The Fantastically Demonic World of Nila N. Brown

Hello, my Lovelies! Yes, I know...I last blogged in April. It sucks to have had an injury that affected my writing so much that I couldn't do any writing. Well, except for tweeting, I didn't do much writing. Tweeting, if anything, was a stress reliever. Who would have thought that 140 words could break so much tension? Then the tweet character count went up to 280 words! Suddenly, I could tell a whole story! The politics of 2017 actually drove the Twitterverse. It's been, uh, horrific, but I won't make my blog about it. I just can't.  So, moving right along... The doctor told me that by year's end, I would be back to normal. It didn't really work that way. The muscles in my left thumb and hand were tight, and the hand would get very tired. My creative writing career ground to a halt. As much as I worked to exercise it, it was going to do whatever it was going to do and there was no point rushing it.  By December, I could withstand writing for l...

Hello, my Lovelies! Here we are the end of a very interesting and empowering year for your Cheetah Diva.  The way it started out was different from previous years in that I wasn't as stressed about the issues that I've had to deal with. I would love to say that it was stress/drama free, but that wouldn't exactly be the truth. Still, it started out on a high note and ended the same way. In December of the previous year, I got into an altercation with someone due to instigated drama. That horrific meltdown led me to a miraculous breakthrough in my development as a human being. From that point forward, I made it my mission statement to become a better person and to handle my anger and resulting depression in a different way. I tend to throw myself under the bus and then withdraw, which in turn would have caused the depression to spiral. The start of 2015 was the beginning of the fulfillment of that promise to myself. Have the problems within my work group gotten be...

This weekend, I found out that a friend, Shannon Blackmon, was murdered. "Suthrn," as I came to know her before I got to know her as "Shannon," was energetic, funny as all out get out, and so beautiful. She had everything going for her. She had this effervescent personality; Shannon could match and even go above and beyond me in telling a funny story and keeping the energy going. She was so passionate about what she believed in and she fought like a warrior. Our favorite thing was talking about "True Blood." She went from being a super fan to hating it like it was a walking sin.That show going off was the worst thing that happened to us. We had nothing else to hate, so she stopped posting about it. What we all failed to realize that the end of the series seemed to usher in a dark cloud that didn't come to its unspeakable conclusion until December 4th, when I found out that she had been murdered. Shannon fell off the grid. She stopped comin...

Hello, my Lovelies! The fact that I suffer from depression is the worst kept secret ever. I hid it at first because, you know, trying to start a writing career, I didn't want someone to look at me like I was a nut case. I slowly left that thinking behind me. It took some time, meds for a hot minute, and therapy for me to understand that I've been clinically depressed for over 32 years. On a recent trip home to St. Louis (enjoyed it immensely!), I had a discussion with my mom, brother, sis-in-law, step dad and cousin that made me realize where the depression stemmed from and how it started. I won't go into that, but I really felt connected to my family more than I had in my nearly 50 years on Planet Stinkyball Earth. Things that are said or done early in life have a great impact on you later in life without you even realizing it. So I came back to Georgia and set about writing the book that I will read at DragonCon on Friday, September 4th (date change). However, on A...

 Hello my Lovelies! It's that magical time of the year; you know...where I love saying, "I'll go into the new year with a renewed sense of optimism and hope that this year will be the best year ever!" You know what happens - the year ends up sucking rotted monkey butt. Well, this year was no different. I went into 2014 happy that things at the j.o.b. that pays the bills were going to get better. They didn't. I went into the year hoping to have my trilogy finally published. I didn't (one book short). I tried to rally the troops for the "We're Not Bitches" thingy. Well, you know... women. I went into the year hoping to be a little bit smaller. I really didn't accomplish that one. Hell, I didn't even come close! I did manage to accomplish a lot, though. While I didn't finish my trilogy this year, I did publish two books, I made it to the Miami Boat Show despite the "Two Inch Blizzard of the Deep and...