Tag: non-fiction

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Coffee & Contemplation: Pride Month

June is Pride Month. It’s about being proud of who you are and your sexuality, whatever it is. Homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, pansexual, demisexual, asexual; it comes in all shapes and sizes. The point is being proud of who you are. I identify as demisexual. This means I cannot reach full sexual arousal unless I have an emotional connection with the person. I’m not going to go into further details in this post. 

June is also PTSD Awareness Month. May was Mental Health Awareness Month so we’ll continue spreading awareness. June 27 is PTSD Awareness Day, and I’ll share more about that around that time. I have PTSD from various traumas I’ve experienced since childhood. This also caused me to have anxiety and depression. I have spent the last few years attempting to overcome some of my issues. I succeeded in some places and failed in others. 

The biggest thing for me is to no longer feel ashamed of having a mental illness. And to no longer feel ashamed of past transgressions. I’ve made many mistakes. I’ve lost people I cared about because I wouldn’t face my problems. I won’t feel sorry for myself anymore. I ask that everyone have pride in fighting against a mental illness. Be proud of the progress you’ve made. The point of Pride Month is to love yourself. So, bring awareness to your community and be proud of everything you’ve overcome.

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Coffee & Contemplation: The Beginning

I am adding a couple new things to my blog. For you poetry lovers, I’ll soon start Twofer Tuesdays, where I post two poems in one post every Tuesday. Twice the poetry you get on Mondays. I have not decided if I want to bring back Hump Day Haikus. Currently, I just have not written enough haikus to make that a weekly consistent thing. Maybe I can do something once a month. For now, the only poetry item I’m adding is Twofer Tuesdays. If that’s not enough poetry, you can subscribe to my Patreon for $1 per month to gain access to my unpublished poetry before anyone else.

The other item I’m adding to my blog is posts like this one. Coffee and contemplation involves me writing out my thoughts while drinking coffee. Topics are only limited to things I think about. I may rant about society. I may tell you my favorite things. I may word vomit nonsense into the post and have no real agenda or purpose with the post. I’m trying to get myself to write more on my blog in between writing fiction and poetry. If you want to see more writing, tell people about my blog and my books. If enough people buy my books and subscribe to my Patreon account, I’ll make enough money to write full time. That’s the dream anyway.

My next book comes out September 19. You can pre-order The Morbid Museum on Amazon Kindle. Amazon does not offer pre-odering of paperbacks, but you can pre-order a signed copy of the paperback in my Shop. Visit the shop for more details. I also have a few events coming in October and November. I’ll provide more details once I have them. Until then, the best thing you all can do is share and comment. Tell your friends about me. If you’d like an advanced copy of my forthcoming book, I’ll email you a digital copy in exchange for an honest review. Reviews are what help writers succeed. Fill out the Contact Form if you’re interested. Happy reading.

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A Letter to My Loved Ones


I’m sorry I have not expressed my needs, wants, and wishes. I often feel selfish and believe I shouldn’t voice my concerns, but I’m learning that the path to healing requires me to be a little selfish. In the past, when I’ve attempted many different things, I didn’t succeed and believed I just wasn’t good enough. With this attitude, I stopped trying and would get upset when no one did something for me. How could they? I never communicated what I wanted; what I needed. I’ve been angry for so long never realizing I’m the one deserving of that anger.

I learn something new about Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder every day and am reminded that everything I hate about myself is a symptom. These are symptoms I may have the rest of my life. One of those symptoms is the failure to express one’s needs, wants, and wishes. Not everyone can get what they want, but there is a kind of power that comes with vocalizing them. It’s similar to writing down one’s goals. Something about that process makes them real. I won’t list everything I want, but I will try to communicate them more often. That alone will be a struggle.

The purpose of this letter is to make you all aware of the problem. This is my problem that I must deal with, but I need you all to be aware. I hope you will support me in this. I hope in some ways you will help me with this. My goal for the remainder of the year is to express my needs more often. Hopefully, it will not be in a burst of anger, but please take this with a grain of salt and remember that even if I’m shouting, what’s important is that I’m communicating. I most certainly need your patience and understanding as I work through my personal issues.

This is only step one in a journey that will take several years. I don’t expect to be good at it in the beginning. I expect to forget about it now and then, but I hope you’ll remind me. The future looks terrifying, but I’m determined to win this battle as well as the oncoming war. I’ve found that ever when I’m in a good mood I still have an underlying bad attitude so maybe this will help with that. I must say one thing. I don’t think some of you know me as well as you think you do, and I think some of you will not take this letter seriously. If you want to say something you think is funny, don’t say it to me.