Writer Focus

Feminists Tossing Eggs at Video Game Playing Zombies

New writer spotlight and update on June writing challenges

Today’s article provides insight on how to be heard without being loud, a design for a better egg carton, a defense of video games and some interesting observations on family dynamics and television viewing. There were a lot of great pieces to choose from today, I hope you enjoy this little mix of something for everyone.

Each day in June I hope to feature a few articles from writers that have just recently been added to the publication. I am doing this because I want to make a point of welcoming and getting acquainted with the new writers, and doing a feature allows me to read some of their work and pick items that catch my eye each day.

My hope is to get these authors a few extra eyes on their writing and perhaps gain a few fans that otherwise might not have seen their work. If these new-to-Illumination writers don’t have bios yet, we hope they write one soon so we can add it to our growing list:

But until then, my aim is to choose a handful of writers from the ranks of the newly added to Illumination and highlight one of their articles. Then I will have an ask of them afterward (Hint: I will ask that they pay it forward by doing the same thing for other writers).

Plus, an ongoing list of writer challenges follows the feature articles below! So, without further ado:

New Writer Spotlight

Our first story has zombies in it. After exhausting other options and agonizing over choices, Ella Ebner and her family finally settled on The Walking Dead as their television series binge of choice during lockdown.

Not only did the show serve to unite the family with some common interests, it also provided Ella with some astute insight into dealing with quarantining at home with the family and life in general. Read about how Ella kept sane with the zombies here:

One possible way to hone your hand-eye coordination for the day a zombie apocalypse mutates from fantasy to reality is to play some video games to keep your shooting finger limber. Shelby Hatch (who by the way has an Illumination bio here) lines out all the reasons why video games aren’t just a time suck for the bored or unemployed.

Providing some real-world value to surgical students and military members, the video game has graduated from pastime to tool that enhances tactile skills, provides a creative means of expression, and may even serve to combat violent tendencies.

Follow Shelby as she explains how video games are shaping our future here:

Next, anyone that has arrived home from the supermarket with eggs that have shifted and broken in transit will relate to Tim Guan’s story about poorly designed egg holders.

Work with Tim as he explains how breaking a few eggs was necessary to his design process for resource saving and functional egg containers (complete with pictures) here:

And finally, Fatima Sultan makes a carefully crafted argument in favor of restraint rather than unbridled angst in order to make a more cogent point on an issue where you feel particularly passionate.

While the topic of this piece centers around feminism, it is easy to make the parallel to any issue where one might feel passion. When we want to get our point across more effectively, we might do well to appreciate the wisdom of Fatima’s observation that, “Sometimes a quieter voice is louder” in this story:

Let’s Make a Connection

Next I want to broker an introduction of the new writers tagged in this article and one of our editors and/or writers who has been at Illumination for a bit.

The self-noted Mister Weirdo (not Mr.; Mister) Rasheed Hooda is another great person to know on Medium. Rasheed brings some insight that you might not consider (at least I am constantly and pleasantly surprised) to everyday events. He has a way of noticing how to breathe mystery into the ordinary.

I always enjoy reading Rasheed’s work, and I know you will too! Dive into some brilliantly astute observations about protests and how they shape the world here:

If you want to connect with me or any of the editors, please consider joining the Illumination Slack workgroup. You can request an invitation to Slack by contacting Dr Mehmet Yildiz from this link. Please type “Request for Slack” on the heading as Dr. Yildiz has many other requests from this link.

I am always willing to answer questions and provide information for anyone. The other editors and writers are as well. Slack is the best way to interact if you have questions.

If you need some tips to get up and running on Slack, this article is a good starting point:

The Big Ask

As promised, if I featured your story here, or are reading this and feel inspired, I encourage you to pay forward the concept of highlighting the work of others.

Please consider choosing another writer (or writers) and creating a story that emphasizes aspects that you appreciate about their work. It could be their style, topic choices, voice, technical aspects of writing, or maybe you just like their profile picture.

I am confident that when you do this you will find that your own writing work gets better. In many ways I believe that the person that brings attention to others’ work benefits even more than the recipient. That is one of the core premises and values of Illumination, and when you engage you will find that you reap dividends. I encourage you to give it a whirl. And, when you do, tag me in your article. I love being exposed to stuff I might not have otherwise seen.

Bonus Gift — The Writing Challenge

There are two types of writers in the world. Those who have experienced writer’s block, and those that will.

One of the great remedies to the question, “What do I write next?” is responding to a prompt or challenge provided by another writer. I personally have benefitted significantly from this and, to some extent, this section is a bit self-serving because I want to have some handy prompts to write about occasionally.

Older prompts

Some older prompts I have been involved in are: If I wasn’t a writer I would…, Self-Discovery during lock down, a funny video prompt, and a musical prompt.

List of New Challenges and Prompts

I am hoping to develop a list of newer prompts with their originators. Send me your writing prompts! Here’s what we have so far:

Kevin Buddaeus

Sarah E Sturgis

Sherry McGuinn

Tree Langdon ♾️

If you are participating in or originating a challenge and you want to include it here for people to find, either respond to this article or hit me up on Slack (@timothykey).

Next Group

Tomorrow I will pull from this new group of recently added writers:

Venkata Macha, Just Jen, Saurabh, Meghna Burman, Tamara Naidoo, Hannah Elizabeth John, Walter Rhein, Tom Bailey, Devieka, Mikhal Weiner, Emma, Jude C. Ifeanyichukwu, Ivanbert Damasco, Susan Windley-Daoust, William T, Michelle Marie Warner, Ben G, Augustine O. Ojeh, Bheemaray.K. Janagond, David Leibowitz, Carly Lumsden, James R Duncan, Rivo Kienan, Anouska Parr, Brian Feutz, Paula Gardner, Phillip Steixner, Jordan Munson, Wojciech Wieczorek, Andrea D’Angelo, Charlene DeKalb, Larissa martchenko,

If you want me to highlight one of your stories in particular, or have any questions just respond to this story, or better yet, find me on Slack!

Thanks for reading, I am enjoying getting to know all the new writers on Illumination!

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Timothy Key spent over 26 years in the fire service as a firefighter/paramedic and various fire chief management roles. He firmly believes that bad managers destroy more than companies, and good managers create a passion that is contagious. Compassion, grace and gratitude drive the world; or at least they should. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and join the mail list.