more random musings of an overactive mind

I’ve had the JB and BL situation on my mind a lot lately. As mentioned previously on my Instagram reel, I’m not going to side with either of them.  But I do want to think a little about our responsibility when it comes to situations like this.  I also think we can use this specific situation ad others like it to advocate for victims of harassment, sexual or other, as well as learn how to be more…

The following is a guest post by author Marlene M. Bell, whose book, A Hush At Midnight, I reviewed here. I ended up becoming an independent author by accident. The best way to describe it is on a dare from my 4H club parents who asked for a non-fiction how-to book on raising sheep. If I had it to do over again, would I like to relive the adventure? Most days, a joyful yes. On rare days, not a…

About the Author, Marlene M. Bell Marlene M. Bell is an accomplished artist and photographer who takes pride in entertaining fans on multiple levels with her creativity. Marlene’s award-winning Annalisse series boasts Best Mystery honors for all installments including these: IP Best Regional Australia/New Zealand, Global Award Best Mystery, and Chanticleer’s International Mystery and Mayhem…

Butterly is at it again!  This time, the team sent me, last week, two Yves St-Laurent Loveshine High-Shine Caring Lipsticks and Urban Decay’s Face Bond Waterproof Foundation.  It’s been a week, and I have been asked to post a review within a week of receiving the products, so I again am focusing on only the products, using them every day, and just recording the experience. In about six months,…

Butterly has been spoiling me lately!  The team sent me, earlier this month, their Earth Month Package containing three products to review: Clean Reserve’s H2Eau rollerball perfume in Nectarine Petal, Tom’s of Maine’s Natural Deodorant in Rose Vanilla, and Blue Lizard’s SPF 50 sunscreen for sensitive skin. I have recently started posting follow-up reviews about six months after my initial post,…

Tl,DR: If you want to support my writing without buying my books, please use my affiliate links (listed here) to purchase books or products you would purchase from Amazon anyhow. As you know, I have written a few children’s books in the last few years.  I’m incredibly grateful for the support I have received up to now, as many people chose to purchase books from an unknown author, gifting me…

Butterly recently gifted me with a rollerball perfume from Clean Reserve’s H2EAU collection, in Brilliant Peony. Because I only have 7 days to post a review after receiving the product, I’m going to briefly discuss the company and its practices, and the product and its contents. However, just like with the T-Fal pan, I will be updating this review in about six months, so if you are interested in…

I have read many memoirs this year, and since many of the points that they bring up are the same, I decided to break away from tradition and, instead of a monthly round-up, do a memoir round-up. Celebrities and public figures lives in a realm of their own.  I don’t think they should, though, quite honestly.  After all, they are not particularly special in terms of overall humanness.  They are…

Anyone who has run a book review website or a bookstagram knows that sometimes, you just have to read for the sake of reading, and take time off reviewing.  That’s what I’ve done for the last few months and it has been glorious.  For the most part, it gave me time to be discerning, for the most part, of the books I picked to read.  But also, ironically perhaps, without the pressure of having to…

This project has been quite the journey; a big thank you to you for reading along, for sharing, as well as for reaching out, either in the comments or through my DMs, to offer loving encouragement and checking in on me. Yes, it was difficult delving so deeply into these stories, because although ultimately, these women stood up for what they believed in, their lives were cut very short, and there…

Review of ‘Maame’, by Jessica George—Must Read Summary here. What an incredible read.  It was moving on so many levels, but ultimately uplifting.  At the age of 25, Maddie is the primary caregiver for her father, who has advanced Parkinson’s.  Her mother spends long periods of time in her native Ghana—and by long, I mean one year at a time.  So life at home is a serious, sad affair.  Things are…

One of the reasons I decided to write these posts in order of age is that I wanted to have mother and daughter at both ends of the series of posts.  Well, almost, since Roya was the second youngest of the group.  But let’s just roll with it! Ezzat-Janami Eshraghi was born in 1926 in Najafabad, in the province of Isfahan.  She finished high school, then married Enayatollah Eshraghi a little later,…

I thought it would get easier, writing about the two older women in the group of ten that I think of as “The Shiraz Ten”.  But guess what?  It isn’t.  Because 46 and 57, the ages of the last two women left to cover, is not old; they both had a lot of life left, and a lot of good to do. I didn’t find much about Nosrat Ghufrani Yaldaie.  She completed her elementary school education, but I didn’t…

Can you believe that only now, almost at the end of the list of women executed on that fateful day, we have reached the first who is above the age of 30?  The first seven of the ten women (to read their stories, click here) were either in their late teens or in their twenties.  That is ridiculously young, and it is truly a loss foe society that such driven and purposeful women were lost at such a…

Despite knowing the end of each of these stories—or perhaps because of it—I have been really enjoying writing these posts.  I had read about these women before; however, writing takes a whole other level of understanding, and also, there is a lot more information about them available nowadays, including gorgeous pictures.  A special thanks to the team behind the Archives of Bahá’í Persecution in…

At this point in the campaign, I can imagine that the stories, at least at the end, are starting to sound repetitive. As I was writing yesterday’s post, I couldn’t help but wonder if this is why we tend to tune out stories about people like these ten women.  A bit like the stories of all the Black men and women who were lynched in the United States for the crime of being Black, or the stories of…

Akhtar Sabet, daughter of Hossein and Havva, was born in the town of Sarvestan in the south of Fars Province.  She was a happy, intelligent, selfless, devoted, disciplined, and committed person who lived a simple life. She was a woman with a strong personality and a rich social education, and the latest entry in my #OurStoryIsOne project (for the rest of the post, click here). On 18 November…