C.C. Rising's Blog: The Camel and the Scorpion
May 23, 2018
On Writing: Tips for Author Blogs
Thanks to Women Writers for retweeting a nutrient-rich 2016 article by Katie Rose Guest Pryal: Tips for Author Blogs.
Ms. Pryal's introduction to her tips:
Here they are, in order of importance: (1) create relationships, (2) entertain your readers, and (3) sell books.
The first rule is, by far, the most important. (Most of) Your blog posts must have as their main goal to create relationships with your blog readers.
Whether you are writing blog posts on your own blog, writing guest posts on someone else’s blog, or “microblogging” on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, your primary goal had better be to create relationships with other people.
If you are simply spamming people to “buy my book,” then you are driving readers away from you. You are failing at social media, and worse, you are being annoying.
Repeat this to yourself every time you sit down to write a blog post: “My job is to create relationships with my readers.”
As an introspective sort, I both welcome Ms. Pryal's tips and feel trepidation about them.
But I'm committed to sharing my book with as many readers as possible.
Consequently, I must show the same courage in reaching out to people as Caroline, Lydia, and Anna do in The Camel and the Scorpion.
Ms. Pryal's introduction to her tips:
Here they are, in order of importance: (1) create relationships, (2) entertain your readers, and (3) sell books.
The first rule is, by far, the most important. (Most of) Your blog posts must have as their main goal to create relationships with your blog readers.
Whether you are writing blog posts on your own blog, writing guest posts on someone else’s blog, or “microblogging” on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, your primary goal had better be to create relationships with other people.
If you are simply spamming people to “buy my book,” then you are driving readers away from you. You are failing at social media, and worse, you are being annoying.
Repeat this to yourself every time you sit down to write a blog post: “My job is to create relationships with my readers.”
As an introspective sort, I both welcome Ms. Pryal's tips and feel trepidation about them.
But I'm committed to sharing my book with as many readers as possible.
Consequently, I must show the same courage in reaching out to people as Caroline, Lydia, and Anna do in The Camel and the Scorpion.
April 25, 2018
Quotes to En-Courage: Know Your Worth Even If They Don't
“Make sure you don’t start seeing yourself through the eyes of those who don’t value you. Know your worth even if they don’t.”
― Thema Davis
The Camel and the Scorpion is a book inspired by true events. It is the story of #StrongWomen - Caroline, Lydia, Anna - who spoke out for a good world despite the personal and professional risks to themselves in doing so.
Image: “Nude Woman” by Jules Pascin (American (born Bulgaria), Vidin 1885–1930 Paris) via The Metropolitan Museum of Art is licensed under CC0 1.0
― Thema Davis
The Camel and the Scorpion is a book inspired by true events. It is the story of #StrongWomen - Caroline, Lydia, Anna - who spoke out for a good world despite the personal and professional risks to themselves in doing so.
Image: “Nude Woman” by Jules Pascin (American (born Bulgaria), Vidin 1885–1930 Paris) via The Metropolitan Museum of Art is licensed under CC0 1.0
April 18, 2018
Camel and Scorpion's Playlist: Don't Leave Me This Way
The Camel and the Scorpion opens in Texas in 1977.
What music did protagonists, Caroline and Lydia, hear on the radio?
Disco was almost at its 1978 peak.
Thelma Houston's Don't Leave Me This Way is an iconic song from this time.
As Caroline drove about the city in Brunhilda, her 1968 red Buick Skylark, don't you think she was bouncing her shoulders to the infectious dance beat?
"Set me free, set me free!"
What music did protagonists, Caroline and Lydia, hear on the radio?
Disco was almost at its 1978 peak.
Thelma Houston's Don't Leave Me This Way is an iconic song from this time.
As Caroline drove about the city in Brunhilda, her 1968 red Buick Skylark, don't you think she was bouncing her shoulders to the infectious dance beat?
"Set me free, set me free!"
April 11, 2018
Quotes to En-Courage: You Need to Make It Uncomfortable For Them
“You have to find out who has the power to give you what you want, and then you have to go after them. And I don’t mean in a violent way because I’m a nonviolent person, but you need to be in their face. You need to make it uncomfortable for them...."
Lois Gibbs, St. Louis Public Radio interview, 2014.
The Camel and the Scorpion is a book inspired by true events. It is the story of #StrongWomen - Caroline, Lydia, Anna - who spoke out for a good world despite the personal and professional risks to themselves in doing so.
Image credit: “WOMAN” by bixentro is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Lois Gibbs, St. Louis Public Radio interview, 2014.
The Camel and the Scorpion is a book inspired by true events. It is the story of #StrongWomen - Caroline, Lydia, Anna - who spoke out for a good world despite the personal and professional risks to themselves in doing so.
Image credit: “WOMAN” by bixentro is licensed under CC BY 2.0
April 4, 2018
Camel and Scorpion's Playlist: Elvis Has Left the Building
The Camel and the Scorpion opens in Texas in 1977.
What music did protagonists, Caroline and Lydia, hear on the radio?
Well, in 1977, Elvis Presley died.
Elvis Presley, press photo for Jailhouse Rock. Public domain. Source: Wikimedia.
Although past his prime at the time of his death, at only 42, he was a national icon.
Here is one of his songs, Don't Be Cruel.
Do you have a favorite song from 1977?
What music did protagonists, Caroline and Lydia, hear on the radio?
Well, in 1977, Elvis Presley died.
Elvis Presley, press photo for Jailhouse Rock. Public domain. Source: Wikimedia.
Although past his prime at the time of his death, at only 42, he was a national icon.
Here is one of his songs, Don't Be Cruel.
Do you have a favorite song from 1977?
March 28, 2018
Strong Women Series #10: Lois Gibbs
The Camel and the Scorpion is a book inspired by true events. It is the story of #StrongWomen - Caroline, Lydia, Anna - who spoke out for a good world despite the personal and professional risks to themselves in doing so.
This post is the 10th in my Strong Women Series. The series honors women and girls of courage.
Image source
Lois Marie Gibbs is my 10th #StrongWoman.
Courage is doing something even when we are afraid, yes?
This anecdote from Ms. Gibbs' 1978 beginnings as an environmental activist awes me:
"The woman who helped free an entire community from a toxic dump, literally rewriting environmental laws in the process, was so shy at the start of the struggle she tried to hide behind a tree when neighbors called on her."
Ms. Gibbs was "just a housewife." Even after blooming into a nationally-known community activist, this dismissive label stuck at times, including from her own mother, noted in this story:
"In 1981, now a single parent, with two children and $10,000, Lois left Niagara Falls for the Washington, DC area to establish a national organization to help families living near other Love Canal-like sites. Many doubted her ambitious goal to guild a movement – even her mother told her as she drove away 'you’re forgetting you’re just a house wife with a high school education'."
So what did Lois Gibbs do?
In short, Ms. Gibbs brought the world's attention to a giant toxic dump, otherwise known as a "model planned community" called Love Canal, in which families were born, slept, ate, played, went to school, made love, and got sick and died.
To do this, Ms. Gibbs had to power through her shyness and self-doubts; overcome the disdain of local, regional, state, and national experts, officials, and business folk; learn by trial and error about community organizing; make mistakes; and take risks. From The Center for Public Integrity:
"... one day in 1978 .... Read the rest of the story here
This post is the 10th in my Strong Women Series. The series honors women and girls of courage.
Image source
Lois Marie Gibbs is my 10th #StrongWoman.
Courage is doing something even when we are afraid, yes?
This anecdote from Ms. Gibbs' 1978 beginnings as an environmental activist awes me:
"The woman who helped free an entire community from a toxic dump, literally rewriting environmental laws in the process, was so shy at the start of the struggle she tried to hide behind a tree when neighbors called on her."
Ms. Gibbs was "just a housewife." Even after blooming into a nationally-known community activist, this dismissive label stuck at times, including from her own mother, noted in this story:
"In 1981, now a single parent, with two children and $10,000, Lois left Niagara Falls for the Washington, DC area to establish a national organization to help families living near other Love Canal-like sites. Many doubted her ambitious goal to guild a movement – even her mother told her as she drove away 'you’re forgetting you’re just a house wife with a high school education'."
So what did Lois Gibbs do?
In short, Ms. Gibbs brought the world's attention to a giant toxic dump, otherwise known as a "model planned community" called Love Canal, in which families were born, slept, ate, played, went to school, made love, and got sick and died.
To do this, Ms. Gibbs had to power through her shyness and self-doubts; overcome the disdain of local, regional, state, and national experts, officials, and business folk; learn by trial and error about community organizing; make mistakes; and take risks. From The Center for Public Integrity:
"... one day in 1978 .... Read the rest of the story here
March 21, 2018
Quotes to En-Courage: When I Dare to Be Powerful
When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.
Audre Lorde
The Cancer Journals
The Camel and the Scorpion is a book inspired by true events. It is the story of #StrongWomen - Caroline, Lydia, Anna - who spoke out for a good world despite the personal and professional risks to themselves in doing so.
Audre Lorde
The Cancer Journals
The Camel and the Scorpion is a book inspired by true events. It is the story of #StrongWomen - Caroline, Lydia, Anna - who spoke out for a good world despite the personal and professional risks to themselves in doing so.
March 17, 2018
Strong Women Series #9: Ilhan Omar
The Camel and the Scorpion is a book inspired by true events. It is the story of #StrongWomen - Caroline, Lydia, Anna - who spoke out for a good world despite the personal and professional risks to themselves in doing so.
This post is the ninth in my Strong Women Series. The series honors women and girls of courage.
Credit: Ms. Omar's Twitter account
Ilhan Omar is my ninth #StrongWoman.
Ms. Omar is the first Somali-American to be elected to political office in the United States. She is also Muslim, a woman, and a first-generation refugee to the United States from Somalia by way of Kenya.
"When we came to the United States, we had this extensive orientation. I remember it was this picturesque environment—people were happy, everybody had what they needed, shiny houses. And when we arrived, we were driving through Manhattan, and I remember seeing panhandlers and homeless people sleeping on the street and graffiti and trash everywhere. I remember turning to my father and saying, 'This isn't the America you promised.' And my father said, 'Well, you just wait. We haven't gotten to our America yet.'
"At the time, I was in middle school, and it was really rough for me. I didn't speak English. I was dealing with being an extreme "other" for the first time. I'm Muslim and black and was coming from a Muslim-majority country where everyone was black. I had never had a conversation with my family about my identity. I remember the only words I knew were "hello" and "shut up." But when I'd come home and complain to my father that this wasn't what he promised me, he would tell me I had an opportunity to change my reality, that I needed to work harder to learn English, that I had to work harder to build relationships so that students could see me beyond my otherness. I needed to be better so that my environment would be better.
"... ]My father] and my grandfather both believed that this country has gotten better because people have believed they had a stake in it. They taught me that I had an obligation to act and to be part of that progress."
Source: Interview, Elle Magazine
Ms. Omar came to the United States as a refugee. She was a child. She practices Islam. She was born in Somalia - one of the countries that President Trump singled out in his visa ban.
This woman has courage. In a societal climate in which there are so many vicious verbal, political, and physical assaults against Americans who are Muslims, Ms. Omar speaks out:
"I think when you ... demonise and dehumanise, it is easy for people to commit acts of violence against those individuals because they no longer see them as a person, as someone who has feelings, who's worthy of respect." Source: AlJazeera News.
To read more about Ilman Omar, I invite you to visit my website here and then go to my blog page.
This post is the ninth in my Strong Women Series. The series honors women and girls of courage.
Credit: Ms. Omar's Twitter account
Ilhan Omar is my ninth #StrongWoman.
Ms. Omar is the first Somali-American to be elected to political office in the United States. She is also Muslim, a woman, and a first-generation refugee to the United States from Somalia by way of Kenya.
"When we came to the United States, we had this extensive orientation. I remember it was this picturesque environment—people were happy, everybody had what they needed, shiny houses. And when we arrived, we were driving through Manhattan, and I remember seeing panhandlers and homeless people sleeping on the street and graffiti and trash everywhere. I remember turning to my father and saying, 'This isn't the America you promised.' And my father said, 'Well, you just wait. We haven't gotten to our America yet.'
"At the time, I was in middle school, and it was really rough for me. I didn't speak English. I was dealing with being an extreme "other" for the first time. I'm Muslim and black and was coming from a Muslim-majority country where everyone was black. I had never had a conversation with my family about my identity. I remember the only words I knew were "hello" and "shut up." But when I'd come home and complain to my father that this wasn't what he promised me, he would tell me I had an opportunity to change my reality, that I needed to work harder to learn English, that I had to work harder to build relationships so that students could see me beyond my otherness. I needed to be better so that my environment would be better.
"... ]My father] and my grandfather both believed that this country has gotten better because people have believed they had a stake in it. They taught me that I had an obligation to act and to be part of that progress."
Source: Interview, Elle Magazine
Ms. Omar came to the United States as a refugee. She was a child. She practices Islam. She was born in Somalia - one of the countries that President Trump singled out in his visa ban.
This woman has courage. In a societal climate in which there are so many vicious verbal, political, and physical assaults against Americans who are Muslims, Ms. Omar speaks out:
"I think when you ... demonise and dehumanise, it is easy for people to commit acts of violence against those individuals because they no longer see them as a person, as someone who has feelings, who's worthy of respect." Source: AlJazeera News.
To read more about Ilman Omar, I invite you to visit my website here and then go to my blog page.
March 1, 2018
Strong Women Series #8: Audre Lorde
The Camel and the Scorpion is a book inspired by true events. It is the story of #StrongWomen - Caroline, Lydia, Anna - who spoke out for a good world despite the personal and professional risks to themselves in doing so.
This post is the eighth in my Strong Women Series. The series honors women and girls of courage.
Artist: Mildred Thompson
There's not much I can add about Audre Lorde than what she herself said, as depicted in Mildred Thompson's portrait of Ms. Lorde.
Black
Lesbian
Mother
Warrior
Poet.
She Who Makes Her Meaning Known.
Ms. Lorde renamed herself twice. As a child, she dropped the 'y' from her birth name, Audrey, and went with Audre, which aligned more pleasingly with her surname Lorde. Later in life, Ms. Lorde chose another new name for herself, Gamba Adisa, which Ms. Lorde translated as "warrior: she who makes her meaning known."
"If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive." The Cancer Journals.
“I have a duty to speak the truth as I see it and to share not just my triumphs, not just the things that felt good, but the pain, the intense, often unmitigating pain.” Black Women Writers, per Poetry Foundation.
As a woman born to immigrants, a woman of color, a lesbian, womanist, poet, activist, a human with cancer - coming up in the 1940s and 1950s - she needed to be strong to live her fullest life.
“Your silence will not protect you.” From Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
To read more about Audre Lord, I invite you to visit my website here here and then go to my blog page.
This post is the eighth in my Strong Women Series. The series honors women and girls of courage.
Artist: Mildred Thompson
There's not much I can add about Audre Lorde than what she herself said, as depicted in Mildred Thompson's portrait of Ms. Lorde.
Black
Lesbian
Mother
Warrior
Poet.
She Who Makes Her Meaning Known.
Ms. Lorde renamed herself twice. As a child, she dropped the 'y' from her birth name, Audrey, and went with Audre, which aligned more pleasingly with her surname Lorde. Later in life, Ms. Lorde chose another new name for herself, Gamba Adisa, which Ms. Lorde translated as "warrior: she who makes her meaning known."
"If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive." The Cancer Journals.
“I have a duty to speak the truth as I see it and to share not just my triumphs, not just the things that felt good, but the pain, the intense, often unmitigating pain.” Black Women Writers, per Poetry Foundation.
As a woman born to immigrants, a woman of color, a lesbian, womanist, poet, activist, a human with cancer - coming up in the 1940s and 1950s - she needed to be strong to live her fullest life.
“Your silence will not protect you.” From Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
To read more about Audre Lord, I invite you to visit my website here here and then go to my blog page.
February 21, 2018
Strong Women Series #7: Cecile Richards
The Camel and the Scorpion is a book inspired by true events. It is the story of #StrongWomen - Caroline, Lydia, Anna - who spoke out for a good world despite the personal and professional risks to themselves in doing so.
This post is the seventh in my Strong Women Series. The series honors women and girls of courage.
Cecile Richards is my seventh #StrongWoman.
“Every bit of progress we have made in this country, perhaps in the world, has been because there were people willing to speak out even when it was unpopular.”
Cecile Richards, Georgetown speech, April 2016
Ms. Richards is most well-known as Planned Parenthood's president, a position she's held since 2006, and which will end in May this year. Ms. Richards' time with Planned Parenthood will close as a new endeavor opens: the publication of her forthcoming book, Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding the Courage to Lead--My Life Story.
But Ms. Richards' activist life emerged in childhood: At age 14, her school disciplined her for wearing a black armband to protest the Vietnam War. Well, one might say her activism began in the cradle, as Ms. Richards' parents were Ann Richards (former governor of Texas) and David Richards, a civil rights attorney.
As a human lightning rod for Planned Parenthood, an organization committed entirely to the reproductive health of women and men - to medical, economic, and social justice - Cecile Richards is the target of daily attacks from individuals, organizations, and political operatives. Ms. Richards' valor in withstanding these electric strikes and swirling storms so resolutely ... it astounds me.
Women of courage like Cecile Richards? They are who kept me writing The Camel and the Scorpion for 20 years, so I could share the stories of women like The Camel and the Scorpion protagonists, Caroline, Lydia, and Anna.
Honorable, imperfect, brave, vulnerable champions, all of them. Risking their personal and professional lives to stand up for their ideals.
This post is the seventh in my Strong Women Series. The series honors women and girls of courage.
Cecile Richards is my seventh #StrongWoman.
“Every bit of progress we have made in this country, perhaps in the world, has been because there were people willing to speak out even when it was unpopular.”
Cecile Richards, Georgetown speech, April 2016
Ms. Richards is most well-known as Planned Parenthood's president, a position she's held since 2006, and which will end in May this year. Ms. Richards' time with Planned Parenthood will close as a new endeavor opens: the publication of her forthcoming book, Make Trouble: Standing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding the Courage to Lead--My Life Story.
But Ms. Richards' activist life emerged in childhood: At age 14, her school disciplined her for wearing a black armband to protest the Vietnam War. Well, one might say her activism began in the cradle, as Ms. Richards' parents were Ann Richards (former governor of Texas) and David Richards, a civil rights attorney.
As a human lightning rod for Planned Parenthood, an organization committed entirely to the reproductive health of women and men - to medical, economic, and social justice - Cecile Richards is the target of daily attacks from individuals, organizations, and political operatives. Ms. Richards' valor in withstanding these electric strikes and swirling storms so resolutely ... it astounds me.
Women of courage like Cecile Richards? They are who kept me writing The Camel and the Scorpion for 20 years, so I could share the stories of women like The Camel and the Scorpion protagonists, Caroline, Lydia, and Anna.
Honorable, imperfect, brave, vulnerable champions, all of them. Risking their personal and professional lives to stand up for their ideals.
