Category: Featured

A Swan Song for an Expectant Mother

Mary Novaria

I used to read my horoscope occasionally just for fun, but I didn’t put much stock in it. In fact, I was skeptical of anything I considered to border on divination or the occult. Sure, as a teen, there were slumber parties with séances and Ouija boards, but I never Read more

Mary Novaria

Mary Novaria's is a two-time Writer's Digest award winner whose work has been featured in Oprah Daily, Washington Post, Spirituality & Health, Cosmopolitan, Feminine Collective, FF2 Media, HuffPost, and elsewhere. She and her husband are empty nesters who live in the mountains of Colorado with their rescue dog, Rooney. She is currently working on a novel.

Playing For Keepsies

C. Streetlights

I think, (perhaps) it was when you played my heart as yet another marble in a circle. Lining your shooter, you knuckled down – carelessly – finding Me inside the chalk dust. I was just another glass duck, (nothing important to add to your collection) No matter. You were playing Read more

C. Streetlights

As a child, C. Streetlights listened to birds pecking at her rooftop, but instead of fearing them, was convinced they would set her free and she’d someday see the stars. Southern California sunshine never gave C. Streetlights the blonde hair or blue eyes she needed to fit in with her high school’s beach girls, her inability to smell like teen spirit kept her from the grunge movement, and she wasn’t peppy enough to cheer. She ebbed and flowed with the tide, not a misfit but not exactly fitting in, either. Streetlights grew up, as people do, earned a few degrees and became a teacher. She spent her days discussing topics like essay writing, Romeo and Juliet, the difference between a paragraph and a sentence, and for God’s sake, please stop eating the glue sticks. She has met many fools, but admires Don Quixote most because he taught her that it didn’t matter that the dragon turned out to be a windmill. What mattered was that he chose to fight the dragon in the first place. Streetlights now lives in the mountains with a husband, two miracle children, and a dog who eats Kleenex. She retired from teaching so she can raise her children to pick up their underwear from the bathroom floor, to write, and to slay windmills and dragons. She is happy to report that she can finally see the stars.

You Are What You Think So Stop Thinking Like a Bitch

SA Smith

Some days are tougher than others. We aren’t kids anymore. We work hard; we’re overburdened with responsibilities, with the day in and day out chaos of our lives. Maybe it’s just one of those days, where it’s all you can do to get to the end of it. During these Read more

SA Smith

SA Smith has always loved the magical life. She is the bestselling Amazon author of FOREVER, her four part young adult paranormal romance series. She is an advocate for women of all shapes and sizes. Believing that we are all enough just as we are, and needing to spread that word far and wide. Having been diagnosed with CRPS over 12 years ago, SA also uses her writing to increase social awareness of the disease. Writing is her passion. She often tells friends that writing is a journey for her. It’s like spending time with friends. "I just follow my characters along on their adventures, like a fly on the wall, and see where they take me." SA currently lives in Florida with her best friend/husband and their one son.

Better to Marry than Burn

Catherine Zickgraf

I wouldn’t refer to my first time as fire. But after reading the diary of 13-year-old me (got laid, I recorded for posterity), father invited pastor to our living room to agree over coffee that I am sexually dysfunctional. Just before I turned 14, mother waved in my face the Read more

Catherine Zickgraf

Catherine Zickgraf has performed her poetry in Madrid, San Juan, and three dozen other cities—yet homeschooling her autistic youngest inspires her the most. Her writing has appeared in Journal of the American Medical Association, [Pank], Victorian Violet Press, and The Grief Diaries.

The Hierarchy of Existence

Julie Anderson

I can hear sanguine words with every beep, whoosh, expansion, and dink dink the vital sign machine makes. I see the other families clinging to them for dear life, as the used tissues gather into moist mounds in the trash bin.

Julie Anderson

Julie Anderson is the Creator and Publisher of Feminine Collective. Julie was inspired to create this safe place for women to share their secrets, desires, triumphs and pain as the antithesis of what mainstream media offers women today. In her column Pursuit of Perfection, she explores the importance of rectifying the balance of inner and outer beauty through essays, poems and articles on self-esteem, shame, family, and self- acceptance.

The Thing with Divorce?

Renee DeMont

It leaves a scent. Like a barbecue cooking in a new neighbors backyard, on a hot summer day. Men get a whiff, and they want to be invited over. They want to see what’s new on the grill. You’ll find them pop up from the other side of the wall Read more

Renee DeMont

Renee DeMont is a SURVIVOR. She was born into poverty; spent much of her childhood homeless, living on the streets of Los Angeles, and in foster care. Renee learned early on: life is about adapting to adversity. The greatest gift she ever received? No one expected anything from her. By 18, she was ready to experience life on her own terms. First one in her family to attend college. After college, her focus and determination earned her a spot working at Paramount Studios, on the #1 show in television, "Cheers". At 29, Renee gave entrepreneurship a go and began a Biomedical engineering business out of her garage. Twenty years later, that risky venture grew into 8,000 square feet of success. She broke the cycle of poverty that plagued her family for generations. Recently, Renee turned fifty, filed for divorce (he declared WAR), and trudged through a debilitating nervous breakdown. Through therapy and writing, she reclaimed her sanity. Sold her half of the business to the ex, and now she has clarity and choices. Renee is personally and financially independent. With her new found freedom, she chooses to write in a sincere effort to reconcile her past with her present. Hopefully, through this cathartic process, the second half of her life will be led by her soul's desire, rather than by the fears and doubts of her first half. Currently, she lives in South Orange County with her teenage son and daughter, and her high maintenance yet lovable dog, Joe. Soon to be an empty nester, she plans to downsize the big house in the OC bubble, for a bigger life in the real world. Her days are spent gently launching her almost grown children into adulthood, and passionately penning her memoir. In the mean time, you can find her essays on pain, positivity, and empowerment at: onedropofgrace.blogspot.com

When Giving Up is Not an Option

Clementine Bihiga

Clementine Bihiga was born in 1986. She is an inspirational speaker and the author of “Happily Broken: Discovering Happiness Through Pain and Suffering”. When Clementine was eight years old her family was forced to flee their home in Rwanda.  The Genocide and Civil war of 1994 killed almost 1 Million people Read more

Clementine Bihiga

Clementine Bihiga is an inspirational public speaker and the author of "Happily Broken: Discovering Happiness Through Pain and Suffering". At the age of eight, Clementine and her family were forced to flee their home in Rwanda due to the Genocide and Civil war of 1994 which killed almost a million people in 3 months. Clementine and her family lived as refugees in multiple refugee camps and settlements before they were admitted to the USA in 1999 as refugees. Clementine who faced many life and death situations at a young age including living in refugee camps and waking up among the dead, being bullied as a high school student and losing a daughter, has turned her tragic past into a positive calling of inspiring others to never give up. When Clementine climbed on a "log" in lake Kivu trying to rescue a shirt taken by the waves and finally realizing it was a dead body, she could have given up. When she was almost beaten to death by a motorist on her way home, she could have given up. When she woke up among dead bodies claimed by Malaria, Typhoid, Cholera, etc. she could have given up hope. When she got to the USA and was bullied in high school for being different every single day, she would have quit and given up. Life was unforgiving for Clementine, but she pressed on. Clementine is a prolific linguist who speaks 5 languages, she is actively involved with many organizations such as the Student Leadership Council, World Youth Alliance, the United Nations Agents of Change, the Human Rights Committee, The Student Achievement in Research and Scholarships and the Student Advisory Committee for Foreign Discrimination. Clementine was also selected to be on a panel of the Africana Studies at the Stander Symposium and a panel on International Discrimination. Clementine was able to work as a Campaign Fellow for the United WayShe and intern at the New York State Attorney General's Office. While still in college. After college, Clementine and her husband Chris, who she met in a refugee settlement in Kenya were married. They became proud parents of a son in 2011. As a full-time mother and a full-time employee in Healthcare sales, Clementine decided to also get her Masters Degree. She accomplished this in one year and graduate with a 3.9 GPA with a Masters in Public Administration in HealthCare Administration and also earned a promotion at work for exceeding her sales goals by 160% the same year! She can be seen speaking at many conferences and groups on topics of Self-esteem, Resilience, Working Together, Bullying and Transforming Pain into Happiness

Noises and PTSD

DMG Byrnes

There’s a rhythmic booming sound It’s a fist banging against at a door while someone cowers in the corner of the room on the other side Hoping the lock will hold as the wood shivers with the pounding… No, he assures me, it’s just some hammering or someone on the Read more

DMG Byrnes

DMG Byrnes is an author with a book addiction: reading and writing them. She is in the process of looking for the right agent to represent her first novel, The Foretelling Spark. She also writes poetry and short stories, publishing short pieces of fiction on the Fiction Fridays page of her website every week. She is a survivor of abuse and sexual assault living with C-PTSD, a chronic illness warrior, and on the side, a dragon tamer. She has a Bachelor’s degree in psychology that took her 9 years to earn and taught her that if it’s important enough to you, you’ll make it happen, no matter how slowly you have to go, a lesson she tries to remember when she’s writing.