Writer Focus

Keeping Caffeinated So That You Don’t Get into Bilingual Arguments With Your Parents Over Money

New writer spotlight and update on June writing challenges

How about that for a title? Today we have stories about coffee, parent-teen relations, speaking more than one language, and money management; and, all are from writers new to the Illumination Publication.

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.

I don’t have any particular criteria for who I chose, except that I will tend to focus on writers who have a lower follower count than higher. I am hoping that by highlighting one of their articles they will get a few extra eyes on their writing and perhaps gain a few fans that otherwise might not have seen their work.

I realize that many folks might be accomplished writers, but new to Medium. Or, they might be new to writing entirely. Hopefully shortly after joining Illumination they will submit an author bio so we can get to know them better and they can be added here:

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).

Also, in this series I would like to keep a running list of any writing challenges going on in and around Illumination. That list will follow the feature articles below.

So, without further ado:

New Writer Spotlight

Our first story today is an insightful look at the relationships between teens or young adults and their parents. Shental Rohan is a 16-year-old writer that has managed to realize some wisdom that many don’t gain until later in life — and sometimes never.

Shental represents her piece as advice for other teens, but any parent can glean some insight from her article as well. If you are a parent, or if you have a parent, this article is for you:

Next is another younger writer, Hector t who presents us with pros and cons for being bilingual. At first blush my thought was, “how can there be a downside to knowing more than one language?”

Hector lays out some cogent arguments about the negatives of knowing more than one language as well as presenting some compelling pluses, like an expanded enjoyment of music. If you speak more than one language, or aspire to someday, check out this:

Keeping on the theme of younger (it’s all relative, right?) writers, here is a story from Adan Kovinich which comes from a place of having learned some tough lessons about money management and credit scores.

Adan Dug herself into an unenviable financial hole while in college and now is clawing her way back out through careful budgeting and keeping a close eye on her credit score. Learn some valuable tips about credit and finance here:

And for the coffee fans out there, you should be happy to know that you have an avid ally in your passion for the bean. Kristina Segarra is a coffee aficionado and presents us with some compelling health reasons for keeping up your cuppa joe habit.

With links to research to support her assertions, Kristina outlines why moderate coffee drinking might bring some health benefits, even with a decaffeinated version. Get up to speed here:

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 since the beginning (which wasn’t really all that long ago in the big scheme of things).

Tree Langdon ♾️ is one of the editors at Illumination and she writes about a variety of topics including poetry, travel and self-awareness. She is easily found on slack and will be one of your biggest cheerleaders if you engage with her.

Read one of her recent articles about identifying those folks that take more than give and not allowing them to take up space on your Very Important People list. Worth a read for sure:

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, a musical prompt and most recently a query about what I would do if I suddenly became rich.

List of New Challenges and Prompts

I am hoping to develop a list of newer prompts with their originators. Since I know the “If I Was Rich” article was recent and I know the originator, I will make it first on our list of current prompts:

Kevin Buddaeus

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:

Blaine Coleman Leon George, Rafael Eliassen, Vipul Badoni, Helen Kean Redpath, Penny Sherece, Shivendra Misra, Eliza Louisa, Jenia Serebrin, Sean Youra, Yasmine Ghattas, Christopher Reno Budiman, Amelia Prochnow, William Samayoa, Vanshika Dhyani, Anna Martinez, Gita Das, Attila Branczyk, Michael Major, Linda Halladay, Atika Aljaveria, Patty Torres, The Experience House, Lucy Crisetig, Cactus Love, Angel Joy, Elle Nolan, Elisabeth Friedl, Juan Ramirez, Kai Yun Chua, Alexa, Twisha Rohan, David Yeoman, Christian Block, Hashim Jadoon, BpunktW

If you want me to highlight one of your stories in particular, or have any questions just respond to this story, or better yet, hit my up 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.