Remembering Kathy Change

Hello everyone. May blooms with many celebrations and remembrances. May is not only Mental Health Awareness Month, it also includes World Goth Day (May 22nd), Cinco de Mayo. Asian American and Pacific Islander Awareness Month also takes place in this month named for the Greek goddess Maia (Geek Show and Tell over). My mother and …

Am I Your Beard?

This post is long, but it still didn't sufficiently cover everything that needs to be said. Just needed to get some things off my chest. 🙂 I had written it a while ago and I'm kind of glad I delayed posting it because this needs to be said now more than ever. 🙂 Recently, I …

NaNoWriMo in June is Coming Soon!

I've been a fan of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo abbreviation) for as long as I can remember. While exploring my local library in my early twenties, I had spotted Chris Baty's guide to crafting a novel in 30 days, perfectly titled No Plot? No Problem? Intrigued and mildly skeptical, (30 days! -- wow!) I …

“Born Ya” by Judy Ann MacMillan: A Jamaican Painter’s Restless Life

🙂 I’m so glad I came across this post. In this book, I hope to find a treasure trove of information about my mother’s beloved country and our love for art and laughter. On my list of books to buy! 🙂

Petchary's Blog

But I man on ya, I man born ya/I nah leave ya fi go America/No way say, pot a boil ya, a belly full ya/Sweet Jamaica

This song was recorded in the turbulent mid-1970s by a rather jolly and amusing reggae singer named Pluto Shervington. It is a somewhat patriotic song, almost defiant in a gentle way. At the time, Jamaicans were, in fact, leaving in droves. Mr. Shervington himself did “leave ya” a year after recording the song. Politics is ruthless.

Albert Huie, the “Father of Jamaican Painting,” who worked with sculptor and painter Edna Manley and was a beloved mentor to Judy Ann MacMillan. Born in Falmouth, Trelawny, in 1920, he died in 2010.

There is an echo of this same kind of defensiveness in the autobiography of this Jamaican painter, “Born Ya” (which means “Born Here”). She seems to be saying: “Yes, this is where I…

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An Analysis of The Many Faces of Ito

Netflix's The Many Faces of Ito is based on a novel by Japanese author Asako Yuzuki called "Ito-Kun A to E". To be fair, I believe that both male and female writers are capable of writing characters outside of their own experiences, provided that they put in the blood, sweat, and tears to write these …

What’s in a Name? A Lot.

Most of us are familiar with the German fairy tale, Rumpelstiltskin. If you're unfamiliar with it, you can read up on him here, here, or even here. Fast-forwarding to the end of the fairy tale, the once upon a time peasant Queen is triumphant because discovering his titular name is what seals his fate. The …

Does Your Novel Confuse Readers with “Too Many” Characters? 8 Ways to Unconfuse Them – by Anne R. Allen…

Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog

One of my personal writing issues is I tend to pack my books and stories with way too many characters. If a fascinating person walks into one of my stories, I feel it would be rude not to let them join the party. I suppose my inner Manners Doctor takes over. 🙂

This drives my editors batty. They think confusing the reader is worse than being rude to fictional people. And of course they’re right. They usually tell me I need to consolidate minor characters or eliminate them altogether. Someone even told me there’s a “rule” that a novel should have seven characters or less.

I’ve always been annoyed by all this. But this week I saw a thread in a readers’ Facebook group that helped me see the reader’s point of view.

Continue reading HERE

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The Life of Bolaji Badejo

Rewatching Alien and wanted to know more about the artist behind the titular alien. What a beautiful man! What a beautiful life! Thank you Valaquen for writing such an amazing post. 🙂 It’s the best one about Bolaji that I found after an hour of searching.

Strange Shapes

Bolaji Badejo was born in Lagos, Nigeria, on August 23rd, 1953, the second child to parents Victor and Elizabeth Badejo (née Bamidale). The family included, in order of birth: Akin, Bolaji, a sister Debo, Posi, Boyega, and Deji. Their mother, according to Boyega, was a “welfare administrator, one-time business owner, housewife and a hostess.”

Their father, born Erasmus Victor Badejo on 21st May 1921, was the son of farmer Gabriel Akingbade Badejo and Phebe Aderibigbe Badejo, a housewife. Victor was educated at the boys-only Government College in Ibadan, which had been founded by British expatriates and modeled in the vein of British boarding schools with the purpose of grooming Nigeria’s future leaders and trailblazers. For a time Colonial Nigeria had been ruled by the British as a series of adjuncts governed by telephone with local leaders serving as proxies (a system of governance called indirect rule) but later administrators argued that it was their imperial duty…

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May is Mental Health Awareness Month

Almost twenty  years ago I lost my second oldest brother, Ronald, to death by suicide. I adored him. Still do. He was the kind of person, as my little sister once said, who would get you a candy bar in the middle of the night, if that's what you wanted. During this time, I've had …

Is Your Blog Under Attack?

Thank you, Hugh! 🙂