Maranda Russell's Blog, page 11

Disney Fan Art – 101 Dalmations & The Lion King

Poetry – Faster

Years go by,the big handmoving round the clockfaster and Faster andFASTER and FASTER!!!and*snap*!-marandarussell.com

The Page Turner Awards are Now Open for Submissions!

As I mentioned a little while back, I was honored to be asked by the Page Turner Awards to help judge their Young Writer Award category. This opportunity excites me because I love literature and am excited to get a chance to help recognize and encourage some blossoming young writers!

The Page Turner Awards are now open to submissions, so make sure you check it out! Here is a bit more information about the Page Turner Awards from a recent press release:

“Page Turner Awards is an inclusive writing and book awards with one goal – to change the lives of as many writers as possible. While traditional writing awards are often steeped in elitism, the Page Turner Awards passionately believes that talented writers can be from any background, age, race, religion, or interest.

Our mission is to get new unpublished writers discovered, helping published authors get their writing recognized and celebrated, so they can find new reading audiences and giving screenwriters the chance to have their scripts placed in front of film professionals.

Page Turner Awards gives unpublished writers the chance to enter unpublished fiction and non-fiction books, to be read by a carefully curated judging panel made up of influential players in the publishing industry. We also give published authors, whether mainstream published or independently published, the chance to get their fiction story or non-fiction book recognized by successful authors, high-caliber industry professionals and film producers. Plus, screenwriters have the chance to showcase their screenplays to film producers and film production companies actively looking for scripts to produce. Prizes span everything from mentorships to audiobook production and publishing packages.“

Have you used a blog optimization service?

I was curious whether any of my fellow WordPress bloggers have ever used a blog optimization service?

As my blog has grown, it has gotten to the point where I am constantly being contacted by companies and people offering these kinds of services, promising they can improve your blog traffic and help you to rank higher in Google searches. I haven’t hired any of them, but I’ve wondered at times if it would be worth it.

They are rather expensive, and many seem to want a monthly recurring fee to keep your blog “optimized”, which I kind of balk at. This month for the first time, I will actually meet the $100 WordPress ads minimum threshold and get a payout, so I definitely don’t make a lot of money off this blog. Occasionally I have done paid posts and links, but very rarely because I am picky about that kind of stuff and will only host things I believe in or that are directly related to my blog themes.

If anyone has used a blog optimization service, I would love to hear about your experience, and if there are any specific services you would recommend or warn away from!

Poetry – Inverted

All I've knownis dysfunction.I began to bloomlocked in the closet,hidden under the stairway,abandonedin pitch black rooms -so is it any wonderif my blossoms grewinverted?

Wordless Wednesday – Unicorn Cake

Poetry – Buttered Toast

As the toastfell from the counter,crumbs went everywhere.She sighed,but instead of reaching for a dishrag,sunk her toesinto the thickly buttered sidefacing up.For a moment,the kitchenfelt like a spa.

My First Weighted Blanket

This is the blanket I got. The pink is soothing too

I got my first weighted blanket today, and I have to say, I am loving it! It really is comforting and helpful to anxiety. It makes the chronic muscle aches of fibromyalgia feel a bit better too. I started with a 10 pound blanket, because I could barely lift the 15 or 20 pound ones without throwing my back out lol. Plus, I have always been one that likes a lighter touch rather than a super heavy touch, even with massage and things like that.

I think the 10 pound blanket will be perfect for anxiety attacks, but I might get a little lighter one (6 pound maybe) for daily use, just to sit around with while I work and such. These blankets might really be a game changer for me though! I can feel it already!

If you have anxiety or chronic pain, you might want to look into them if you haven’t already! Of course, they are great for autism too, which was another plus for me. I would also recommend the ones that come with the sherpa fleece covers! They are so soft and cozy!!!

Teenage Trauma Almost Made Me Give Up On Life

One of the few pics of me from that time. Not too many happy memories.

I went through a lot of trauma between the ages of 15-19. I had already been through prior trauma, losing my dad to a heart attack at the age of 12, getting hit by a delivery truck while crossing the street when I was 10, living with an abusive, dysfunctional family dynamic from birth, etc.

But from the ages of 15 to 19, a lot of other bad stuff happened in short sequence:

My mother married my first boy friend that I brought home from school. They married on his 18th birthday. I was 15 and had to go to school with my new “stepdad”. It was humiliating. I started skipping school constantly and went from a straight A honors student to just not caring. I started working a rather dangerous and technically illegal 3rd shift job when I was 16. There was one really threatening experience where a drunk guy was physically threatening me and I had to call the cops. Scary stuff at that age. When I was 17, I was robbed at gunpoint after a shift at Burger King (after leaving the above job obviously). When I was 16, we moved from Georgia, back to Indiana (where I was born), which meant leaving all my friends and the school I had been attending for the past five years. I found it very hard to integrate into my new school. Being dumped on family and friends unceremoniously when my mother and her husband wanted to go away. I had to stay with people I really didn’t like, in living conditions that were pretty nasty at times. Places I knew my mother would have never stayed herself, but she left me there so she could go away and have fun. I developed my first “real” feelings for a guy around 17-18. Unfortunately, he led me on, made me think we might have a future together, then lied to me, moved another girl in with him, told me they were just friends, then when I found out they were together and expressed anger about it, he wrote me a nasty letter saying I was obsessive and pretty much accused me of being crazy.

Looking back now, I really wish I could have known then what I know now. I wish my adult self could have been there to comfort myself. I wish that instead of giving up on education and school, that I would have embraced it as a way out. At the time, I was just so humiliated and depressed, that skipping school and not caring seemed the only way.

Before all this happened, I had big plans. I wanted to go to college to study journalism. I had dreams of being a foreign correspondent, or even just a regular reporter. At the age of 12, I was studying college course catalogs and trying to figure out which college would be best for journalism. I would also regularly write practice made up “news articles” just for fun. I wish I had kept those. I’d imagine they would give me quite a kick now. My other dream was to own a used bookstore.

The trauma made me give up on all that. I stopped caring about my future at all. I couldn’t see that I HAD much of a future at all. It is really a wonder that I never attempted suicide. I think my fear of hell (because I was religious at the time) is probably what stopped me.

I guess in the end, my determination and stubbornness has helped me fix some of the errors made back then. I have become a writer, even if I’m not a journalist. I write a fairly successful blog here, have published and even won awards for books I’ve written, share my poetry here and on social media, have worked freelance jobs as a copywriter, ghostwriter, editor, and reviewer – so I’ve come a long way for someone who didn’t take the traditional path and get a college degree.

I guess what I’m trying to say, is that if things seem like they can never get better, they can. Don’t give up. I still have to tell myself that today on my bad days and in my bad moments. And if you are young, don’t give up on the things that could be your way out (like education).

Sickly Week

It’s been a sickly couple weeks in our house. My husband came home sick from work last Thursday with what we thought was a normal stomach bug. However, when it lasted longer than 5 days, we started to think it wasn’t your average norovirus.

We even ended up taking him to the ER because the diarrhea and abdominal pain got so bad. That was quite an experience as I wasn’t allowed in the hospital as a guest due to covid restrictions, so I spent 3 hours in the car waiting for him to be treated. Luckily, the heater in our car works just fine, or I would have frozen.

Eventually, we started to wonder if he might have covid. There is a significant amount of covid patients who primarily or even only get gastrointestinal symptoms according to various studies, and Steve had all the symptoms of that. These covid gastrointestinal symptoms tend to last longer than the 1 to 3 day window of an average stomach virus. Also, just a couple weeks ago, one of the students in my husband’s class at school tested positive for covid (as did his entire family), so he had been exposed.

Yesterday we went to get the covid test done. Waiting to see what the results say. Unfortunately, the past 48 hours, I’ve started exhibiting the same symptoms he has had for over a week I’m not feeling good and it sucks.