writer Janna Hill

This Heat – Lawd! (Tuesday’s Tell All)

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We humans get impulsive and short tempered when we get hot, literally and figuratively.

Science says when the body overheats, it needs to spend energy to cool itself down, that response can come from the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that helps people self-regulate.

That explains why people are more impulsive and less likely to think before acting.

I’m not sure if that’s what happened to Savannah Dawn and her mom, but something made them snap.

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“Mama had worked up such a sweat the glue melted leaving her eyelashes dangling at an odd angle to her lids. She tried to dislodge them but after a few failed puffs, she snatched them from her face without blinking. They landed like two dead caterpillars at my feet. I quietly picked them up and stowed them in my pocket.”

Excerpt From
Savannah Dawn (Unconsecrated Visions)
Janna Hill
This material may be protected by copyright.

About the Author ( #TBT )

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1998 About the Author was literally the bio I picked for my first book of poetry Pose Prose & Poems (My Thoughts Exactly)

Ahhh I was so naïve. In hindsight even my most sinister & darkest moments at that time were no more than a cloudy day.

I was cursed with curiosity

Blessed with being poor

The fifth of seven children

Who could ask for more?

More fun than one should want for

More fights than one could win

More plates than food to go on

Yet I’d do it all again.

A SPECIAL THANKS TO all who have touched my life and allowed me into theirs. Remember, light casts a shadow, so stand in the light.

All Day Twos-day (Tuesday’s Tell All)

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Hey, you know what would be great on this Tuesday – the second day of the second month in the year 2022?

Two dozen free tacos delivered to my door.

Or

Two million dollars deposited into my account.

I would eat the tacos and share the dollars.

But I have neither so…

I guess I’ll eat a double-decker dried out bologna sandwich that tastes like dusty cardboard and give you …. drum roll 🥁

Two (+2+2+2+2+) stories (that’s More) for the price of one.

And a few of my favorite twos.

Happy Tuesday/Twos-day Y’all.

Greed (Friday’s Free for All)

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Although it’s not actually free, three stories for 99 cents ain’t far from it. Amiright? 😉

Hopefully this will help you through the hellish days of August – or a few hours, depending on how fast you read. 😁

Greed is available Wherever ebooks are sold.

GREED (Murder & Mystery)

What does, August Wolf, A Face in the Falls and The Sharecropper’s Son have in common?

These stories reveal the perplexities, the strengths and the weakness of people that are true to life and, like life, these stories expose the innate greed present in mankind.

“There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

*A Face in the Falls is included in the short story anthology Unshod.

Happy Friday Y’all. 🍻

Dissing or Discussing Poetry (Thoughtful Thursday)

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We are still two months away from NPM and poetry discussions are abuzz.  I love it!

I’m not even upset that one “genre” is dissing the other – I am just happy poetry is being discussed.

I clicked on a link/interview that was shared with a member of the Horror Writer’s Association and then BOOM I was knee deep in reading, searching and lurking a dozen other sites.

I [honestly] never considered a genre when writing poetry and probably couldn’t categorize if my life depended on it.  But [speaking of dissing] I’ll share Thoughts on Writing from Getting Me Back.

Except from Getting Me Back (The Voices Within)
Published May 17 2017


Thoughts on Writing  (The Requirements of an Author)


Desire: A congenital need to tell the story.


Determination: It is not enough to walk a couple of blocks or run five miles on a treadmill, come prepared to hike the Himalayas and explore the abyss.


An exoskeleton: A thick skin will not suffice — no indeed. Colleagues and critics are apt in the sadistic art of shaving and burning the thickest of flesh; their tireless wheel of pumice leaving the toughest callouses raw and bleeding. They will thin your skin; get beneath it and prove your vulnerabilities. Like a flesh eating bacteria they will consume you — kill you if you let them.


A poker face: Never let them see you sweat.


Gratitude: Because no one owes you anything!


Grace: For the rise and the inevitable fall.


Pills and booze and smoke: Because it is a hard and hateful world and you are not a god-damned ant.


 

			

	


			
				


	

							
The End
						

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Today is the last day of November and the end of NaNoWriMo.


Crane in Saltgrass end of November


If you are one who has already or will be typing the end today — congratulations!


If you are one who threw in the towel days or weeks ago — it is not the end of the world!


The earth is still in orbit, the sun still rises in the east, the Apocalypse has not occurred (unless I missed it) and if you can pinch yourself then the Messiah has not arrived. Be thankful.


This is not the end.


This is only the beginning.


Write on!!


 

			

	


			
				


	

							
It’s Time to Wrap it Up
						

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The deadline for NaNoWriMo is fast approaching and Christmas is around the corner — tick-tock… tick-tock…tick-tock… tick-tock Wrap it up


It’s time to wrap it up.


How’s your ending coming along? Are you going to leave us with a cliff hanger and chomping at the bit? Is there a wild twist/turn of events that makes us say Wow!


Will it be a happy ever after (HEA)? Does a character need to die? Will good triumph over evil? Maybe all of the above?


It’s your story, you get to decide how it ends and how you present it to the world.


And just think when you’ve typed The End you can get busy hitting the thrift stores in search of the perfect hideous sweater for your grumpy old aunt you secretly despise.


Write on!!

			

	


			
				


	

							
A Pilgrim’s Prayer
						

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Another Thanksgiving has arrived and another November nears an end which means another revisiting of A Pilgrims Prayer.


A Pilgrim’s Prayer


Once upon a time a long, a long time ago (before Black Friday) Thanksgiving was a celebration of harvest and a time to give thanks. The pumpkin harvest (1024x586)

The early pilgrims did not have the conveniences we enjoy today, yet somehow they survived.


John Wayne public domain image


I didn’t really know any of those pilgrims but I did see a John Wayne movie once.


John knew a pilgrim when he saw one.


He seemed to know a lot of pilgrims but that was a long time ago too.


 


 


 


I propose we are all pilgrims, each one of us on a journey of sorts; our own personal pilgrimage.

We are all looking for something. Be it a quest for self-confirmation, truth, a cure, enrichment, enlightenment, comfort, a friend, a lover, a job, a meal, or a place to lay our weary head at the end of another day.


I believe life is a journey, or at least it should be. PATHS AND PILGRIMS (5) (1024x586)It would be terrible to think we were just flailing through this experience, killing time on this giant floating gumball, while waiting for the next Black Friday specials.


I believe we all have one destination, though we travel many different roads and I trust that we have choices.


Pilgrims (2)


Hopefully we will choose well. On the occasion we take a wrong turn [and we will] I pray we have enough sense and humility to stop and seek direction, to reassess our route and to be considerate in our voyage.


PATHS AND PILGRIMS (15) (1024x653)

So here’s wishing all of you pilgrims a Happy Thanksgiving and may we all, whatever road we’re on, take time to look ahead, pause, and meditate on the many things we have to be grateful for, put aside our grievances and give thanks.


My personal prayer:


I pray our good seeds of hope, humility, toil and courage produce abundantly; that love and kindness grow wild like the weeds of early spring – fruitful and undeterred. And your harvest be rich with wisdom and discernment.

			

	


			
				


			
				


	

							
Writing for the World to Read (Tuesday’s Tell All)
						

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Understanding & the Interpretation of Words.


English may be the most recognized language worldwide but it is also probably the most confusing.

Even in English speaking countries we have such a vast collection of dialects (or sub-forms of English) that it is not always easy to interpret what is being said. Add to that the accents, grammar arguments, idioms/colloquialisms and hell (pardon my French) – we don’t understand what we are trying to say half the time.

It is no wonder other cultures complain that English is confusing; there are too many words that have so many variable meanings.

For example: In the tiny world where I grew up a cock was a rooster… a male bird. That’s all it was!

Yo! Yo! Yo! Hold the jokes – you are in mixed company here. Besides, there is a point to this.


For me that WORD still summons the image of a rooster, a gamecock to be specific.


gamecock gray roosters.JPG


That is until something else is implied by accompanying words or a facial expression.


As writer’s all we have are words!


The reader can’t see your face and they are probably not from your neck of the woods.

While you are writing I want you to consider how your audience interprets your words; your story.


Keep it real and reel them into your scenes in such a way they don’t feel like they are struggling through a foreign film.

After all you are writing for the world to read, right?

Right!

Write on!!