Category: Personal
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Cyber-Activism: 10 Ways to Stay Safe
After the results of the 2024 Presidential Election, specific groups have been targets of cyberbullying. Horrific racist texts went out to scores of black people instructing them to go to a plantation to pick cotton. The vile self-described incel Nicholas Fuentes trumpeted “Your body, my choice,” both on his Twitter account and on his disturbing…
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Can Good Writing Be Mistaken for AI?
As with many writers around the world—from creative to academic to technical writing—AI is at the forefront of our minds. Polarized opinions fill comment sections across social networks and news sites, debating whether AI signals the end of creativity and the need for human writers, or if it’s a useful tool for research and/or to…
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Phantom Lover
This morning I was reminded of how Erasure’s Andy Bell truly opened my eyes that night in 1987 when they opened for Duran Duran. I grew up in East Texas, so his flamboyance and unapologetic gayness shocked me. I don’t think I ever had so much respect for anyone as I did for him. I…
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Emerging Playwright
As you know, I‘m done with writing books; however, this past January during the #WrAP challenge, I wrote two full-length plays. I’ve also just finished a one-act play based on my decade-old, unpublished short story “The Clockwork Heart.” The #WrAP challenge introduced me to London Playwrights, of which now I’m a member, and I’ve already…
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Well That F*cked Me Up!
Last week I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Luke Colson for his phenomenal podcast “Well That F*cked Me Up!” Luke and his colleague Kyle Wise interview people who have experienced life-changing events. The podcast is full of remarkable stores of survival from severe traumatic events. Give their podcast a listen, if you are…
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So It Goes.
Last week I saw Robert B. Weide’s incredible documentary Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time. It brought me back to my twenties when I voraciously read 13 Vonnegut books back to back. He is utterly brilliant. When I heard that he had died in 2007, I remember saying, “How is the sun still shining or world…
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Responsible Community Response
In August 2012, I published a post on my former O. M. Grey blog, “Caught in the Cogs,” that outlines how to respond to an accusation of sexual violence so as not to further traumatize the victim. It contains examples of what to say and what not to say. The things I wrote and experienced…
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How To Find Authentic Connections With C-PTSD
If you struggle with C-PTSD, then you understand how difficult it can be to let go of the learned behaviors your brain developed to protect you in survival mode. On the road to recovery, many of us seek out genuine relationships but aren’t quite sure how to find success in them. There’s a ton of…
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Use Radical Acceptance to Help You Cope with C-PTSD
Radical acceptance was probably the most valuable tool in my mental health toolbox while in the worst part of my recovery, and it works still to this day. The point is to accept reality how it is right now rather than hoping things will get better or wishing it was somehow different. Step One: Abandon…
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If You Could Do Anything…
When living with PTSD, depression, anxiety, or another mental illness/psychiatric injury, it’s important to learn tools to cope with your condition. Over the past decade, I’ve taught myself several. Some I discovered through a Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) diary and others I developed myself. There was an eight-year period where I cried virtually every day.…