Just when it seems that I am running out of friends to support, I stumble upon some new bloggers whose work I admire. Such is the case with this Friday’s featured “friend.”
While I don’t know her personally—and, thus, “friend” might be a bit bold of a claim—I’ve come to enjoy Joyce Jacobo‘s charming literature blog, The Literary Serenity Archives.
I’ve been beating the drum in support of Mariella Hunt‘s fantasy, Regency-era novella The Sea Rose lately. That’s because it’s a good story, and one that my readers—especially those ladies interested in historical romance and fantasy—would surely enjoy.
It’s also because Mariella really cranks out the goods. Not only is The Sea Rose still unfolding; she’s already written a companion work, Mermaid: A Novel. It’s the story of Meredith Bannister, who comes off as an oppressive nag in the early chapters of The Sea Rose, before readers see her in a more sympathetic light.
I’m running into a bit of a problem here with Supporting Friends Friday—I’m running out of friends to support! Fortunately, my friends are quite prolific creators, so I can always recycle some old ones, and I’m always encountering new bloggers. That said, I’m having to get creative to keep this series going.
That’s probably not the most flattering introduction for this Friday’s feature, but I assure you, he’s a great writer, and worth your time. I know him simply as Nicholas, and he is a semi-regular contributor to Nebraska Energy Observer, Neo‘s excellent, long-running blog.
It’s Good Friday in the Western Church, so I thought I’d spotlight the friends that need our support the most: our local churches.
Your local churches will obviously be quite different than mine, but I would encourage every Christian reader to give to your local church this weekend. If you are not tithing to a church already, start doing so! Only 5% of churchgoers tithe, but American Christians earn $5.2 trillion annually. Imagine the transformative impact if every Christian gave ten percent. That could feed, clothe, and shelter a lot of people. It would also be an incredible witness to Christians’ commitment to their faith.
My good buddy and regular poetry contributor Son of Sonnet launched his new Locals page at https://sonofsonnet.locals.com/ about a month ago, on 14 March 2022.
Locals is a bit like SubscribeStar, but it’s more robust in terms of features, and the focus is on building up a sense of community between subscribers and the content creator. SubscribeStar allows comments, for example, but Locals has built-in incentives to encourage more engagement, such as certain users gaining additional posting privileges and the like.
Son is going full-in with Locals, hoping to build up a community of supporters who appreciate good poetry and the culture-renewing possibilities it offers (you can read all about his mission on his “About” page; appropriately, it’s presented in the form of a poem!).
In addition to poetry, Son has been posting some reviews of some anime series, both written and audible. He possesses a wonderful voice—and that’s coming from me, with my rich, buttery radio voice. He’s even posted some ASMR (complete with a crackling fire and poetry). Son features some Shakespearean sonnets as read by Miranda McGee, who also possesses the perfect voice for reciting poetry.
Readers my recall an edition of Supporting Friends Friday dedicated to Mariella Hunt, an Idaho-based author who also dabbles in cute water colors of birds.
Before she started painting birds, Mariella was a writer—a prolific one, at that. I discovered her first through her paintings, through Andrea the Ilustrator’s blog, but have come to appreciate and enjoy her writing as well.
Mariella is a talented non-fiction writer, but her real passion is fiction. She tells me that she is hoping to make a living as a freelance writer, and is currently publishing her novella The Sea Rose via Amazon’s Kindle Vella service.
Kindle Vella allows authors to release stories serially, in short little doses or chapters, much the way much of Charles Dickens’s work was published.
I’ve read the first chapter of The Sea Rose, and it’s good—really good. I am eagerly awaiting the second chapter (which should be available by the time you read this post!).
The subject of this week’s Supporting Friends Friday is long overdue for some recognition: writer and mental health carer Michael Fahey.
Regular readers will recognize Michael by one or two different names: either 39 Pontiac Dream or Always a Kid for Today. He’s a frequent commenter on this blog, and an increasingly frequent contributor.
Michael also writes extensively at the British conservative blog The Conservative Woman (TCW for short). That blog is a bit more focused on politics, with an overwhelming focus, at least in recent years, on The Virus. His writing there is quite good, and it’s not all politics and highway codes that he writes about: he wrote a great piece about the appeal of what in America would think of as Hallmark Channel Christmas movies.
My good buddy and regular poetry contributor Son of Sonnet has some exciting news: this Monday, 14 March 2022, he is launching his new Locals page at https://sonofsonnet.locals.com/.
Locals is a bit like SubscribeStar, but it’s more robust in terms of features, and the focus is on building up a sense of community between subscribers and the content creator. SubscribeStar allows comments, for example, but Locals has built-in incentives to encourage more engagement, such as certain users gaining additional posting privileges and the like.
Son is going full-in with Locals, hoping to build up a community of supporters who appreciate good poetry and the culture-renewing possibilities it offers (you can read all about his mission on his “About” page; appropriately, it’s presented in the form of a poem!).
Son is setting his sights high, as he should: he’s kicking off his foray into Locals with a special promotion he’s dubbed Race to 1000K.
As I’m working on Péchés d’âge moyen, my collection of short piano miniatures, I’d be remiss if I didn’t recognize the influence of Telegram user Goth Kilts. She has been a huge source of encouragement as I begin dabbling in composing again, and a friendly sounding board for some of my musical ideas.
Kilts is herself quite a prolific commentator through her excellent Telegram page, The Sandwhich Press (and, yes, it’s spelled with the extra “h,” although the URL for her page spells “sandwich” the normal way). It boasts over 500 subscribers, all of them richly deserved.
As such, I wanted to dedicate today’s edition of Supporting Friends Friday to The Sandwhich Press, and the insightful, humorous, and Goth-inflected TradCath [she’s actually Coptic Christian—oops!] commentary of Goth Kilts.
The Portly Politico 