How do you practice self-care these days?

It’s a topic we are all thinking about more. The Covid-19 pandemic has created more stress on all of us, and self-care is…

This is from the novel I’m working on. I’m not 100% sure if it will end up on the book or not. But I had to write it. The scene came to mind almost complete.

For now, I’m not going to say much about the novel, but it is in progress. How long will it take to write? Who knows? To be honest, I’ve been writing it for years. Some of it is on paper. A lot is still in my head. But I’ve known for a long time that I was going to write it. It’s evolving.

Anyway, here’s…

Earn from Twitter-like posts? Yes, please!

Everyone is talking about the “new” (but not really new) short form publishing on Medium. It’s always been around. The difference is that your profile shows the whole content and Medium is promoting them kind of as a paid Twitter option.

Short form posts on Twitter should have the first line bolded, so that Medium knows it is a short form post. They should be about 150 words or less, so the entirety of the post appears on your profile page. And yes, you get paid for them.

Something I quickly checked on was how long the first sentence should be if you want it to act as a heading. The answer? 44 characters. If you make your first sentence as close to this as possible, it will appear as a heading.

Another tip: modify the subtitle section when you submit your story!

The day was busy as it normally was and Jodie was just checking in on the night servers as they finished their jobs.

“Mikayla, did you finish cleaning the bathroom?”

“I did.”

“All the underneaths, too?” Jodie reminded her. Some of the night servers forgot that cleaning the bathroom meant more than just wiping a cloth across the surfaces and actually lifting things and cleaning under them.

“Yes, Jodie.”

“Ok girls, you can go home. I’ll wait for this last table to leave and lock up,” Jodie said.

“Thanks Jodie.”

As the girls were packing up their stuff, Jodie’s phone…

There once was a rose all thought to be black. She came from bad soil, which caused her brightness to lack. She was all alone, untended to by loving hands, until one day to her God did give a friend. He placed right beside her, a rose so white and pure. The contrast was such that all began to fear that her bad soil would cause his brightness to cease, that the life of her friend the darkness would seize. But the opposite occurred as the white rose brought out the sun and good soil to erase all doubt. As…

Morning came a little earlier than Jodie expected. She woke up to a phone call from Kasey saying that she was sick and couldn’t come in to work. That meant that Jodie either had to either call in someone to cover the shift or go in herself to open up. She decided that the hassle of trying to find someone to answer their phone at 5 in the morning was just not worth. Plus, she was already there.

With a grumble and a groan, Jodie headed to the shower to get ready.

Fortunately, the morning was quiet. It was mostly…

I’m having one of those days when I don’t even know if I want to write anymore. I write for free and none of my friends and family even read it. I write to make money and I can count the amount of people who have supported my work on one hand. Yes, people I don’t know have read my books but not having the support of people who are supposed to care about me sucks.

And I’m just talking about the stuff that’s under my real name.

I’m feeling sorry for myself today and discouraged. I wonder if I’m…

By the time Jodie and Fawn got to the drag strip, the parking lot was almost full. The first lot didn’t have any spaces, but Fawn managed to find a space in the second lot that was close to the middle. It was still going to be a bit of a walk to the strip but at least they didn’t end up in the third lot which was furthest away.

As Jodie got out of the car, she could smell all sorts of deliciousness wafting towards them from the strip. She could smell candied apples and cotton candy and hot…