Bluesky

 

https://bsky.app/profile/jamiewriter.bsky.social

US Education

The dissolution of the US Department of Education will probably help America... 🤔🤨😐😑😑😑🫥😶‍🌫️

I'm sure the poorest children in the US will start getting the FINEST educational opportunities by September 2025. Oh yeah, it's gonna be like the prep school young Barron Trump attends, but for EVERY school in America. Right? 🤔🤨😒😬

Yeah, the Department was what held schools back. Funding is gonna flow like the Mississippi now! All universities are going to be Ivy league, because every child in America is going to be educated enough to attend Ivy league schools. Right?!?! 🤥👨‍🏫👩🏿‍🏫🧑🏻‍🏫

Sure. 

Yeah, the student loan situation could only be looking up. Heck, US secondary educational institutions will probably all be totally FREE by next year.

Right? 

🤔🫣

Sure. 

And if the United States is reclassified as an under developed nation due to the lack of education? 

😲

"Access to education and healthcare: Citizens of developed nations have access to quality healthcare and higher education." 

(We're already barely hanging on in several other requirements for "developed.") 

Yeah, that's okay. 🤬

Political story

 #politics 

Once upon a time...

There was a caterpillar 🐛

and it was preparing to transform, creating a chrysalis.

"Whoaaa, hold on there! You were born as a caterpillar. You crawl. That's it. That's what you are. That chrysalis is against nature, against some god or religion or something, and just plain offensive. Nexy you're gonna expect us to let you fly around, like others born with flight. You might poo 💩 in places caterpillars don't usually poo. And then expect us to respect your new identity by calling you *butterfly*! Ohhh no. Nope, nope, not on our watch. You go back to crawling or you will not be alive! Period. If you were meant to be something else, you'd have been born that way, NO EXCEPTIONS." 

And then the group eradicated all the butterflies 🦋 from the world, because obviously butterflies were not created by any god but by those evil Democrats, who obviously traved back in time and created such offensive, wretched creatures. 

Of course, butterflies were pollinators. So many types of flowers, fruits, and vegetables went extinct. But obviously those time-traveling Democrats created those species of flowers, fruits, and vegetables. And then other parts of the food chain vanished from existence. And that's all the Democrats fault! Because no god, no creator of the universe, would ever dare to make anything that can change. Butterflies are an abomination. 

In the next story, we'll learn about the serious evil of Seahorses, another creature created by time-traveling Democrats. They reproduce all wrong and mistreat the males. That species needs to be extinct. 

Make the world great again. Eradicate all the species that don't follow the rules of the one true leader. No more change in nature! No more diversity. 🍁🍂 Stop the leaves. Eliminate the science books that dare to suggest this is normal and necessary. Pinecones do not have an key ingredient in the life cycle of pine trees! Seeds do not turn into plants! 🌾 More Democratic lies!! 

(And someone go edit that part in Genesis that blames the Christian God for creating animals and trees and any nature that permits change!)

^ The above is sarcastic. 

But really, since the Republicans don't believe the LGBTQIA+ population could exist, may as well use the same reasoning for other nature. 

What if

 We've been making an assumption for the last decade that the "wall" he keeps longing to build is an actual, physical 🧱 wall, like made of brick or stone or whatever physical materials. 

🤔 What if we missed the much more obvious option? A "wall" in the more philosophical sense. 

Like, remember in the movie INDEPENDENCE DAY, when David sorta flips out and starts trashing his work place, because maybe if the planet is screwed up enough, the aliens 👽 won't want it? 

Well... what if that is the plan? 

Take away enough rights, mistreat large chunks of the American population enough to turn the country "cringe" 😬, maybe that "wall" will build itself because people won't want to immigrate. 

It's kind of brilliant. Like, imagine if the Native Americans who first made contact with the Mayflower, if they had shown the Pilgrims a horror show. Imagine if the first group of slaves that Columbus took got to Europe and were all, "thanks for the rescue from our toxic home," and then all agreed to make up a horror story of insurmountable odds. And Europeans were like, "maybe we don't want to sail west anymore." The Vikings didn't seem to enjoy Canada 500 years before that. 

Maybe this is the plan. Because maybe if enough Americans look like the old Sally Struthers commercials, which tinted the view of the whole continent of Africa 🌍 (wasn't the goal, but was the outcome), maybe that's the MAGA plan. To sully the country in the eyes of the world. 

Even hired a comedian to test it out. On the stage of a former president, a comedian insulted an American Commonwealth. And that former president did nothing, didn't storm out and defend his country. Just stood by. 

Because maybe it was a test. Could they trash the country and still win support from the country? 

Yup. 

So maybe they attack women, LGBTQ+, poor people, the elderly, disabled Americans, veterans, and 👱🏾🧔🏿‍♂️🧔🏽‍♀️🧔🏽👨🏿‍🦰👨🏼‍🦰👩🏻👩‍🦰🧑🏼‍🦲 nearly every ethnic group. Basically everyone. 

Hobbies, Fiction, Marketing, and Chucky #IWSG

InsecureWritersSupportGroup.com

One last bit of Halloween humor, from "SEED OF CHUCKY," where murder is a hobby.

Because I don't know how best to answer this anymore. I've had several other creative pursuits over the years, but I mostly just watch tv and movies with my husband now. I don't do most of the other activities I enjoyed when my body functioned better. Sorry. I barely give a damn.

I do go on useless rants on social media from time to time. Since this one is about books, I'll share it in this post.

 

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/CR7NAfFACnY3Rzgy/

🙋‍♀️ Hi, excuse me... I'd like to add to the question, please.

We have NA, YA, teen, middle-grade, ... seriously, the first 20 years of life all have their own little subgroups. 

Where's elder fiction?

And no, Captain Sarcasm (who always appers when I ask this), I do NOT just mean "large print." 

I mean novels with protagonists over age 65. 

And no, I also don't mean the history or political fiction sections, even in the years when nearly all of Congress and higher were people over age 65. 

( 🤔 One would really think life quality would be better for seniors, especially when they were the most represented group in the highest US Federal Government... but no, shockingly the representation didn't actually improve the situations.) 

If there's a story with a detective🕵

- mystery subgenre

- if that's a woman 🕵‍♀️, now it's "chick lit mystery"

- if it's a 17yo teen girl, now it's "YA chick lit mystery" 

- 🧛‍♀️ give her fangs, now it's "YA fantasy chick lit mystery" 

- she falls in love with 🧝‍♂️ an elf, now it's "YA paranormal romance"

(And all romance is automatically for women, even when it's 👨‍❤️‍👨 guys... 🤔🤔🤔🫣🤨🤨😶‍🌫️)

Seriously, bookstores like Barnes & Noble would take a main character and break categories down to the smallest niche. And Amazon is even worse, if you go to the site on a computer and scroll down to look. 

BUT

Over age 21 is adult. And that's it. 

As if a main character over a certain age couldn't have additional internal struggles? Or extra life experience and wisdom. 

Reimagine, for a moment, Twilight but Bella was Betty White. 

"Edward, you're too young for me."

"We were born nearly the same year. Actually, you're still older than I am."

"Yeah, but I mastered makeup years ago, so I know how to conceal reflective, sparkling skin. Honey, I can't commit to someone who hasn't figured out how to apply foundation. You've gone to high school and college over and over, and not once gotten makeup tips? Never took a cosmology class? Hon, you're an idiot." 

Ohhh... but there's no market for THAT book. Because we don't have a space for fiction with elder main characters. 

Wait... we do on tv. 🕵‍♀️ "Murder, She Wrote" had an inadvertent female detective elder, and look how well that show did. And elder male detective shows? Also had tv spots.

But as books? 

🕸*tumbleweeds*🕸

Okay, they probably exist.

And Goodreads probably has a list. Created by READERS, not publishers. Because we don't market reading or entertainment to seniors... just medication, diapers, and reverse mortgage scams. As if audiobooks couldn't be big sellers with older adults? 

It's a marketing HOLE. 

And that, by the way, IS THE ANSWER TO YOUR QUESTION.

There's no men's fiction because then they'd have to market to men. Sorry, advertising people have ruled that men can only purchase tech, alcohol, cigars, sports, and cars. Men don't read. 

These are the same advertising geniuses who won't market video games to females. Even when Halo Online revealed that half the players were, in fact, the females they refuse to market to because women don't play video games. 

Ad executives keep deciding on rules, but they are totally daft at actual market research. They keep telling people that THEY decide what sells and to whom... 

And social media has proven they are WRONG. 

So, one last rant from the soapbox...

All these politicians begging for money (I get at least 3 texts a day, I don't know about you) because they can't WIN without money...

Those same fool advertising people are telling them that! 

Get online. Social media campaigns have higher results and positive interactions, when done well. Stop wasting money on what an ad agency says. 

Oh, and no one wants to read a book about some astronaut geologist who is left behind on Mars. 

Except for all the people who bought The Martian from Andy Weir. And that Matt Damon guy, who played thr character in a blockbuster movie. Just another example of advertising people being proven wrong. Indie books can sell, and get big Hollywood deals. 

---

"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is that good men do nothing." Edmund Burke

The real problem is indifference. 

Whatever happens next will be because of people who just 🤷 shrugged it off and were indifferent about what could occur. 

Don't blame the scorpion. 🦂 It is going to sting, because that's what a scorpion does. 

🐢🐸 The turtle (or frog, depending which version you've heard- same story) is always gonna get stung for letting the scorpion get on their back.

#WMHD and #WEP Horrorfest 2024

October 10 is World Mental Health Day.






Sometimes, having someone else shop for you can improve your mental health for the day. Here's a discount on Instacart.

Https://inst.cr/t/d832be624  JDORNER1E119 code to save!

~~~🎃👻👿💀😈💫~~~🎃👻👿💀😈💫~~~

https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2024/10/wep-halloween-flash-fiction-special.html

Disclaimer 1:

For this fiction, Hell exists. It is sort of a pocket dimension. Human souls are often sent there after death for "cleansing punishment" in varying degrees of time and type. (Eternity for some, momentarily for the more innocent, etc.) Those condemned souls are usually unaware of the death the body they inhabited has undergone, thus they can experience pain, suffering, and trauma— all as the living would. 

Accounts of Hell describe it as a place of incredible fire, as if inside a star or forming planet, with strong stenches of sulfur. Demons are known to be the primary creatures to deliver punishment and are thought to be organized in a hierarchy (like corporations, militaries, etc.). 

Disclaimer 2: 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22003362/

Special Forces: World's Toughest Test

("Special Forces: World's Toughest Test is an American reality quasi-military training television series that premiered on Fox on January 4, 2023.")

This FICTION is inspired by this "reality tv" show. 

This fiction should, in no way, be considered a true or accurate desire or wish. There was an episode where one of the Staff insulted a candidate by saying he was like a "scared little girl." That is the inspiration for this, because there was no need to insult an entire gender or age group. 

In every episode, they all go somewhere to do a challenge. Then, the Staff picks a candidate to blindfold with a hood and pull into the meeting room to discuss why they're there and dig into their mental and emotional states. After that, usually, there are endurance exercises or something to "pay" for failing the challenges. (The Format changes by episode.) 

Pronunciation Guide: Jauroran - Make the J sound, "Juh," then the word aurora, then "an." Imagine him as a handsome young actor who would be cast to play a prince. 

Cruelabra - Combine the word cruel with "abra" (like candelabra).

Tagline: Never underestimate "scared little girls."

Guardian Demon

Jamie Dorner - 800 words - FCA

Bucky and the other Staff decide to pull candidate Jauroran in for a discussion. As his hood is removed, Jauroran shakes and sweats as he is sat on the metal chair. 

"Still a mess? You're back here on solid ground. Worried you'll fall off the chair?" Bucky asks, his smirk widening at the terrified young celebrity. 

"Yes, Staff. Err, no, Staff." Jauroran puts his head in his hands and tugs his famous haircut.

Bucky yells at him, "LOOK AT ME!" 

Jauroran moves his hands. His eyes close as he slowly cracks his neck. His fingers extend, each knuckle cracking. The stink of sulfur fills the room as the camera equipment fails. Jauroran's handsome twenty-four-year-old face appears to wrinkle and melt, replaced by a ghastly visage. 

"What thef**k?" Bucky smacks the table as he tries to get up. 

"Aww, can't move? Pity." An eerie voice emanates from Jauroran, like an evil ventriloquist woman is puppeting him. "That wide-eyed look, your racing pulse, the urine running down your pants… if I didn't know better, I'd say you, Bucky, have become a scared little girl." 

The last three words echo off the walls. Next to the table, a cloudy vision of Bucky using that same phrase earlier appears. Jauroran, clinging to a rope, begging for help and direction, fades in the cloudy hallucination. Only the ghost-like view of Bucky shouting about worthlessness remains. The shape changes as clouds swirl around the form. A young Bucky hovers there, yelling at someone else. 

"A scared little girl," the eerie voice from Jauroran says. "I do hope you remember your first." 

Bucky swats at the cloudy image. "What is this?" 

"We normally wait for your death to review your failures to humanity." The eerie voice cackles. "I am Cruelabra, a demon in service directly to our leader. It is impossible to imagine that she was once a human child, isn't it?"

"What? Who? How?" Sweat pours down Bucky's face. 

"She died that day. You impressed the bullies for a few hours. And she fell to her death. Scared, betrayed, begging for your help. Such an isolated child. Upon arrival to Hell, she was found almost entirely innocent. Except forgiveness was not in her soul. We don't mind. In fact, such a trait made her a demon and fast-tracked her promotions. She leads the demons now." Cruelabra's cackling laugh shakes the room. 

Jauroran's feet kick up onto the table as his body reclines in the chair. "Here's what's especially funny," Cruelabra's voice says from his melted-looking lips. "The scared little girl you failed to help, who you harassed to save your own skin, not only is she now the demon ruler of Hell, but Jauroran is her nephew."

Bucky whimpers that it wasn't his fault, crying about his innocence and just being a boy back then.

Cruelabra laughs. "That girl's family assumed she went to some other dimension. Peace, love, fluffy clouds, whatever humans hope to go to after life. So, when her sister gave birth twenty-four years ago, and the infant struggled to survive, the family prayed for the dead girl to look after the baby. They didn't know what they asked. She assigned me."

Bucky retched. "You're a guardian angel?"

Jauroran's feet swung off the table. Cruelabra scoffed at the bile. "Disgusting human. I am a guardian demon, more or less. I possess this body whenever he feels stressed or pained, or so many of the feelings he felt today. Usually, he's a happy actor, playing the prince you all know and love. You know the feelings he mentioned that his career has been so much easier than everyone else's, that he's here to test himself because he feels like something unknown has always helped him? That's accurate. He doesn't know I can enter at any time or that I've ensured his success at every turn. I have. And he will win your little show. You will see to it."

"I can't. There's nothing I can do," Bucky's words sputter as he begs.

"You will. Jauroran shall not feel such fear and failure again on your watch." Cruelabra leans closer. "We have no obligation to wait for your death to start the torture. I have taken down many humans. Do you like your identity?" 

Bucky whimpers, "Please, don't do this."

"Jauroran wins. You will protect and help him. Prevent him from feeling isolated and abandoned. Cheat, lie, do all that you must. Oh, and never call someone a scared little girl again. You have one waiting for you, though she's no longer scared. And certainly not little. Your soul belongs to a demon leader, and you will feel what she felt, amplified, for all eternity."

As his face returned to normal, Jauroran shook his head. "Staff? Did I pass out?"

 

Funniest ... well, at least the humorous image goes with my story. 

😅🤷‍♀️ I tried. 😘

IWSG Ghost Stories

https://www.insecurewriterssupportgroup.com/p/iwsg-sign-up.html

I love the horror genre. But ghost stories, pretty much any horror, doesn't send chills up my spine. I lived through some 💩 in childhood. 

But I love the Child's Play movies. Chucky marathon was on USA Network one day in the early 90s. I was watching the movies. My younger brother came in the living room and plopped down beside me.

"Don't watch this. You'll have nightmares."

He just shrugged.

I tried again to make him go away. He didn't.

The commercial ended.

"Fine. But don't cry to mom later and blame me. I tried to warn you."

We watched the marathon together, laughing our butts off. And the next week? Yup, we watched the Nightmare on Elm Street marathon. And Friday the 13th. 

He didn't get nightmares from it.

I didn't get in trouble.

And, years later, as adults, we still go to horror movies together! Lifelong bond. 

We are those really terrible people in the movie theater who double over laughing every time someone jumps or screams or whatever. 

We saw Seed of Chucky like 3 times in a row. We laughed so hard at that movie, omg. 

So what does scare me?

This guy:

Sept  5, 2024 — Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance says school shootings are a “fact of life" 

👻 Ghosts havs nothing in comparison. 

After I had a stroke, when I couldn't remember how to stand up. Literally could not recall how I did such a simple act, one I'd been doing successfully for over 40 years. When was the last time you THOUGHT about standing before just getting up? Unless you've dealt with a related health crisis, probably no thoughts about it since toddlerhood. (I don't mean just noticing time and that you should get going. I mean focusing on physically how the mechanics work.) 

Yeah, the first weeks were scary. 

Glancing at the bank account now that we're a "1/2 of one income" family. Applying for charity care and being told we're 300% above the federal poverty level. (Which we aren't. Even without percents. They're basing it on how we were doing two years ago, before everything went to 💩.) That's scary. I can't even deal with how scary our new budget is. There's absolutely no hope for the future and it is about to get so much worse. I can't even think about it at all.