Writer Focus

Sometimes it Takes a Special Snail to Knock Over the First Domino

New writer spotlight and update on June writing challenges

Missed communication and doctored photos are the theme of today with a story that takes a look at how real life doesn’t always look exactly like Instagram and how a snail and a strawberry miss out on a connection in the garden.

Plus, we have a fantastically heartfelt personal story about a writer’s father and how to build on small victories. Grab your gardening gloves, and maybe a Kleenex to get ready for 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

Our first story today is from an author that had established a following on Medium a year ago but took a break. Recently returned from that break, Heather Wargo reached out to me and ask me to feature one of her articles.

She made a suggestion to feature an excellent personal story written about her father. At first my thought was to highlight something more recent from her… then I read the story she suggested. I don’t want to attempt to describe it, because I wouldn’t be able to do her writing any justice. You simply just need to read it yourself:

Next is an insightful tale written by Tonia Nem. Featuring a snail and a strawberry, I can’t help but think that there are several hidden meanings in this story, and that perhaps multiple readings are in order to fully appreciate the wisdom within.

Read the story of Nail the snail and Berry, aided in telling by a great illustration drawn by the author. A story about feeling out of place, and how we often miss opportunities to communicate when it could make all the difference for one or both parties:

Next is a story that provides a dose of reality to help us manage our expectations about what we see when we travel compared to the highly stylized (and usually doctored) photos we might see on social media.

Let Ragnsan F. Valla pull back the curtain on the travel pictures on Instagram to provide a more realistic view of what you see when you travel. Accompanied by some cautionary advice on local food, read Ragnsan’s article to get the straight scoop on travel here:

And finally, some perspective on the best way to accomplish massive success? Start small.

Amy Caswell does a great job explaining how stacking small successes upon other small successes can lead to great things in her article about the domino effect 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.

Today I want to put the spotlight on someone that is brand new in the editor role at Illumination. Dr Michael Heng has been writing on Illumination since May and was just recently added to the roster of Editors.

I have come to appreciate his viewpoints on education and tolerance, and I especially liked his article suggesting that we do something that scares us every day. It is easy to get into a comfortable and safe routine where we never challenge our boundaries. However, challenging boundaries is what makes us grow as humans and Dr. Heng has some great perspective on that 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.

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 your true meaning of life?

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

INFJ Elder 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:

Jb Cabret, Vini, Shawna Ayoub Ainslie, Carole Tansley, Romero Jr., Ashley Knibb, Keith Dias, Bill Christian, Ben Walker, Kashish Mehta, Deborah Levine, Dr.Gulnazmirza, Kunal Mishra, Jessica Kiev, Nishith Goyal, Vicky Jangra, Charushila Biswas, Dynisty, Elena Pavlovic, Dakota Duncan, John G Swift, Dalila Jovanovic, Emanuel Marques, Pratik Routray, Gershom Umar

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.