What’s hiding under your bed?
Sunny Side Updates with TBIN || Week 35!
🛌 The literal answer: I don’t really have a closet in my apartment and so my bed has roll-in storage drawers under the bed!
👻 The spooky answer: I was clearing out my stuff from my lab space and couldn’t find my own “lab umbrella” and couldn’t! So truthfully, I took someone else’s (I’d like to hope we just swapped).
The thing about umbrellas is that in Chinese culture, there’s a taboo of bringing in someone else’s umbrellas or opening anyone’s umbrellas inside because they hold spirits.
Pretty sure I have someone else’s ghosties under my bed or something.
👀 The metaphorical answer: What’s hiding underneath all that you guys can see, as readers, about who I am? Well, for that, I hope my writing answers some questions
What about you?
Shortform Theme of the Week
This week’s shortform theme is: What’s hiding under your bed? Whether you interpret this question literally (describing your actual comfy bed) or metaphorically (however you interpret this question), I’d love to hear!
Submit your shortform piece (<150 words) now to share your thoughts! (For prompt-based pieces, you may exceed the 150 word limit, but aim for 150 words if the idea of a longer piece overwhelms you!)
This is just a guideline for inspiration! You may submit shortforms related to other concepts if other ideas come to you! :)
✍ June Interview Challenge
Come join me in the monthly interview challenge! In this challenge, I’ll give you 5 reflection questions, 5 top five lists and 5 “prompts” to promote your articles!
Excited to get to know you as writers and overall cool human beings!
This challenge ( #June2021TBINInterview ) is open from now until June 30, 2021.
🌠 Ongoing Adventure Fiction Series!
I’ve finally launched a project that my child self has always wanted to do: create a collaborative never-ending story with branch-offs into multiple different storylines!
I’m so excited to see what direction this story will take so please don’t be shy on submitting!
Here is chapter 1!
For the most recent chapters, search “#OngoingAdventure” below! (PC users, CTRL+F is your friend. Mac users, 🤷♀️, I’m going to guess it’s CMD+F?)
The Brain is a Noodle*
*This is factually incorrect. Please absolutely do not go out and eat brains.
🍜 Piping Hot New(dle) Pieces of the Week
Challenge: *highlight* the ones you bookmarked/ read and make sure everyone gets highlighted at least once! ❤
🧠🍜 [1] You’re Doing Better Than You Think by Laurie Perez ‘Frustration. Confusion. Knowing in my gut there’s got to be a way to solve this thing, work it out, make it better — but having no clue how to pop the lid and get out of the dilemma. Feeling small, confined, restricted — powerless. Conflicted. This makes me cry.’
🧠🍜 [2] Insanity Of Multiple Choices by Pretheesh Presannan ‘at every now faced with confusion the multiple choices’
🧠🍜 [3] Leftovers by K.S. ‘From boxes my ancestors revealed themselves,’
🧠🍜 [4] Billboards by Courtenay S. Gray ‘I come home from the nightclub with the cloying ethanol lingering within my faux fur coat. ‘
🧠🍜 [5] Music in My Soul by Dave Logan ‘Music sets the mood for my day. Depending on how I feel when I wake, it could be jazz, 80’s hair band, or my favorite: Classic Rock.’
🧠🍜 [6] Becoming One in Mother Earth’s Loving Lap by Ruchi Thalwal ‘Feet dipped in cold water Inside the sand, away from the clutter The wind brushing my face Hair dangling toward the stroke of air’
🧠🍜 [7] Fallen Dentures by Jennifer McDougall ‘*Loosely based on a story told to me by a past professor. While in the outhouse his dentures somehow somersaulted their way from between his lips and into the toilet. ‘
🧠🍜 [8] A Nacho Stack Makes the Perfect Snack by Jupiter Grant ‘Whilst reading all the poetry inspir’d by Lucy’s prompt, it suddenly occured to me that I cannot recall the last time that upon a plate of nachos I did chomp. This knowledge made me reminisce, my mind — and gut — enthralled.’
🧠🍜 [9] Same Old Loop by Shivangi Patel ‘Coming back again You knock on my door Every time I think I am over Finally above all the agony’
🧠🍜 [10] Emoji Nightmares by Will Hull ‘Ghosts of the past, in nightmares, repeat. Having lost two hands, the Joker, a cheat.’
🧠🍜 [11] Calming Rain by Dave Logan ‘Oddly enough, the thought and sound of rain relaxes me. I love a good thunderstorm or heavy downpour. Sitting out on the porch and watching the rain come down is one of the most serene things.’
🧠🍜 [12] Our Souls in Summer by Jessie Waddell ‘What is Summer if not for lovers new? Two sweat covered bodies together lay, Their heat and passion cooled by morning dew, As they bid farewell to the last spring day.’
🧠🍜 [13] Subhuman Autonomous Robots by Courtenay S. Gray ‘Subhuman autonomous robots/an aqua bird/too many people with a lot of mouth/hatred exudes from their pores’
🧠🍜 [14] Eyes by Suzy Hazelwood ‘eyes always show if there is wellness or not how the soul flounders on an island nobody talks of’
🧠🍜 [15] Final Moments by Himanshi B ‘Laying on my bed, Old and weary, Thinking about one thing, How time passed by,’
🧠🍜 [16] Ghosts Don’t Get Toothache by Jupiter Grant ‘Casper broke a tooth upon a chewy piece of deep-fried squid whilst hanging out with Moaning Myrtle, playing German Whist.’
🧠🍜 [17] Gateway by R. Rangan PhD ‘As I sat reflecting on this prompt, the first image Unsplash came up with was that of this Balinese icon. Bali is a dream of a destination and the Bali gate in the image above is perhaps the most Instagrammed symbol of Balinese culture — The iconic Handara Gate.’
🧠🍜 [18] Green Field by Jen ‘The summer breeze Gently touch my face As I grace down The green field’
🧠🍜 [19] Let Me Be! by Candy Marie ‘I’ve been feeling pressed by school these days, especially by a teacher who doesn’t let me be.’
🧠🍜 [20] Love With Conditions by Kim McKinney ‘I believe that love requires, Behaviors that demonstrate, When it’s words alone that define us, It’s time to detonate.’
🧠🍜 [21] June: by VV Valentine ‘June gloom Strawberry moon Summer solstice Gemini concedes to Leo’
🧠🍜 [22] Unconditional Love by Bob Pepe ‘Alone in the world Everyone has left me’
🧠🍜 [23] OCD or NQR? by Will Hull ‘Coffee. Rarely tea. Tea would require coffee. Never the orange cup!’
🧠🍜 [24] cold man by Michael Hollifield ‘He wears lots of clothes Long sleeves even in summer People laugh at him’
🧠🍜 [25] The Power of Being Gracefully Relentless by Evan Wildstein ‘Compliments are hard. Some people love them, some run away at full speed.’
🧠🍜 [26] Poem: When Salt Arrives by Samedra Carter ‘roses and flowers alike blossom and spike when watered with tender, loving care’
🧠🍜 [27] Freedom of Thought by Thalia Dunn ‘You are free to think the moon is made of blue cheese, but don’t tell me I have to think that way, for I will laugh and ask why.’
🧠🍜 [28] Emote by LS ‘I open my mouth when I pick up pens becoming new across wet pages’
🧠🍜 [29] #Ongoing Adventure: Open The Envelope by Jennifer McDougall ‘The envelope, stuffed through your mailbox without even a chip from its ornate wax seal, is glowing. Big deal. It reminds you a little of that science experiment gone wrong in college chemistry class. ‘
🧠🍜 [30] How To Grow Your Publication with These Top 5 Prompts by Yan Huang ‘Growing up, I listened to pop ballads in English, Canto, and Mandopop, and Disney! I mean, who doesn’t like Disney soundtracks? My taste can alternate between classical and the 60s-70s oldies.’
🧠🍜 [31] You’re a flawless flower by Ashlea Morgan ‘You are a daffodil rising thru the concrete of life.’
🧠🍜 [32] Gates, Gates and More Gates by Las siete y más ‘Why do gates exist? To have something contained? To prevent something from entering?’
🧠🍜 [33] Submerged by Lori Lamothe ‘The pine trees rise green beneath the surface of a lake where the light bells out from an unseen center.’
🧠🍜 [34] What Kind of Plant am I? by Bob Pepe ‘I am firm and rigid I can stand harsh treatment and a harsh environment’
🧠🍜 [35] Impermanence by LS ‘We need our memories to prove to ourselves we exist. This is about distracting ourselves from how different things really are. This is about turning our heads passively (as we’ve always done) as we allow our worlds to be rearranged, right in front of us.’
🧠🍜 [36] Blooming Like a Daffodil by Thalia Dunn ‘I am a daffodil, a Thalia daffodil living into my name, a perennial’
🔊 Voices to Amplify
We don’t have to leave it to the algorithm to suggest our favourite pieces! Here are some of my archived faves!
Thank you to Sharon Hurley Hall, Jennifer McDougall, Caroline de Braganza, Arturo Dominguez, Joshua E McCoy I for these pieces! ✨
The Eggcademic Corner
🥓 Quick brEGGfast Bites
What I’m watching: Still Grey’s Anatomy 😂 I’m on S6 now!
What I’m reading: Normal People — Sally Rooney
What I’m listening to: Eight — IU, Suga
S🍳mething to chew over
🎊 Top 3 articles of the week
Celebrate with me!
😭 Flop 3 articles of the week
Give these a little love, will ya?
🧠🍜 Thank you to the Noodle Team!
challenge: pick 3 writers you haven’t met yet and get acquainted with their pieces!
New writers: VV Valentine | Bhavya Mehta | Suntonu Bhadra | Noah Levy
Suzy Hazelwood | Ashlea Morgan | LS | Jessie Waddell | Dave Logan | Candy Marie | Himanshi B | Zihan | Elle How | K.S. | Sherry McGuinn | Diana Dee | Rambling Rose | Doran Lamb | Avi Kotzer | A.M. Radulescu | Laurie Perez | Paul Mansfield | B.R. Shenoy | Nada Chehade| Coco Joan | Bingz Huang | Shreya Badonia | Kimberly Carter | Las siete y más | Warren Brown | Trista Signe Ainswort | Kyomi O’Connor | Kay Bee | MaggieLaFae | Alex Godley | Haider Jamal | Josie Elbiry | Anthony Jackson | Hannah M. Moore | Michael Hollifield | Yana Bostongirl | TC Hails | Orla Kenny | Samedra Carter | Tatum Hamernik | Thalia Dunn | Nia Simone McLeod | Josie Elbiry | Keegan Roembke | Noorain Hassan, BMS | Humaira Iqbal | Zachary Burg | Bob Pepe | Will Hull | Jason | Courtenay S. Gray | Sahil Patel | Meenal Gupta | Amy Lee Kite | Evan Wildstein | Hilda Carroll | Chloe Hill | Paola Perez | Matt Ray | Wolfie Bain | Dena Ogden | Tasneem Kagalwalla | Yan Huang | Tree Langdon | Stuart Englander | Jennifer McDougall | Aaron Kemp | Rachel Ramkaran (she/her) | LS | Lori Welch Brown | Nicole Jiang | Crystalclearcandace | Em Unravelling | Jupiter Grant | Elle Beau ❇︎ | Suman Sandhu | Adam Deitsch | Mia Z. Edwards | David Majister | JF | Zach Neuman | Chris Mooney-Singh | Toya Qualls-Barnette | Karen Lappa Haas | Alan Henley | Michelle Bonfils | Zach Klebaner | Anna | Deepshikha Bhagat | Carlos Garbiras | Katrina Bos | Lisa Bolin | Sohaib Roomi | The Dozen | Malik Bellamy | Olivia Th | Shaista Malik | Emily Wilcox | Brajendra | Eva Rotolo | Bhavna Narula | Shannon Hugman | Ryan DeJonghe | Ryan DeJonghe | Dennett | Swagat Choudhury | Vivian | Mark Tulin | Arslan Mirza | Amber Carlson | Urfa | Whatsinanaim | Amy Pierovich, Ed.D. | Carolyn Riker | Tally | Shivangi Patel | Giulia | ScienceDuuude | Rachael Ann Sand | Divina Grey | Sarah Paris | DISHA GARG | Jen Kleinknecht | janny’s heart | Penofgold | Blank Voice | Kele Mogotsi | Jessie London | Indubala Kachhawa | Radhika Ghose | Mil H. | Zeno Faber | Maziar Ghaderi | Julia Appa | Campbell Christensen | Allison Gaines | Lori Lamothe | Tima Loku | Kim McKinney | Baye Amina | Tom Fenske | Johannes Mudi | Kasun Ranasinghe | Just a Slytherin hissing | Dr. Fatima Imam | Ntathu Allen | Somsubhra Banerjee | Veronica Georgieva | Life is Amazing with Books and Writers | Dandy Lioness 🌻 | Mindsmatter | Michael Ranjitsingh | Anjali Samaraweera | Krupesh Raikar | Rusty Alderson |Dr. Preeti Singh | Punch Drunk Cola | Melissa Speed | Ntathu Allen | Denise G | Carolyn Hastings | Tej | Vijini Mallawaarachchi | Amy Marley | Jac Gautreau | Erivaldo Ricardo | Roz Warren | Melissa Bee | Pretheesh Presannan | Daniel A. Teo | Anuradha Wickramarachchi | Niru | Priyanka Mane | Em Hoccane | Synthia S. | Alexandra Forsyth | R. Rangan PhD | Jacobo the First | Connie Song | Fathiyah Zb | Not quite Steve Fisher | Amna Asif | Aimée Gramblin | A Fresh Pot of Coffee | Rebecca Stevens A. | Imad | James G Brennan | Mary Keating | Jay Avery | h.a wadi | Pablo Pereyra | Isaac | jenine bsharah baines | Rochelle Silva | Jade-Ceres Violet D. Munoz | Ruchi Thalwal | Clare Almand | Dana Sanford | Naomi Leilani Acosta | Dr. Jackie Greenwood | Fathiyah Zb |
Ps, if any of these links are outdated, please leave a note to let me know!
🧠🍜 Join us at The Brain is a Noodle! 🧠🍜
Last but probably most important
Hop on the jumbo thread!