My Loyal World Readers

I want you to know everyone that I have not forgotten all of you. It's my intention that I don't give up on anyone and try to carry as many of you as I can forward to all the places that I go from here. You have all been so wonderful about reading my new posts and I can't imagine myself leaving any of my audience behind.

The website I started has grown to excellent numbers of per day visitors. Many of the people who visit my audience do so on a frequent basis. And about half of all of my visitors are brand new people. The thing I hate about the website is that my dashboard won't let me see all the wonderful places that my web traffic is coming from.

On blogger alone, I can see people from about eight other countries than the United States. I am thrilled to be read in other nations and perhaps other languages. I view it as crossing cultural barriers and making new connections to people across the globe. That is one of my favorite aspects of being an author and sharing my thoughts with everyone here.

On Amazon, I am able to see where people are from only if they buy my books. And so far, there haven't been many cash sales. The free promotions have been the best source of delight for me as far as seeing where my stories go when downloaded. I want to reach out and touch even more lives through the characters that I've created and the blogs.

I hope you will all join me at www.erichdavis.com, I am very proud of the reactions this website has been getting, along with all the blogs that are on there as well. Please come by and visit. And if you want to read my stories, remember for only three more days "Trinity and the Sad Child" will be available as a free Kindle download. Get it now before it expires.

All my love and well wishes to you my friends.

Trinity and the Sad Child is available now for free on the Amazon Kindle. I wrote a blog entry about it and a social commentary about current trends facing the United States on my website. My intent was to demonstrate not only cultural sensitivity, but also call out people who are dismissive of the plight of racial injustice or discrimination. Read it now at www.erichdavis.com

My Website

I have splurged a little on myself and bought a domain and established a website for myself. It doesn't look very professional yet, but it's still a work in progress. It contains a lot of my art work, links to my social media, an archive linking users to this blog and also the content from my other blog about the bully from Trinity and the Bully. As well as a link to my books for sale.

www.erichdavis.com

I want to invite all of my lovely readers to this site. Please bear in mind that portions of it are still going through a fine tuning process and further updates are coming to polish it off. There will be a blog started on this site as well, but I'll keep posting here as well to help ease the transition over. 

I hope you will all join me at my new website. It's the next step on my path as an author and I would love for you to join me there. You've come this far with me, I sincerely hope that you will follow me throughout my adventures with the printed word.

My First Appearance

I am delighted to share with you some exciting and scary news that I have received today. First, the very exciting news is that on the night I went to the poetry reading last month, I sat down and composed my first ever poems. I just wrote three, and I submitted them to SpillWords.com where they have been selected to be published on September the first.

Continuing with the exciting news, I was invited to read these poems at an open mic event in my town of Hobbs, NM. On Saturday, August the sixth I will be reading my first three poems on stage at this event. This is also the scary news because I have horrible stage fright. However, when I began writing I realized that I might have to make public appearances to get the ball rolling for my career as an author.

My three poems have the following titles and meanings behind them.

1. "Hatred Has No Home with Me:" In the years before the "Black Lives Matter" movement, and while there was still race and hate crime being performed, I wrote this on my Facebook status. As time as gone on, it has become more profound and in need of being addressed urgently. That the human race is the only race and that hatred takes more effort than love.
2. "Naked for Climate Change:" This one started out as a joke. I was complaining about the heat and the corporations that contribute to the heaviest pollution would probably invest heavily in green energy if I bore my bare naked self at one of their corporate meeting rooms. Poems can use humor too, if it gets the point across. Which I hope that it does.
3. "Trinity the Troublemaker:" The title of my children's book series. This girl, the character I have created, has brought a lot of joy into my writing. I love to think about the ways in her world of attacking complex problems with childhood simplicity. The poem will be rooted entirely in my first story of "Trinity and the Bully," but it will be a great plug for the series in general.

I'm looking forward to taking part in my first appearance at a public event. Even though I am scared of the stage, I don't tend to avoid much in the way of things that frighten me. I just try my very best to do better and overcome.

New Release and Upcoming Release

Hello loyal readers, and hello any newcomers. Don't want to leave anyone out.

I have released the print version of "Trinity and the Sick Kids" and it is available for purchase. The charity I attempted to contact for an endorsement, declined to support the story. Probably because they have enough endorsements already. I'm not disheartened, it just means I will have to find another charity to represent. Until then, I'm still going to donate the charity portion of the royalties to the charity that turned me down. And I would like to support multiple charities too once I am an established author.

My third story for Trinity the Troublemaker is ready for pre-order on the Amazon Kindle. As usual, I like to release the eBook before I release the print version, especially because the first five days I can do a free promotion for the eBook. I can give you wonderful bloggers and blog readers a chance to read my story and enjoy it.

This new story is my Christmas story for the children of Westrock. It's called "Trinity and the Sad Child." For anyone who doesn't want to click on the link, I'll paste the description.

Christmas is coming to Westrock. The leaves have fallen, the snow covers the town and a little girl named Trinity is shoveling it from the driveways. It's a time for families to celebrate together. However, in December 1950 the Korean War has taken many of the townsfolk to a distant shore. For one young boy, he will never see his father again. David and his mother Mrs. Song receive news that no military family wants to hear, a loss so huge that Trinity and her friends face the biggest challenge of their childhood. 

Will the kids be able to restore joy and happiness for the Song family in time to save their Christmas? This is a story for all military service members, veterans, their families, and the memory of those who gave their lives for the country they loved so very much. 

I cannot tell you the enormous challenge of finding a way to make a story about losing a family member come out in a positive light for children age readers. I hope that you will download it once it comes out and post a review or send me some feedback about what you thought of the story. Thank you everyone. More news will come as it develops.

The Meaning of H.O.P.E.

In the print volumes of my books about Trinity, I add a message in the acknowledgments. After I mention all the people that my book is geared towards I ask them to "Remember H.O.P.E. is How One Person Endures."

It's not just a trendy little thing to say without a point. Nor is the phrase self-explanatory. So I shall attempt to give a little explanation here so that I won't be thought of as a pointless phrase maker. The books about Trinity are focused around people who are going through difficulties thus far. Such as bullying, severe illnesses, and the grief of losing a member of the family.

I think of times in my life when I have suffered something along those lines. I never felt like I would get over or move past many of those things. Although, I have learned to live and adapt to the curve balls that life throws at me. No one really told me that things would get better, so I just had to deal with it.

Now I think of things like hope. That while I suffer or work for something, that there is a goal set out ahead for me. A desired outcome that I should always try to reach. Because if I did not have this objective set out for me, then I wouldn't try so hard to make it happen. Without that goal or hope, then I would have no reason to keep trying and I would be more likely to give up.

I think the way someone endures through all the hard work and heartache is by fixing themselves on that goal and finding a sound plan to get there. However, how can anyone plan for the end of bullying? Can anyone plan to end an illness or keep your loved ones around forever?

These situations will follow each of us throughout our lives and we honestly don't know for sure how to cope. In this case, I think hope means to have a strong desire to cope with a problem that seems insoluble. Coping is not the end of your problems, it is the ability to adapt. At least in the sense I am writing.

Proactively, we can educate the schools and parents about the problem of bullying. However, instances of bullying are individual. Albeit with a bully attacking several individuals throughout their career as a bully. Do you respond with a show of strength? Compassion? Or just tuck tales and hope the problem goes away?

Trial and error has surely taught us that ignoring a problem is not always going to be the solution. It's a false hope to think that a bully will lose interest if you don't respond somehow. My suggestion in a case of bullying is intervention. I think that a vulnerability in bullying is attention, because bullies like to think they can strut the halls like a king while in fact they thrive in the shadows and the background. I'm advocating for the intervention of parents, school officials, and the victims in sitting down with the bully and explaining the problems that they are causing and the consequences of continuing what they're doing.

Maybe there is a root problem to the individual bully. That child might be a victim of bullying themselves. Doesn't excuse what they do, but that is something to consider. What I don't suggest is fighting, unless you have no choice. Always be ready or able to defend yourself. Just draw the line at "stopping the action."

Illness is another thing to think about with no real clear solution. And I am not talking about a cure, although that would be nice. I think when it comes to an illness or a disability and special needs, that there is a stigma associated where people feel as though they have to walk on eggshells around the individuals living with an affliction. I think the ability to cope is not just for the people who have the condition, I think it is also for the rest of society. Even if there is no cure to the illness, there is a way to keep everyone included somehow. It just takes a little thought and resourcefulness. It is as simple as making the choice to try.

Losing a family member is something that cannot be addressed to a population. It is an individual basis of finding the strength to cope. I think the best approach is to be supportive without being intrusive. Their goal is to adapt to the loss, if ever they can. It's just a matter of being delicate.

Having hope is working towards the desired outcome. It may never feel like you will ever be back to a state of "okay." However, if you believe that you can be okay and can see yourself overcoming the problem to the point where you can cope and continue then it's all a matter of time to get there. I'm not saying to drop it, or buck up. I'm saying that there is a point to your survival, and that hanging in is all you need to do. But don't take just my word for it. If you need help, that is nothing to be ashamed of. Admitting you need help is not a sign of weakness. It is your astute observation that there is something that needs to be done that you may not be able to do alone.

Endure, somehow my friends. Endure. Fix the image of being "okay" or better in your mind and that is the thing to hope for. When you have that image, and that determination of arriving at your goal, you will have a reason to continue trying. That is H.O.P.E.

Announcements

Exciting things are in the works my friends. Wednesday morning, I sent off two proof copies of "Trinity and the Sick Kids" to a charity that I have asked for an endorsement. Fifteen percent of the royalties will be donated to the charity if they choose to permit me to mention in my book that the proceeds will go to benefit them.

I am not looking to advertise with the charity. I'm offering them recurring donations for the permission to place their name on my cover and product description. If they accept my proposal and believe that the story is something they would like their name attached to, then I will be able to say that a part of my platform is the millions of people who benefit from the selected charity.

My skill with my artwork for the children's book covers is improving. Instead of sticking to attempting to draw each object in a single picture, I draw each object separately and then use my computer to insert these objects to scale. It has allowed for some spectacularly clear details that I hadn't been able to otherwise illustrate.

Last night, I attended a poetry reading at a local coffee house. It was so remarkable that I plan on going each time they have the event. As time permits. Poetry is not my strong suit, but it might be something to consider to raise attention to my writing on a local level.

"Trinity and the Sad Child" is currently in the proofreading process and I would like to aim to release it on or around the first weekend in August. Before kids go back to school and while they have time to read for fun.

I hope I will be able to keep the good news rolling. And when I know something, you will too. I want to say thank you to everyone for being such faithful readers. Be safe, and be good to each other.