There are headstones
with the names of highly gifted people
who died with those gifts still inside them.
Brilliant people who passed
but never passed that intellect on
for anyone else’s benefit.
They died smart.
Highly passionate people
who never dared to love fully,
and wealthy people who are so poor,
all they have is money.
I believe reading to be so powerful that it has the capacity to make one wise regardless of whose institution of higher learning the person has or has not attended. In the world of books, it makes no difference whether they completed grade school, high school, or learned to read later in life. That is the capability of the human mind. It is reprogrammable for excellence. The person who spends more time reading than engaging in frivolous activities can become a person of intellect of the highest degree despite their circumstances. Of this, I am sure.
My experience with reading is that it has an unparalleled ability to jolt the mind into action, turning readers into superheroes capable of phonemic awareness, visual and auditory processes, comprehension, and fluency. Nothing would make me happier for this generation than for them to sit down with a book and taste the deliciousness of its knowledge on their tongues. Magic exists in the world of expanded vocabularies, the ability to think critically, analyze, and solve problems. With just one flavorful novel, they, too, can be hooked on the limitless potential of being a well-read person.
I logged into my WordPress dashboard this morning, and my last 5-6 posts were gone, including paid book reviews.
Can you hear my heart breaking?
Thankfully, after about thirty minutes, they showed up!
Too bad I had already deleted the tweets to what I thought were now dead links. Way to go, Yecheilyah.
A glitch, maybe, but the scare was real!
Chile, I almost cried.
Then I put my big girl panties on and understood today’s message.
Make sure your photographs, graphics, videos, and articles are stored in a folder on your computer or on a USB drive. Before composing your posts in WordPress, it’s simpler to write them in a Word document (or whichever program you prefer) and save them to your computer.
I have never been a fan of putting all my eggs in one basket, and this experience reemphasized the importance. I am all for monogamy, but cheating on your other social media profiles with a backup plan is okay, lol.
It is not a smart idea to rely only on one platform, whether we’re talking about Instagram bugs or if US companies and content creators will no longer be able to use TiKTok. (Are you following the case with them? Back those videos up!)
Keep your options open and stay as informed of all the developments as you can. Even if we disagree with AI, for instance, it would be a bad idea to ignore how it is affecting the book publishing industry and how authors and publishers create and distribute their works.
If these social media apps change their policies, having an email list can let you stay in touch with your customers, business partners, and author friends. Twitter and Instagram have already started using paid verified badges. Even further, Twitter claims that those who earned their blue checks will soon have to pay to keep them.
It is not farfetched to say that we might one day have to pay to use these apps. If that’s not your flavor, you will want to maintain contact with your people somehow.
Blogs are great alternatives to email lists since subscribing to someone’s blog mean you get an email for every update anyway.
If you simply use your blog, however, always refer back to point one and backup your blog content.
After all, we don’t own WordPress either.
If you only want updates on poetry contests, be sure to check poetry contest updates only when you get to the form!
I cannot believe we’ve been doing this for six years. If it weren’t for Covid, it would be year seven!
We are excited to gear up for year six of the contest. But we need your help to make this year a success.
I am looking for the following:
Sponsors: No books please. Contribution must either be a service our poets can benefit from or a financial investment toward the cash prize. There are four cash prizes worth between $25 and $100 up for grabs. You can donate whatever you like to put toward it, or you can donate toward one of the tiers (for example, first place is $100).
Judges: The last seven poems will be judged by additional authors, poets, editors, or literary experts who will also help select the top four winners. This is the perfect opportunity for those who are versed in poetry.
Poems will be judged in the following categories:
Social Media Marketers/Promoters: Bloggers, businesses, and professionals willing to use their platform to help promote the contest from the start of the submissions until close.
If you are on board to help with year six, please email the following to yecheilyah@yecheilyahysrayl.com as soon as possible.
Last week, I went home to Chicago and saw my dad’s side of the family for the first time in fifteen years. We extravagantly celebrated my grandmother’s 100th birthday in classic Tolbert fashion. I planned to bring my laptop but left it at home. Instead of squeezing in work, I played with babies and reminisced on memories.
Successful entrepreneurs travel a lot, but that travel is usually associated with the business. There is even a thing called work-cation, where you work while on vacation.
That’s all fine and dandy, but it is also not real rest.
It has been proven that taking frequent short breaks throughout the day improves productivity – but they need to be real breaks.
For example, not posting to social media while taking a social media break also includes not mindlessly scrolling or opening apps.
You must entirely disengage from whatever you are doing for a break to be truly rejuvenating.
Creative moments occur when the mind is relaxed rather than actively working since this is when the brain’s creative centers are most active.
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I noticed that while in Chicago, I did not worry about my manuscript or work, even as orders poured in for book reviews.
Much of that has to do with a promise I made to myself at the end of 2022 that 2023 wouldn’t be a year of fatigue and exhaustion. I vowed not to rush the process or take on too much.
Rather than take my laptop and edit, I spent most of the time eating, laughing, sleeping, and basking in my family’s love.
I learned that my 12-year-old niece didn’t know who Emmett Till was, so we took her and baby girl with us to the DuSable Museum.
Things are coming to me effortlessly as a result of letting things be. Yesterday, I found out that I am Soul (which is now at 71 reviews on Amazon!) and TWWBE are nearly sold out at Medu (again), identified a location for a future project, and established the groundwork for an event to celebrate National Poetry Month in April.
As the cool air whistles in from my back door, which is open, and the birds chirp their favorite afternoon tunes, I will continue to allow things to flow smoothly as I become a better version of myself.
These are the lessons I’ve learned thus far on my journey to give myself more grace.
Because my mindset determines the direction of everything I do, I’ve learned to prioritize my personal development over my business. I’ve realized that adequate rest, a healthy body, and a healthy sense of self-worth aren’t optional; they’re required for increased creativity and productivity. My self-esteem affects how I interact with others and make business decisions.
I accept that to triumph in the daily battle, I must have a strong faith/mind and be rooted in something greater than myself.
I am my best work, and when I am good, everything around me is good. To quote the African proverb, “When there is no enemy within, the enemy outside cannot hurt you.” (Unknown)
There is only one way to eat an elephant, according to Desmond Tutu, and that is one mouthful at a time. He meant that everything in life that appears difficult, overpowering, or even impossible may be completed gradually by taking on just a little at a time.
I was stressed when I first got the edits for my black history book back. “This is going to take forever,” I thought.
But that’s because I was looking at the entire book with no system or organization to get it done. It was just one big pile of words that needed to be sorted out. So, what did I do?
I left it alone a couple days.
The time helped me to see how I would attack it. I decided to work on two chapters at a time. And by work on, I mean do everything that needed to be done: revise, add citations, summarize. Using a dope Black history planner I ordered from Black Prints on Instagram, I blocked off the entire month of January and February with the chapters I would do for each day, leaving one day (every Sat) as a rest day where I would not work on the book at all.
This changed my outlook immensely!
I find myself looking forward to work instead of dreading it (even the boring stuff like formatting citations). If a chapter is short enough, I could do three in one day. With this system, I am already on chapters six and seven.
Doing less feels like I am getting more done!
Moral: Few people who want to write a book get around to doing it because they are thinking about writing a whole book. But how about just writing a chapter? And if that’s too much, a paragraph?
If you can commit to writing a certain amount a day instead of all at once, you will look up to a finished book in no time.
However, it’s equally important to honor your commitments, or this strategy does not work. That’s the thing about writing, no one can do it for you. If you say you will write a chapter a day, try really hard to write a chapter a day.
I am really not all that organized. I just honor the commitments I make to myself.
I would also recommend staying within schedule. While I do three chapters if the two I have for the day are short, I never go on to four.
Which means I have time to draft this blog post!
I hope this helps someone.
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