Writer Focus

How Many Salads Can You Carry on Your Scooter? You are Going to Need a Third Wheel

New writer spotlight and update on June writing challenges

Trying to figure out how to get around town in as green a manner as possible, and decide what side dish to take to the church potluck? Well, you aren’t alone, and today we have you covered with some great articles from new writers on Illumination!

Tell your identical twin to grab his scooter and mount up, because we are going on a reading ride today.

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

Let’s just get right into the scooter issue. Are those ride-share scooters you see in larger cities really that good for the environment? On the surface they seem to be, but Mihai Sandu points out that some things aren’t as simple as they seem.

Join Mihai as he details why those electric scooters may be much worse for the environment, and our own personal safety, than we might think:

Next is a great story that provides us with some perspective on what it is like to live with your identical twin when he is dating someone. Terence Walter provides us with a glimpse inside twin life, and what it is like to be the third wheel in a relationship:

Have you ever been taunted by a star? A paper one, no less? Well, that is happening at Tina L. Smith‘s house, where an “epiphany star” maintains its prominence, mockingly extolling Tina to be cheerful.

In spite of the star’s attempt to generate cheerfulness, Tina finds that to be a difficult task this particular year. And this is happening to someone that has a history of hurdling challenges that might be debilitating to some in just a single bound. How can something seemingly so simple as adopting a cheerful approach stymie even the most stalwart among us? Read Tina’s great piece to find out here:

If you are feeling a bit down lately as well, you might consider making a crispy, fresh spring salad from Lena Ovechkin‘s recipe. A salad that is a staple in the spring and summer months in Lena’s home country of Russia looks great in the pictures and I bet tastes even better.

I can’t wait to try this recipe myself because it looks mighty delish. You should consider giving it a try as well; read up here to find out how:

And, finally, I was only going to highlight four stories today, but guess what happened? Yep, cats.

This short poem by Edris Quinn C. was simply too cute and too perfectly applicable to those fuzzy felines that we love, that I just couldn’t leave it out. Get to know Edris and Little Bean in this clever poem:

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.

I have a confession to make. I haven’t kept a running list of the more established Illumination writers that I have placed in my feature articles. I mostly have picked them from being prominent in Slack discussions or with new stories on the home page.

I have been trying to spread mentions around and eventually get to everyone that I frequently interact with. However, with me not keeping a list, and 19 articles into this endeavor, I am having a hard time remembering who I have included, or not.

So that is sort of a convoluted way to say to Dipti Pande that if I already included you then I am including you once more!

If you haven’t interacted with Dipti you really should. She is incredibly supportive of other writers and actively engages in a positive way. I know that she hasn’t had a ton of time to write on Medium lately, but when she does it is always great. First, you should check out her bio, then dive right into this great poem about change:

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.

Supporting others 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.

List of New Challenges and Prompts

Send me your writing prompts! Here’s what we have so far:

Kevin Buddaeus

Sarah E Sturgis

Sherry McGuinn

Tree Langdon ♾️

B. A. Cumberlidge.

A new one today from Brian as well. What is one day that makes an everlasting memory?

Holly Jahangiri — A challenge, sneakily hidden in a newsletter!

INFJ Elder A prompt to write about one person that made a positive impact on us.

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:

V Vinay Reddy, Gaurav Jha, Terence Teoh, Courtney Mooney, Ankit Agrawal, Andrei Druta, Semi Koen, Martina Doleckova, Arghyamalya Biswas, Toon Vos, Liam Hunter-Bailey, Anna L. Shtorm, Salma Enan, Sohani Sirdeshmukh, C. J. Kim, Doyin Oyelami, Su Terry, Warren Greaves, Mitva Patel ⭐, MAED, The Soul Doctor, Bob James,

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.