A Bit of Insight Traci Dowe/Kenworth

woman, dark fantasy, shadowed building

June 27. 2025

A Bit of Insight

Traci Dowe/Kenworth

I’ve been doing a bit of thinking. About how I want to live life right now. I was so stressed out about the country and where it’s headed. I realized I need to put that in God’s hands right now. With my health, I can’t keep myself upset because it doesn’t do anything but makes things worse for me.

I’m trying to post more positive things on my social media because of this. I don’t want to be angry all the time. I can’t afford it. I’ve gotten into cats, Snoopy, and Calvin and Hobbes. And I love the purple obsession images. It just soothes me right now.

I’m still having low blood pressure issues as well as low blood sugars. At times down to 40. I am so close to slipping into a coma if I don’t keep my attention focused on my daily care. It’s not that I don’t care about others or this country. It’s just right now, I have to put my health first.

I know there are other people out there realizing it as well. Not my health but their own in jeopardy over the often poisonous battles that we get into with strangers, family, and friends. I don’t want to do it anymore.

I just want to take each day as it comes. I want to love my family and friends and neighbors. And my kitties and be as happy as I can. Now, I know the word’s on fire right now but personally, there’s not much I can do about it except continue to pray.

Letting go of the frustration and anxiety of this past half of a year has been beneficial to me. I am facing things as best as I can. I’m putting my focus (when I can) into my stories. I really like the worlds I’m creating, the people, the culture, the creatures, and more.

It’s tough being a “writer-god.” But I’m pushing ahead and laying down framework for success. I don’t know how long I’ll be here with my health though it’s better than it was last year. Then, I was on the opposite end with high blood pressure and high blood sugars. They say the low of each is worse.

My mind is fuzzy a lot with my bipolar so I have to rely on my son and daughter to help me. My daughter’s at home right now but will have to return to a new job outside the home because of our finances. That will leave me praying to keep everything on track.

I hope your own health is doing good or is at least manageable. Have a great week, take care, and God bless!

The Seven:

1.             Syl’s 65 blog: https://syl65.wordpress.com/2025/06/26/musicthursday-%f0%9f%8e%a7-fleetwood-mac-gypsy-music-through-the-years-1982/

Thanks for the memories!

2.             Smorgasbord Magazine: https://smorgasbordinvitation.wordpress.com/2025/06/26/smorgasbord-health-column-2025-food-therapy-rewind-pumpkin-seeds-nutrient-packed-snack-on-the-go/

Good to know.

3.             Writers in the Storm: https://writersinthestormblog.com/2025/06/how-audiobooks-can-benefit-people-of-all-ages/ For the last few months I have been close to noncommunicative, making my home into a cave. I have been no fun. The reason? A nasty case of shingles. Luckily for me, I am married to a saint.

I am allergic to the vaccine for shingles, so there wasn’t much I could do. A whopping case of misery was my fate. Much of my head was affected including an eye, causing intense itching and pain. Reading was a not an option.

All the cohosts of Writers In The Storm blog were super supportive, and together they covered my responsibilities while keeping up with their own work. Jenny Hansen was the first one in the group to mention audiobooks and suggested one book in particular that had several elements in common with my work in progress. Olivia Hawker’s October in the Earth was just that and gave me several things to ponder that will make The Hobo Code a better book.

I’ve recently tried audio books myself and like them.

4.             Library of Erana: https://libraryoferana.wordpress.com/2025/06/26/check-out-my-author-promotional-services-94/

Could be something to look into!

5.      Entertaining Stories:   https://coldhandboyack.wordpress.com/2025/07/05/i-post-because-i-must/      I’ve been writing and blogging for a long time now. At the outset I would post three to five times per week. I had so much fun interacting with Lisa Burton the robot girl, or with Lorelei my Muse. I think many of you did too.

There came a time when I could no longer afford Lisa’s posters and had to make a decision to stop using her as my spokesmodel. This actually hurt, because I made a lot of mileage with this promo system.

Today, I’m facing a crisis of confidence, faith, and whatever else you can call it. It’s built up from tiny chips being knocked off of my psyche. There is no one thing responsible here.

I have anxiety and fears about this same thing and I’m just starting out. I scrape by on the little bit of money I can manage from my SS. I don’t know what the future holds but I know that writing is a part of me that will always be with me. Whether I can put that story out there or not.

6. Charles French: https://lizgauffreau.com/2025/07/02/the-big-reveal/ t long last, here are the cover reveal, description, and ebook preorder link for The Weight of Snow and Regret. The book will be available October 1, 2025 to mark the day the state of Vermont closed the last poor farm in the state.

There was one by the local college (before it was the local college campus) and it’s rumored that the haunted lake there is what happened when they flooded the place when it shut down. That’s part of a story I’m telling now.

7. Anne R. Allen’s blog…with Ruth Harris: https://annerallen.com/2025/07/write-your-first-draft-for-yourself/ Recently I’ve been looking at comment threads on old posts. Five years ago, people were leaving a lot more comments. But commenting on blogs has faded along with the popularity of blogging, which a lot of people see as soooo last decade. These days, a lot of authors prefer Substack, which is new and shiny.

For now, I’m hanging onto this blog, although it does have a lot of problems, including a weird number of “brute force attacks”— where hackers use bots to try 1000s of passwords a minute to try to break in. Generally the server has to take the blog offline to protect it.

Why these hackers want to break into a non-monetized author blog is beyond me, but then I don’t know why I still get dozens of requests every week from people who want to regale our audience of writers with articles about buying real estate in Dubai, making cat food in an air fryer, or what to wear to a Taylor Swift concert.

As I mentioned on Anne’s blog, I think people like that need to take some online writing classes from actual writers. It’ll help them past the obsessed stage. Believe me, I went through that stuff too.

Dark fantasy is a subgenre of fantasy that combines elements of traditional fantasy with darker, more unsettling themes often associated with horror. It explores the darker aspects of human nature and the supernatural, often featuring morally ambiguous characters, grim settings, and a sense of dread or unease. 

So, as you see above, once again, I’ve discovered I was wrong about my genre. I thought the castle/isolation aspect was gothic BUT this definition of dark fantasy is exactly what I’m writing and the definition of gothic I saw was far from what I am. They’ll be a bit of correction on the blog and in the posts ahead. I don’t mean to confuse anyone. We were looking thanks to our instructors for the definitions of our genre and the tropes for each. When I glanced over the tropes for gothic, I was like no way. When I saw dark fantasy, everything cliqued. And then, of course, I discovered that most of the titles I read are “dark fantasy.” Lol.