As an English person I am embracing the thanksgiving spirit.

In the UK, Thanksgiving is an event we don’t understand and many of us don’t celebrate. Now, this is a problem, because everyone no matter where you are should show gratitude and thanks for their life. Especially with the year, we are all having.

So here are the five things I am grateful for this year.

My Family

I am grateful I have them. They have kept me sane throughout lockdown and entertained. I am more grateful than I can mention that they are all healthy and safe, I pray it stays like that.

My Writing Family

Thank you to all the friends that I have found through my writing, there are too many to mention and I would leave people out which I would hate. A special mention to my co-editor at Crimebeat, Edward Anderson. …

Social Media Marketing

Relying on one platform could ruin your income.

This week, I logged onto my Facebook groups and found that I had been banned from commenting and posting to all groups. On first inspection, it looked to be the fault of one of two posts. After some investigation the truth was even more shocking.

I run a group called Every Child Matters and I was banned for the material I had shared there. The posts that Facebook took offence to post about internet child safety and how much I love my autistic side-kick. The reason, I have no idea and you can’t contact a human to ask. Facebook does not give you that information. Maybe an automated server banned me because of something innocent. It is also likely that Facebook is banning posts that protect children. It has already made a hit on the hashtag ‘safe the children. …

McClain was unarmed, when he was strangled and injected with Ketamine.

Elijah McClain was an unarmed 23-year-old who was walking in the Denver suburb of Aurora on 24 August 2019. He was stopped by three white police officers on his way home from the convenience store.

A district attorney would later comment that there had been an emergency call about a “suspicious person” wearing a ski mask. They would also go on to say, that when they confronted McClain he was not armed, and had not committed any crime.

The officers who approached him wished to search him. McClain resisted contact with the men by carrying on walking down the road. A struggle ensued. The officers wanted to search him for a weapon. …

This was not the post I had planned for today.

As many of you know I run some writing groups on Facebook. This morning I logged on to discover I had been banned from posting to Facebook groups for a week. If you experienced this when posting links, this can make a huge difference to your earnings, especially from Medium. I effectively have no way of posting links to the groups that support my work.

The strange thing about this ban is that I am only banned from groups, both my profile and page are still active and I can post to them.

There is always a workaround

A very close friend of mine has taken over posting the daily threads so the group can still run. My writers will still be able to advertise their posts. I will also be reading all the work posted there and hoping that my followers will search my work out on my page or Medium and keep reading my work. …

Make it the best one ever

Christmas is going to be very different this year across the world. Whether the rules are relaxed or not at Christmas there is still a very different feel to the air. However, this year more than ever do we not deserve to celebrate. Children for one day of the year need to forget about the world and be children.

Parental Responsibility

Just because Christmas is different we can still believe in magic. The magic is still there and it is our job as parents to bring this magic to our children. …

To succeed we all need to be a little more one-year-old.

I was sat recently in the dark watching my one-year-old bounce around her cot refusing to go to sleep. For a year she has been cuddled to sleep and no one has got any sleep. That all changed tonight. Tonight she learnt to put herself to sleep.

So I’m in the dark trying hard not to laugh as she tried everything for attention. From using her three words, to smiling and giggling at me. This went on for two hours and I realised we could all learn something from her. Never give up. No matter what you do in life only quit when you have absolutely nothing else to give.

Be it dancing, writing or learning to cook we could all learn from her. Don’t quit until you physically can’t do it anymore and you fall asleep.

Murder, Magic and a Prophet Hen

Mary Bateman was born Mary Harker, in 1768, to a farmer in North Yorkshire. She went to work as a servant girl where she was released from service for petty theft at the age of 10. Following this career, she became a minor thief and con artist.

When she was 24 she had a brief courtship with a man called John Bateman. Mary had used her charms on him. She convinced him to move around quite a bit as her schemes caught up with her. This was when others started labelling her the Yorkshire witch and fearing her powers.

William Knipe in 1867 wrote that he believed Bateman to be still married at the time of execution. He also stated that she had a daughter at home. She supposedly mailed her wedding ring to her husband the day of execution to be given to her daughter. …

What a day in the life of a writer can teach you.

Throughout my time writing, the question I am asked more than ever if how I have time to write as much, as I do, and bring up a family. There is not always a perfect science to writing. On many occasions, my systems let me down. This weekend, my little one turned one. I then hit the depths of writers’ block and for five days I have published nothing. Unheard off in recent months.

Don’t be too hard on yourself

That would be my first piece of advice to writers, don’t be too hard on yourselves. There will be days when you can’t write. If you force it, you might start hating the very thing you love. Take time for yourself and your family if you need to. …