Fiction Writing Contests Worth Your Time (Summer 2018) — Writer Unboxed
What are your submission or rejection goals for 2018? Inspired by Lit Hub’s 100 rejections per year post, I got 93 rejections 2017 and aim to cross 100 this year. Since my Spring 2018 contest roundup, I’ve earned plenty of rejections and published the last season’s responses in a fun format I dubbed The Rejection…
via Fiction Writing Contests Worth Your Time (Summer 2018) — Writer Unboxed
Love of Women
Women have been taking care of this planet since the beginning of time. We are the very heart of our community and it is important that we support each other in every aspect of life. We have the power to inspire each other’s journey. Together we can teach each other how to live with purpose.
As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself and one for helping others. -Maya Angelou
The Benefits of Us Helping Each Other:
Progress
Balance
Community
Inspiration
Support
Beautification
WOMEN MAKE THE WORLD A BEAUTIFUL PLACE TO LIVE!
Whenever I think of beautification, it also reminds me of the Mexican Artist Frida Kahlo. Her braided hair gathered in flowers on top of her head.
Frida Kahlo (Magdalena Carmen Frida Kahlo y Calderon) was born in 1907 in Coyoacan Mexico City, Mexico. Frida experienced a horrible vehicle collision that caused her severe bodily harm. She was famous for creating meaningful self-portraits. Even as a women with physical challenges, Frida still managed to make a name for herself and display her unconventional beauty in her paintings.
“The difference between a broken community and a thriving one, is the presence of valued women.”-Michelle Obama
Before We Had Wings We Had To Learn To Walk Together
Elizabeth Cady Stanton born and raised in Seneca Falls, New York to an upper class family. Her social elite status gained her political and social influence as a wife of Henry Brewster Stanton and mother of seven children. She was supported by Quaker activist women and that support prompted political campaigning against economic, social and political gender inequality in America. Female abolitionist weren’t very well accepted, let alone female rights activists. However, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott stood up for women’s rights, hoping to get the same rights to vote as African American slave men by the 15th amendment after the civil war.
These radical ladies birthed the women suffrage movement that began on July 19th through the 20th of 1848 at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York. Only 100 abolitionist (68 women and 32 men) met to discusses the issues with constituting women’s rights. At the convention, The Declaration of Sentiment was recited and declared by women with the support of their abolitionist husbands.
Although there were only white women in attendance, Fredrick Douglas did represent the African American slaves at that time. He was the only non-white in attendance. The women’s suffrage movement in America was mostly led by white women.
Susan B. Anthony was another influential woman campaigning for gender equality. She was a great activist with the ability to gather women together and march us forward. Anthony was arrested for voting in Rochester, New York.
Carrie Chapman Catt and Alice Paul were great leaders in the National American Women’s Suffrage Association (NAWSA) leading the world to the progressive era (1890-1920), era of reforms. They were women who protested and picketed to have the same political, economic and social standing as men. The word suffrage illustrates the domestic violence, solitary confinement (imprisonment) and various forms of abuse and injustice that all kinds of women, even married upper class women experienced in order to have better opportunities.
There were also many courageous women of all races, colors, and creeds before this period that reflected the strength of women.
Sojourner Truth was also an activist during the time of the 19th century. She was an African American female abolitionist, which meant that she was a double minority. She gave an insightful soliloquy expressing the intersectional challenges of being a black woman who was de-feminized due to racism and made to feel less than a woman.
AIN’T I A WOMAN?
by Sojourner Truth
Delivered 1851 at the Women’s Convention in Akron, Ohio
Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that ‘twixt the negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what’s all this here talking about?
That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain’t I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain’t I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man – when I could get it – and bear the lash as well! And ain’t I a woman? I have borne thirteen children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother’s grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain’t I a woman?
Then they talk about this thing in the head; what’s this they call it? [member of audience whispers, “intellect”] That’s it, honey. What’s that got to do with women’s rights or negroes’ rights? If my cup won’t hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn’t you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?
Then that little man in black there, he says women can’t have as much rights as men, ’cause Christ wasn’t a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did your Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.
If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back , and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it, the men better let them.
Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain’t got nothing more to say.
I love speech because I believe African American women, myself, are not considered in the category of aesthetics. We were once consider animals or in other words what a ‘nigger’ meant at that time in the United States, ‘ugly’, ‘black’, ‘nasty’. We had to tell the world that we were beautiful! We were led to believe that we weren’t beautiful because of the color of our skin and we were less than human. Only white women were consider beautiful in social America for a long time. The world is changing and colorful women are still slowly breaking those stereotypes, even today. We are raising in status and moving toward a diverse ideology that all women of different colors, cultures and creeds are beautiful! As an African American woman, I’m especially proud of these black women for break the mold for us, ‘sistahs’.
By the 20th century, women were granted the right to vote by the 19th amendment in 1920 in the United States.
In the bigger picture, it takes women to pave the way for others. It takes women to make the world whole and abundant. Even today in the 21st century women’s suffrage is rarely taught in the education system, although we’ve progressed past the cult of true womanhood, we still have a long road ahead of us.
Are you stressed?
Life always presents something. Nearly every day I’m confronted with something that can stress me out. It wasn’t long ago that I would let the stress pile up and get to me. Then I made some changes to remove all stress.
A lot of things are out of your control, but there is one thing that is always in your control. That is your response to whatever happens in life. One of the hardest things to do is to combat your thoughts. I’ve read that as much as 80% of our self-talk is negative. It’s take a conscious effort to invert your self-talk.
1. Train your mind to think positive only
–Literally stop thinking and breathe
–Block negative thoughts by picturing or reciting something positive like “It will all work out.” “I’m still breathing.” “Joy comes in the morning.” “I’ll be alright.” “One day I’ll have an amazing story to tell.”
2. Laugh
–Talk to a friend who makes you laugh
–Watch a comedian who makes you laugh
–Literally force yourself to laugh in the face of problems. The physical act of chuckling when something stressful happens can shift your perspective immediately.
3. Pray Without Ceasing
–Every breath, every thought, and every action should be a prayer of some sort. What I mean is, live right, do right, think right, act right. Don’t allow yourself to get stuck in negative thoughts or actions because it will block your blessings and bring more problems than you can handle.
4. Create a Self-Care Routine
–Choose a workout time even if you can only walk for 5 minutes, start there
–Choose a time to put your phone down and relax without the rays and toxic energy your phone brings
–Choose a meal plan that you stick to so you aren’t consistently poisoning your body. I’ve only had water and nutritional shakes for the last 5 days and it’s amazing how much more clarity and energy I have. What you consume can consume you.
5. Live More
–In your free time, plan something to do even if it’s a free walk in the park. Not every activity has to cost.
–Think of inexpensive ways to live life to the fullest and start saving today if you have to. Create a savings for living and as soon as you hit your goal, go! In July I plan to take a road trip with my family from Florida to Maine. Take time to live life more. You can afford it if you plan for it.
6. Watch Your Words
–Anything you speak yields fruit. If you reply to this email about all of your problems and struggles and how you never see the sunshine, you just cemented your reality. Your words become things. The Lord showed you that when He said, “let their be light.” Be careful and don’t claim sickness, loneliness, poverty, and misery.
7. Love More
–The world is conditioning us to hate ourselves and hate everyone around us. The media will drive a wedge between anyone they can because that discord and chaos boost profits in the economy. When you’re unhappy you spend more money in frivolous ways. If you hate your body, your race, the opposite race, or anything else, you will act out and it typically is in the form of consumption of something that benefits the economy, but not you.
–Spend more time with your loved onesnand even with strangers so you can get to know more people. Instead of hating someone or something, learn more about it and learn to how to process that new information and even if it results in dislike and distance, it won’t be as toxic to your body as hate is.
I hope those tips can help in someway. As I learn and grow, I just want to share what has helped me with the hopes that it can help you too.
Blessings,
Tony Gaskins Jr.
Colorado Woman Arrested For Blowing Up A 7-Eleven Microwave Trying To Heat Up This Bodily Fluid — The Rickey Smiley Morning Show
Angelique Sanchez, 26, is probably in a piss-poor mood after entering a Colorado 7-Eleven and blowing up a microwave trying to heat up urine.
On May 3rd the 7-Eleven store clerk witnessed Sanchez enter the store and place a white water bottle full of an unknown liquid into the store’s microwave. Moments later he heard an explosion come from the appliance, the store clerk approached the microwave which reportedly “reeked of urine” as yellow fluid dripped from the entrance of the microwave onto the floor.
The clerk tried to force her to clean the mess, which she only partially did and then left the 7-11 location. The convenient store clerk contacted the police who then found Sanchez across the street from the 7-11 at the Concentra Health Clinic and was cited for property damage charges.
According to the police report, Sanchez claimed that it was not “real urine” and authorities are speculating that Sanchez was attempting to heat urine for the liquid to maintain a normal body temperature so that she could use the specimen for an employment drug test.
