Monthly Archives: August 2019

Blogger Recognition Award

S.S. Mitchell has been nominated for the Mystery Blogger Award!

I was delighted when Nin Chronicles put me forward for this nomination! She was previously nominated for her contribution to her own thought provoking blog on diverse topics, from parenting and philosophy to poetry. Thank you Nin Chronicles for considering me! It is a wonderful acknowledgement.

About The Award:

This award is given to bloggers by the bloggers, who, in turn, pass it on to more bloggers. The Award promotes community and shows us just how far one little thing can go as each nominee shares the love further.

Rules:

  • Thank the blogger who nominated you and add a link to their site.
  • Write a post on your site displaying the award.
  • Share why you started your blog.
  • Share two pieces of advice for the new bloggers.
  • Nominate and notify 11-15 other bloggers.

Why I Blog:

I blog because I am passionate about the craft of writing. Writing comes easily to me and what better way to document this than via a blog! I am a Fiction and Non-Creative Fiction writer and I love to share aspects of my writing process. My blog articles are mostly inspired by what’s going on in my writer’s life. It consists of things that I just can’t wait to write down and share with others in the hope that it might help them out with their own writing craft.

My advice to other bloggers:

Enjoy the process, always focus on content that interests you and keeps you motivated rather than current trends.

Keep going! It takes commitment and time but remember why you are doing this and use it to motivate yourself.

I would like to nominate:

yamteq.com For insightful information on working remotely and professional practice.

glowsteady.co.uk A consistent blog with mouth watering plant based recipes and in-depth reviews on the latest beauty products.

ellieslondon.wordpress.com For tasty treats, bucket lists and lashings of culture.


beautyobsesseduk.com With this aesthetically pleasing blog, you can see the effort and care taken to create quality beauty content.

whatsinmywonderland.com A Wonderfully presented book blog which makes you want to click into each square to find out what she’s been reading. A great introduction to new books.


nineteenthharmony.com Thought provoking critiques of socio- cultural forms and politics.

I really enjoy looking at how others present their blogs and subsequently showcase their passions. I am really pleased to be included in the Mystery Blogger Award Nominations and to be supporting other bloggers in the process.

Happy blogging everyone!


How Toni Morrison’s works Inspired me to Write

Her rich narratives inspired me to write with depth and without constraint.

When I recently saw Toni Morrison trending on google my stomach flipped. How likely was it that she was trending because she had broken the internet with a controversial picture or been involved in some tasteless topical scandal or a public spat with a peer? Highly unlikely. Toni Morrison was a Nobel prize winning writer who stood on the platform of her integrity to inspire others and scatter her gems of wisdom among us literary types. So when I saw her trending, I thought the worse and sadly I was right. Her recent passing has really saddened me, not only because she was arguably one of the greatest writers whoever lived, but because stumbling on her work as a child is what inspired me to write. It might sound odd but for the longest time I always considered it a privilege that my favourite author was still living and breathing while I was.

An Early Introduction

My introduction to her work came through a copy of the novel Paradise which I found laying around one of the spare rooms in my grandmother’s house. At my young age, a lot of the sentence structures and dense metaphors were beyond me. I was unfamiliar with words which read like art. My first encounter with how she wove her words together so abstractly intrigued me and I hoped to one day access her stories.

I was second time lucky when the motion picture of Beloved was released. A part slave narrative about a woman named Sethe who (now freed) is haunted by the child she sacrificed in her infancy. Sethe lives with her surviving daughter Denver When a mystery woman named Beloved appears out of nowhere and wreaks havoc on their household. Oprah Winfrey bought the rights to the novel and  starred alongside Danny Glover and Thandie Newton in the 1998 motion picture. I was captivated by it and it soon became one of my favourite films. Of course, the novel was even better.

A Life’s Worth of Writing

Toni Morrison did with words, what I hadn’t thought possible. She wove intricate portraits that humanised the suffering of a historically oppressed people. She brought the narratives alive that compelled people of all backgrounds to sit, up, take notice and empathise. Moreover, she inspired me to gather my experiences and spill them onto blank pages through one of her most memorable quotes:

“If there is a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.”

I absolutely adore this quote. It’s nurturing and yet earnest about the need for us writers (arguably the biggest procrastinators) to be proactive in creating the art that we want to consume instead of waiting for what may never appear. She did exactly this with her own work and thank God she did! I can’t imagine a world without her stories in it. Morrison juxtaposed the traumas of slavery with the infinite possibilities of newfound freedom in Beloved, she liberated her characters without minimising their suffering.

In The Bluest Eye, which I discussed in this previous post, she holds up many mirrors which enable us to see how little black girls view themselves both internally and externally, how their beauty and worth is viewed both within and beyond their own communities and the external factors which help to either shape their strong sense of self-worth (Claudia McTeer) or lack thereof (Pecola Breedlove).

Her works serve as historical artefacts; fictional ethnographies that speak to the very real socio-historical experiences of black women and yet can engage everyone. Her stories are many things at once: harrowing, brutal, awakening, educational, honest, beautiful. I’m just grateful that she inspired me to pick up something that I love- painting pictures with words. And for that I am truly grateful.

Have you ever read anything by Toni Morrison? If not, which writer’s work has inspired you the most? Let me know in the comments below!