Say Hello To The Beautiful, Smart Professor Kathy Garland.

September 18, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha16 Comments

This space has been a flourishing opportunity to meet with people from all walks of life and I find inspiration from each person whom I’ve interacted with.

They help me to grow in the mind and to push my self-progress envelope. My guest for today is Asst. Professor Kathy Garland.

Thank you, Kathy, for sharing bits about you with us. On the side, I smiled when I saw your book cover for ‘The Unhappy Wife’ which shows similar taste to mine ‘Out of the silent breath’ 🙂

Let’s get to know a bit about you.

Displaying kgarland.jpg

Hi, everyone! My name is Katherin Garland, but I write under the name K E Garland. I’ve taught high school English for ten years and post-secondary courses for fifteen years.

My most recent positions are at places like Georgia College and Florida State University. I’m currently an assistant professor teaching education courses at a community college in Florida while focusing on a writing career.

There are two concepts I live by:

1. Anything that you can think of can be actualized, and

2. What’s for you is for you and will always be revealed if you’re aligned with your passion and purpose.

Why blog?

I began my blog when I wrote my first book, Kwoted. Like many authors, my editor suggested a platform was necessary. At first, my blog was just a place for me to house my quotes and hopefully sell a few books.

After a month, I realized that having a blog is about more than just creating a promotional space; it’s a community.

I was in awe of how many bloggers are here, writing about any and everything. Then, discouragement set in. I thought, Man, if there are so many people already here, then my voice might get lost.

It’s only after I participated in a few Blogging U classes, right here on WordPress that I began to get the gist of the blogosphere. Blogging really is about writing and sharing whatever your little heart desires while maintaining whatever you see as your niche.

After Blogging 101 and 201, I fine-tuned my purpose towards a more inspirational blog that includes authenticity through real stories and personal photography.

My blog is a place where people can come have a conversation about what they read and see.

I write about myself a lot, but the posts are not really about me, but rather some overarching theme. For example, Why I Refuse to Judge Any Mother is the first post I shared publicly. It includes feelings I’d harboured about my own mother, but it’s more focused on releasing judgment for those we call mom.

What’s your typical day like?

I’m not sure that I have a “typical” day and my Gemini self, likes it that way. However, my days are always structured. On any given day, you can find me doing the following:

Exercising: Five times a week, I either join a yoga class, run/walk a couple of miles or take a walk with my husband, Dwight.

Displaying kgarland_and_dwight.JPG

Meditating: Everyday I meditate on my balcony. If I’m pressed for time, then I take 5-10 minutes to get centred and focus on my breath. If I have more time, then meditations last at least 20 minutes. Sometimes, I do a guided meditation with Deepak and Oprah; they offer a 21-day free one every now and then.

Writing: My daily writing schedule consists of blog drafts, new projects (e.g., self-published books), contests, or publications. It depends on what I’ve decided for the day, but I make sure I write something, even if no one else will see it.

One month I decided to write each day and ended up writing an entire memoir. It’s saved somewhere safe until I feel the urge to publish it.

Teaching: Every semester, I teach five classes. Three of them are online, so that makes structuring the day a little easier for me.

The other two require a one and two-hour drive. On those days, I hop in my Honda Fit, turn on my Kanye West playlist and make my way towards educating future teachers.

Wifing/Mothering: As of September 21st, I will have been married 20 years. My husband and I know one another very well. Sometimes we spend massive amounts of time together, and other times, he’s watching Netflix, while I’m writing.

The same goes for my teenage daughters. Sometimes we hang out at the beach or the movies, and other times they’re closed up in their rooms on Snapchat, while I’m writing. However, every Sunday we eat together at 7:00 P.M. My youngest daughter came up with the idea ten years ago and we’ve kept it up ever since. Displaying kgarland_and_girls.JPG

For the past decade, my dog Rascal hung out with me during each of these activities. Unfortunately, I had to euthanize him in March. My post, simply titled, Rascal describes how difficult it was for me to release my beloved. Displaying rascal.jpg

As I continued to read advice from people like, Janice Wald, some posts were centred on offering advice and admiration for the blogging community. According to the stats, Three Reasons the Blogging Community is Better than Social Media is the one the WordPress community appreciated the most.

So, what plans do you have in the offing?

Right now, I’m doing a lot of marketing for my recently published book, The Unhappy Wife. It’s interesting because now that I have a platform, I don’t want to ruin my blogging relationships because I’m talking about my book all the time. You know? I don’t want to be that blogger. The Unhappy Wife by [Garland, KE]

There’s definitely a balance that I’m still in the process of figuring out. Other than my book, I’m maintaining inspirational posts based on photography and narratives. One of my goals is to connect with readers through my own raw and shared emotions. I always want readers to leave inspired to do something a little different or what I like to call #RethinkYourRhetoric. That’s what you can count on when you visit my blog, whether I’m marketing a book, or not.

Short Stories

Jane…

August 29, 2016August 29, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha15 Comments

Like clockwork, Chris and Wolf went for their morning jog. One of the beauties of living close to the seaside was to watch the sunrise and sunsets above the waters. He loved the lifestyle his writing life presented, thanks to the success of his thrillers, though his was a lonely life.

Familiar with Wolf’s beach antics of sniffing at the crabs, digging through washed up debris, he wasn’t’ surprised when his Husky took off in excitement down the beach.

Within minutes, Wolf raced back, his insistent barking aroused Chris’s interest. The mound on the pebbles was an unconscious, female form. He quickly turned her over and administered CPR. She vomited, opened her eye’s for a few seconds and passed out again.

Glad that his home was close by, he carried her to his house to get her warm as quickly as possible and to call for help. Removing her sodden clothing to wrap a blanket around her, he saw the beautiful, antique watch nestled between her breasts and out of curiosity, he lifted the watch and saw the name inscribed at the back. It read, Jane.

InLinkz

Thank you, Louise for the photo and Priceless Joy for hosting this charming platform where we unleash our stories

Guest Posts

Meet the inspiring, intriguing and warm Lady Alexis Rose.

August 14, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha22 Comments

One of my objectives as a blogger is not just to write for others to read, but to equally get to connect and know who my friends in this space are. I’ve been following Alexis Rose for quite a while now and have not only enjoyed our interactions but she amazes and inspires me with her confidence, resilience, and candour.

Dear Alexis, thank you for taking the time to indulge my inquisition. My kind regards and I look forward to seeing your continued bloom and success.

1. Introduce yourself, your background, your likes, dislikes and general outlook towards life.

Thank you, Jackie, for this wonderful opportunity to be interviewed for your blog. I have followed you since I began blogging and so impressed by the myriad of topics you cover. I have enormous respect for the ways you build community in the blogging world.

My name is Alexis Rose and I’m from Minnesota, which is in the Midwest of America. My state is called the land of 10,000 lakes and it’s beautiful. Freezing in the winter, hot and humid in the summer. I moved here when I was in my late teens and set down deep roots. I have two wonderful children, and we’re excited to see our son get married in just 5 short months. I thought I would have a difficult time being an empty-nester, but we see our kids often and have a close relationship with both of them and their significant others.

Up until 2009 I had a good career in the field of staff recruitment and marketing. I loved my job and was getting to a point in my career where I felt as if I could exhale a bit when it came to financial security. In October of 2009 sparked by a family tragedy, I began having flashbacks, although, I didn’t know they were flashbacks at the time. I had purposely repressed my past, but when my snow-globe world was shattered, I began to piece together, for the first time, a personal history of abuse and trauma.

While learning to live with the effects of my trauma, and working with the deficits arising from the post-traumatic stress disorder, I have co-authored three inspirational books and published my memoir one year ago.

My outlook towards life in one of hope. I am passionate about living life, not just going through the motions, however, that looks for a person. For me, it means living with my eyes wide open. I absolutely love people and human nature, I love all critters (we live with a dog and two cats) and feel best when I’m outside in any kind of nature. I think I was meant to live in the tropics because I thrive when it’s hot and humid.

2. 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.

My blog is named Untangled, https://atribeuntangled.com/

I’m an active blogger who writes about PTSD, Mental Health, Trauma, with some inspirational poetry sprinkled in along the way. I started my blog after publishing my memoir. I was told that I had to have a blog to market my book. I had absolutely no idea what a blog was, except a way to communicate with family when someone was on a trip. I had never clicked on a blog, and had never heard of WordPress, had no idea what a tag was, or how to follow someone. Last October, was the first time I wrote a post. After writing my first post, and having someone “like, and follow my blog” I began to research how to tag, find other blogs to read, and engage in the blogging world.

Now, as I reflect on the last eight months of blogging, I’m grateful for the connections I’ve made. I love to follow blogs in all genres. Although my intention with my blog is to start and keep the conversation going about PTSD, or any other chronic illness, as well as share my poetry, I’m open and excited to be followed and follow blogs that write about every subject. I love to read about other people’s interests and viewpoints. I love to see the photos, read the poems, recipes, opinions and editorials. I absolutely love the connections that blogging provides.

I am thrilled to read and write on someone’s blog or have them write on mine from all the world. It makes the world a bit smaller as we are able to connect with each other. The reality of knowing that I am responding to someone who is already a day ahead of me, by virtue of time zones is amazing to me. I am part of their past, they are part of my future and yet we are talking to each other in real time. I LOVE that!!

As you can tell, my blogging experience has been amazing. Here are a few posts to click on to get a flavor of what I post:

http://atribeuntangled.com/2016/07/25/monday-mantra/

http://atribeuntangled.com/2016/07/27/wait-what-i-still-have-ptsd/

http://atribeuntangled.com/2016/07/15/as-she-dances-the-steps-of-innocence-2/

http://atribeuntangled.com/2016/08/05/the-value-of-friendship/

3.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.

Most days start with working out, yoga, or meditating. I do marketing for two different businesses’ part-time, as well as try to market my book, and I’m only cleared to work two hours a day (part of the living with the effects of PTSD) so I divide my mornings into working. Then I take my dog, Leilani for a walk. She is my unofficial/official therapy dog and I don’t know what I would do without her. She keeps me grounded, knows what to do if I begin to have a flashback and is always by my side. I’m including a picture of Leilani and our cat, Brad.

During the summer, autumn and spring, I try to spend as much time as possible outside, so I typically take a break during the day and spend time on our deck with the critters. Depending on the time of year, my symptoms can be a lot more prevalent, so I need to pace myself, and stay grounded. I make sure I see friends throughout the weekdays too. I have a wonderful support system of people who check on me, make sure I get out of the house for hikes, walks, lunches dates, etc.

I try every day to make time to read other people’s blogs. I believe that blogging is a two-way commitment. If I’m following someone I read what they write. It’s why we blog, so other’s will read our words. I try to engage as much as I can with comments, but I will typically always “like” someone’s post. I want them to know I am reading their words and they are being heard.

4. 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.

I love the blogging world, and I get tremendous fulfillment from writing and sharing my posts. I still have a twinge, of fear each time I hit the publish button. Will my writing be interesting to others, will my poetry and/or writing resonate with others? I’m still not quite as confident I would like to be. I write from a vulnerable and honest place, so sharing that with the world and opening myself up is really difficult, but I’m determined to keep a conversation going about living with PTSD, and I’m passionate about dispelling some stigma behind the mental and chronic illness.

I will also continue to market Untangled on my blog. I love that my book has been read not just by the mental health community but cut across all genres of readers and I believe that is because of my blog.

I’m going to begin writing another book in September. I can feel another book bubbling out of me, and I’m compelled to honor that feeling. Besides Untangled, I have collaborated on three other inspirational/spiritual books, but they are currently unavailable on Amazon. I love all my books, but Untangled is my heart. It’s my memoir, and that book has given me gifts of healing, connection, and hope beyond my wildest dreams. Here is a link to Untangled.

I appreciate it when someone purchases my book, reads it, gives me feedback, and writes reviews on Amazon. I wish I could thank each person when they buy my book. Although, because of the wonderful world of blogging I’m able to thank many people when they reach out to me after reading it.

https://www.amazon.com/Untangled-story-resilience-courage-triumph/dp/1514213222

https://www.amazon.com/Untangled-story-resilience-courage-triumph-ebook/dp/B013XA4856

Guest Posts

Getting to know the beautiful, delightful, smart and prolific writer; Amanda Eifert.

August 7, 2016August 7, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha27 Comments

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 🙂

Guest Posts

You’ve Got To Meet My Beautiful and Graceful Friend Annie Roo.

July 24, 2016September 26, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha6 Comments

Let me introduce you to my engaging, warm and beautiful blogger friend Roo. She’s been a supportive presence in this space and without too much said, reading her own in-depth and candid words below, you’ll enjoy this priceless interaction.

Annie Roo, thank you for taking the time from a busy life to share more of you with us. I truly appreciate you and extend my warm regards. Jacqueline

My given name is practically a biography, so I prefer my pen name. E.V.A. Lambert is an acronym of my life’s most influential people. To friends, siblings and my younger family members I’m Annie Roo; Roo for short, but that’s another story. car jinks

Go Cubs, Go: I was born at a very young age into a rather nomadic, Anglo-Celtic, Chicago suburbs family, complete with eccentricities and most common dysfunctions. I’m now a great-grandmother and I’ve lived all over the U.S.

Can I say something here? I don’t understand why women say they’re younger than they are. When asked my digits I typically say, “I think I’m doing great for 75.” I’m not even close – yet, but saying that feels great for a few moments. Culpability is on the inquirer. Anyway, aside from some dings telling me when rain’s coming I’m vital and young on the inside.

I was already a mother of my four sons before I was 22 – one with special needs, but nobody could guess which one today. Divorced while the boys were in grade school, their dad did me a solid replacing me with a younger model, so we all got through it – mostly together. Without any other monetary support, I took care of myself, my sons and helped my siblings and our mother as best I could. 760401 CnJ L boys

I’m the estranged wife of my life’s love, a crazy-gifted misfit musician, emphasis on the crazy. Starving artists the past thirty years, I now live a very full, pleasantly modest and green lifestyle on Colorado’s Western Slope with my life-long best friend. Life’s all about setting priorities and making choices.

As my five siblings can attest, “just to spite several bullies and straight-up perverts,” we overcame significant tragedy, abuse, hardships and for me, some mental disorders (yes, plural). In my early thirties, a heart attack got my undivided attention. Days prior, I had given my life and subsequently my heart to Jesus Christ. Don’t think the sequence didn’t confuse me! Seriously, blind ambition, heartache, stress (compounded by cocaine, excessive alcohol, my job) and so many prior bad choices should have killed me before then. I not only realized I actually wasn’t Wonder Woman, but clearly God had plans for me.

Days out of the hospital I quit my high 5-figure income job. I was determined to write my already amazing stories. At the time my boys were sure I’d lost it. I wondered too, but in hindsight, I see I’d actually found myself.

Writing stories by kindergarten, my 9th grade English teacher thrilled me by publishing my term essay in my high school newspaper. Seeing my brain child, the best part of me in print snared me. Writing became my favorite occupation. I was always obsessive about grammar, but now isn’t it amazing how quickly we get past that as we make friends around the world in the blogosphere? CO 1

Early on I published in local periodicals. Among my first publications was as a contributing author for Eva Marie Emerson. Along the way I have picked up copy writing for food and gasoline; happy to do what I can, wherever I am and if I get paid for it, great! My calling and passion is to write my stories well, not only for my family’s sake (to help them see why life sometimes goes slightly sideways) but also to help other mental illness and abuse survivors.

Contributing to a journalist/author friend’s blog, she urged me to blog independently. I launched my first blog in 2004 mostly as a journal. I also keyed out chapters and queries for what I was certain would make me today’s Jane Austen. We’ll see h roo n bronze ow that works out. roo bird use

During three more moves across three more states, I realized nobody seemed to notice my Facebook Notes – not even close friends. Facebook users typically aren’t ardent readers. Undaunted I dove into the deep end of WordPress. I launched What’s Next on my target date, 9/11 of 2014.

During my first WordPress Blogging U course, I met other newbie bloggers including the fantastic Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha, and other gifted writers, poets, and photographers. Even with the amazingly supportive Blogging Community and Blogging U courses, I couldn’t learn fast enough for my liking.

What’s Next met my target goal of 100 followers well within the first year and I’m growing right along with The Blogging Community. I have much to learn – always will, but I’m actually having the time of my life!

I enjoy promoting other great bloggers, sharing other blogs, and am keen on changing my theme – as soon as I upgrade my site. I’m determined to link in a Twitter account and add a Contributing Authors section. As always I’ll continue to submit chapters and queries as I blog the good, the bad and the beautiful in my world. roo glasses

“No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” Matthew 5:15, 16 (NLT)

P.S: If you are interested in guest posting, send an email to JacquelineObyIkocha@gmail.com.

Guest Posts

Meet my dear friend, a gorgeous lady who lunches with style. The one and only Diane Duke.

June 19, 2016August 8, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha30 Comments

There are some people you meet on your passage through life and even though you’ve never seen them in the flesh, they still carry enough presence to make you feel warm.

Diane is one of such people that I’ve been comfortable to connect with all these months. She’s smart, fun, wise, friendly and has a great sense of humour. I know that one day, I’ll be lunching with Diane and a host of other lovely people whom I’ve met in this space.

Please read and enjoy getting to know Diane a bit more.

Thank you, my lady, for taking the time to have a chat and all the best with the novella 🙂

I’ve lived in one suburb of Chicago or another my whole life. I’ve been married for quite awhile now and have a big blended family of two children, three stepchildren, a grandchild, six step grandchildren and even a step great grandson!

I don’t usually break things down quite like that, they’re just my kids and grandkids. But I daresay if you saw us all in one room, you’d be hard pressed to know who belongs to whom. There’s kind of a lot of variety in ages!

Hubby and I also have two aging fur babies, Chief and Inga. Chief is a Chow/ terrier mix and Inga is a Norwegian Elkhound. Needless to say, there are lots and lots of fur and shedding and summertime is not their favorite time of the year!

I have a B.S. in Journalism and it was so long ago that they call it Communications nowadays! I worked at a non-profit agency in Chicago in public relations and wrote press releases and coordinated fundraisers before leaving my job to get married and raise my family.

Eventually, I went back to work, at first, it was part time jobs, then full time at a law firm back in the city. My second son was born with lots of health problems so I had to leave that job and concentrate on his medical issues, including several surgeries and therapies over the years.

By the time he was three, I started working at home as a court reporting transcriptionist for a Washington, D.C. based firm. Certain federal courts allowed audio recordings, so we would get audio tapes and transcribe them on a deadline and at first mail them back, then later used email.

When I was transcribing, I could type 120 words a minute. I did this for a number of years until I was able to quit working completely and become a Lady Who Lunches! Yes, I’m spoiled and blessed to be able to hang out with my friends and shop and vacation…

I started my blog because I really missed writing – the only writing I was doing was our Christmas newsletter. I actually started getting requests for it from family and friends. So I plunged in and started a blog. This is how I thought blogging would go: I would read books I wanted (romance and light mysteries), write a review, post it on my blog and people would follow me. I found out quickly that if I did that I’d be writing for no one but myself!

So I signed up for WP’s Blogging 101 and made a lot of blogging friends and learned a lot! Since my blog was up and running, I was lucky I had some reviews from Goodreads to repost and keep things going for awhile.

Eventually, I started to write some fiction and some articles about things going on in my life, like physical therapy, personal training, babysitting my grandson, etc. I started exploring other blogs and found how much I loved meeting other people and talking with them.

It still amazes me that I’ve made blogging friends all over the world! I’ve found blogging challenges to be wonderful fun and a great way to meet other bloggers. I’ve done the A to Z Challenge in April and the ongoing Limerick Challenge at Mind and Life Matters and am in the midst of a Kindness Challenge.

Now I spend almost as much time reading and commenting on other people’s blogs as I do writing my own!

I never seriously intended to write a book, but I think I may have been bitten by the writing bug and may start tying together some of my shorter pieces into short stories or a possible novella. We shall see what happens down the road!

My typical days are spent fixing meals when forced, cleaning the house when I have to and going to the gym to work out a couple times a week. Youngest son still lives at home, so he’s going to work out at the gym now, too.

I go to lunch with my friends and I am on a weekly ladies bowling league in the fall and winter. I don’t really like shopping, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like buying! I’m just not much on spending the whole day at the mall. I mow the lawn and garden a little, pick up dog poop in our backyard and shovel snow when needed. Pretty mundane. Oh, and Tuesdays and Thursdays I babysit my three and a half-year-old grandson.

My only published pieces were back when I was in college and in local publications. Well, I guess I had news releases published when I worked for the United Way, but I don’t have any links to those either. The pictures I hopefully attached are Chief (tan dog), Inga (gray dog) and me and Inga having some girl time!

Thanks, Jackie, for the lovely opportunity. I appreciate your friendship so much!

Guest Posts

Interview with Me, Myself and I…Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha…

June 7, 2016August 8, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha

Jacqueline 2

It’s not every day that I get to feel like a star *I’m winking* 😉

I’ve been granted a wonderful interview by the talented, awesome blogger chic, Mandi, and as the very first interview in her interview series, she did a splendid job.

I humbly urge you to peek in for a few seconds through this link while I go strut my stuff a little bit. Hey! Come on! A girl has to love herself a bit you know 🙂

Thank you.

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.

From the very first poem, “Dreams,” this book captivates with passionate and perceptive words. Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha captures a broad expanse of the human experience in this book of richly layered poems.

Out of the silent breath

Guest Posts

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

June 5, 2016June 5, 2016 jacquelineobyikocha39 Comments

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.

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