My 3 Favorite Reads This Week
They are in Illumination, but they could be anywhere.
When I first joined Medium, I started writing a weekly post highlighting my five favorite reads of the week. I was trying to figure out the platform and looking for other writers to read. Yahoo introduced me to the practice ages ago when I was new to the Internet, sending me websites and blogs I might enjoy.
In time, I saw other Medium writers posting about their faves too. Lately, I’ve been a bit overwhelmed, and my shoutouts have remained in my head and my heart, but not in my articles where you could see and enjoy them.
Today, I’m back in the game because I love recommendations and read similar posts when I find them. I found these pieces in Illumination, a relatively new publication that doesn’t need any promotion by me as, thanks to the marketing energies of its founder, it’s exploding like a supernova in the Medium firmament. We all know, however, quality abounds all over Medium, but in case you’ve missed these, I suggest you give them a read.
Hill is one of our writers who doesn’t often post (or is it often enough), but when he does, it bears reading. Whether laugh-out-loud tongue in cheek stories or poking a stick in our eye because we need a reminder of what’s important in the news, this writer’s stories entertain, inform, and, as in this account of the demographics behind a recent murder, shock the heart. Oh, yeah. He can also give a wicked masterclass on the art of writing.
Okay, I have to admit, this one is personal. Picking a Hansen piece to highlight is an exercise in frustration (talk about an embarrassment of riches), and frankly, having been on the inside for three months now, I’m up to my back teeth in ire. Here, Hansen points his prickly cursor at the wimps worrying about their manhood, and who seem to think leaving their masks at home is somehow going all balls out. Since it’s because these pseudo tough guys who prance around the halls and elevator of my big-ish apartment building that my doctor has advised I stay inside for maybe, oh say, another month or so, I’d like to push this piece in their faces. Except, I’d have to leave my apartment to do that, and well, they don’t wear masks, and you get the point. Better you read this great piece yourself.
I applauded the day Carol graced the pages of Medium with her work. Full disclosure, I’ve been reading Carol’s gorgeous prose for the better part of a quarter-century, ever since the gods smiled on me and somehow snuck me into her writing group.
Here, Carol gives us a much-needed grace note in this fraught time. A remembrance, not just of lost loved ones, but of our humanity that seems teetering on the edge these days.
Okay, more disclosures. These writers are all friends of mine, well, Hansen by six degrees of separation. I’ve never met him, but his mother is also in my writing group. Though I don’t foresee her joining Medium, I can tell you the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
While I know many writers, these are my only Medium friends from the outside world. They are relatively new to Medium and to Illumination, and I thought it was time to shine a light on their own brilliance. After all, what are friends for if not to show you who’s new and noteworthy on Medium (I see what you did there, Helen. Nice work turning the tables).
I’m an editor and writer on Medium with Top Writer status. I’m also an editor for the publication, Rogues Gallery. I’ve published 55 titles on Amazon and edit for private clients. If you’d like to hire me as your editor for fiction, non-fiction, or business writing, please contact me here. If you’d like to read more of my work on Medium, click here to sign up for my newsletter. Thank you for reading.
