Author Richard White

Switching Some Gears

Written by @RWhiteAuthor

Over the past decade, I have been self-publishing my work and sharing it here. I would have never been able to do this without the constant research and learning about becoming an author, what it takes, and implementing the things that I have learned on my platform. Most of the things I have learned, I did the hard way. I pioneered myself into an industry I knew nothing about. I started with very little knowledge of this adventure I took. However, over the past ten years, I can write, format, and publish my books, build websites to share my work, and earn a subscribers list to my content. I have missed making my list bigger and have not done a lot that I once wanted to. It has come to my senses that I do more with helping authors than I do writing, well because I love to it is that simple. I Have decided to make some changes and spin some things into new yarn. With Speaking To My Depression being my last poetry book for a while, I have decided to create many different changes. First, this home will become the location that I serve the writing community, offering advice to things I have somewhat mastered or learned over this decade. Secondly, I plan to utilize this space for my non-fiction platform, where you will find books dedicated to writing advice and teaching authors how to build a successful platform. Third and lastly, this platform will also be where I incorporate my future. As many of you know, I have begun my journey to build a publishing, design, and editing agency for a new career. These are businesses I will be making over the course of the next 3-4 years as I obtain my degree at SNHU in English and Creative Writing. You will see some integrations between each of those business ventures and the annual Literature Convention I created LitCon.

Don’t give up on me just yet. My fiction writing is not over; I have a plan for that and will make that announcement when the time is right. With my name being so common, I have chosen to place my fiction under a new and fresh pen name (Pseudonym) to keep the work here separate from my fiction and give my fiction the platform it deserves and not lose it in the shuffle on google search results. I currently have a poll taking place at my reader’s group on Facebook, that I gladly invite you to join and vote for my new name as I have left it up to my readers.

 Alongside my new venture here on my blog titled Writing Advice Unscripted, I invite other authors to share their advice with my followers as a guest post. The more advice we can share with new writers and authors to help them succeed will leave a mark that will never be forgotten. I look forward to meeting new authors and collaborating with them over the next decade of my journey as a writer.

Writing Tip of the day: It all starts when the ink touches the page.

Crazy Trip

Written by @RWhiteAuthor

What a crazy trip it has been. I have not blogged in a while, as my schedule has gotten a bit crazy. Although, that isn’t even the icing on the cake. Where do I begin? My blog has been blocked from Facebook. My fictional blog is fake news to some authors. who knew right? I have A’s in school, oh yeah I am in college at SNHU for a BA in Creative Writing and English. Super excited to be a college boy again. My websites were hacked, and completely blocked, so I chose to change server hosts, I lost everything. I think this is like the 5th time everything was deleted. Thankfully I had an old backup for some content. I did a new backup, and plan to do so again this week. I won’t have it happen again.

Over the past couple of months, I have been dealing with a lot. My sister was admitted to the hospital on March 16th with severe endocarditis, Moraxella pneumonia, and MRSA Staph Aureus. She was pulling through, pretty good after a long two weeks on a ventilator, however, on April 20th, two days before her 38th birthday, her Aortic valve broke, and her organs shut down. She passed away at 6 PM. As her brother, I stepped into the role of taking care of all her affairs, preparing the funeral, when we can hold it, her cremation, and following her wishes. I think with work, school, and all of the fundraising, and prepping. I have not even had the time to break down and grieve properly. It kind of sucks really, I need a good cry. I mean I lost my baby sister, why haven’t I broke down yet?

I have her wishes almost complete. She wanted the ones that loved her to have a dolphin necklace with her ashes, and her three daughters to have something unique. I did pretty well. I found them a 5 dolphin circle necklace, and the rest of us have single dolphins with her birthstone. Her friends, just have a plain dolphin and the guys a simple black one. Now to carry out her final wish.

Bring the rest of her ashes to the ocean, and spread them with the dolphins. I have made her a promise, that I will get her there no matter what it takes. For now, she has a little spot on my bookshelf that she calls home, to watch over me, as I write, study and take care of my dad. I can’t complain really, I am blessed to have her with me always. I miss her more each day. It has been a long crazy trip. like a bad mushroom trip. Every time one of her girl’s breakdown, it melts my heart. I can’t seem to shake the tears when I see them lose it. I feel terrible for them. They just reconnected for the most part, and just when Jen, was ready to be sober. She lost the battle before it could even begin.

My mom and I are prepping a journal to share on her website, we are creating to help moms stay sober the JLWFAddictionRecovery.org. When it is finished we plan to share it on her website as a tool for women to learn from Jen’s life and last few weeks here on earth. I think it will be a perfect final tribute to her. What are your thoughts? Share them in the comments. What else could we do to start awareness? We have a store already set up, you can visit here, and a mighty network, we have started. A social network, dedicated to sobriety. You can check that out here.

Just a reminder, Shattered Glass poetry talks about addiction and the struggle with it.

P.S. If you can donate to our funeral costs, here is her fundraiser link on Facebook.

In Memory

Written by Richard White @RWhiteAuthor

When I first began Shattered Glass, it was just me writing down my thoughts. It was a testament of my navigation through my depression and anxiety. To find a way to fight through the sleepless nights, and bite down on the anger, rage and fear in which I combat on a daily basis.

Over the course of the past couple of years my high school class and surrounding classes have lost some fellow students to drug addiction, and depression. When we lost one student in particular, shortly after our 20th reunion, it was then I realized I am not the only one that struggles like I do. Coming closer, and rekindling relationships with some of my fellow classmates awakened me a bit. Those friendships made me choose to dedicate Shattered Glass in the memory of those we have lost. I am unable to name a few of them by request, but we will always think of them, when we share Shattered Glass.

One person I dedicated the book to is Jordan Bemis, he was a kind soul, always full of insurmountable energy, and just an all around good guy. He will be sadly missed by us all. While reaching out to his family, and speaking with his little sister. I learned that Jordan, was also an author. I wanted to share his book with you. As it is only just a part of his legacy here on earth.  Check out his children’s book Henry the Frog here.

Here is the In-Memory inscription from Shattered Glass.

In Memory

Sometimes we find a path in our lives that is just not what we had in mind. Many of us including myself went down this path, some have survived, some are barely surviving, and some never made it into the clearing. Those of us that survived, wonder why we couldn’t or didn’t reach the ones that didn’t make it out of the turmoil, and lost their lives because of it. This is my testament to that darkness that I face every day. The time from my past that at one point was so dark, no one could reach me. I found my way out with a broken compass, and a map with no lines or highways.

This book of poetry is in memory of those we have lost from high school, so many taken from us way to soon, because they lost their battle with drugs, and depression. They couldn’t find the good in life, and chose a way out, that we survivors will never truly understand.

In particular Shattered glass is in memorial of Jordan Bemis. He had such a gentle soul, and was a remarkable man, yet the demons overcame him, and he lost his battle with addiction. We miss him every day, and the more fellow students we lose from Mill River Union High School, the more we miss him, and the many others that we have lost.

It is my hope, that reading this book you find something in it that will help you find the good in life, and proceed to do battle with these demons, as I do.

Rekindling friendships from my class has been the best thing that I could ever do. This book is for them; Class of 98, thank you for being my friend.

You can buy Shattered Glass on Amazon