Writer Focus

No Beans About It; Your 4-Year-Old Will Need to Code Before They Can Digitally Migrate

New writer spotlight and update on June writing challenges

Cats! Yep, you didn’t see that coming from the title, but if you hang in there, I promise a whole basketful of cats. You have to read all the other articles first though, no cheating.

But it won’t be any sort of hardship to do so because we have some great pieces on teaching your younger kids to code, the best way to avoid a lousy cup of coffee, rejuvenating our souls at the ocean, plus a concept I had never heard of; digital migration.

Pour out any weak joe you might be sipping, and put on your reading glasses!

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

First off, let’s talk about kids and computers. Word on the internet that the language of the future is code, and that kids should be learning it right along with their primary speaking language, and from an early age.

While it might be tough to put coding into perspective for your 4-year-old, there are ways to begin building your toddler’s capacity for learning a digital language and to introduce her to the basics. Yomna Elsayed lays it all out for us in this intriguing story:

Okay, one article down. Time for a coffee break. But let’s agree that we aren’t going to allow ourselves to accept mediocre coffee anymore.

Find out the ins and outs of buying and creating the perfect cup of joe with anas kunda‘s thorough examination of what makes for a fantastic cup of the writer’s best friend here:

Back to work on the digital highway, and looking for a place to set up your next e-business? Look no further than Estonia then, as they have opened the digital border to allow e-residents to establish a virtual presence.

Eeva Metssalu introduces us to the concept of e-residency and breaks down what that means and how it is redefining the term “Global Citizen” in this thought provoking piece:

If your head is spinning a little bit from the ideas of toddlers coding and being a virtual ex-pat (not to mention the caffeine), you might consider taking some time to go to the ocean.

We all know that splashing in the surf and listening to the waves can create a sense of serenity. Manar Bekeer says that there is some science behind the notion that the sound of waves activates our parasympathetic nervous symptom and provides a calming effect.

Find a dose of “Vitamin Sea” in this great story:

And finally, as promised; cats! Rania El-Badry provides us with 10 lessons we can learn from emulating our feline companions. There is some great insight here, especially how cats let insults just roll off their furry backs. Get your kitten fix 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 for a bit.

Another writer and editor that has been with Illumination from its humble beginning and along its explosive growth arc is Sylvia Love Johnson. Sylvia is active behind the scenes on Slack and has taken on managing roles with the publication’s Twitter feed and other social media advertising.

Sylvia wrote this great piece that captures the essence of Illumination to celebrate the 6,000 followers milestone accomplished in only 6 weeks. It is a great time to give this a read (or re-read) and visit some of the concepts that make Illumination great:

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 ♾️

B. A. Cumberlidge.

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

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:

Tran Nguyen, Asmaa Masr, Melanie Charles, Radwa azmi, Channa, Nikesh Kumar, Alaa Hamed, Ezra Godson, Mob Cook, Robin du Plessis, Mike Pole, Gregory Reece-Smith, Darby Days, Keith R Wilson, Jack Krier, Stu Cavill, Omneya El Sawaf, AyahtuAllah, Sameer Lohana, Richard Hamilton, Safin Ahmed, Mohammed Ayar, George Servos, Dena Standley, The Survivor, Jeremy Olusola, Tasneem Gad,

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.