Joining Friends on the Other Side

            Unlike a lot of people, I actually like Friday the 13^th. Maybe it’s just because I’ve always been one of those kids who preferred to go against the grain. I’m not particularly superstitious either. Mostly, I just like to think of this day as something where odd magic takes place. Not bad, just weird.

            In my area of the Carolinas, it started out as a gloomy day, which just seems absolutely perfect for making an entire pot of coffee, mixing it with Bailey’s coffee creamer cup by cup, and sitting at my desk, writing the day away. My desk is situated against the window that faces the backyard which, since we live in town, faces someone else’s backyard. But it’s a quiet neighborhood, lots of space and grass between us and them. It invites a writer to just sit and gaze out the window.

            I originally intended to post this on Friday the 13^th, not in the wee hours of June 14^th, but life got in the way of writing. When I got off work Bear and I grabbed a pizza and hit Wal-Mart to pick up some essentials for the house, which I assembled for once! Watching Smackdown and then finishing off the second season of Orange is the New Black (I made it last a week, I’m quite proud of myself), the evening got away from me. But it’s okay. There’ll always be writing to be done and time to do it.

            I’ve decided to make today the last day that I post to Blogger. Officially switching over to WordPress for the Kelswitch, with the first post coming Monday. Remember, that’s www.carolinakel.wordpress.com. Basically, the same url I always have, with a different website listed behind my name. See? This is why I use Carolina Kel across platforms. Makes it easy to find me, especially since it’s a name I’ve been using a long time.

            I sincerely hope you follow me as I expand and move forward on this writing and blogging journey. Thanks for the memories, blogspot.

An Open Letter to Social Media

We all have our reasons for using social media. Business. Keep up with family. To be nosy. But whatever our motive, we're all impacted by changes when the big wigs decide to roll them out for no other reason than because they can. Contrary to what they think, these changes are not always good. Sometimes they hurt the consumer, which you would think in business is the last thing you want to do. Yet, they continue to do it, all in the name of a profit. Particularly in Facebook's case, they get away with it because the consumer doesn't pay their bills. They're a free service. Their money comes from advertisers and anyone who wants access to the information we all post online without even thinking.

The breaking point for consumers of social media has yet to be reached, but most days, I can't help but wonder if we're close. Or maybe we're all too narcissistic to ever walk away from it, no matter how much of our soul they demand as payment. Let's face it. Social media is all about narcissism. We try to portray our lives in the best possible light, or at the very least the most dramatic. Why?

Human beings are social creatures. On the surface, Facebook and Google+ and Twitter seem to meet that innate need of ours, all while cutting out the awkward in-person bit. It's convenient in an increasingly busy, go go go society.

Now that I've summed up a bit about social media, let me get to my point and why I wanted to write this particular post. It would be easy to say that, as of now, Facebook still dominates the social media scene. Twitter is probably a close second. Google+ is probably nowhere near where its creators expected it to be right now. Which might explain why Google is so pushy but it does not excuse it.

My blog is connected to my Google account, and thus the Google+ account. When I created a Gmail after getting my first smartphone in 2010, Google automatically created a YouTube account for me too. That was was odd, but okay, whatever. I use it and enjoy the benefits of having playlists. Then, about a year ago I'd say, Google decided to start using these venues to push Google+ down my throat. Repeatedly, I did not express interest in engaging on that platform and yet they persist.

The final straw is a notification that my blogs will now be automatically posted to Google+, when I have repeatedly opted against that. Of course, I can change that in my settings, if I can ever find where.

Facebook is probably just as pushy as Google, but at least they're a little more subtle about it. Congratulations Google, your business tactics have tipped the scale and pushed me right into the arms of Wordpress. Blogger has been good to me, but it no longer meets my needs as a blogger. So, as a consumer, I am exercising my free will and changing services.

Thanks for the memories. I'll be back to visit my friends who still use this service, but starting in July, the Kelswitch will be posted exclusively to Wordpress. From there, I will continue to explore my writing and the opportunities available to me as such.

I can pick my poisons, thank you very much.

I do not own this picture. It was obtained via Pinterest.

B is for Black Jewels

            I began the journey when I was in ninth grade, and I finished it near the onset of my baby steps into the real world. The Queen of the Darkness has become a Song in the Darkness, and I was this close to bawling like a baby all over our dining room table.

            Of course, I’m talking about books. The Black Jewels novels by Anne Bishop. Such a gorgeous story, predating in my history as a reader most of what is currently on my shelves. And last night, I finished Twilight’s Dawn, which I did not expect to be such a lovely wrap up to the story that I thought was finished.

            Your one and only warning if you think you might want to read the books in the future: Spoilers ahead.

            My first big foray into the Internet was a forum for this book series, and we used to debate and discuss all kinds of things about the world, the characters, and where they went after the main trilogy ended. We all acknowledged that Jaenelle, Queen of the Darkness, came from a short-lived race. Therefore, Daemon Sadi would outlive her by centuries, how would he deal with this? We all had our theories, I’ll wager, but I think how Anne Bishop wrote it is just as it was meant to be.

            And Saetan? Our favorite Uncle Saetan? The High Lord of Hell, Prince of the Darkness, and the uncle/father/teacher we all wish we could have in the real world? When he became a whisper in the darkness, I nearly lost it. I’d never given it much thought, but he was one of my favorite characters. Stern but loving, giving guidance and a boot to the ass all at the same time, and teaching what matters about family and honor.

            I knew that this was probably what was coming in the last story of the collection that was Twilight’s Dawn, but still. Jaenelle and Saetan passing away, it hit me harder than I thought. They’ve been characters in the back of my mind for nine years at the very least, ones that made me laugh, made me think, and now, have made me cry.

            It’s amazing how much fictional characters can really come to mean to you. The characters of the Black Jewels novels, of the world of the Blood, will be with me forever, the kind of story that you pass down to anyone who has an open heart and loves to read.

            I’m sorry if this addition to the A to Z Challenge doesn’t make much sense. All I can say is go buy Daughter of the Blood by Anne Bishop, and read all the books up to Twilight’s Dawn. Maybe you’ll understand.

            I’ll close with one of my favorite quotes from these amazing stories.

            “Far below me, in the psychic abyss that is part of the Darkness, I hear another howling, one full of joy and pain, rage and celebration.”

                        -Daughter of the Blood

A is for Attempt

            A is for Attempt. Make one.

            Before I go on, let me explain that every so often, a word latches on to my brain and rolls around and around until I give it leave to play on the page. That word today happens to be attempt, which is appropriate for a first post as we embark on the A to Z Blogging Challenge of 2014.

            We are nothing if we do not make an attempt in life. At first, the attempts that matter are the small things. Crawling. Feeding ourselves. From there, we grow. We learn to walk. To read. What it means to be a decent human being. 2014 is a turning into a year of attempts for me. Freelancing. A novella on Amazon. Crocheting. A new job. This blogging challenge. And it’s just April. What challenges will the rest of the year throw at me? What else will I get to attempt this year?

            It’s easy to hold yourself to a high standard and beat yourself up when you don’t meet that standard. What that boils down to is that it is easy to forget that every day is a new attempt. It’s a new chance to get up the first time your alarm goes off. To smile at that person who was rude to you at work. To be the best you possible. Every attempt is an individual choice, and we’re all in control of how we go down this road of life.

            This is Tuesday, April 1^st. My attempts of the day are this blog, checking the mail before I go to work, writing Wednesday’s blog, and being everything else I want to be today. As long as I try, that’s what counts, for today and for the rest of this blogging challenge.

Kelswitch on a Mission

            The Kelswitch has not always existed as such. It began about three years ago, in the month of April, when I got a wild idea to blog about being Pagan in the south. At the time, I wasn’t blogging regularly but I also had two other blogs going too. One was for music, another for life and random things.

            Obviously, all three ideas got the boot. But the blog you are currently reading is the platform the Pagan one existed on, I just deleted all the old content prior to December of 2011. In 2012 I began blogging regularly, once a week. From there, with a little tweaking and adjusting here and there, it eventually became the Kelswitch we know today.

            My following may not have grown that much, but I’d like to believe as a blogger, I’ve grown tremendously since that first post, three years ago. I actually use tags in my posts, I share to social media, participate in #MondayBlogs on Twitter. But there is no overall theme to draw people seeking answers or comrades to the Kelswitch. I’m just a southern scribbler, wordsmith, writer, reader, music addict writing about whatever comes to mind that demands to flow from my fingertips onto the keyboard. Sometimes it’s a rant, sometimes an observation, and sometimes it’s just commentary on my own life as things happen to me.

            Blogging happened to me as a lot of other things were changing in my life. When I first started, I had just embraced a new major and a determination to follow my lifelong dream of writing. The Kelswitch has followed me through ups and downs, triumphs and utter failures. It will follow me into the future as I seek to add on to what Shadows Rising started. It will follow me as I move forward as a “young professional” and freelance writer. I just hope that nothing I have written or will write will ever get me in trouble, because I write without malice, or I try to.

            I’ve had to stop myself from getting too personal here, when it can feel like my own personal soap box. When people in my life drove me up the wall and made me want to curse and scream, I had to restrain myself and write out my anger in other ways, that wouldn’t end up on here for the public to consume. It’s a fine line that I walk every day, being a writer with access to such a public forum, being Pagan in a mostly Christian world, and being human in a world that sometimes seeks to tear apart everything I am. But I like it. I wouldn’t still be here if I didn’t.

            So, it is with excitement and no small amount of anxiety that I take on the A-Z Blogging Challenge. For the first time ever, the Kelswitch shall be updated every single day for the entire month of April, following the theme of letters of the alphabet. If you follow my blog, read Shadows Rising, or support my other writing forums, I want to express my sincere thanks.

            And now, I invite you to follow this every day challenge for the Kelswitch. See you tomorrow, folks.