Category: Articles

The Adage Still Applies: Never Judge a Book by its Cover

Daemon Manx

Never judge a book by its cover. It was my mother who first taught me this valuable life lesson. The adage resonates like a divine mantra or a proverb gifted to me by a wise sage. (Which mom certainly was) 

As authors, I would like to believe we are an accepting lot with open minds and humble hearts; that we don’t make assumptions about others and are not judgmental on first impressions. I would also like to believe that the world is progressing and that our community is blazing the trail. At the end of the day, we are all different in our unique way. It might be the color of our skin, our race, religion, our sexual identity, or our gender. Still, with all these wonderful flavors and varieties, we are more alike than we are not. And judging someone by any of these identifiers or their cover would be impossible. 

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How the Duck to Write with a Newborn

by Gwendolyn N. Nix

Can you tell I’m tapping away at my phone here? I have a two month old passed out on my lap and moving him to his bassinet will result in a cranky, awake infant. The first days of early motherhood were ones of exhaustive leisure full of cooing and awing before tapping away at my phone while he was on feeding #20 or nap #176 or, dare I say, doing both at the same time. But this “free time” quickly whittled away when faced with the onslaught of sleep deprivation, crying, holding, singing, playing, and overall being a constant vaudeville show for one tiny human. Hey, it’s all supposed to help with brain development. Just wish the ticket sales would break even.

And I know things are only going to keep getting… well, “worse” is the wrong term… more like the vaudeville show is going to add a couple more acts like “Toddler Acrobatics” and “What’s That In Your Mouth?” bracketing the 8-hour intermission of “Full-Time Job.” 

So, how the duck am I supposed to get anything done?

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