home office. Before then I worked as an associate in a busy chiropractic office about an hour away. With my current schedule, I have much more time to devote to my writing.

I tend to get up early, scroll through the reader and check out my friends here on WP. If I’ve scheduled a post, I’ll respond to comments for a while. Then I take off with the dog, Jay for my daily walk/jog. Yes, I used to be a runner, but my old running buddy doesn’t move so fast anymore. Ah, who am I kidding, neither do I! At any rate, we both get the exercise we need.

Then, it’s home to shower and get busy writing or editing. After my husband gets home from work, I shut down the computer and try to stay off my mobile devices so he can have my undivided attention! We both finish the day reading before bed.

I am currently in the editing stage for two projects. I have the fourth book in my series: “Second Chances – A Bucks County Novel” nearly ready for publication later this month. AND this is new… Fictional Kevin and I are going to publish “Double Seduction” as a novella on Kindle, possibly with a name change. We haven’t decided yet. I’ve taken on the task of editing and formatting it to publish-worthy standards. We hope to have it ready for publication before the end of June.

In the meantime, Kevin and I have started an email sign up for anyone who is interested in hearing about our work behind the scenes and news about ongoing projects. Besides both of our independent projects, we intend to write together again, possibly a full-length novel next time! I’ve included the link below. I also included the links to My Books page on my blog and my Amazon Author page as well.

pubbleme.leadpages/signup
Drmegsorick.com
www.amazon.com/Margaret


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.

Out of the silent breath

Life · Three quote challenge

My recent thoughts…

Cybernetic blonde invited me for the quote challenge and my mind drifted to African proverbs.  Thank you, Brenda 🙂1465108007692[1]

From time immemorial, proverbs have been used by elders in my place to punctuate and convey important messages during a conversation.

When I was younger and my parents or grandparents spoke in proverbs, idioms, and all the wise words, I barely understood, but as I age, I find them worth ruminating over especially when I find myself in a quandary of thoughts.

“Even the best cooking pot will not produce food when no fire is lit underneath.”

“When building a house and the nail breaks, do you stop building or do you change the nail?”

“If you run after two Hares, you will catch neither.”

These three proverbs above reflect the thoughts that have been going through my mind of late. So let me briefly explain them.

The first is an advice to myself that even though I have all the storyline of my second book known to me until I sit down and flesh it out as I should, those ideas won’t miraculously turn into a book.

The second one has to do with some mind distractions that I’ve been having of late. So many loose ends of things to tie up and I’m using them as an excuse to digress from doing what needs to be done. It’s time to drop that tack and get serious.

Lastly, I remind myself to taper off unnecessary things and concentrate. Running after too many things at once will all make me harried and at the end of the day, nothing would have been achieved.

So, back to tapering off, tacking with the right nails and cooking up those stories.

Do you fancy a whirl at quotes? Indulge 🙂

Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha


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.

Out of the silent breath

 

Stream of Consciousness Saturday.

Book me down!…Stream of consciousness Saturday.

Book writing, book reading, book store’s, bookshelves, bookworms, book-keeping a lot about my life these days revolves around books.SoCS badge 2015

Reading a book takes me on an adventure where I journey with the writer through apertures unknown, on exhilarating trips of thoughts, experience, and wonder.

I love books. It’s an easy way to melt my stress and when anything else gets on my nerves I can bury my nose in a book and come out feeling better.

I have been craving a specific type of bookshelf, but because my living in the UAE is possibly transitory, I find myself reluctant to get on with the idea of investing funds and energy into having that personalised bookshelf only to get up and have to leave it here a couple of years down the line. Moving books or bookshelves as you migrate is not an easy feat.

I know how I felt about my books back in Houston. I felt as if I was giving away my good friends but the good thing is that donating the books to an old people’s home and the library made me feel better and happy.

Two of my young ones are turning into bookworms, it’s as if they are chewing through them so fast that I have to keep buying more books each month. I remember myself at their age. I read voraciously as well and we had a mobile library that catered to my passion and made life easier.

Going to the libraries over here takes planning because it’s not close by, unlike back in Houston where our home was five minutes away from the huge Lones Star library in Cypress. That’s a haven of books!

Well, right now, I’m trying to trick my mind to focus on writing my second book which I have been working on in jerks and stops. It’s all about books. Can’t get it off my mind.

The title I used for this post ‘book me down ‘ is a popular Lagosian phrase that we use to indicate our interest or availability for something. I wonder where else they use that?

Thank you, Linda, for giving me permission to:

Beat about the books

I’m going to use every trick in the book 

to get my hands to keep still and write my books

‘cos writing a book 

is definitely different from cooking the books.

To be a bookworm 

is borrowing a leaf 

from an open book 

now let’s sing from the same hymnbook

as long as you don’t throw the book at me 🙂

P.S. Just feeling silly. After all, it’s Saturday folks


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.

Out of the silent breath

The Daily Post

Dusky blue…

sky

The dusky blue sky
holds lots of secrets
for you and I.

Sky

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha


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.

Out of the silent breath

The Daily Post

Figuratively speaking…

This weeks name of the game for Daily post photo challenge is ‘numbers.’ Let’s play 🙂


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.

Out of the silent breath

Midnight motivation and musings

Midnight Motivations and Musings # 95

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A lot of us are used to setting off with a task at hand and never completing them. We start all out with zeal, taking leaps, and bounds in days and by the end of the week, month or set time, we’ve backslid so far we can’t even see the frontline where we started from.

Note to self: Try to stay on track by, setting reasonable goals and timelines, setting anticipated steps to get to goals, make a plan for drawbacks and strategy to get back on track when and if we do backslide…like I have a thousand times and make yourself accountable.

Learn to forgive yourself when you fall off, pick up lessons on how and why you fell off the wagon and also take into account making time for rest, recuperation, revving your engine and rebounding back. It’s better to be consistent than bursts of starts and stops that get nowhere.

Sometimes, working with a team of others helps to keep us on track, helps to sharpen our skills and also helps to uplift us when we experience a glitch. Consider team building with others as a way of strengthening your base.

Shalom!


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.

Out of the silent breath